Ciao Bella is a Hurley 20 bilge keel sailing yacht, she is my second 'proper' boat. having had some great times in a Fantasie 19 called Jelly Bean I decided it was time to increase my sailing range with a boat that could successfully bridge the gap between the huge fun of being able to explore every nook and cranny of a harbour or estuary and proper sea going ability. I hope this will be the case :~)
I don't normally use the blog for selling stuff, but I thought this might be relevant to some readers.
I'm selling my Garmin Fishfinder 140 to help fund some of this years work on Ciao Bella.
I bought this two years ago for Jelly Bean, click for blog link. When I bought Ciao Bella I decided I wanted a Nasa Duet.. to be honest the Garmin is a better tool, It shows depth more accurately and gives a pictorially view of the bottom to help avoid rocks and to give some clue to anchor holding. The Nasa just gives me depth... and that's not always accurate. The Nasa is now filling a big hole in the bulkhead so it will have to stay there. Time to move the Fishfinder on. The full manual can be found here and I'm looking for £55 for it.
If anyone is interested email me here and we can talk. It's all there, just not in the box. If no interest then it'll go on the eBay lottery next week :o)
Cheers Phil
Things are never easy... I have bought a Jabsco compact for Ciao Bella, as they are reported to fit in the locker without too much modification. Ciao Bella has a different layout to all other Hurley 20,s that I have seen, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that this wasn't going to go to plan.
Roger had been through this exercise last year and posted the process on the Hurley Owners Assc website here.
I will follow the same method, i.e. mount the loo on a plinth to make it easy to remove from the boat for servicing, emergencies and cleaning. The plinth will be two thicknesses of 9mm marine ply, mainly because I have some and also so I can overdrill the lower sheet to accept the bolt heads.
After shaving as much as I could off the pump end of the base, to follow the curve of the hull, I could see that there was going to be no way I'd get my throne to sit any lower in the locker; meaning I couldn't put the lid on. hmmm, time to think.
My plan now is to fit the loo and all the pipework then raise the lids of all the front v berth lockers by 1" with battens. I can only assume this will bring the v berth up to the height of other Hurleys. There should still be enough room to get to the chain locker... Even for me :-)
The following series of pictures show how I am contructing this plinth.
I cut a piece of 9mm Marine ply fit flat in the bottom of the locker. Not sure if you can see but the sides of the hull start to rise here making it impossible to site the loo with out adding a platform. This bottm sheet will allow the bolt heads to sit through it to maintain a flat base.
Thw upper piece of ply was then cut and champhered to fit over the lower sheet. The loo was then dropped into position so I could mark where it would fit.
A trial fit - The locker sides will need to be raised about 1" . I have also had to shape the side of the locker to take the curve of the bowl.
A view into the locker showing how little room there is. The base of the pump had to be shaped to follow the curve of the hull. This is the only modification to the loo that I will have to do.
Showing how the two pieces will fit together.
PVA'd together with as many clamps as I could find. Once happy with the shape and fit I will encapsulate the whole lot in epoxy a paint with bilge paint.. I guess the only thing more corrosive than the sea is a toilet on the sea!
In order to encourage the current Mrs Ciao Bella to join me more often aboard, I realised I would have to improve the facilities. The major improvement would be a sea toilet. The current bucket... Even with the addition of a seat was not cutting the mustard.
I know a Jabsco compact will fit in nicely so I started looking around, gealforce have the loo at a good price but when I looked at the bits needed to fit it I nearly choked. Time to scour the free-ads. Patience paid off and today I managed to pick up a pair of DZR sea cocks complete with skin fittings and tails for £50... Excellent.
All I need now is a loo and some wappingly expensive hygienic tube.
Oh yeah, and work up the enthusiasm and courage to drill some big holes in my boat.
Since buying Ciao Bella, just over a year ago, I have tried to find the hull or sail no for her. The usual inquiries came up with zilch.. Club register, forums, trying to track down previous owners.. even looking back though the SSR number didn't help. I have had to come to the conclusion that I will never be able find the numbers that she was issued with.
As I am on the brink of ordering a new main sail I wanted to have one last try or, at least see if a new number could be issued.
Nick Vass and Bruce Carter from the Hurley Owners Assoc were a great help here. Nick set the wheels in motion to see if a No could be assigned and also suggested that there is a growing number of yachts that use their SSR number as a sail number.
Nick sent me a list of currently unassigned numbers and suggested that I could pick one of those, Bruce then had a closer look and eliminated most as, although not on the register, they had been assigned to export boats or may have been sold on after the receiver took control. That left No 199 which had never been built and was from late 1968, about the right period. As this boat had never been built, it mean't I could use the number without fear of conflict with any other Hurley 20. As Hurley 20's have their sail number prefixed by a 3, the number on the sail will be 3199
The records have been amended to show that Ciao Bella has this number assigned from 14th Nov 12 so her rebirth is complete. From numberless 'Comme Ci Comme Ca' to 199 'Ciao Bella'
I feel I should smash a bottle of bubbly stuff :o))
Regarding a new sail, I have had lots of quotes ranging from £452 to £533 for the same spec sail. As I like to try to keep the pounds close to home, I was going to go for Kemp Sails; a local supplier who was about midway through this range , however I did eventually go for the offer from Swift sails. This is mainly through recommendation. I have recently seen the quality of their sails on another Hurley 20 and I was impressed. The only reason I didn't chose Kemp sails in the end was that I would of had to raise the mast again and take measurements. Swift already have this information and as Rogers rig was identical to mine, I know it works. Swift also had the added benefit of being the cheapest.
The sides of Ciao Bella have become very grubby looking this year. A brown stain has spread along the hull, rust stains from a previously repaired stanchion add to the overall rundown effect with a good helping of weed just above the antifoul line just for good measure.
A friend of mine provided me with some cleaning products that his company manufactures and supplies. Before rushing in with the Oxalic Acid, I decided to try a few other suggestions so that I had something to compare it to. My first effort was with some traffic film remover that I had in the garage.
This didn't touch it at all. I then tried some soda crystals, no joy there either.
Time for the Oxalic acid.. I mixed up a small amount in a bowl of warm water and went out to brush it on. I was amazed, the first contact cut straight through the stain but only for a short distance. I brushed over a good area and let it soak. While that was soaking I stippled the brush on the bits that were covered in weed. Slightly optimistic I suppose, it didn't shift the weed but eventually turned it pink.. like an old lady's hair do. I brushed over the first area again and the stain just melted away. I was really happy with this. The weed would need a bit more persuasion. To my surprise it didn't need that much help. An good scrape with a plastic card (Like a credit card) shifted it easily. Another brush over and it was clean. A good swill off with clean water and it's sorted. It just needs a polish over now. More on that later.
The base of this stanchion had left a streak of rust down the side of the hull. The oxalic acid just wiped this away. The extra effort is needed to clear the growth which is between the antifoul and line.
I was really happy with the result here. Even the weedy bits have come up alright.
Another quick fix was the life threatening open topped stanchions. I spend most of the summer worrying about impaling myself on these. I have seen Stainless steel end caps which look good but the cost made me balk. In the end I bought some plastic tube caps from RS Components, a bag of 5 came to less than £3 delivered to my door.
As was, sharp top ready to gouge into me.
As is, a cheap professional looking finish... shame about the rusty guard wire :)
The absolute end of the season is signaled with taking the tender out for the winter.. I took the opportunity to give the Ole Seagull an outing and a bit of a trial. My tender is 12 foot and fairly heavy... especially with 4 inches of water in it so I wanted to see if the Seagull had enough guts to push it along.
The first thing I noticed was how light it is compared to my 4 horse mariner. I can easily manage this engine around the pier ladders and hooking it on the back of the tender is a doddle.
The second improvement is that because it is light it doesn't sink the back of the tender, helping it track better through the water.
The seagull seems to take several pulls to get it going from cold but once warm it starts before the cord has had time to leave the flywheel. As there is no neutral it took me by surprise and pulled on the painter, spinning the boat on the out-haul. I reduced the revs and pull along the out-haul to point her nose out into clear water.
The last thing I noticed was the noise and vibration :) What a rasper! This was the only downside, it performed beautifully and really the noise is ok.. it's only to get me out to Ciao Bella or get the Mirror home if I run out of wind or tide.
I pulled her up the slipway as far as I could but the clubs trolley is a bit too small making it hard for one person to get this lot up the ramp.
The great thing with the sailing club is that, even out of season, someone will turn up eventually, and when they did they got roped into helping me drag her out and stash her in a corner until I can get back and pick her up. :o))
I had one of those eBay moments the other day. I was strangely drawn to an auction for a Mirror Dinghy. The paint looked poor but the other pictures showing the inside look remarkably good. It had the added bonus of coming with an outboard engine.. I have a Laser dinghy that I keep at the sailing club, I bought it for James but he has since discovered cars and has no interest in sailing, this would give me the drive to sell the Laser on as I am a bit too sedate to be balancing on a those kind of boats, a Mirror is more my style.. Older, creaky, leaky and slow :) it had to be worth a punt, no pun intended.
UP FOR GRABS IS THIS GREAT LITTLE
MIRROR DINGHY
comes with all rigging
anchor
gaff rig
2 hp motor
all the original paperwork
(from when it was first built)
the only thing that it hasnt got are sails
she needs a little TLC i.e. rub down and repaint apart from that she is sound .
No reserve
she must go owing to other commitments
no spare time to use her
This is cash on collection only and winning bidder to make contact within 48hrs of end of auction and collection within 7 days of end of auction.
LOW STARTING PRICE
so grab a bargain.
HAPPY BIDDING
The lack of sails is not a problem as I have two spare sets from previous boats plus mast, boom, gaff, rudder etc. I put in a late bid of upto £200 and I won at £125.. Happy days. All I needed to do now was pick it up from Northampton (£130 miles away), find time to tidy it up, sail it and sell my Laser to pay for it :(
I hadn't asked any questions before winning so I was a little disappointed when I found out the outboard was a British Seagull of unknown condition.
The next day we set off up country to collect my new toys. When we arrived the couple that were selling the outfit were absolutely fantastic. The chap had bought it as a project but poor health had got in the way. A real shame. Before going to the hull he led me to the shed where he stored all the accessories. He pulled the seagull out and I was pleasantly surprised. It looked in good condition and had the nicer looking brass fuel tank.
We loaded all the bits onto my makeshift mirror trailer and headed home. I was slightly gutted when the mast dropped onto the road and shaved a good chunk of the top in a very short space of time, good job I have a spare. That made me think back to my motorbiking days, how quick would your knees and elbows disappear if you fell off at 60 -70 mph?
Anyway, back home and really happy with my purchase. There are some mad websites around Cruising in Mirrors and racing with Seagulls. Click on the links below if interested.
