Ciao Bella: September 2013

Sunday, 29 September 2013

Weymouth

Tenacious leaving for the day.

Last weekend John and myself on Ciao Bella and Paul in lapwing made the trip to Weymouth. After the usual shenanigans (Clearing seagull poop) we slipped the mooring around 11am and headed out of the harbour.

It was pretty much a spring tides so we needed to take the long route out around the tidal race off St Aldhelms head. With the wind from the south west there was no way we could head to the mark in one beat.

A much faster yacht haring past us off Swanage.

Pauls Corribee can make a better heading to windward than Ciao Bella so managed to get far enough south to tack in one. Our course put me in the path of the ferrys and as it was poor visibility I decided to tack early then tack out again. The rest off the passage was one long beat, we had to skip through a small strip of overfalls but as it was so short it was quite fun. With the nights drawing in and the wind dropping to a F1 we decided to motor the last 7 or 8 miles.

Ciao Bella and Lapwing safely tied up.

The moorings on the west bank of the river were all taken and I didn't feel like rafting up so spun round and tied up near the ferry terminal. I'd avoided this side of the river before as its a bit chavvy at night, but this turned out to be perfect. It's far enough away from the pubs to be undisturbed.

Nothe Fort

After a splendid night out in Weymouth we had to be up early to catch the tide back to Poole. There was not a whisper of any wind nor a ripple on the sea. We had to motor all the way back to Poole

Following Lapwing out of the harbour.

Portland

I'd misjudged the amount of fuel that I had on board and the engine spluttered to a halt at Swanage, Fortunately Paul had a spare can of unmixed unleaded so after a quick refuel we were on our way again.

Back at the club and there was plenty going on.. One of the members had brought a whole dear and was spit roasting it in the car park. There was also match racing with the two club picos. The chap in the safety boat was getting bored so I took over for a while so he could grab some food. A good sociable week end rounded off with a pint at the bar :)

Pico match racing

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Mirror takes another slow step forward

Having not been on the boat for a while may not be good for me but it's certainly good for the Mirror dinghy. What started off a a quick project boat which required a couple of weekends work to get it back on the water has dragged out to nearly a year and it's still not finished.. As the temperature was ok this evening, I broke out the West epoxy that I had bought at the boat show and set about repairing the centre board case to hull joint.

The old joint had looked good until I started scraping off the old varnish the other month. I'm not sure if the old joint had been made with epoxy or polyester resin, either way it hadn't bonded to the wood and pretty well just pulled away in one lump.

I knocked it back until there was enough clean wood to bond to woven tape, I then cleaned the surface back with sandpaper and wiped the whole area over with acetone.

The battens down each side have sharp edges, I took these edges off to help the tape adhere. The West system mixes and spreads easily, soaking into the tape was remarkably easy as well. I made up 36ml in the first batch, this didn't look a lot when I was mixing it up but it was plenty to do the whole if the centre board case joint and I didn't need to mix any more.

I am genuinely getting close to finishing the Mirror, just in time for winter :) All that is left to do now is prepare the wood for varnish and apply the varnish. It will be great to get out and give it a go :0))

Monday, 16 September 2013

Old boats, new boats, glamour and glitz

On Saturday I was able to get over to the Southampton boat show to check out what I would spend my lottery winnings on. We arrived just after the gates opened and got stuck straight in. There were a fantastic selection of boats from fold away tenders to enormous luxury motor yachts. My interest lie in the middle ground from the trailerable yachts such as the Cape Cutter 19 and the offerings from Swallow boats through the exquisitely designed weekend-sailers such as the Rustler 33 to the wonder of the Hi tech race boats and of course the classics in all shapes and sizes. Below is just a small selection... I was so enthralled that I kept forgetting to get the camera out!

Bestwind 50 - This was fantastic, so much room inside, you could have a barn dance. Looked and felt like it would go around the globe without a hiccup.

Rustler 33 - This was easily my favourite boat at the show. The classic lines mixed with modern materials gave it the feel of a week end sports car.

Clean lines - shame I couldn't get it all in one shot.

Caterhams forray into racing yachts - Using F1 technology to break into the yacht racing arena. I hope this handles better in the wet than a caterham 7 :)

I know which one I'd rather spend time on.

A recreation of a Pheonician sailing boat from 600BC - This has circumnavigated Africa

As well as all the wonderful boats, there is a huge selection of chandlery and services to hunt through. I managed to pick up a Henry Lloyd coastal suit for £200... my old XM suit had served well for 6 or 7 years but is now ready for retirement. The quality of the Henry Lloyd is instantly realised over the XM and I can't wait to try it out next weekend when I go to Weymouth... At this time of year I'm expecting rain :)