Cleaning the paddle wheel

The speed log on my Nasa duet stopped reading some time ago.  I took the opportunity to give it a well deserved clean the other day.  It didn't do any good as I think the whole area around it is covered in weed and slime, but the video should give you some idea of what's involved and allay some of the fears of doing this job while afloat.

It's shame that I couldn't get it to work as it was useful to compare speed through the water against speed over ground.   Mind you with windex stuck pointing forward, one more thing won't make any difference.  

Slipped out to Studland

As the season end rushes towards me I have to take every opportunity to use the boat.   This weekend turned out to be much better than predicted so I decided to take a trip out to Studland.   I met Paul   at the club around 11am, and took him out to his Corribee before boarding Ciao Bella.

We raised the sails but it was fairly pointless, there was barely enough breeze to fill the sails let along make the boat move.  We motor  sailed nearly all the way to Studland as we wanted to get there for lunch. We just hoped there would be a bit more wind on the way back.

Dinghies inflated we paddled to the beach and traipsed up to the Bankes Arms.  We spent a nice couple of hours in the beer garden overlooking the bay with a pint of 'Force 4' and a Chicken Chassuer.  

Another club member and his daughter also joined us along with Paul's family who came around by car.

It was soon time to make a move and as hoped the wind had filled in.  We paddled back to the boats and set off back. The conditions seemed ideal for full sail and both boats set off well, they were both well matched, including the amount of weed on both hulls :o)). The Corribee seemed to be just  slightly faster than the Hurley on a broad reach but on a run the Hurley managed to hold station. 

Back at the club and there was a small gathering. We hung around for a chin wag, the subject of channel crossings came up and I came under serious pressure to organise a trip across next year.  I resisted valiantly but I fear this may not be the end of it. :~)

Paul delivering essential sustainance

Yarmouth or bust

After the recent lack of sailing it was going to take some pretty miserable weather to stop me going to Yarmouth this weekend. The forecast was pretty good for Saturday, F4 NW all day.  Absolutely perfect for getting to the island from Poole. The return was going to be a bit more uncomfortable, F5 gusting F6 from the SW making it hard beats all the way home.

I left Poole about 1130 under sail, with the engine leg firmly in place and ready to fire up  until well clear of the harbour entrance.  Traffic wise it was really quite quiet, I must have been feeling quite magnanimous as even the power boats that went past got a nod and a wave :o))

The journey over was fairly uneventful,  the wind on the rear quarter was a bit of a pain as I couldn't balance the boat to be able to leave the tiller at all. Fortunately I'd made a flask of tea and one of Mediterranean tomato and red pepper soup to keep me going. 

Past Hengisbury head and I could hear some hooligans in power boats buzzing along at great speed,  there seemed to be more than just one or two and before long I realised that I was in the middle of power boat race.  I couldn't help but be impressed with the speed of these floating engines.   From seeing a plume on the horizon to flying by took no more than a couple of minutes.  The picture above serves as a reminder to check for hazards,  this yacht was firmly stuck on the shingles bank.. ooops!

No reason for this one.. I just liked it.

Safely moored up in Yarmouth

After a tidy up I changed the mainsail for my old one. It's a bit knackered but at least it has reefing points and I was going to need them for the trip home.  Then I gave myself a clean up before heading of to the pub.  I met up with a fellow Hurley 20 owner and we chewed the cud over pie and mash and a couple of pints.

Nicely lit to guide me home

I had a great nights sleep having got off early and not being in a rush to be up in the morning.  I wouldn't be able to get through Hurst until about 1230 so I had a nice leisurely morning.   There were some great boats in the harbour, these two were just stunning.

I decided to cook out in the cockpit as it was quite a nice morning.  I'd bought a pack of bacon and a pack of pork and herb sausages.  I had the bacon in rolls for breakie and stashed the sausages in my food flask for the trip home... I wasn't going to go hungry ;o)  While washing my pots I noticed the rudder was decidedly hairy looking, I got the broom out and gave every thing I could see a good scrub but it didn't do a lot of good.  I know she coming out in a few weeks but I'll try and beach her and give her a good clean. 

Hairy rudder :~(

It was eventually time to clear off so I got everything ready and spent a bit of time planning how to leave the pontoon.  Sounds odd but arriving at and leaving pontoons in a dignified manner is one thing that  I really struggle with.  This time both my arrival and departure were perfect.

Out in the open water I find some space and concentrated on getting the mainsail up.  I had a little play with full sail and reefed genoa but it was uncontrollable so I put a reef in and things were much better.  As I had left quite early there was no way I could make ground towards Hurst but I didn't mind. It gave me the opportunity to just play with the boat to get her sailing as well as I could get her to go.

Even though the wind had really picked up, Ciao Bella never felt unsafe.  The thing that I couldn't get my head round was that after a tack I would winch in the Genoa, if I then trimmed the main the genoa would start to collapse; I would then winch that in a bit more and could eventually get the sails looking spot on. This would however nearly stop the boat.  It seemed to sail faster with the main collapsed at the luff, I don't know why, maybe one of you kind souls could shed some light?

Coming out through the narrows was a particularly tame affair,  I'd come out quite a way to the south though so tacked back towards the main land. I had prepared a clearing bearing off Hurst point to ensure that I'd miss the shingles bank.

Windguru tells the story of the day, it was a long hard slog back to Poole but I kept my self entertained.  Unlike on the way over I was able to balance the boat and just put a light line on the tiller to keep her course while I sheltered behind the bulkhead. It was fully dark by the time I sailed into Poole harbour, a good seven hours after coming through Hurst channel.   One of the few benefits of a spring tide is the light from the full moon, not on this night; the cloud cover was so thick you could hardly see you hand in front of your face.  I instinctively found my mooring, tidied up and headed for home.  Considering it been a lousy summer, I have managed to clock up over 400NM this year.  Bring on next year with my new sails, wall  to wall sunshine and a constant F4 on the beam... no matter which way I'm going ;~P

The video below is a collection of snippets from the journey home, the quality is quite poor as it's all iPhone but it made me smile putting it together.  Hope you enjoy it. 

Hurley 20 Review

My mooring neighbour. Roger,  has a starring role in this months 'Sailing Today' magazine. They have featured his Hurley 20 in a used boat review; with the tag line "Mini ocean crosser or dated death trap".  If you're concidering a Hurley 20 as your next boat, it's well worth getting your hands on a copy.

Photo from the arcticle and is no doubt subject to copyright.

Studland substitute

 Scuppered:

The danger of stating your plans before the event is that you have to explain when they don't happen.  I had planned to go to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight on Saturday with the the club and then stay on in the Solent for the next few days.. I'd booked holiday and not for the first time this year, my plans had been scuppered by the weather.  Saturday was forecast to be a great day however the remains of a tropical storm put any thoughts of me being out on sunday firmly out of my mind.  Checking the weather on Sunday showed gusts of F9.
I went  to the club earlyish on Saturday with no real plan, I just knew that I wanted to get out there.   Arjen was there when I got there and after a cuppa or two we decided to go and have a fiddle with the auto helm.  Arjen has one the same as I am getting so it was good to rig his up to see if I would need any modifications. All the fittings are on Ciao Bella from a previous installation.  The unit dropped on perfectly, I will need an extention for the arm but I can't imagine that will cause a problem.
While there I replaced the jib sheets and the furling line.  The Furling line was a great success, I'd chosen a smaller diameter line which now sits well inside the drum when fully unfurled and is also a bit longer so easier to cleat off than the old one.  The new jib sheets on the other hand were not so successful but more on that later.

New plan:

I tried to convince Arjen to come for a sail but he was adamant that if he wasn't going to Yarmouth he would need to get on with some work.  I dropped him back at the club and wasted no time in getting back to Ciao Bella.
I slipped the mooring under full sail and made my way out of the harbour.  There was just enough breeze to make headway and I decided to head for Studland.. I could almost taste the Ploughmans and real Ale.


Mistress leaving Poole Harbour

Leaving the harbour entrance I spotted  Martin on his boat 'Mistress'  Martin made this boat in a car park while recovering from major heart surgery.  It's incredible, I can barely make toast while recovering from a hangover.  It was about here that I first noticed my jib sheet problem.  As I tacked towards the entrance a small motor boat hailed me and said that I was in shallow water, 4 foot he claimed.  My sounder showed 4 metres, however I heeded his warning and tacked away.  Unfortunately when close hauled the jib sheets are too short on the windward side, stopping the jib clew from moving back along the boat.  I had to adjust the sheet tracks every time I tacked to give enough slack on the windward side and to bring it back on the leeside... what a pain. I thought I'd bought more than enough.
Checking the chart later showed that I was in about 4 metres of water, nevermind, better safe than sorry.

Thanks for stealing my wind.

I tacked along the training wall and eventually got on a track that would take me on to clear the end marker.  about 40 metres from the end a large sailing yacht that had been following me decided to overtake very close on the windward side.  I lost all drive and ended up against the second from last marker, as I frantically tried to start the motor Ciao Bella span off the post and over the wall,  I waited for the crunch but fortunately I went straight over.  I was livid but by the time I'd got her under control the thoughtless Tw@ was out of range for identification... I think he my have heard me though.
Fortunately the only damage was a broken topping lift.  It could have been much worse. The rigging could have snagged and been torn off or the hull / keels could have suffered damage.
I did make a note to self to change outboard proceedure.  I tend to raise the outboard to improve performance once sailing. I will now leave the leg in the water when ever sailing close to hazzards.  The other learning was that to stop the tohatsu I have to pull the cord off the kill switch.  I wasted several seconds replacing this when I needed to start the engine.  In future, once the engine has stopped I will replace the cord.  Two simple steps that could of seen my motor running 20 seconds quicker and maybe kept me off the post... Doesn't excuse inconciderate actions.

And relax.

Eventually into Studland,  There were no spare mooring bouys so I picked a good spot and dropped the anchor.  Happy that it had bit I inflated the tender and paddled over to meet Mrs Ciao Bella, who had driven over.  We strolled up to the Banks Arms where we ordered one of their wonderful ploughmans lunches and tucked into a first class pint of proper beer.   The garden was really busy and the staff would come out shouting the number of the meal, when I eventually heard "ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN!!" I shouted back "BINGO"... not very original I know but it did cause, not only a chuckle, but one poor fellow to fall off his bench.. Sorry :~)
Back to the beach and a paddle out to hte boat.   I didn't hang about, up with the anchor and turned her nose towards home. 
 


   

Although they never come out well on photos.. particularly on a wobbly iPhone, I love the views around Studland bay.Out of the bay and into the channel back to Poole I noticed Mark, another EDSC member who had been moored at Studland, in his Gallion 22 fin keel called Galaxy.  



  









 



Galaxy - An EDSC member on way back to Poole.





 





Galaxy easily catches and overtakes.

I have to say, I was disappointed with how quickly Mark caught up and over took, especially as he was towing a dinghy.  I know his boat is 2 foot longer and the keel configuration probably produces less resistance but even so.  Ciao Bella had fealt sluggish all day, certainly not how she seemed at the start of the season.  Although there doesn't look to be too much weed around the water line I suspect the underside may have quite a lot of growth. I didn't see over 4 knots all day which was a surprise.

All in all not the best days sailing but good to be out anyway.  I'd learnt a few new things, mistified by others.  Back at the club I had a quick chat with Mark,  Maybe it was as simple a thing as Mark has just spent a week on his boat and knows how to make it respond well while I have barely stepped aboard for two month and have forgotten the few tricks that I had learnt. :o))

New crew

Looks like I might be getting a new crew mate... One of the chaps at the club is upgrading his Autohelm and has offered me his old one, like the one below,  for nominal amount.

Ciao Bella already has the fittings and electrical connector for this unit so should be a doddle to fit and assess.   Should make things like stowing the anchor chain etc a little easier in future. :o))

Faffing about.

It's been a funny old few weeks.  We had our summer holiday in France during the first two weeks of August and since our return, for one reason or another, there has been very little sailage. One day I took my father in law out for an afternoon potter around the harbour; including a picnic with family on Brownsea island.   The trip didn't start too well as when we got to the boat the cockpit had several inches of rain water in it.  I tried clearing it with various tactics but eventually had to close the seacocks and remove the pipes.   They were completely blocked with some organic matter... looked and smelt disgusting.

Anyway, that out of the way and we set of for pottery pier.  The was very little wind and it was hard to make headway so after a while we started the engine,  once up near the town and out of the lee of the island a useful breeze picked up and we were able to make way under sail again.   

The anchor was dropped just off pottery pier and we inflated the tender, it's quite a small inflatable for two gents but we managed admirably.  

We had our picnic while fending off a hungry peacock.   Time to head back to Ciao Bella and as we where deflating the tender a large motor boat dropped anchor next to us.  The next time  I looked up the motor boat was drifting past us towards the shore, I hailed the skipper to let him know his anchor was dragging.  He repositioned and set the anchor properly as we pulled up the hook and set course for EDSC.   

Everything was going swimmingly until I grounded half way across the harbour..  I'd never worried about the depth around here before so was taken completely by surprise.

The real kick in the teeth was that my super dooper NASA duet depth sounder was telling me that there was 1.4m under the boat even while stuck on the bottom... some things not right :~)

Anyway we eventually made back to the mooring with out any further upsets.   That was the sum total of Augusts sailing.  I now have some time free and it looks like the weathers going to be reasonable so this weekend I'll be off to Yarmouth and the following few days I'll drift around the Solent.  This will be the last blast of the season so it better happen :-)