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I love this quote out of Kenneth Grahame‘s "The Wind in the Willows"
`This has been a wonderful day!’ said he, as the Rat shoved off and took to the sculls again. `Do you know, I`ve never been in a boat before in all my life.’
`What?’ cried the Rat, open-mouthed: `Never been in a–you never–well I–what have you been doing, then?’
`Is it so nice as all that?’ asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him.
We took Pirate Girl, Patty’s Beneteau 323 out sailing today…. with 10 knot winds, 58 degree air and almost flat seas it was a chill but beautifull day to sail.
We motored out of the inlet and then proceded to pull the main out of the mast…. … well tried to pull it out… we got it about half way out and the leech started to wrap back around the furler the opposite direction inside the mast this jammed the sail in the mast half out half in….
Well it was supposed to be an official race but it ended up being just for fun.. lol which is just as well as Sea Puppy came in second..
Winds were supposed to be 15 to 20 and instead were closer to 4 to 10…
Sea Puppy raced against LC Marie a Catalina 36, Runnaway a Cabo Rico 39 and Diamond Girl a Hunter 29, In the light winds Dimanond Girl and Sea Puppy did much better than the bigger and heavier LC Mari and Runnaway.. In the first race Sea Puppy and Diamond Girl were neck and neck far out in the lead 🙂 We ended up not finishing that as the with the light winds it would have taken all day and part of the evening to finish the course. By decision of GPS distance from the mark the race went to Diamond Girl.
ok I finally got a moment or two to reflect on yesterdays sail and can make a few comments about how Pirate Girl.. Patty’s new 323 handled well.. we went out with a couple friends one of who is a very experienced sailor and had done a lot of the work on putting Pirate Girl together.. stepping the mast and rigging her etc..
With an 18 horse yanmar diesel engine Pirate Girl chugged down the waterway at a solid 5.5 knots without straining… nice and smooth…. this would be the third time I’ve been on her under power and I like it much better than Sea Puppys 2 stroke outboard… however I will admit that if you go below while the diesel is running it is much noisier and a bit more vibration from the engine.
I went out today by myself and it was the perfect day sailing… winds were light at about 10 knots and the sea was calm with only 2 ft swells or so.
Leaving the dock was smooth and the motor down the waterway went quickly with the tide going out… 5.5 knots over water and 7.5 to 8 knots over land with the current also carrying me out. The 5 miles to the inlet went fast.
Bending on the mainsail didn’t go as smoothly with the new pre-feeder as It did when I tested it at the dock…. i was very frustrated till I realized that the main halyard had gotten wrapped around another block on a track set on the cabin top and was causing a lot of friction. Once that was fixed It went straight up. I can now raise the main hand over hand all the way up without even using the winch or going to the mast to unjam it..
I had thought that today was a race but it was just an official group sail which we turned into a race 🙂 As crew I had James a stellar sailor and Ray a newcomer to the club. We got along great and made a great team on the boat.
I had high hopes to whup up on my competition today but somehow it didn’t happen.. in two races I ended up being 3rd out of 5 boats.
The first race I made a brilliant start 🙂 lol…. I was well ahead of everyone else and didn’t catch a wind shift.. the rest of the fleet tacked and I kept going…. on a windward/downwind course around a bouy two miles away I was a half mile behind at the bouy.. I caught up to about 2 or 3 hundred yards behind the leaders at the end of the race though…
I finally got the deck organizers installed on Sea Puppy.
Here are a few pictures of them with the lines run.
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this picture is of how I have run stuff through blocks at the base of the mast forward to the organizer… the block on the port side of the mast that is not in use will be used for the cuningham and there will be another in the same location on the starboard side of the mast for the topping lift. It isn’t installed yet. have to wait till I get the mast down to get the cheek block installed at the mast head and the entrance and exit plates installed to run the line internally.
I finally got out sailing again yesterday..
Sea Puppy has been pulled apart for so long with me doing projects I wasn’t sure I would remember how to do it 🙂
It was a nice day other than being a bit chilly… air temp was in the low 50’s..
The ocean was just about flat… with maybe 6inch to 1 ft chop and winds between 5 to 8 knots..
we left the dock about 12:30 and got back in at 6pm…
I used the 100% jib and actaully sheeted it through the jib tracks on the cabin top… it did make a difference in pointing ability…. I hope to have winds that will let me sail with this jib racing.. 🙂 the extra pointing ability will come in handy.
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ok here is what I have come up with. Hopefully this should work well..
I tested all the options and ended up going with Kelly Holsten’s suggestion from the Beneteau235.com website of terminating it at the babystay. If you lead it up farther than that it has to run near the toe rail loosely… Run to the babystay anchor point it will let you reach the pulpit but doesn’t give as much slack over the sides as if it was run all the way forward by the toe rail.
I used a figure eight knot with a bight in it to attach to a large snapshackle that hooks into the babystay attachment point… while i was at it I also changed out the babystay attachment for another large snapshackle to make it easier to get it out of the way on the fly. 🙂 I did the same for the jib attachment.
Well I got several things done today…. finally got starboard upgraded to 4 spinlocks 🙂 all I have left is now getting my organizers from 3 sheave to 6 so that I can run the 4th and 5th lines correctly back to the spinlocks and cam cleat.. oh cam cleat still to be installed on starboard also.
This picture shows the old mounting holes that I filled with epoxy.. I will need to take an impression of some of the non skid area to make a mold so that next time im doing some jelcoat repair I can cover where the holes and that mess are with non skid texture to match the surrounding areas.. the piece of paper is my template that I made to drill the new holes.
I moved the clutches back about 6 inches to maintain strength and also to not let my angle from the new clutch get too sharp. It is recomended not to exceed 10 degrees
I recently took one of the safe boating courses to get a bit of a discount on my insurance and through that had one of the Coast Guard Auxillary members come do a safety inspection of Sea Puppy today… Sea Puppy passed with flying colors and now bears her 2006 sticker saying she is a safe boat 🙂
The only thing that wasn’t right was the valves on the holding tank and head.. Neither of them are capable of being locked when inshore of the 3 mile limit which is illegal. In consultation with the Coast Guard Auxillary inspector we came up with and I implemented a legal system to lock the thru hull at the head and the Y valve at the holding tank…
This is a preview of Got Coast Guard Aux Saftey inspection for Sea Puppy . Read the full post (229 words, 0 images, estimated 55 secs reading time)
Ok dinner is digesting and i feel human again… I had been sick for about a week and just yesterday and today running around again… I think I over did it. lol..
So this morning I knew I was going to work at a customers that builds pool and deck enclosures etc… they do stuff with acrylic and lexan and usually have some off cuts left over from jobs….
I stopped at sea puppy on my way over there and took the hatch boards with me. After finishing my work for them we got the hatch boards out so they could see what size and we went digging in their plexiglass pile 🙂 They had a sheet of tinted acrylic 1/2 thick that we could cut both hatchboads out of. They sorta assumed that I wanted them to cut it also and once I realized that I kept my mouth shut 🙂 I had planned on doing it myself but they have alot more experience cutting this stuff than me. I have to admit to being right in the middle of it though..
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