Tuesday Sail in Havasu, 2/12/13

Nice easy sail today. I met up with Martin, who has a Cape Cutter 19. A salty boat with traditional lines. I sailed with him last year at the Havasu meet and really enjoyed his boat. We met out on the lake a sailed saide by side for a couple of hours. Sailed a l A little over 9 NMiles. Some nice wind gusts pushed me up to 5.6 knots as a top speed.

Lake Havasu Pocket Cruiser event Feb 10 - 17, 2013

Here for the week. I am excited about getting to sail most of the week. It took about 7 hours to drive here from my house. At 55 mph towing the boat. No issues on the road, so just a long, slow trip. A little stiff this morning after the drive. Need to stretch out. It was a glorious sun rise.

Not much happening on the water today. I launched with no wind and messed about a bit before putting in. The engine would not work after I shut it off after coming out into the lake. I ended up rowing in to the shore by our room. First time I have rowed the boat. It acted fine and was not a problem to row after getting the hang of it.

The wind finally came up around 2pm. I tried to launch but the engine would not work Bad gas. I changed the gas and it started right up. Backed out of the slip, wind caught the stern and pushed me almost into the shore before I could get the engine up to speed to move the boat out. It was a lee wind blowing at 15-20 mph. That was exciting and I expect to see it on U Tube if anyone had a camera! Lol it was a mess. One of those things that you laugh about unless it’s happening to you. OK I did have a chuckle after it was all over and no damage was done. So, my boat is now safely beached in the cove. No more slips lol

Mission Bay Feb 2 2013

A fun day sailing in Mission Bay. Wind at 10 knots, gusts to about 15 knots. Top speed 7.4 knots. Started out with no wind and great sun. Clouds came in, wind picked up, coats went on, sun disappeared. Sailed with Dave and Richard today. Kevin was also out on his boat with Deb and Mitch. Sailed out of Clairmont boat ramp. Sailed up and into sail bay. Some great wind as we came up to the bridge. Healed over and exciting.

Photos taken by Kevin, from his boat. Sorry to say I did not take any photos today, of Kevin's or my boat. Just too exciting!

Dana Point with the "Potters".

A great sail out of Dana Point Saturday Jan 19th. Weather was beautiful, 70 degrees and sunny. Wind approx 5 – 10 mph. Out for about 4 hours. Top speed 5.2 knots. Average speed 4.4 knots.

This was my first time out of Dana Point and I was not sure what to expect. I know the area and was looking forward to sailing. Cast off around 11am after coffee and donuts with the Potters. Denny crewed with me and it was fun having him to sail with. Light winds to begin with. Exit from the harbor to ocean was smooth with no excitement. Cut the motor as soon as we were out of the channel with no ferry or whale watching boat traffic around. We headed straight out towards Catalina that looked to be so close. But is at least a 7 hour crossing for me in my boat, Maybe one day… Denny and I were discussing that neither one of us had ever seen a whale while out sailing. When not 5 mins latter, a grey whale surfaced, blew a cool looking water spout and then gracefully went back down. This all happened about 100 yards away from the boat. I was good with that as the whale looked huge! We changed our heading to intersect where we thought the whale may surface again. But, all the motor boats charged up on the scene and we gracefully departed. No more whale sightings for the day. We did see a big pod of dolphins feeding a little way off. There must have been around 30 or so. They were moving too fast for the boat to keep up with. Clicked a few pics, not sure if you will be able to see them between the motor boats.

Cool sail day with lots of boats out on the water. We heard one estimate that there were 50 sails out?

Had dinner at the Brig in the harbor before driving home. Fun day. An Artsy photo from today.

No sailing

Well, I have not been out on the water in a while. My job, (retail at Christmas), and the weather, (cold and rain), have conspired to keep me on dry land. Well the job has quieted down now. So, it's just the weather now. Good wind the past few days. Just a lot of rain with it. Cold also around 40 - 45 degrees. I am hopeful to get our sailing soon. I am looking forward to going out whale watching off Dana Point California with the "Potters" sailing group on Jan 19th. Keeping my fingers crossed for the weather!

December 8th out of Oceanside

Sailed with Jeff today. Great weather for December. Nice and warm. Not too much wind though. Out for 4 hours. Best speed was 5 knots. Travelled 9 Nmiles. There was a kayak race outside of the breakwater. Must have been 100 kayaks. Was cool to see them all race. We chased the wind and had a few nice tacks. An overall fun day on the water. Made a video and posted to You Tube on the set up today. Here is the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j34AL4pxge8

Rudder Damage

I dragged the rudder while putting the boat on the trailer at the "Potters" event. I will need to fix it and am not sure how to go about fixing it. So, I posted on the Swallow boats forum, with no luck on a solution. I also sent an email to the owner of Swallow boats and he sent me a nice email with the solution to fix it. It's nice to have such a responsive builder that can help me. Glad I got the Swallow boat. *********** Hi Matt, I am hoping you can help me and offer some advice on fixing my rudder. I dragged it on the concrete at the boat ramp. It scrapped off the coating and a few millimeters of the body. What is my best course of action to fix this? Will it harm the rudder coating etc if I sail it without fixing immediately? (The coating does not look like it will flake off). I am attaching a couple of photos of the damage. Do you have a guard for the rudder I can purchase from you?

************************************************* Matt was kind enough to reply and offer a solution for me that is not to technically challenging! Here is his reply. **** Good to hear from you, but sorry to hear about the damage. It is easy to fill the gap in the gelcoat with a 2 part epoxy resin like araldite or similar. Not sure what you have in the US but a normal hardware store should sell something in 2 tubes that you squeeze out and mix together in equal parts. Put this on and things won’t get any worse. You can mix small quantities and build up the thickness, but if the glue is already thick and gloopy (most are) then you should be able to get it all on in one or two mixes. After that you can if you wish, sand it back flush and paint with a decent enamel or even 2 pack paint. But you don’t have to do this - just for looks really. I have toyed with the idea of making a stainless plate fabrication on the leading edges of the rudder and CB. This has given me added incentive. Always in the past I thought it would be relatively expensive and very little credit would be given at boat shows for example, when trying to sell the boats. Having it as an optional extra doesn’t seem right somehow, so we would be probably reducing our margins/or increasing the boat price to pay for it. Several people have done the same as you though so maybe I will give it some more thoughts. Best wishes,

I keep forgetting to post the repair to this that I did. I ended up using the epoxy to fix the damage as it was really a minor scrape. I could have used gel coat but really did not see the benefit apart from the cosmetic difference.
Here are a couple of photos of the repair.

Thanksgiving sail with the So. Cal Potters 11/24/12

I met up with the Southern California Potters Saturday for a sail in Mission Bay, San Diego. The "Potters" are a loose association of sailors with predominantly West Wright Potter sail boats. Both 15 and 19 foot models. Here is a link to their web site http://howies.net/socalpotter. I had a fun time sailing in Sail Bay. Sailed 12 miles in the Bay and top speed of 7.4 knots. The wind was brisk, steady at 10 mph with gusts 20+ mph. My neighbor Brad joined me for the sail. I did not use ballast and was at the limit of my comfort a few times when the gusts were strong. I learned to be adept at spilling the wind from the main. Had consistent 6 knots + speed for quite a while and it was great fun? Heeled over and the boat demonstrated great acceleration with each wind gust that was exhilarating. We droppoed the main with the wind really gusting and sailed for a while on just the jib and mizzen. Was fun and had a consistent speed of 5+ knots with just the jib and mizzen. Fog started to roll in around 4pm so we returned to San Juan cove to put the boat on the trailer. I dragged the rudder on the ramp and scratch off a little of its surface. I will post on the Swallow Boats forum to see if anyone has a good way to add the surface back and fix it. Just minor and more cosmetic. Really just a bruised ego that I did not judge the depth of the water well and pull up the rudder. We had dinner with the "Potters" in the Mission Bay Yacht Club. Nice group of people and good food also. Enjoyable time and I plan on meeting up with them again.

November 16th, 2012 sail

Sail out of Oceanside. Light winds today. Beautiful weather for a lazy day out on the water. Put all the sails up prior to pushing off and took a few pictures. First photo’s of all the sails up.

Got a video of a couple of Dolphins swimming bye. That was cool. I played with the dodger a little. I decided that I will take it off the boat for normal use and put it back on when I think I will need it.

I also played with a rope around the tiller to give me some time up front under the dodger. It worked well in the light winds. Not sure how it would do with any consistent winds though. It gave me a few ideas on how I can rig a tiller clutch up though. Will need some bungee cord for that.

Can you believe it is November with weather like this? Got to love Southern California.

Cold and Raining

Supposed to go out sailing today. But the weather is not cooperating. Small boat warnings etc. Ho well. Maybe tomorrow? If not then, it will have to be next week. Noaa warnings: Warnings & Follow-Up Statements Gale Warning (issued at 11:15am) Gale Warning (#0020 issued at 11:04am) Gale Warning (#0004 issued at 11:04am) COASTAL WATERS FROM SAN MATEO POINT TO THE MEXICAN BORDER AND OUT 30 NM- 1115 AM PST FRI NOV 9 2012 ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR WINDS IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT... ...GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON... .TODAY...WIND W 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 4 FT. MIXED SWELL W 2 TO 5 FT AT 10 SECONDS AND S 3 FT AT 17 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

No wind?

Well no wind this morning with off shore ships reporting 1 knot at 10.30 this morning. Decided to not go out today. Well winds picked up late 3.30pm. Off shore at 10 knots. Oh well. Next weekend.

Issue with gooseneck on mast

The metal receiving bracket on the boom was not finished well at the factory. Leaving sharp edges all the way around the bracket. I removed the bracket and filed to smooth the edges. This really should have been done prior to delivery. This, I found, is the issue and thing that cut the sail at the luff. I repaired with sail tape, see earlier post, but it still wore a hole through the tape on the next sail. I did not notice any further damage done on my sail yesterday. Hopefully this resolves the issue and I will need to take the main sail to a sail shop to have repaired. Hopefully, I will be reimbursed for this by the manufacturer!

October 27,2012. Sail with Wayne and Gerald.

Sail out of Oceanside with friends Wayne and Gerald. Out for three hours. Ave speed 3.2 knots, 8.8 Nmiles, top speed 6.1 knots. Wind started out at approximately 5-9 mph dropping to becalmed as we made for the harbor. Used the engine from about half mile out from the harbor entrance to motor back. Longest run for the motor since I purchased it. (I need to check the cooling as it did not appear to have a good water flow as we moved in to the dock). Struck the sails outside prior to motoring back. Wayne on the tiller for the majority of the sail. It was nice for me to just kick back and enjoy friends, boat and sail. Perfect weather for a cruise with friends.

Mast twisting resolution

I received the email below from Matt today. He is going to replace the mast. Great customer service. I will just need to wait until the next shipment to get it. ------------ Hi Matt, Thank you for your response. The next shipment will be fine for the mast. I appreciate your great response to my concerns in replacing the mast. Thank you. The sharp edges on the gooseneck rubbed through the sail tape patch again on my sail yesterday So I will have to file these down. Maybe even put rigging tape around it? The filing should work though. I was out in force 4-5 winds yesterday so a fun sail. Really enjoying the boat. It handles great. I will check out the Harken block. It does not sound like an elegant solution. Your supplied block sounds to be a better fit for the boat. Regards, David. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:09:38 +0100 Subject: Re: Bayraider 20 Hello, I wrote to Bill the other day saying yes, we woudl replace your mast for you. I realised my initial response was inadequate when at the show, so I apologise for this. Would you mind still using the mast as supplied until possibly March/April time, when we shoudl be able to get you a replacement on our next shipment coming over. The harken block: We do not normally supply this as a harken block because they do not make one which fits our mast head neatly, as they use shackle heads on all their suitable blocks. It will still fit though, but you will have to keep the existing shackle as supplied, unshackling the block and re shackling to the new block. From our records here, you dont have a spinnaker, so only need a mast head single block? If you do have a spinnaker, you should buy a fiddle block, so you have two sheaves, one for the jib halyard and one for the spi halyard. Product codes: Single block 57mm CARBO Harken part number: 2600 Fiddle block: 57mm carbo fiddle, Harken part number: 2621 Hope that is ok? Matt

Sunday 10/14/2012 - Oceanside

Solo sail out of Oceanside. Three and half hours sailing - seems to be consistent with the past few sails. Winds were better today. Blowing over 10mph with gusts 15-20? Force 4-5. I did not initially fill the ballast. Motored out to the basin to hoist the main. While motoring out I noticed the strength of the wind, which I should have noticed earlier! I sailed with jib and mizzen for a few laps of the basin. First time on jib and mizzen only. Sustained speed of approx 3 knots. Felt good and under control. Filled water ballast and hoisted main to go outside the basin. Good speeds here, the first hour or so my average speed was 5.1 knots on the GPS. I tried feathering into and off the wind to reduce load on the mast which worked well. The boat accelerated well when brought to a good point of sail. Exciting. 6.2 knots top speed on GPS. Pretty good with full ballast tank. Sustained over 5 knots most of the time. Average speed today of 4.8. Distance 14 miles. Entry back into the harbor was squirrely. Wind was directly on the nose going in. I had to set up the entry by maneuvering for position outside to set up a good tack through the breakwater. Waves at the breakwater were choppy. I was going to try and hook up with some folks from HPPC. They are bringing a boat from San Diego to Ventura. I missed them as I was off the water by 4pm and they did not arrive until 6pm. The sail temporary fix with the tape held up OK. I will need to file down the gooseneck on the boom as it still wore a hole through the tape. I may even need to wrap some rigging tape around the sharp parts. Good news is that I was able to harbor furl my main once back in the basin. Was a little dodgy due to the strength of the wind. It was blowing well and caught the sail and almost blew me over. Once I had half the sail furled, it was much easier. I tied it up to the mast to motor back into the dock. I am staying head to wind, hove to, much better now. Using the mizzen and furling the jib. Played with the rollers a little more to get the winch out smoother. I just need to adjust the PVC tube on the side out a little and all should be good. Well, I may play with the rollers again if I can figure out anything better.

Mast twisting issue

The wooden mast has twisted during either curing or shipping the result being that it is off center by about 45 degrees. On my last sail I noticed that the gaff was pulled off center and the sail was chaffing on the boom gooseneck. I had asked for a solution to this from Matt Newland before. I really would like to have the mast replaced. So I sent him another email with a cc to Bill Vogel, Swallow boat rep in the USA. Here is a photo that shows the mast twisting.

Hi Matt, I saw your video on you tube of the Southampton boat show. Boats looked great and the BC 23 was impressive. You sold one too. Congratulations. I wanted to follow up with you on the questions I asked you, via email, while you were at the show. 1) Were you able to find the Harken block for the Jib? 2) On the mast twisting. I am still concerned with this. As I sail the boat I am seeing more issues with this. It is twisting the Gaff off center and causing chaffing on the sail. ( I repaired the sail with sail tape as a temporary fix until I can have a patch applied at the sail makers). It is chaffing on the boom gooseneck fixture that has sharp edges. I will need to file them smoother. There is a difference in performance also, depending on which tack you are on. I would like to see if we can resolve this while the boat is under warranty with a replacement mast. I just do not see the situation getting any better with the mast. You did offer a solution of shaving the bottom of the mast. But, this really is beyond my abilities to do, or, really explain what to do to a competent craftsman. I look forward to discussing any options you see to resolve the mast twisting situation. Here are four photo's showing the chaffing and the temporary repair with sail tape.

10/7/12

Nice sail again today out of Oceanside. Solo sail. Out for about 3.5 hours. 10.9 Nmiles. Ave speed 3.2 knots. Top speed 6.8 knots. Did not use ballast and rigged full sail. The adjusted rollers on the trailer work much better. Still a little more adjustment to make it right. Lights on the trailer also went out today. Looks like I blew the fuse in the car as the trailer light indicator is also not working. Hope it is just the fuse. Everything else in the car works fine. The Oceanside Lido club was out sailing in the basin today. Fun seeing these boats. Some spirited racing. I have to figure out how to get the tracks from my GPS to here. I know there is a way as I have seen on other blogs. Just technically challenged! Big waves today. The sea was beam on best point of sail. If I was going to be sea sick, this was the time. Gentle sail until about 2pm. Wind picked up and made it exciting. This is where the best speeds took place. I did see a 5.8 knot reading. I did not see the 6.8? Must have been holding on 8>). I really enjoyed this part of the day. Challenged to keep the boat in control while maximizing the speed

October 6th, 2012

Nice cruise out of Oceanside today. Winds were light and temp at 80 was nice. Averaged about 3 knots. Most of day running between 2 and 4 Knots. Out for three and a half hours. 6 Nmiles. I did not use ballast today. I also rigged the sail on the 1st reef point. Not done that before and wanted to check out the set up and how easy it would be to set.

This photo is of the base of mast set up. Looks like I need to clean it up. Photo just before passing Oceanside pier.

I am pleased with the gaff set up now. Lacing is working well.

The set up on the outhaul is clean.

I added the clip above to the rigging to bring the block up a little higher and also make it easier to unhook and take the sails out of the boat when I wash it down after sailing.

Technical changes

I restrung the gaff spar. I set it to the traditional spiral lace to try and take out the wrinkles in the main sail observed on the last sail. Seems to have worked well. No wrinkles in main sail today. I do have one more grommet to pass the line though; that I originally missed that will hold the sail a little closer to the mast. Just a tweak at this point. The gaff rigging should now be good to go. I also found out that I have to leave a little daylight under the boat when putting back onto the trailer. I dipped the trailer a little too far into the water today and the boat did not pull out straight. I ended up rubbing the rub rail on the trailer guide. No real damage done that a little elbow grease will not fix. Set up and tear down only took about 20 mins this time. Getting a better routine and more practice will improve this time even more. This is one of the reasons I liked the Bay Raider. It’s a good trailer sailor. Quick to put up and take down. I also need to move the rear two roller sets, on the trailer, a little closer together. They are not close enough to raise the bow out of the water when I winch it back up. I should only need to move them in an inch or so to fix this. Only issue is that the boat needs to be off the trailer. So, I will have to do this next time I go out by myself

Mission Bay sailing 9/30/12

Fun sail today with Kevin and his daughter Mattie. Originally tried to go out of Oceanside. But, they were holding the "Harbor Day" annual event and the boat launch were closed. It actually worked out great. We drove down to mission bay and launched on the main bay. Set up went smoother this time. I am starting to gain a set up routine. Still some to do. But better. Moved to finger dock, raised main sail and sailed the entire day. Did not turn on the motor once. Winds about 10mph. Out on water approx 4 hours. The gps did not want to work today, so no accurate numbers. We sailed up towards the ocean out let, under the bridge then entered sail bay. Some nice tacks around the bay. I had one hairy moment when I was practicing gybing. I gybed and did not bring in the sail to neutral enough. The wind caught it and took it hard to starboard. The resulting jolt knocked me off my feet, buried the rail and I am lying in the bottom of the boat. I let go the tiller and the boat rounded up nicely. Probably as close to a knock down as I want to be. It probably looked like a knock down to anyone watching. So, some more experience! know not to do that again....