Friday, April 29, 2005

Sunday Sail

Took the family out on Sunday afternoon for a little sail. Worked on teaching the kids to raise the main and unfurl the genoa. They seemed to like it but I'm not holding out for them to be my racing crew. Little wind but Commencement Bay is pretty good for finding little pockets of wind here and there.

Went over to Shennanigans to eat but discovered, even at high tide, there is almost not enought water at their dock. Fortunately we arrived almost exactly at high tide so there was a foot under Scamper's keel. Luckily I noticed this, consulted the tide tables, and decided not to stick around. There was over an hour's wait anyway so we sailed home and drove to a restaurant.

This is too bad. Shennagins is a favorite family boating destination for afternoon sails. Never had a boat with this much draft - six feet. Maybe we'll anchor off and dinghy in.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

A Few Hours

I managed to eek out a couple of hours after work yesterday to sail. Not much wind in Commencement Bay but it was still really nice to get out. I managed to jump between wind shadows enought to actually sail.

In such light wind I thought it would be a great time to test out the North Snuffer spinnaker sleeve. It worked great. This was in concert with a North Tack Strap, flying the boat's light-air, symmetrical spinnaker.

With no pole, anything beyond a beam reach caused the spinnaker to be in the main's wind shadow. The rig is so easy to use I have no problem giving up that little bit of extra sail area by dropping the main. Everything worked great. I set and doused the spinnaker twice with no twists or any other problems. This is a great way to cruise with a spinnaker, even single handed.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Indoor Projects

It was a squally, windy Sunday yesterday. Periods of sun with breif, heavy showers. I stayed in the cabin for several hours.

One of the things I've been wanting to get to was to check out the Autohelm 3000. Looks like it's several years old and I wanted to make sure it was still sealed and waterproof. It was very easy to take the control module apart, four screws, rubber gasket. Inside was clean and no corrosion so I just put plenty of silicone on the gasket and screwed it back together.

The motor/gearcase module was equally easy to disassemble. Just screw off the end, the motor comes out. Three screws get into the really scary section of planetary gears and whatnot but I was very careful to not spew those across the cabin. I dabbed in a little extra teflon grease for good measure and had it all back to gether in no time.

I also was able to oil all the interior teak and install some little vents in the under-settee lockers that don't have doors on the face of the settee. Getting close to being "done" with the initial big-list. The only thing left is getting up the mast and doing some service up there - windspeed sensor, check the bulbs, change the spreader tips, and lube the sail track. Hope to put the ATN TopClimber to use this weekend.

Missing the Boat

Been away for a week with no boating activity, sigh.