Ripper day today. So good to be back on Pittwater and to be able to poke the nose of the boat offshore towards cape 3 points. 2 reefs in the main and the jib were enough to have us rocketing along in the Norwesterly with my first time helming non sailor mate leaving a drunken s-bend wake but enjoying himself.
8:30 a.m. and already got a light Southwester blowing me out of Pittwater; full but fresh sun. Place to myself, everything right with the boat. Standing on the swim platform taking pictures loving retirement! Do we live in the best country or what?
Select to expand quotejulesmoto said..
8:30 a.m. and already got a light Southwester blowing me out of Pittwater; full but fresh sun. Place to myself, everything right with the boat. Standing on the swim platform taking pictures loving retirement! Do we live in the best country or what?
I'm quite envious of you, lovely boat. Enjoy your retirement, it's a few years away for me.
Select to expand quotejulesmoto said..
8:30 a.m. and already got a light Southwester blowing me out of Pittwater; full but fresh sun. Place to myself, everything right with the boat. Standing on the swim platform taking pictures loving retirement! Do we live in the best country or what?
Awesome pics Julesmoto! Thanks very much!
Spent the night anchored behind St Helena Isl, left Manly Harbour in miserable weather but woke up to a beautiful day
Then sailed over to Moreton Isl, mainly to drop anchor again and clean all the St Helena mud off the chain, also jumped in to check on my anodes, then a fantastic sail back, beam reach the whole way with two head sails and a full main in 12 -15knts. The boat was beautifully balanced and slipping along nicely at 7-8knts
Still can't get out of the lake but had a nice couple of days - albeit not a lot of wind about!!
This is what I woke up to yesterday.
Yesterday morning I headed out to my old work area. Passed astern of "Maluka" as she was heading North near the main hump of the Sir John Banks.
Note the sealant on the teak cockpit seats. I'm real happy with this stuff.
Select to expand quote2bish said..
Nice one Ramona. What sealant did you end up using on the teak?
www.starbrite.com/item/tropical-teak-oilsealer-light
Select to expand quoteRamona said..
Heading into Geroa yesterday. Check out the colour of the sea!
Yes sea colour was also terrible yesterday in Pittwater and offshore for at least 7 miles which is about as far as I went. Lots of large sticks/small logs floating around and quite confused seas so I was afraid that my inflatable dinghy would spear a stick. Should have left the dingy on the mooring. Lesson for next time after it has rained heaps.
Went down to the boat yesterday but it was gusting over 40 knots so chickened out. Went down this morning and it was a little better but not much but needed to prove to myself that I wasn't a pussy so jumped in the kayak and promptly got saturated getting out to the boat. Decided on a triple reef and had a good sail. Wind abated a little after about 11 or 12 a.m. but the only other boat out on Pittwater at that time was running an orange storm trisail on the way home (probably should have taken the opportunity to try mine) so I didn't feel like too much of a wimp running a triple reef. By the time I came back and put her on her mooring quite a few boats were coming out for the Wednesday afternoon races and by that time the wind had abaeted enough that many of the (crewed) boats were running full mains. Didn't really go all that far off Lion island as didn't really want to be tacking back in if the wind increased again to what it was yesterday or more.
Since it was ridiculously windy I spent a couple of hours of yesterday walking up and down every arm of Royal Prince Alfred Yacht club (my boat isn't there) deciding whether there was anything that I fancied better than my boat but decided in the end there wasn't which is quite satisfying. Was also interesting to chat with boat owners along the way about their boats:-)
Spent the weekend at Tangalooma, watched all the Surf to City boats go by, looked to be fast race, most of the offshore fleet were round Cape Moreton and in the bay before sunset.
Back down to my crew of one today who will also disappear when school starts next week.
Got thrashed by a comparable yacht which also happened to be going to windward up Pittwater so wasn't too thrilled (was my 107% jib vs large Genoa but still). Seemed like I had the brakes on but it's 9 or 10 months of growth exacerbated by 6 weeks of no sailing due to bad back and Christmas plus other factors like crap thin antifouling done by marina and being dragged off sand (straight after antifouling) getting off Swansea channel.
Competitor disappeared somewhere and I started enjoying myself sailing down the Northern Beaches and seaward on a close reach.
Still could have done with another 5 knots of breeze but most enjoyable nevertheless. Tacked downwind on the way back to Barrenjoey and so avoided running square with a swell.
Going to order a cheap (MPS) asymmetric from sail exchange tomorrow as they are 0.9 Oz v. the cheapies from Rolly Tasker which are 1.5 ounce. Fair bit smaller than a full-blown A2 but it will do for a start single handed. Conditions would have been perfect for it today and would have made the trip back in better although it wasn't that shabby. Glad to be alive and back on the boat :-).
This was last Monday. Heading home across the Banks with a fair bit of current pushing down.
Hit 8 degrees yesterday.
Water temp still 5.9 though.
First sail outside for the year.
Hit a record of 7 knots just before putting a reef in.
Can smell spring in the air.
Select to expand quotegarymalmgren said..
Hit 8 degrees yesterday.
Water temp still 5.9 though.
First sail outside for the year.
Hit a record of 7 knots just before putting a reef in.
Can smell spring in the air.
5.9 would be unpleasant! Off NSW at the moment we have between 24 and 27 degrees C.
Picked up my new custom-made assy from sailexchange yesterday and tried it out this morning- singlehanded I might add. Don't want to push it because the wind is all over the place so taken it down already after about 20 minutes but I'm very pleased.
Impressive and good effort on your own..Thats in a sock? Any change out of $1,500? I had a quote from Rolly Tasker ( 3 yrs ago) for the same for my Duncanson 29 and it was $1,030...But I found a suitable used one, not in a sock for $300.. For ease of use, I would like a custom made one.
Select to expand quoteBeamReach said..
Impressive and good effort on your own..Thats in a sock? Any change out of $1,500? I had a quote from Rolly Tasker ( 3 yrs ago) for the same for my Duncanson 29 and it was $1,030...But I found a suitable used one, not in a sock for $300.. For ease of use, I would like a custom made one.
Select to expand quotejulesmoto said..
Picked up my new custom-made assy from sailexchange yesterday ..
Looks good! How do you have it tacked down - to the bow roller?
Making something like this is something I've been meaning to try: atninc.com/atn-tacker-sailing-equipment.shtml
Select to expand quoteBeamReach said..
Impressive and good effort on your own..Thats in a sock? Any change out of $1,500? I had a quote from Rolly Tasker ( 3 yrs ago) for the same for my Duncanson 29 and it was $1,030...But I found a suitable used one, not in a sock for $300.. For ease of use, I would like a custom made one.
Thanks. $2,400 odd for 13.1m luff and 12 m sock. I think your boat would take a smaller size but things have gone up quite a lot in the last 3 years. Rolly Tasker was considerably more expensive for a 1.5 oz (no choice -although 0.75- also no choice- in smaller sizes) in their standard pattern. I wanted 1oz cloth which they wanted an arm and a leg for and same for my pattern.
Select to expand quotesydchris said..julesmoto said..
Picked up my new custom-made assy from sailexchange yesterday ..
Looks good! How do you have it tacked down - to the bow roller?
Making something like this is something I've been meaning to try: atninc.com/atn-tacker-sailing-equipment.shtml
I usually plan on running it from a block on the end of my pole lain (and secured) flat on the deck and protruding 700 in front of the bow roller (it's a beefy 85mm diameter pole) but today I hastily (since there was no wind when I got to the boat) put it up on my sheltered mooring with just a rope under the bow roller to a forward cleat just to check if the sock worked well while there was no wind. Finished the test raising and lowering the sock and the wind sprung up and changed to a different but ideal direction so I thought screw the pole I'll just leave it on the short rope to the tack so swapped the sheet to the opposite side dropped the mooring, motored past a couple of moored boats and pulled it up again. Worked fine. Breeze increased a bit more after a couple of miles and I became a little worried about getting it down so pulled it down with no problem.
Day turned out great and did another 20 miles off shore and back. Didn't put it up again although I could have used it on the way back for 9 miles.
I considered those ATN tackers but wanted an extra metre or more of luff plus more forward projection and they sit fairly high and back from bow.
Not that it is ever likely to happen because I only bought a light sail and only plan to use it in light breezes but I also worry about bending my foil using one of those if I get caught out in a heavier breeze.
Select to expand quotejulesmoto said..BeamReach said..
Impressive and good effort on your own..Thats in a sock? Any change out of $1,500? I had a quote from Rolly Tasker ( 3 yrs ago) for the same for my Duncanson 29 and it was $1,030...But I found a suitable used one, not in a sock for $300.. For ease of use, I would like a custom made one.
$2,400 odd for 13.1m luff and 12 m sock. I think your boat would take the smaller size but things have gone up quite a lot in the last 3 years. Rolly Tasker was considerably more expensive for a 1.5 oz in their standard pattern. I wanted 1oz cloth which they wanted an arm and a leg for and same for my pattern.
Thanks for the feedback and sharing.
That's a pretty good price, considering it's a much bigger sail area than mine and yes prices have gone up on everything, thanks ti Covid and the world economic climate!
I will have to check what thickness I was quoted, probably .75 oz, rings a bell..Good to know you can get competitive prices in Aus, if you do your homework.
I think it was asked, how yours it rigged from the bow sprit.? Do you have an extension off your bowsprit?
I had a short piece of stainless flat bar welded to my anchor roller bracket and I have a 50mm Ronstan block attached to this.
I didn't want a permanent pole, as it could get in the way and could overhang the marina walkway.
Cheers, Mike.
