Preparing for launch and the 2022 cruise towards St Kilda.

In anticipation of the web site disappearing (probably in the distant future) I have converted the more important threads into PDF documents so I'll have a continuing record. These are somewhat easier to read, I have not made any significant edits but there are fewer pictures and no video. Links from downloaded copies should still work if on line. I may later put further links to Flickr for videos but probably not for the slide shows because of the effort required and the likely hood of the Flickr library disappearing with the web site (with thousands of images it has to be paid for). 2022 S. Uist

Spoiler: Unfortunately the weather defeated me, I made it to South Uist in the outer Hebrides before running for shelter behind the Isle of Skye as the first of several gales approached, three weeks later there was no sign of a window opening either on the models or after talking to a forecaster so I headed for home to leave time for a late summer cruise around the Celtic Sea. 

Click here to jump to day 1 of the trip skipping the pre-amble.

As ever there was a number of minor jobs to do on the boat in addition to a good clean, routine maintenance and the more major jobs already on the Blog that were finished a while ago and I also ticked off a good number of things that have been on my list for a while. Now the boat is ready to go in the water and the plan is to launch on the 9th March and to go onto the RAFYC pontoon for a couple of days to fit the running rigging and load heavy and awkward sized items before moving to the mooring.

Then it will be down to the weather and tides, if the former cooperates I plan to be away on the neap tides the weekend before Easter hopefully taking advantage of easterly winds that frequently blow during April and which caused me a lot of grief last year when going the other way. That start date would enable me to break the trip west at Portland leaving there via the inshore route at dawn, it also gives plenty of time to get to Newlyn for a rounding of Lands End with favourable tides. 

The main objective for this cruise is to visit St Kilda and the Outer Hebrides that the weather and time pressures stymied last year.

St Kilda is about 50 miles west of South Harris, with no where
to go in bad weather (except north of the Butt of Lewis, itself not
a nice place in a blow) it will need close to a week of good weather
after getting to Barra or Harris so I could be waiting a long time.

After that  I am not sure, perhaps an extended cruise around the Scottish Islands, a cruise down the west of Ireland, along the Welsh coast and the Bristol Channel, or I might head off to the Shetland Islands, going to the extreme west of UK (if you ignore the small rock of Rockall) and Muckle Flugga the extreme north has a certain attraction and if I came down the east coast for a third round Britain I would have been to the extreme south (The Lizard), west, north and east on one cruise. We shall see.

This year I have had very little planning to do as a combination of the plans for 2021, 2022 and a plan to go round Ireland after the 2021 Jester Baltimore (that didn't happen) covers most of any likely trip. Updating all of my paper charts (14 "small craft" folios plus over 30 individual charts) was a different matter and took several days. 

The one piece of planning that is worth doing is working out the best date to leave, weather permitting, so as to be able to be able to use the Portland inshore route and to get round Land's End. 

Edit: The original post on choosing a start date has been removed as it has been superseded by my page Passage Planning - The Solent to Land's End, click here to read. 

Updates: 

Six weeks out several of the long range forecasts are suggesting northerly or easterly winds for the period (fairly common in April) possibly very light as the Azores high extends northwards, if that pans out going northwards could be a problem so a visit to the Isles of Scilly to wait for a favourable wind could be an attractive option.

Three and a half weeks out and all but one of the forecasts show light or very light winds, the outlier shows F7 for a few days but I am ignoring that for the moment and have booked a berth at the RAFYC to make loading up easier (especially the dinghy and outboard) and to avoid using the water taxi / club launch to get on and off when I take the car home.

18th March and all change! easterly winds are forecast from now to the end of March and into early April so I am taking advantage and am now planning to leave late on Friday the 18th or v early on the 19th. I might need the newly installed heater, but it should be dry and sunny.

Having chatted to a forecaster at Weatherweb there is then a reasonable chance of winds from the W or SW in early or mid April which would take me up the Irish sea on the Irish side but if the easterlies persist or I make a quick passage to Newlyn I can use the easterlies to go up the Welsh coat before crossing over to take my preferred route across the North Channel leaving from Norther Ireland.

Click here for Launch Day.

Carbon Monoxide Detector

The alarm sounds at a variable level dependant on average 
levels over a period but not below 30 ppm.

Something I have been meaning to fit for a while but the need was highlighted during my very cold trip in April and May when I was using the cooker a lot for cooking and the grill occasionally to keep warm.

I finally did it and trials show that with the Dorade and washboards vents open the oven and oil lamp registered 0, a test with a small gas fire got it up to 15 ppm after 45 minutes.

Not shown is a smoke detector - just in case.

Propeller removal.

My home made prop removal tool, the steel pieces must be very strong, alloy is unlikely to be up to it, A couple of years ago I tried with two pieces of angled alloy to form a "U" and it buckled very quickly and did not work.

Some spare threaded rod  would be a good idea as its easy to damage the thread where the rod goes through the angle iron. I initially used 6mm rod but that bent, 8mm was OK on subsequent use but 10mm might be better although that may need more grunt to move.

With a minor mod it should also work as a cutlass bearing removal tool with a suitable pusher. Its a chick and egg situation but an old cutlass bearing cut in half lengthwise should work, fortunately the bearing does not need replacing so testing that will have to wait for another year.

Wood pieces are to protect the propeller blades. When really
tight a light tap on the triangular with a mallet may be helpful.

Before tightening, as it tightened I lifted it up somewhat. Mistake
No 1 is leaving the nut off, in place but eased it will stop the prop
falling off.

Lift out for the winter.

Sancerre was lifted out at Deacon's yard, Bursledon just before Christmas, fortunately it was a nice day so the two mile trip back to the RAFYC in the dinghy to get the car was actually quite pleasant.

I was very pleasantly surprised at the lack of weed on the hull, by far the best result I have had from an anti-foul even though this was the first season she had not been power washed mid season. This was largely due to the number of miles I travelled spread over the season which helps the self ablative antifouling to work, but contributing was a lot of work over the previous two seasons on surface preparation and building up a good covering so that it did not wear through or come off. There is no doubt that getting three coats on over a period of days or weeks allowing each to cure before the next coat is superior to getting a coat on between tides or using the sealift (2 coats in an afternoon and back in early next morning). 

The SeaJet "Pellercoat" on the propeller was also impressive,
the first treatment I have found that actually works, unfortunately
some was knocked off by over enthusiastic use of the power wash,
next time I will ask them not to use it on the prop rather than to be careful.

Minimal erosion on the anodes, before fitting the Galvanic Isolator
I always wrecked two of the type on the right each year. 

After the power wash and almost ready for antifouling.

Heavy weather and Storm jib rigging.

With calm weather on Wednesday I was able to check the fit of the new heavy weather jib.

The Dyneema inner forestay (reeved through the original starboard
jib halyard sheaves) is tensioned from below with 4:1 tackle going
 back to one of the 23:1, 2 speed winches at the aft end of the cabin roof.
The stay, block and snap shackle have break loads of more than 2 Tonnes
the shackle on the tackle is a weak link to protect the rest.
I added the u-bolt for this and to attach the main preventer for maximum leverage.

The heavy weather jib is normally hoisted with the
spinnaker halyard (removed for the winter) rather
than the wire genoa halyard.

The stay should clear the furled headsail but I can move the tack back a little if necessary. I was cautious when I measured up, particularly to clear the radar reflector. The sail is 12.1 square metres, looking at in place I could probably have had it made c10% bigger by lowering the clew a little and lengthening the luff and leach but this way at least the foot should clear of waves.

Sheeting

The genoa sheets need to stay on the sail when the heavy weather or storm jib is in use, previously I had a block on the toe rail and a non adjustable tweaker to narrow the sheeting angle, that was not going to work well with a larger sail likely to be used fairly often, I therefore put a dedicated block ahead of the genoa sheeting track, the sheets go back to the large spinnaker winches on the cockpit coaming, the port one via the toe rail to get a better angle onto the starboard side of the winch. 

A low friction ring is used on a barber hauler system with a three part tackle going back to a cam cleat on the side of the coach roof. The front block goes to the bottom of main shroud and attaches with a  snap shackle so that when not in use it can be clipped to the mast keeping the tackle clear of the walk way. The loose part of the dedicated set of sheets go into a bag on the mast.

The Barber hauler set up. It should not need to be
hauled in this much, note the whippings at intervals
to speed set up.

Sheet block on the right just ahead of the genoa sheeting track.
The "Treadmaster" pad intended for steps, protects the deck from
the blocks and should reduce any noise if they move.

Leaving Fowey for the Fal, 2023 with just the
heavy weather jib, later the wind was gusting F7.

More on storm jibs etc can be found on my earlier piece "Storm Jibs".

Tom Cunliffe on Docking in a Tidal Stream, with just a glimpse of Sancerre

 

Tom Cunliffe does some very good videos, the last one is for beginners or perhaps those unused to going onto a pontoon with a tide flowing. It also gives some idea of what the River Hamble is like, just bear in mind that it goes on for over two miles above the fuel berth shown and although the boats are not as numerous all the way up, apart from around several more large marinas (each with up to c350 berths + dry stack and river moorings), the moorings are almost continuous on both sides of the river with up to 8 parallel trots. That adds up to an awful lot of boats.

And if you concentrate there is a glimpse of Sancerre on her mooring, but blink and you will miss it!

https://youtu.be/UCzxRbEV618