Nearly spring

Vagabond is (I hope) having a few changes made by Swallow boats. When I took her down ther the yard was full. So she lies in a queue, waiting for the work.

In the meantime, I can get on with planning (no), sorting out the new house (sort of) and generally daydreaming about the forthcoming sailing season. She must be ready for the Swallow Boats get together at Rutland Water in early April.

There, I can sort out the new bits that have been added and generally get "in the groove" ready to put her back in the real water in May. We are definitely going to start in Essex (as last year) only this time I'm going to turn left every morning until I meet myself at Balvicar some time in the summer.

I've been reading about sail trim during the winter.......

A Frame!

Dedicated readers may remember that I had used some aluminium* tubing (the leading edge of my old hang glider) to make a simple A frame which should make it a bit easier to raise Vagabond mast. This had lain unused all winter as Vagabond was snugly lying a barn whilst the snow and frost lay around.


A frame in position

This week has seen a marked change in the weather and yesterday was almost balmy at Little Kings Ash farm so Vagabond was brought out into the sunshine and the A frame assembled on the foredeck.
Various pieces of string were tied to it to hold it in place, the forestay and shrouds were attached to the mast and the forestay led through a block on the A Frame. A strong heave on the forestay showed that the device worked and the mast rose into position.
When the time came to lower the mast, it descended onto the rest under reasonable control. All that has to be done now is to work out how to store the frame whilst at sea!

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Voacabulary Notes:
US readers: Aluminum

Errors and Omissions

I was a bit hurt the other week, when out to lunch with the Insurer(Retired). He wanted me to start including details of the menu's at each pub I visited during the last trip. Clearly, he is finding the blog dull. A bit like the  recent weather then.

But things may be changing.

We've had some sun today, the first (it seems) for weeks and the temperature is almost warm. I'd better go and have a look at Vagabond tomorrow to see how she has weathered the winter. I'll ask the Owners Agent if I can have time off from putting up shelves and all the sort of stuff that is assoicated with moving into a different house.

As a bit of light relief, I've been preparing for the illustrated talk that I've got to give to the GXSA (see link) early in March. I've discovered that the blog was a bit economical with the truth. There was no mention of running aground in the North Haven of the Isle of Skomer!

All is revealed in this "clip" from the recorded track:

I was concentrating on where to park amongst the half dozen or so boats already nodding to their anchors. There was a scrunch and a lurch, and the line securing the centre board went slack for a moment or two. Then Freddie powered Vagabond over the outcrop and we carried with my pride and the centre board gel coat both hurting!
I retreated from the pack and anchored in 12 metres at the western end of the bay!

Shoreham to Gosport (Track)

I had inteneded to publish the plotted track of each section of the voyage last summer. On reflection, it's probably not too good an idea at this late date as the individual trips are now comparitively ancient history in this age of twitter and instant information - besides which I managed to press the wrong button on the Garmin GPS and have deleted several of them.

So I will only publish a selection between now and our resumption of the trip in May.

You may recall that we left Shoreham at about 9 o'clock and were whisked along by the 18 KN wind and the tide. It was a good thing because we had to get through the Looe channel off Selsey Bill before the tide turned against us.  The various large kinks in the track are (from right to left) where:
- we hove to, whilst I put on some warmer clothing
- we tacked to avoid a large bulk carrier and head vaguely for Chichester
- we turned for Gosport.

 

Last Post (of 2012)

The Owners Agent and I spent the recent festivities in Nova Scotia whilst Vagabond remained in safely in the shed beside the cattle.  I assume she is still there for there hasn't been time to see.

You would think it a short flight from London to Halifax but direct flights were not available. The route offered was via Montreal and this left me with time on my hands at 38000 feet above the North Atlantic. .

I fell into a dream. Where and when do we resume the voyage? Do I trail her back to Balvicar (incidentally, Balvicar got a mention in PBO the other month - did you see it?) to then continue clockwise as before, so ending our journey back at Burnham on Crouch - or shall I trail her to Burnham to turn left every morning so that we arrive at Balvicar some time in the late summer? If we did the latter, Vagabond could rest at Balvicar for following winter and be ready for a cruise of the Western Isles in 2014. I find the idea of meeting ourselves halfway and the following cruise quite tempting.....

My wool gathering turned into a bit of a muddle: do we need a sort of cruising sheet? Does that need a boom? How about a duck board in the cockpit? Or some sort of extension to my legs so that I can more easily stand on the lee side of the cockpit when heeling to the breeze? Perhaps I need built up shoes! And then there is the idea of a piece of wood to cover over the outboard well so that there is less slop and gurgle when going downwind. Do we need more solar cell capacity - it never was really tested this summer as we "parked" in marinas so often. Do I need to replace the wind speed and direction vane that was shaken off the mast. I hear rumours of a new aerofoil shaped mast - will that be stiffer than the current one and less liable to vibration. Oh yes, we need to seal the duct that brings the gas pipe into the cabin from the gas locker. Does the A frame help when lifting the mast? And then there is the matter of charts and pilots - do they need updating? And I though there was a broken strand in the fore stay. There will be some long stretches on the East Coast - could an autopilot be made to work? Or do I try to persuade one of my long suffering friends to do a couple of overnight sails with me? The outboard needs servicing. The centre board lifting blocks need lubricating. The rudder pintles need examination. The scuffs on the centre board and rudder need epoxying from the odd bump or two that they had - (that's an admission that's just sneaked out).

The list goes on and on.

Nova Scotia was cold, with snow. Apparently it rained a lot in the UK. A bit like last summer really. I gather the met office is laying bets on the Jet stream being South again in the coming summer. Looks like an interesting year ahead.

Dover to Eastbourne revisited

Here's the track taken by Vagabond in the leg from Dover to Eastbourne last May.

I hope it is fairly self explanatory

Spray Hood adjustment

As originally fitted, the spray hood frame was mounted on the top rail of the gunnels. This meant that the crew (or owner - usually one and the same) had to tread all over the bottom of it when a hand was needed to go forward of the cabin. Clipping on to go forward was made difficult and the centre mooring cleat was also hidden from view. The owner considered this not particularly satisfactory.



The end result

On a wet day (there have been many this month) the owner was visiting Vagabond in her barn and thought it would be an appropriate time to resolve this issue. The spray hood was removed and the frame pivots undone. After an hour or so "fiddling about" and a discussion with the boat builder, it became clear that the pivots could be repositioned onto the cabin sides.

Appropriate wooden blocks were cut and two were glued onto the inside of the cabin wall (out of sight in the internal locker area). Whilst the epoxy was setting, the two external blocks were spruced up and varnished before being screwed through the cockpit side on the inner blocks. Al that remained to do was screw the pivots to the blocks and refix the frame.  

OOPS. The frame wouldn't fold flat, because the frame shape was an even semicircle  and it fouled the cabin roof. The owner recalled his pipe bending skills and eventually shaped the frames into graceful D's to provide the necessary clearance.

More tracks to be published soon. I bet you can't wait!