Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race

http://www.marbleheadtohalifax.com

Just comitted to crewing on MacIntosh, a Lake Ontario famous Cartwright 44 with:

Dick Stegenga
John Stegenga
Michael Cullen
Kevin Williams
Peter Smith (working on him)

The race begins on July 7th at noon.  It's 363 nautical miles to Halifax.  The race for us would likely finish sometime Tuesday afternoon.  The following weekend is the LO300.  If we race the Marblehead this year our place will count towards a combined trophy with the following years Newport Bermuda 2014 or Halifax St. Pierre 2014.  All three of these races are great offshore events that would be on any decent  sailors bucket list.  Having Macintosh in Nova Scotia with new sails and Dick is keen to race her is a real opportunity for us. 

We would sail with a crew of six. Dick, his brother John and the four of us.  We would share expenses for entry fees and to  prep the boat for a Category Two Offshore Race.   Of course we would want to fly to Boston and back from Halifax to make the LO300.

Long Winter

Rita and I have company instant messaging.

This was our conversation first thing this morning:

Good one Rita!

Old/New Turnbuckles

Took one of the old turnbuckles off of little Still Time to compare to the new ones:

The 32 year old one is bent (yikes!).  To adjust it, you need to undo the hex lock nut on both ends, and jam an awl or something in the hole in the middle of the closed body of the turnbuckle, then tighten the jam nuts again to keep them from moving.

New new one is open, and will require a split ring be put through the hole you can see.

Six turnbuckles @ $20 each: good investment.

Propulsion Diet

Picked up new motor yesterday.

Old 8HP Honda weighs in at 120lbs

New 2HP Honda weighs in at 30lbs.

The new 2HP will be used on the dinghy when cruising.  It will be easy to lift up to the rail on the CS34 when not in use.  Hopefully the 2hp will be enough to push the Catalina 22 to the race course and back.


Besides the weight savings, I like the fact that new motor has an integrated fuel tank; no more external tank and fuels lines in the dinghy or cockpit of the sailboat.

Toronto Boat Show

Rita and I went to the Toronto International Boat show on Saturday, meeting up with our friends Don and Judy from Newcastle.  It was sunny and warm with a record 15 degrees Celcius!

This was the first time we have gone on a weekend; VERY BUSY with line ups at most of the boats.  The first boat we went on was the newest Catalina Capri 22: more of a day sailor now with a bigger cockpit and smaller cabin.  Really liked the newest Catalina 315; nice layout.  The Catalina 355, 385, and 445 were beautiful, much nicer than the Beneteaus and Jeanneaus.

Had a close look at the new J/70; WHAT A ROCKET!

Talked with Raymarine for a while about electronics for the CS34.  The Rigging Shoppe will give me boat show prices after the show for some an i70 instrument display.

Rita with a Lewmar 115 winch
The little winch on the right is a Lewmar 16
Little Still Time's winches are Lewmar 6s!!!

Rita and Judy crankin on that self tailing carbon fiber bad boy!

I ordered a bunch of hardware from Garhauer.  They brought it all up to the show with them; no shipping or taxes!  Their stuff is the greatest!

For Little Still Time:

• Two 6 ft 1" jib T-tracks
• Two low lead cars
• Two midship cleats that mount on the T-track
• Six open turnbuckles

For Big Still Time:

• Rigid Vang
• Two midship cleats that mount on the T-track
• Two stainless block with snap shackles for flying spinnaker

Also ordered a Honda 2HP four stroke motor for boat show special $250 off.  They will deliver it to Clarington Honda.  This motor will be used for the dinghy, but I will also use it on the racing Catalina 22, as it weighs just 31 lbs vs 120lbs of the 8HP Honda I have on there now.  The nice thing about this outboard is that is has an integral gas tank: no more gas tank in the cockpit of C-22 or in the dinghy!  Also like that it is air cooled; no impeller maintenence.


The rigid vang will be nice because it will support the boom during reefing. Everytime we went to reef last year, I forgot to snug up the topping lift, resulting the in the boom dropping down after releasing the halyard to reef. I will run the rigid vang control line back to the cockpit.



Rigid Vang (thing of beauty!)

The old original jib tracks/car on the Catalina 22 are done.  It is VERY difficult or imposible to move the cars once underway. The old tracks were 4 ft long; I got 6 ft of track  so I can accomodate the midship mooring cleats.

Jib Cars on T-track

The midship cleats fit on the T-track, and provide a place to put docking/spring lines on little Still Time, since I removed the stantions last year.

Mid Ship cleats on T-track

The bigger midship cleats will fit on the larger T-track of the CS34.  Right now, I run the spring line through the midship chock, and back to the primary winches.  This resulted in a lot of chafe on the spring line because of the turning radius through the midship chock on the toe rail.

Mid ship cleats for CS34

The original equipment turnbuckles on the Catalina 22 are 30 years old.  They are closed and a pain to adjust.  Reading sail tuning guidelines, I should be adjusting the forward/aft lowers based on conditions.  Because the adjustements we so difficult I just didn't, there were lots of times we were out last year in 20+ knots and the leeward shrouds were flapping in the breeze!



Open turnbuckles

Little Still Time had single blocks SCREWED into the deck for the halyards.  One of them was ripped out of the deck last season, so there will be a welcomed addition.  Will also run a spinnaker topping lift and downhaul lines through these.  Only have to drill two holes in the deck.





Deck organizers for C-22

Happy New Year

Met up with some friends at the club to check our boats and toast the New Year with some Sortilege and Red Wine.  It was a nice sunny day, but VERY cold outside!

The fire kept us toasty for our toasts!

The pirate cups were a nice touch!