CS34 Cobourg Waterfront Festival

The next morning, the Cobourg Waterfront Festival was in full swing.

The tents on the north shore were vendor booths

We toured the booths the entire weekend.  All kinds a neat artsy stuff MADE IN CANADA!

Also on the wall with us over the weekend

• Serenity (Tim and Debbie)
• Whisper (Wally and Grace)
• Endorphin (Rick and Tracey)

There we also several boats from the Whitby marina.

In slips since Thurday night were

• Wind Dancer (Kevin and Jan)
• Off Duty (Dave and Nikki/Don and Jude)
• Silhouette (Rod and Ondine)

There were several WYC members making the cruise:

• Lost Buoys (Jim an Peggy)
• Mermaid (Jim and Jeanette)
• Eh (Rudy and Maria)
• Iris (Chris and Leslie)

Lots of WYC members came by land yacht for the Saturday afternoon cruise get together on the deck of the Cobourg Yacht Club.

The harbour was a buzz of activity with the marina full, the vendor tents, and the midway on the pier.  Lots of traffic with people walking to the beach.

BEAUTIFUL DAY

 

 

BEAUTIFUL NIGHT

 

 



If a picture is worth a 1k works, a video is worth 1k more times!

http://youtu.be/2GNQpBBIGgM

CS34 Whitby to Cobourg

Club cruise to Cobourg for the Canada Day long weekend.

We wanted to leave after work around 4pm, but there was a marine weather alert for severe thunderstorms, so we held back  Alert cleared at around 7:30pm, so off we went

Leaving Whitby Harbour with dinghy in tow

Wind was on the nose between 2 and 4 knots with 4ft waves.  Didn't even bother with the sails; motored the entire way at close to 7 knots and 3,000 RPM on the diesel.

We used 1/8 tank of diesel (about $10).

Waves were calming as we got closer east.  Very foggy near Cobourg.

Got in at 1:30am, and berthed at the north wall (no slips available).

NICE

Trip Odometer: 40.10 miles
Moving Average 6.6 knots
Moving Time: 05:59:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130628.kmz

C22 Whitby Race Night

John and I as Melissa could not make it out.  John got there before me and had rigged the light #1.  Winds were to be light from the S about 5 knots and swing to the SW near race time.  Course was set for 3 short.

For the last couple of races, we have had bad starts.  Part of it was our Kantankerous Kitchen Kountdown timer, me not having my watch on, and we don't know the flags on the committee boat.  I had got out a racing sticker that shows what all the flags mean and how the start sequence goes.  We decided to hang around the line, even luffing, and power up just before the start all so that we could see the flags. 

At our five minute warning, they hoist our class flag on the gun.
At four minutes, they drop the class flag and hoist the AP flag on the gun.
At one minute, they drop the AP flag on the gun.
Gun at the start of race.

We watched the process a little back from the line, and the committee boat had Fed up the dropping of the AP flag at one minute and confused the fleet.  We tried to start at the proper time, but half the fleet was still running the line as the AP flag was still up.  The race committee realized their mistake and sounded the cannon twice for a general recall (restart).  John and I were OK with this because even though we were near the line at the start, we were back a little from the line and were being blanketed by all the starboard tack boats running the line.

While all this was happening someone in the club was on the VHF asking the committee boat to assist a power boater from the club who's engine had died about 3 miles SW of the club.  It was really annoying for us in the boat, can't imagine how distracting it was for the crew of Tanker Jones who was running the start of races.  Once the race started, I just turned the radio off it was so annoying. 

For the second start, we came in on starboard by the committee boat, and Snapshot in front of us let us in (they could have pushed us off).  We luffed at the line and hardened up nicely for the start.  Snapshot in front of us were over early.  What a great start in clear air!

Winds had picked up at the start to maybe 10 to 12 knots.  In the first start, Paroose had ripped their light #1 from luff to leach.

We had a good race, finishing 2 minutes behind the Viking 28 and 2 seconds behind the Grampian 28.  We won handily on corrected time.

After the race, the disabled boat was being towed in by COMRA.

Nice night on the water with just enough wind to get the race in.

Trip Odometer: 10.8 miles
Moving Average: 3.9 knots
Moving Time: 02:47:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130626.kmz

CS34 Sunday Cruise

After running around all day, we decided to take Big Still Time out for a little cruise.

We took her over for a pump out.

There was a heat warning in effect; out on the water it was MUCH COOLER!

We motored out and dropped anchor in Lake Ontario by the club house.  We stay there for a little while, but it was pretty bumpy with the south wind.  Rita did really well on the helm!

Wind meter was saying 12 knots with gusts to 20, but I couldn't see white caps, so we decide to try to sail for a while.  We rolled out the head sail only and cruised around for a while.  It was nice!

Rita went and picked up her mother and we had nice BBQ on the boat at the dock.

Trip Odometer: 7.13 miles
Moving Average: 3.8 knots
Moving Time: 01:51:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130623.kmz

Santeria Whitby 50

Neil, Rod (from Newcastle), and I sailed Santeria in an overnight race from Whitby to the Leslie Street spit and back.  Race started at 9pm with 14 boats, including one from Frenchman's Bay, one from Cobourg, and of course Santeria from Newcastle.

Winds were forecast to be light 5-8 knots from the E, and swing to SW and pickup in the morning.

Road Trip withdrew because of the lack of wind.
Black Shadow withdrew because they lost their spinnaker halyard on the top of the mast.

We had a good start on a port keeping in front of several boats all the way to the T2 buoy in Toronto.  Flying a symmetrical spinnaker, we were the second boat to the mark behind Sumac.

We had a hard time dousing the spinnaker at the mark and hoisting the #1.  The experienced Gruntled crew did a perfect douse and set on their #1 and went roaring past us.

We stayed on the rhum line beating back into the east wind.  We tried an asymmetrical spinnaker, but it wasn't any faster than the #1, and was difficult to fly.

We sailed into a no wind zone about 4 miles south of cathedral bluffs with 3 boats behind us, and floundered around for several hours.  Boats that went offshore didn't see this wind hole.  For much of the time between Toronto and Ajax we were only doing 2-3 knots of boat speed.

The wind never did swing to the SW like we were hoping.  It did fill in to about 10 knots from the east for the last hour (5 miles of the race).  We had a tacking duel with Kalona (Aloha 34) near the finish and beat them across the line in the rain.

As we came into the harbour, the skies let go with major rain and thunderstorms.

Trip Odometer: 66.70 miles
Moving Average: 4.3 knots
Moving Time: 15:34:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130621.kmz

Santeria Delivery from Newcastle

Neil and I are racing his Able Pointin 24 Santeria in the overnight Whitby 50 race on Friday, so he delivered the boat tonight

I drove him back to Newcastle.

Kinda funny looking in the picture above

• Santeria
• Galaxsea (CS30)
• Still Time (CS34)
• Aftica (Catalina 320)

All Newcastle boats!

Plus off the bow of these boats are Frank's and John's power boats.  
Further down the dock is little Still Time, and Wade's and Mel's Night Cap II.

C22 Whitby Race Night

Winds forecast for 5 knots from the south and diminishing.

John could not make it out, so it was Melissa and I.

Course was 5 short.  We had a bad start as when we went to tack to starboard with less than a minute to the gun, we could not get the boat moving into the waves through the start line.

Winds were diminishing and the race committee shortened the course it was only a 3 legged race (no finishing upwind leg).  They moved the committee boat over to mark 1.  We finished about 5 minutes behind Eclipse, but in front of the other two boats in the division.  Don't think we will have caught the Viking on corrected time.

Trip Odometer: 9.00 miles
Moving Average: 2.90 knots
Moving Time: 03:03:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130619.kmz

CS34 Progress

Our friends and celebrity sailors Mike and Wendy on Ohana were visiting the club on their way east.  They were featured in this month's Ontario Sailor as they have retired, sold all their landly possessions, and sailing out the St Lawrence and down to the warmer waters of Florida, Bahamas, and Caribbean. 

Took the opportunity with their help and John from the club to get the mast up.  We took our time and made sure the wires going down the mast didn't get pinched.  I quickly hooked up the wind transducer cables and voila, celebrated with a beer with Mike.

Getting back to the slip, spent the rest of the night:

• tuning the rig
• mounting the boom and vang
• putting sails on
• hooking up outhaul and reefing lines
• running the lines back to the cockpit
• hooking up anchor/steaming/deck lights
• cleaning up wiring in salon
• cleaning up wiring in aft cabin
• mount man overboard pole

Meanwhile, Rita was cleaning the insides like the Dutchwoman that she is.

Still have lots to do before leaving for Toronto on Friday:

• cleanout cockpit lockers
• cleanout nav table
• remove tools and junk from boat
• hookup instrument bus to circuit breaker
• cover hole from bulkhead instruments
• mount BBQ
• check engine oil
• wash deck
• wash cockpit
• pump out
• re-mount toilet seat
• re-attach several bulkhead panels removed for wiring
• assemble cockpit table
• bring and blowup dinghy
• dinghy motor
• provision for the weekend

Feeling a little less overwhelmed!

Mast UP!

 

Sails ON!

Working wind instrument!!!

CS34 NAVPOD

Got the NAVPOD mounted properly on the binnacle guard, and the instruments mounted and hooked up.

Getting depth/speed/temp/wind data displayed on all units. 

View from front

View standing at helm

Still have to properly run the Seatalk NG backbone to the Nav station; may need a LONGER cable.

Still have to hooking the VHF to talk to the E7 Chartplotter to exchange GPS info and AIS targets.

Still have to figure out where to mount the remote RAM mike (its inside the NAVPAD now).

CS34 Cable Splice

Took the cable out of the mast for the wind transducer (ran a tracer line).

Cut out the damaged cable, and spliced the cable together with solder and shrink wrap

After soldering, but before shrink wrap

After shrink wrap

Of course I had to do it a second time because I got overzealous with the heat gun, and burned through the insulation on the conductors!

This is where I should have been SIX WEEKS AGO!!!

C22 Great Photo

Got this photo of Still Time from the archives of the Newcastle Yacht Club website:

This photo was taken at the sailpast in June 2010.  In the background you can see the condos where Rita used to live.  I can remember that day because it was blowing 20+ knots, and I was out single handed with a reefed main and storm jib.

CS34 Pinched Wind Transducer Cable

Took my mast down yesterday, today I took a photo of the cable that was squashed between the mast and the mast step:

F%&# !!!

The severed red cable supplies power to the masthead.

D'OH!

Nothing that a little bit of splicing, soldering, and shrink wrapping won't fix.

Interesting that you can see the backside of the rivets for the rigid vang attachment to the mast.

Also going to wash/wax the mast, put in the lazy jack lines, and flag halyard before putting up the mast.

C22 Whitby Race Night

Got down to the club at 4pm to get my mast down on the big boat.  Colin helped me bring the boat over and Ross helped with the crane and rigging. I am still not completely comfortable with the crane, so thanks for your help Ross! Got the mast down and found that YES INDEED I had pinched the cable for the wind transducer between the mast and mast step.  Left the mast down to work on another day and headed over to little Still Time.

John and Melissa were already rigging the boat.

Headed out with full main and light #1, winds were forecast for 5 knots from the SE. 

No waves out there, course was set at 7M, four boats in our division.

We had a bad start, which I can attribute to the flakey kitchen timer I have.  We were about 2 minutes late crossing the start line.  I had left my sailing watch with timer at the house.

Winds were dying and the race committee shortened the race to 7S.

We were the 3rd to cross the line about a minute behind the Viking and seconds behind the Shark.
On corrected time, we took first, so that is 4 firsts to win series one!

http://wyc.ca/index.php/results/410-series-1

Melissa is learning more and more everytime out.

Trip Odometer: 9.49 miles
Moving Average: 4.3 knots
Moving Time: 02:11:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130612.kmz

CS34 Electric Head Water Usage

I had a small leak on the new Jabco Lite Flush electric toilet.  Not big, but maybe a 1/4 cup of water every time you used it.  I could not see where the leak was, so I had to take bowl off to see the inner workings.

Turns out it was leaking at the main raw water intake hose into the insides of the unit.  The old hoses are hard and compressed and were not sealing well, so I cut 3/4" off and re-connected.  Leak solved.  Still going to replace the small stainless pipe clamps with larger ones and double up on them.

I was worried about how much water the unit uses.  I read in the manual that is uses 1.2 litres per flush.   Didn't really register until I was troubleshooting and discharging the inlet pump into a bucket:

That's very little water to use; plus the chunks of chocolate thunder/toilet paper get ground up on the way to the holding tank!

CS34 LED Interior Light

When I was at Port Whitby Marine a couple of weeks ago, I picked up an LED wedge bulb for the interior lights in the big boat.

The bulb cost $6, and is rated at 25 milliamps (0.025 amps).  The incandescent it replaced uses 1.5 amps, confirmed using the battery monitor.  That's 98% less electricity from the battery bank!

Incandescent left
LED right

It is NOT very bright, and has a different colour:

I like it because it is very dim and just throws off enough light to see at night without destroying night vision.  The fixtures on the boat have two switches: one controls the middle bulb, the other turns on the outside bulbs in unison.  I will probably leave this one LED on all the time (even when sleeping), as it doesn't even register on the battery monitor.  No more getting on the boat in the dark, or stumbling to goto the bathroom at night.

C22 Whitby Centennial Bowl

Sunday medium distance race to the Ajax weather buoy and back.  Winds were light 4-5 knots from the SW, no waves, full racing main and light #1, singlehanded.  We had 14 boats on the line.

Kept with most boats, tacking towards the mark, keeping my VMG above over 3 knots with 5 knots of boat speed.  Winds lightened as I got closer to the mark and lightened further on the downwind leg back.  Kept my boat speed over 2 knots most of the time wing on wing.  I did try to reach to get closer to shore, but found I could not maintain boat speed.

Ajax weather buoy
Time on photo 1:09pm

Finished at 3:30pm with 3 knots of boat speed.

Trip Odometer: 19.2 miles
Moving Average: 3.5 knots
Moving Time 05:26:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130609.kmz

Whitby Sail Past on Mad Hatter

Whitby had its blessing of the fleet and sailpast.

Vice Commodore John Berry ask me to crew on his Hatterass 38 powerboat, as he was hosting the mayor and several councilors.  The dignitaries didn't show, so we went out. 

Fourty Three boats participated in the sailpast; what an awesome sight!

Trip Odometer: 6.62 miles
Moving Avg: 5.2 knots
Moving Time: 01:15:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130608.kmz

Santeria in Newcastle

Only two boats out for Whitby single handed, so decided to skip the series.

Went out to Newcastle to sail on Santeria.  They had been getting several boats out for races, but everyone chickened out with the weather.  Nasty rain, strong east wind 20 knots with gusts in the 30s.

Neil, Peter, and I put our foulies on and headed out for a heavy air sail on Santeria using a double reef and #3 jib.  We went a couple miles out in the lake at 6+ knots the entire time in complete control.  After tacking back, we were surfing waves with 10+ knots of boat speed! 

Because of the waves coming in the channel, we couldn't deploy the outboard motor without submerging it, so we dropped the jib just outside of the harbour, and sailed into the channel under the double reefed main.  Once in the harbour, we deployed and started the motor, and dropped the main.

I love sailing with Neil and Peter!

Trip Odometer: 4.73 miles
Moving Average: 6.3 knots
Maximum Speed: 10.6 knots
Moving Time: 00:44:57

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130606.kmz

GOPRO mounted on the stern rail, video to come!

C22 Whitby Race Night with Daughter

My daughter Melissa came out the first time to race night. 

Winds were light 6-8 knots from the East no waves, PERFECT intro to sail racing. 
Full racing main and light #1.
Course was set as 7M.

We had 3 boats in our fleet, we were behind the Viking, but in front of the Shark, our competition sailed the wrong course.  This year they shortened the courses for division one.  We took the gun for first across the line in our division.  Even if the others sailed the proper course, we probably would have taken them on corrected time.

Walter Pingle snapped a shot with Melissa on the helm on the way back in

I don't get to see this too often; the sails look great!
Click for a LARGER version

It was a fun night.

Trip Odometer: 11.70 miles
Moving Average: 4.2 knots
Max Speed: 6.4 knots
Moving Time: 02:46:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130605.kmz

CS34 Garhaurer Rigid Vang

Got the rest of the 1/4" stainless rivets to complete mounting the bracket to the mast.  The other end at the boom attached nicely to the existing rope vang tang.  Ran the line back to the cockpit.

Really like how the boom is held way above the dodger/bimini.  The topping lift is no longer required, but I will leave it in there for safety.  The one problem is that I don't have a rope clutch on the port side for BOTH the vang AND topping lift.  I think the topping lift will only be used when the boat is at rest.

The old rope vang was NOT run back to the cockpit.  Neither was the topping lift for that matter, making reefing difficult.

CS34 Rivet Rigid Vang

Decided to rivet the new Garhaurer Rigid Vang to the mast.

I used a large 8" pipe clamp to hold the bracket on the mast

Drilled two 1/4" holes to accept the rivets

Dave Sandford lent me a 1/4" rivet gun making easy work of setting the stainless rivets.

Piece of cake; until I broke my drill bit on the next holes.

Will finish up tomorrow.

2013 Susan Hood Race on Coug

Got down to CBYC a little before 3pm. Mike, Kris, Jenn, and I left the dock to deliver Coug to PCYC for the 2013 Susan Hood trophy race.  Coming out of the channel, we hit a rock HARD at about 3 knots, but got off no problem, moving yet more silt down the channel.

UPDATE: after haulout here is the damage to her keel:


Wind was on the nose to Toronto Island, so we just motored along at just under 6 knots.  After making the turn to PCYC, we hoisted the sails and a close reach at 7.5 knots. 

Sailing to Port Credit


When docking on the wall at PCYC, the transmission made an AWFUL sound when going into reverse; no more forward or reverse gears.  We got docked safely, got registered, had some dinner, and sailed off the dock to the start.  Without a transmission, we couldn't lock the folding prop so that it would close.  Nothing that set of vice grips on the prop shaft couldn't solve: CLASSIC COUG!

We had a great start, and sailed the rum line to Burlington with a 10 knot SW wind. 

About half way there, the Carson noticed the bungee chord holding the man over board pole was completely done.  We went to replace it, and lost the pole overboard.  We had to go back and get it, as if we won a flag, we probably would be inspected by the safety committee.  Without a man overboard pole, we would have been disqualified.  It didn't cost us too much time.  We joked that we were going so well that we could afford to do a man overboard drill DURING the race!

After rounding the Burlington Mark, the wind had shifted to the south meaning we couldn't fly spinnaker towards Niagara.  Winds picked up and swung further to the west, so we dropped the #1 and flew the spinnaker.  WOW 8.5 knots constant with surges to 9.2!  Wind had AGAIN swung to the south, so back to the #1.

About two miles from the Niagara Mark, we sailed into a wind hole with three other boats.  No boat speed for about 45 minutes.  It was frustrating because we saw dozens of boats pass us about a half mile south of us with PLENTY of wind.

After the Niagara mark, #1 back toward Port Credit.  Wind was just forward of the beam; we decided to try a spinnaker,   When we hoisted, we discovered we had blew an entire panel out of our best spinnaker last night.  Hoisting another spinnaker we found that it wasn't any faster and difficult to fly.

About 8 miles out, winds were dying, so we hoisted a spinnaker and headed up west of the finish following a wind line.  We followed pockets of wind getting our boat speed between 3 and 5  knots, while most of the fleet were dead in the water about a mile east of us.

We kept our speed on apparent wind until 1.6 miles from the finish. With little to no boat speed and it took us another 2 1/2 hours to finish!  There was a cluster of about 50 boat about 1/2 mile behind us that we all gave time to because of our lower handicap.  This wind hole at PCYC really compressed the fleet.

We sailed into a slip on the outer pier and arranged to leave Coug there for the week.

We ended up 4th of 6 boats in our class, 64th of 67 boats in the fleet.  Our sailing performance was excellent, but being stationary for over 3 hours meant most of the other boats beat us on corrected time.

Tired, sore, beat up, but happy; another big boat experience on Coug.

Thanks Michael, Kris, Carson, Jenn, Leon, Mark, and Chuck!

UPDATE: The problem wasn't the transmission but the prop shaft flange that connects the prop shaft to the V drive had lost 5 of 6 bolts and the final bolt had sheared off leaving us without propulsion!

Trip Odometer: 98.8 miles
Moving Average: 6.1 knots
Moving Time: 16:05:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130601.kmz

CS34 Ron Sexsmith

Went to see Ron Sexsmith at the Class Act dinner theatre in Whitby

Before the show we took photos of Still Time to Ron's wife Colleen at the merchandise booth, asking if we could get them signed.  She said no problem.

The show was great; just Ron and his guitar and maybe 200 fans.

For the encore, he came out and said that a couple came to talk to his wife and had pictures of their boat that they named Still Time, and played the song for us.

It was very special.