1990 Canadian Sailcraft CS34 Shoal Draft
Sail #8268

1982 Catalina 22 Fin Keel
Sail #10506

1994 MUMM 36 ACE
Sail # 29206

Monday, August 19, 2013

CS34 Cruise Summary

Our annual cruise was a lot of fun.

Almost 400 nautical miles travelled!

14 days on the water
8 days in the states

All our stays in the states were at Yacht Clubs:

Oak Orchard $20 for two nights
Rochester $34 for two nights
Sodus Bay $25 for two nights (free pumpout)
Fair Haven $20 for two nights

Travelling with a group to new places was a good idea.
Rita and I would now be confident going into these ports no problem.

The day trip to Rochester was fun!

On the Canadian side, we stayed more in marinas as the Yacht Clubs were either full (CORK regatta), or not convenient to our schedule.

Waupoos $62 for one night
Kingston $76 for one night
Trenton $51 for one night ($20 for a pump out)
Cobourg $57 for one night

We anchored twice in Prinyer's Cove and Sandy Cove. We would have anchored more if we had more time to go further east in the 1000 Islands.

We used approximately $80 in diesel.

The boat performed flawlessly.
We had the right amount of food.
The fridge and freezer worked great.
The dingy and motor were convenient and fun!

Having a US phone number and data plan was awesome.  We could and did call/text/email whenever we wanted.  The data was great for checking weather and such.  However, cell coverage was somewhat spotty on the south shore.

We had a lot of wind to sail with.  In previous years, there wasn't much wind or on the nose so we did a LOT of motoring.  I was great getting all the sail time in.

The Stack Pack is AMAZING!  I don't hesitate to hoist the main sail anymore because it is so easy to drop and put away.  Looks great too.

I am getting really comfortable with sailing the big boat in various conditions.
The mainsail double reefing system is wonderful and was used a LOT.
The 135% foam luff genoa is excellent and reefs well.

Rita and I are now very comfortable docking and anchoring the boat.  It is amazing how much difference a year makes with a new bigger boat!

The dog is getting used to the noises of the engine, sails, and rigging (except when there is lots of wind and waves).  As the wind piped up, the dog would freak, and Rita would be tending to him, meaning I was single handing when I probably shouldn't have been.

Improvements for the boat

Instrument display on the bulkhead. 
Working the jib sheets, you have to look back behind the wheel to see the wind speed and direction and depth/speed/heading information.

Updated autohelm.
The existing autohelm is probably original with boat (23 years old).  There were many times in wind and waves that the unit would lose it mind and not hold a course.  A puff of wind would knock the boat 20 degrees off course and the unit would not correct for it.  You could not rely on the unit in more that 10 knots of breeze.  Will probably go with a below deck model.  Plus, an updated unit can steer to the wind and to a course from the chart plotter.  Will also give heading information to the other instrument displays.

Remote RAM mike for the cockpit. 
I have one, I have it wired to the NAVPOD, but never mounted it because I ran out of time, and I wanted to be sure it would not be in the way.  We had the handheld VHF, but its range was limited, and it seems to get interference from the devices in the NAVPOD.  It was really annoying getting DSC/weather alerts on the radio down below, and have to run down to acknowledge them to silence the beeping!  Seemed to happen at the most inappropriate times!

Downwind Sail
There were a couple of times when the wind was light at our backs, and poling out a jib is a pain and not very fast.  An asymmetric cruising spinnaker with a dousing sock would make these passages easier, faster, and more interesting without motoring.

Genoa Tell Tales
The existing tell tales are old and some are missing.
Also need to add more as if you furl in to reef, you no longer have tell tells for sail trim.

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