CS34 Whitby to Toronto Hydroplane and Sailing Club

After getting the refrigeration working on big Still Time, Colin and Ben from the club left the club a little after 5pm.  I am taking Still Time to the Toronto Hydroplane and Sailing Club (THSC) to use as a home base for the LYRA regatta on ACE at Ashbridges Bay Yacht Club (ABYC).  THSC is right beside ABYC.

Rita is going to join me on the weekend, and we are going to enjoy the holiday Monday in Toronto Harbour.

Winds were nothing when we started out, so we didn't bother with the sails and motored along at around 7 knots.  After about an hour the winds started to build to about 20 knots, but ON THE NOSE.  We motored the entire way.

Colin (left) and Ben

As we got close to ABYC,   I radioed THSC on the VHF, and they told us to take a slip on the end of C dock, and they would have no problem accommodating us for the weekend.  We will see the officer of the day tomorrow afternoon about moving to a slip.

Mission accomplished.  I was concerned about getting a slip.

We registered at THSC and wandered over the ABYC to show the boys ACE.

I sent them in a cab to the GO Train to get home.

Thanks guys!

Trip Odometer: 21.25 miles
Moving Average: 5.4 knots
Moving Time: 3:58:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140731.kmz

View in the morning

CS34 Refrigeration

Spent all day on the boat with Wenzel from the club installing the new compressor/condenser/control unit in big Still Time.

Had to make several trips to Princess Auto to get various electrical stuff.

Go the new unit hooked up and charged, and it got the fridge down to 4 degrees celcius in about 20 minutes, only drawing 3 amps of power.  Much better than the old unit.

We went to hookup the thermostat, and found it didn't work.  We troubleshooted for a while and determined that BOTH conductors in the thermostat wire had an open circuit.  We must have damaged the wire when removing the old unit.  I got a piece of Cat5 cable and strung it through.

Working Great!

Old Unit

Wenzel in the locker

New unit before installation

Compressor manufactured in Germany.  Rest made in Burnaby BC!

The Modern Man/Sailor

CS34 Refrigeration

After coming back from Europe, we discovered that our fridge/freezer was not working.  We came back to a smelly fridge of rotten food!

The fridge worked this year, but the freezer part never got cold enough to keep food frozen or make ice cubes.

I got Wenzel from the club who has his refrigeration license and has installed many a units on boats in the club.

Turns out our unit is an old R12 refrigerant system that has not been sold since 1996.  It is illegal to service them because the refrigerant is bad for the ozone.  The controller unit is fried, but can be replaced for about $400, but chances are it is fried because the compressor is on its last legs.

The unit is probably original on the 1990 boat.

So, we are replacing the compressor/condenser/control unit with a new unit.

So what does B.O.A.T. stand for?

BRING
OUT
ANOTHER
THOUSAND

On the plus side, the new unit will keep the fridge colder and use less power!

C22 Whitby Mayor's Cup

Whitby Major's Cup is a fun pursuit race.  I really like this race because boats start in the order of their handicap.  Still Time being the smallest boat in the fleet start first, while the largest and fastest boat in the fleet started an hour after us.  Theoretically, we should all finish at the same time.

The course was set as a 12 mile course to Frenchman's Bay an back.

Winds were forecast to be between 5 and 10 knots from the west.
Full racing main and #1; we entered the spinnaker class.

John brought his son Bennett out for the day.

A couple on minute before our start, we sailed past the start line doing 5 knots, and turned around after a minute, only to be enveloped by a wind hole.  It took us 3 minutes to get back.  Hate starting races, especially pursuit races late!  Oh Well.

Winds were enough to get the boat going between 5 and 6 knots close hauled toward Frenchman's Bay. They started to lighten after half an hour, then we got a 90 degree wind shift and sat there parked for another half a hour.  We watched in horror as the fleet was decending on us.  The little bit of wind was not enough to overcome the wave action.  We determined that the wind was there but 40ft in the air!  Still Time's mast is 25ft in the air.

We got to the Frenchman's turning mark with only one boat behind us.  We hoisted the spinnaker and had a good run back to the finish.  At the finish the wind completely died; we watched a feather in the water for about half an hour as we bobbed around.  We decided to withdrawl, as it could have taken another 2 hours to complete the last quarter mile!

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140727.kmz

Whitby Habour Days

Whitby Harbour hosted its annual Harbour Days.

We had water shuttles bringing folks from the club and the public back and forth between the Club and the marina.

We did a dragonboat race against the Port Whitby Marina:

Thanks Paul Becker for the photo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBV3hyqTC8M

Also saw this Amphibious Car go down our launch ramp:

http://youtu.be/sXWKbljkc8s


Fun was had by all!

C22 Whitby Race Night

First time on the boat for me in THREE weeks!

John/Chris/Melissa said they learned a lot about the boat by figuring things out themselves instead of me doing it or showing them how to.

At the dock the NNW winds were registering a constant 13 knots with gusts in the 20s.  We rigged up the old main with a reef and the #3.

Melissa, John, and I headed out to mark 9 and the course was set to 1 LONG.

Perfect amount of sail, got the boat moving between 5 and 6 knots most of the time.

Good start, but were in a lot of boats wind shadow, so at the first opportunity, we tacked away.  Upwind and reaching, we had enough sail, but lacked enough for the downwind leg(s).  Nearing the start of the last leg, the Sharks had already finished and the winds were lightening, so we shook the reef out of the main and swapped the #3 for the #2.  This was a bit of a mess as I didn't attach the sheets well enough and we lost control of the #2 after dropping the #3.

We finished last in our class of 5 boats, but came in fourth in corrected time.
The top three got finished before the wind died.

Daughter Melissa and me on the downwind leg

Great night on the water!

Trip Odometer: 12.10 miles
Moving Average: 4.5 knots
Moving Time: 02:40:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140723.kmz

CS34 Dinner with the Pingles

Went out for an afternoon sail with Walter and Colleen Pingle on big Still Time.

We sailed out into the lake about 4 miles and headed back.  Winds were about 15 knots near the beam with a reefed main and full genoa.

Walter at the helm

We anchored in the harbour and BBQed a wonderful dinner.

Sorry no GPS track.

Macintosh Summer Tour 2014

This picture was taken by our host Fred on a hill overlooking the ocean on Saint Pierre.

Click for a larger version

Left to Right

• Greg
• Durk
• Kevin
• Kris
• Bart
• Michael

MacIntosh in Saint Pierre

Our host in Saint Pierre Dalphine took this photo with her phone:

 

MacIntosh in the FOG

Back from ocean racing on MacIntosh.

Couple of photos of us at the finish from a Facebook page:

Will post a full story later.

MacIntosh RHSP Start

RHSP stands for Route Halifax Saint-Pierre.

Had breakfast at the club, did a provision trips to Costco, Canadian Tire, Binnacle, Princess Auto, and others.

We had a lot to do on the boat

• organize below
• tape anchor locker
• rig reef lines
• fix port nav light
• replace leaking propane regulator
• organize ditch bag
• install man overboard pole
• install 2nd life ring
• rig jack lines
• get waypoints into the GPS and chart plotter
• install 12v lighter socket to charge phones etc

We duct taped the anchor locker shut to prevent major water ingress into the anchor locker.  The drains drain slowly, so we didn't want several hundred pounds of water in the bow in a heavy sea.

MacIntosh Chester to Halifax

Four guys from Toronto got on a Westjet 6:50am flight to Halifax.

• Me
• Michael
• Kris
• Kevin

We arrived at 9:30am Halifax time, and Durk's wife Linda was there to pick us up and take us to Chester.

We met Durk and Greg at the dock:

MacIntosh is usually on a mooring ball, but with hurricane Aurthur coming through just two days before, Durk has moved her to the wall at the Marina.

A Nonsuch 26 and J/120 on mooring balls didn't fair so well, and went up on the rocks:

We went into town to provision the boat with groceries and more importantly beer.  Much of the town was still without power after hurricane Aurthur.

Leaving South Shore Marina

Hoisting the brand new #3

Nice Sail

Smoking along at 8.5 knots with the 20 knots of wind on the beam

We passed Durk and Linda's waterfront home in Blandford NS

We also passed Peggys Cove.

Coming into RNSYS

View of clubhouse

MacIntosh in her slip

Trip Odometer: 47.35 miles

Moving Average: 7.5 knots

Moving Time: 06:17:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140706.kmz

C22 Whitby Race Night

Bart is on vacation in Paris so it was me (his daughter, Melissa), John and Chris on Still Time.

No Tanker Jones tonight so Bezerk called the start. The start line was between the 9 and 1 marks. We were to record our own time. Only a few knots of wind from the West that was very sporadic throughout the night. Course was a 3 short.

We were a bit slow on the start so were about 3-4 minutes behind. We then missed the 9 mark and had to tack back and re-start (not very much wind at the beginning of the race). The Sharks got quite the head start on us. Those Sharks are really good when there's little wind!

At mark 3 we were cutting it VERY CLOSE to the mark, and didn't want to miss ANOTHER ONE! So John stripped down and jumped in the lake, grabbed a line in his teeth and pulled us around mark 3 using his raw strength. It was really close, in fact we did end up grazing the buoy a bit, so we had to do a 360. This waslLucky for John, because we definitely wouldn't have stopped to pick him back up otherwise.

When we approached mark 5 the Sharks were rounding mark 7. Those Sharks are really good in the wind! 

After we rounded mark 5, things took a stern for the worse. A GIANT salmon jumped right into our boat! He proceeded to drink all of our Maclays and brought new meaning to drinking like a fish. Of course, this wasn't our biggest problem, because as we all know, the Loch Ontario Monster feeds on salmon. 

We noticed the current start to shift and the waves get bigger when we realized that the great sea monster was circling our boat, with a taste for beer-braised salmon. The boat started rocking so hard and somehow all three of us smacked our heads together, rendering us unconscious. I can only assume there were cartoon stars floating around our heads.

When we came to, we don't know how, but we had gotten all the way to the New York coast and PIRATES had boarded our vessel! We explained to them the utmost importance of the WYC Wednesday Race nights and how we didn't want to let the Fleet Captain down. I'm not going to say what Chris had to sacrifice*, 'cause this is a PG blog, but we were able to convince them to tow us back to mark 7 so we could finish with the rest of the fleet. GREAT wind at this point and we were able to get back very quickly!

We ended up crossing the finish line at 43 minutes and 44 seconds, about 15 minutes behind the Sharks. Those Sharks really know how to race a tight course!

Overall, great night on the water!

*Let's just say Pirates really like booty.