ACE First Sail

Had a work party to get ACE ready for sailing.

• Me
• Michael Cullen
• Micheal Ahearn
• Jenny
• Peter
• Mark
• Christine
• Brent

We had lots to do:

• attach mainsheet deck block
• rig mainsheet
• install spinnaker topping lift cleat
• tension rig
• fix outhaul purchase
• install reefing line
• remove wind instrument

The wind instrument is not working at all, so I went up the mast in a bosun's chair:

I spent about half an hour at the top of the mast removing the electrical tape and bolts to remove the wind instrument.  I pulled the cable out of the top of the mast with a tracer and lowered it to the deck. When I took the connector apart, sure enough the ground pin had come loose.  Going to replace the entire connector this week.

We spent ALMOST 3 HOURS trying to correct the outhaul purchase.  There are two blocks inside the mast that were not rigged properly and would not allow us to flatten the sail in strong winds.

I had got all the sails from my house delivered to the dock the day before.  As we were loading them into the boat, we had no mainsail:  the racing main is in to Evolution Sails for batten pocket repairs, and the dacron delivery main was at Kris' place in Oakville.  No problem, we got Sumac's main.

It was a LOT smaller, but a good sail.  It was 8ft from full hoist, and the much shorter on the boom (ACE's boom is 16.5ft, while Sumac is 10ft).

We went out with this fractional main, and #2 genoa  With 15+ knots from the south, we got the boat moving upwind at close to 8 knots.  We hoisted one of Razorbill's symmetrical spinnakers and got the boat doing close to 9 knots.

New mainsheet system worked well.

Water temperature was 5 degrees Celcius!

Jenny with a toque

That's me flying the chute

Trip Odometer: 10.97 miles
Avg Speed: 6.0 knots
Max Speed: 10.0 knots
Moving Time: 01:29:00

Google Earth Track: Click Here

Click for bigger

Still Time Work Party

Melissa, John, and I had setup this date over a month ago with our busy schedules.

It was sunny and beautiful 12 degrees Celcius!

We met at EggSmart for some fuel for getting Still Time ready for the water.

I had removed all the external teak and re-finished it this week.

First thing we did was cut the back of the shrinkwrap and rolled it forward.  I am going to try and re-use the shrink wrap and frame next year, as the system worked perfectly this winter.

We labeled the PVC ribs before taking them off; going to store them with the cradle.

Melissa and John donned blue coveralls and lightly sanded the bottom with 220 grit sandpaper.

We masked the waterline, and after a quick rub with a tack cloth, the two of them painted away with VC17:

Did not take long, as I was aboard cleaning out all the stuff on the inside, and attached the rudder and tiller. Took about half an hour.

Next was a wash of the hull, followed by a quick polish using a buffing compound and the Dewalt rotary buffer.  This took a little over half an hour.

Next was a coat of wax and buff with a new wool pad on the buffer.  This was followed by a hand buff with a clean microfiber cloth.  She came out great!

I was lunch time and the bar was open for a Old Flame Red from Port Perry,.

Next we completely emptied the boat, and attached the teak to hold the companionway boards.

Melissa and John cleaned the entire inside of the boat; man it was filthy, but it came out looking great!

We attached the motor, and called it a day.

Things still left to do:

• fiber glass repairs before re-attaching the companionway steak sliders
• fiber glass repair on the companionway hatch
• re-attach teak on companionway hatch
• re-attach the grab rails
• re-finish the inside teak and re-attached
• cleanup excess butyl tape on bow
• install bilge pump
• have aluminum cover made to cover the bilge opening

Still have some work to do on the mast

• install spinnaker pole topping lift block mast exit block
• install double mast exit blocks
• change angle of the wind instrument
• shorten the wind instrument cable
• fix stripped screw where the spreaders attach
• also thinking of replacing the halyards as they are 8 years old
• fix instrument drop board
• check water levels in the battery

At any rate she is ready for the water on the first of May.

Then an Old Flame blonde was calling us from the clubhouse.