CS34 Bottom Paint

Easter long weekend, and the weather was beautiful: sunny and 10 degrees with just a little bit of wind, PERFECT for doing the bottom on big Still Time.

Based on past experience, if you get a window early in the spring, paint your bottom, but it could turn cold (like it has in the first week of April), but worst, the knat flies come out as it get warmer and make painting the bottom VERY unpleasant.

We undid the strings for the cover that go around the hull.
The cover then hung vertically, allowing us to mask the waterline and start painting.

Rita painting the stern

We realized that when I pressure washed the hull in the fall, I had missed a large section on the port side; I seem to remember I was doing it at dusk.  Had to get a buck of warm water from the clubhouse to clean these areas (the outdoor water is not on yet). Once the areas dried, the two of us got her done

Took a couple of hours.

The aluminum thing hanging at an angle from the cradle is the boom.

CS34 Main Sail Battens

Been a while since I posted, but been busy.

The main on the CS34 has always had problems with the battens.

The battens are round pieces of fiberglass rod that are pushed in from the luff on the main and held in place with the standard velcro batten pockets.  The rod would push through the velcro, or slip beside it.  Every year in the past four years I have had the boat, the battens were poking out whenever we were cruising with any kind of wind.  The way the pockets supported the battens was bad, and the battens would drift away from the slides and rub on the mast.

I got Durk Stegeinga from Performance Sails in Nova Scotia to order and install round batten luff receivers:

This will solve the batten problems.

YYZ to SRQ

Rita and I extended our trip to sail in the British Virgin Island with Walter and Colleen Pingle to fly into Sarasota (SRQ) a couple of days early to visit our friends Frank and Trish Smith in St Petes.

Packing the night before

We flew out of Toronto YYZ taking a limo from the house in Bowmanville at 5:15am.  This left plenty of time for the 8:05 flight.  Good thing, as it took us over 2 hours to get though the customs lines at the airport!  We landed in Sarasota SRQ at 11:06am.

We took a rental car and toured along the inter-coastal waterway through Lido Key, Longboat Key, Bradenton Beach, and the village of Cortez

We stopped at the Sea Hagg nautical shop in Cortez

Man we are such tourists!

We stopped at the Bradenton Pier in Cortez for some lunch:

Blackened Mahi Mahi and sea scallops; YUMM.

Alas it was time to head over the Sunshine bridge to St Petes:

We met Frank and Trish (and their dog Fang) at their condo on Isla Del Sol

We went for a short drive to St Pete Beach and had a drink on the rooftop patio http://www.thehurricane.com as the sun went down.

We had a great dinner at the Isla Del Sol Yacht Club.

What a great day!

Afternoon Sail in Sidney BC

Rita's brother in law Hans and I went out for an afternoon sail on their 1995 Beneteau First 375.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon with winds 10-15 knots.

After a short trip to the beer store, we left the Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club.

We got the boat going between 4 and 5 kntos with full main and 135% genoa.

Coming back from the weekend's "Round the County" race was Westerly a Santa Cruz 70 with a four spreader mast:

We also saw an Olson 30 coming in; BOTH were motoring.

In the distance, we saw a car carrier coming at us at 20 knots:

Winds were picking up to 20+ knots, we could have put a reef in but I twisted the main to spill air off the top to keep the boat in its feet.  We got the boat going between 7 and 8 knots.

Hans' Shaddow Rose has a nice setup for the round battens:

I have the same battens on Still Time, and they have been giving me troubles every year.  Durk from Nova Scotia was going to replace these round battens with traditional flat ones.  I will get him to look at these insead.

The winds died coming into the harbour, so we dropped the main:

A crabbing boat was coming out in the sunshine:

We got the boat away and enjoyed a Black Russian.

Nice setting at high tide:

Trip Odometer: 14.63 miles
Moving Average: 5.0 knots
Max Speed: 7.7 knots
Moving Time: 02:55:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20151109.kmz

Click for larger track

Musgrave Harbour on Saltspring Island

Sunday was the first day we could get on the water.

We were going to go out crab fishing, set some traps out in the morning, and get them in the afternoon.  However, there was a problem with the boiler at the green houses, so Hans couldn't get away.

We headed out in the early afternoon in a small 16 ft power boat with a 90hp motor on the back:

Hans/Debbie friends have purchased a cottage in Musgrave Harbour on Saltspring Island, so we want to goto there to check it out, along with some other ones for sale.

We put the power boat in at a boat launch on an Indian Reserve ($10), and were blasting up the Saanich Inlet at 30 knots.

Musgrave harbour is a private community with their own docks and lots/houses all around.

That's a C&C 40 under the tarp

How kewl would be be to have a cottage facing the harbour:

View from deck of cottage

 ...and have your boat moored in the harbour?

We came upon a group of Sea Lions:

Pride of Sea Lions?

View of condos from cabin

It was a fun excursion.

Trip Odometer 27.97 miles
Moving Average: 20.6 knots
Max Speed: 31.7 knots
Moving Time: 01:21:00

Track:

Click for larger

YYZ to YYJ via YVR and Tsawwassen Ferry

Rita and I booked a week's vacation to visit her sister Debbie and husband Hans in Victoria BC.

We always book flights directly to Victoria (YYJ) because it is a LOT easier than connecting flights from Vancouver.  There is one flight leaving Toronto at 8pm, arriving in Victoria at 10:30pm BC time.   There is one flight returning at 6:30am, landing in Toronto at 2pm.

We got to Toronto Pearson (YYZ) two and half hours before our flight, and decided to have dinner at the Keg right near the airport, leaving the Keg at 6:30 to catch the flight.  Don't want to get in the details, but we missed our flight.  We had to re-book on a red eye to Vancouver (YVR) arriving at 5am Toronto time.

We took a cab to a hotel near the Tsawwassen Ferry.

The hotel was clean and relatively cheap at $135, and was a short cab ride to get on the 9:00am ferry.

Boarding the BC Ferry "Coastal Celebration"

"Pride of British Columbia" going the other way

$16 each for the ferry ride.

Actually, it was fun ride!  Next time we go, we will fly into Vanvouver, and do some exploring and visit my cousin Annika.  There are TONS of flights to Vancouver, and lots of seat sales.

Active Pass

Going through Active Pass in a sailboat can be a challenge with the tides.

In this picture, you can see the tides pushing against us:

It was kewl going through Active Pass and into the terminal at Schwartz Bay where Hans and Debbie picked us up.

16 HOURS TO GET TO VANCOUVER ISLAND

Trip Odometer: 24.40
Moving Average: 16.3 knots
Max Speed; 20.5 knots
Moving Time: 01:37:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20151104.kmz

Click for bigger

CS34 Frame and Cover

Rita and I are heading the BC next week, so I wanted to get the winter frame and cover on the before we left.  Could not get it done yesterday because of ACE.

Got to the club around 10am, and started getting the frame pieces together.
Took a while because a couple of the connector pieces were broken, and I had to replace them.  The ends of the ribs needed their rubbers replaced so that would not dig into the gelcoat.

Took several hours to get it together.  My neighbour Dave helped me put the back part of the frame up (took about 10 minutes), then I spent another hour getting the rest up.

The canvas cover comes in three sections, so I was able to single handedly  put it on.

Looks pretty good:

Note how the boom and whisker pole are stored on the crale

Mental note: ridge pole too far forward.

Dropped the anchor to the ground because the cover doesn't fit with it

Note the repairs

This year I cut up a pool noodle and duck taped it to the stantions to prevent them poking through the cover in the wind.

The cover is GREAT

Removed the stern perch seats, and removed all the liquid cleaning products to take home (don't want them to freeze).

Drained the hot water heater, installed the winterizing bypass.  Empied the water tanks, and winterized the water system.

Still need to winterize the head and bow deck wash pump.