CS34 Prepping for Haulout

Still Time gets hauled out next Sun, Oct 25.

I was hoping to get another sail or two in, but...

• Over the weekend it was blowing 25-30 knots
• Mon was cold and rainy
• Wed/Thu cold and windy with much rain

That left today sunny warm, north wind 6-10 knots.
Should have gone out for a sail, but we had lots to do.

You don't want to be taking the sails down wet, or in a ton of wind.

So today was perfect.

We got down to the club in late morning.
Rita started taking the canvas off:

With all the rain we have had, the mainsail in the stack pack holds much water, so we hoisted the main shaking the reef out from the last sail:

Wind was on the beam so we had to sheet the main way out.

Also unfurled the jib:

We let them dry in the wind for maybe half a hour, while Rita continue on the canvas, and I took the stack pack and lazy jacks off.  Also pulled all the lines forward to the mast, and loosened all the turnbuckles on the shrouds and backstay.

Dropped the jib to the deck:

...and flaked it on the dock.

Then onto the main:

Took the battens out as we dropped it, then flaked it on the dock.

The loose footed main is lashed to the boom slug:

Going to get this fixed in the off season.

We took most of the cushions off the boat.

We motored over to the pump out dock.

Did a quick final pumpout, and removed the boom, storing it on land.

Mast came down in probably 15 minutes:

Helped a bunch of other boats take their mast down including long time sailing/hockey buddy John's brother Mike who is wintering his CS30 called Black Magic at WYC this year.

Spent some time cleaning up Still Time's mast on the lawn.  Will move to the mast racks maybe on the weekend.

Getting out of Still Time's slip was a challenge with the water levels.
Depth sounder said I had 5ft of water at the slip (Still Time draws 4.5ft).
Had to plow through the mud to get out of the slip.

Keel tracks on the bottom.
The rudder was clear of the bottom.

Other than removing the rear bimini frame and the outboard, Still Time is ready for haulout.

CS34 Day Sail with Walter

Walter is having Swans store his dingy indoors, so I jumped in the dingy and drove it across the harbour to meet Walter on the other side.

From the dingy left to right: The Beckoning, big Still Time, little Still Time:

Of course I went for toot around the harbour:

We drove back to the club and went out for sail leaving the dock at around 11:30am.

Winds were forecast for 9-12 knots from the SW, so we hoisted a full main in the harbour and unfurled the jib in the channel going out.

Boat was heeled over pretty good and our boat speed was just over 5 knots.

After some sandwiches, we put a reef in the main:

Boat sped up to over 6 knots on a close reach 45 degrees off the wind.

We went 5 miles out in the lake and turned around to come back.
Waves were building, and it was getting lumpy out there.

Sailing back in the channel:

Walter steered while I dropped the main:

What a great fall sail!

Trip Odometer: 11.8 miles
Avg Speed:4.6 knots
Max Speed: 9.3 knots
Moving Time: 02:25

C22 Stuck Still Time

In August, I had moved little Still Time to a slip near the start of our dock.
Made it much easier to raise the mast, load the sails, and give her a good cleaning.

The intension was to re-finish the bright work and get her on the market.
However, life got in the way, and here is where she stayed.

In September the water level had dropped almost 2ft, and she was HARD on the bottom.
Stepping on the boat, it didn't move!

The motor would not budge her off the bottom.

Tuesday after the Canadian Thanksgiving, it was sunny and warm, so Walter came down with his dingy with a 25 on the back, and with the help of dockmates Colin and Suzanne, we endeavored to get her moved.

We tried pulling it backwards, no go.
We tried no weight on her, no go.
We tried to heel her over with two guys on the rail, no go.

We ran a line to the shore and turned her around in the slip.
The keel is angled backwards, so we thought it would work better pulling from the bow.

However, the depth sounder on Walter's dingy was saying we had to pull her over a hump with 2 1/2 ft depth (Still Time drafts 3 1/2 ft).

We towed her around and attached a line to another finger and winched the boat close.

Meanwhile the dingy pulled the bow almost sideways:

After about 2 hours of pulling, we were able to drag the boat sideways a couple of inches at a time and get her into the deeper waters floating freely.

Here you can see how the keel dragged sideway across the bottom.

Trench going out out the slip:

Here you can see how the keel was rocking back and forth in the slip:

The white is a piece of plastic that was in the water.

Thanks for all your help guys!

CS34 Thanksgiving Sail

 Got down to the club mid afternoon.  Cockpit was FULL on dead bugs, had to hose it down.

We got underway at little after 3pm.

Winds were forecasted for 6-8 knots from the SE.

Went out into the lake on a close reach (45 degrees apparent) heading due south in 6 knots of breeze with almost 5 knots of boat speed.  

The wind was blowing all night from the north, so the sea was flat.

We bore away to a beam reach and our speed picking up to over 6 knots.

Very comfortable sailing!

About 3 miles out in the lake, we tacked towards Oshawa.

We tacked again before Oshawa when we got into less than 10ft of water.  After going out a bit, it was SPINNAKER TIME.

Got  the boat going 3 knots in 6 knots of breeze.
AWA 140 (as deep as we could carry in this breeze).

What a great downwind light air sail!

Time to douse as we got past Thickson's Point.

Started the motor and headed back into the harbour.

Sun gleaming on the main:

Got back to the dock at little after 6pm

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Trip Odometer: 13.1 miles

Avg Speed: 3.7 knots
Max Speed: 7.2 knots
Moving Time: 03:32

C22 Dismasting

Got down to the club at 10am to help Walter take the mast down on The Beckoning.

Walter and mutual friend Paul took off the forward/aft lowers before we headed over to the mast crane.

I went up the mast in a bosuns chair to run the lifting line.

Very easy with the mast crane.
Didn't bother with a safety line, as I was only going to the first spreader, and was hugging the mast the entire time.

Walter has never taken the mast down on this boat, and the previous owner probably didn't in a while.
The boat was put on the hard with the mast up at Wye Heritage Marina in Midland.

Took a while to get the cotter pins out of the shrouds, forestay, and backstays.
Cotter pins are a PITA, 
Two words Walter: split rings

The turnbuckles were very difficult to back off.

Mast came down without incident.

We spent the next hour tidying up the mast, wrapping the shrouds, and getting some help to get it on the mast rack.  Man it is a heavy mast!

Walter and Paul helped me get the mast down on little Still Time.

You can see the mast on the dock on the land.
Will get it cleaned up and put away another day.

Still Time is stuck in the slip as the water levels have dropped over a foot in the past couple of weeks.
The keel is hard on the bottom.
Going to need some help to get her moved for haulout.

Update, winds were blowing 15-20 knots from the SE today Thanksgiving Sunday, so there was a rise in water level in the harbour:

Could NOT move the boat with the motor.
Tried to do it without me on the boat, but the boat is STUCK.

UH OH

CS34 Lewar Folding Wheel

Opened my email this moring to find that Fogh Marine was having an in store clearance sale:

Over $400 off ! 

Called the store and asked them to hold it for me.
Good thing I called first thing, as they had several people calling in about it.
Rita and I drive to Port Credit to pick it up.
Traffic wasn't too bad.

The existing wheel is 42", so this one is 2" smaller, which isn't a problem.  If I am missing the 1" of leverage from the smaller wheel, I probably have too much sail area up and/or weather helm anyways.

A folding wheel has been on my list of improvements to the boat.

Will make the cockpit easier to navigate at the dock or at anchor.
Just look at the picture in the next post of how the wheel obscures cockpit traffic.

Hide cover OOoooooooooohhhh

Probably won't install it until next spring.

CS34 October Sail with Hans

Brother in law Hans is heading back to BC on Monday, so we decided to got out for another day sail.

Was raining in the morning, so we got down to the boat and left the dock around noon.

Winds were forecast for 8-10 knots from the east, so we shook out the reef in the main in the harbour, and unfurled the jib even before the lighthouse at the end of the channel.

It was cold (10 degree C) so the autopilot did the steering while we took shelter behind the dodger.

On a close reach, we got the boat going between 4 and 5 knots.

We were thinking of heading east to Bowmanville, but with the cold, we decided we didn't want to go downwind and hoist a chute, so we bore away to a beam reach and went 5 miles out into the lake.

Coming back was more a close reach (60 degrees off the wind) with a boat speed over 6 knots.

Easy fast sailing.

Hans looking a little cold coming in the channel before we took the main down:

Could be the last sail of the year.
Haulout is in two weeks: hopefully it warms up a bit to get a couple more in.

Trip Odometer: 11.3 miles

Avg Speed: 4.5 knots
Max Speed: 8.3 knots
Moving Time: 02:30