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With a strong wind out of the East and no rain on Sunday, I figured the conditions would be perfect for a fast run to Eckerd. With 30 knots of wind at the DIYC club house, it would certainly be a great oppurtunity to get Furthur surfing with the spinnaker up. I got Sheehan, Arthur and Julia to come along, and due to our usual timeliness, Furthur wasn't launched until the sun was setting. I am pretty sure I have sailed this boat more at night than during the day. The wind didn't feel like 30 knots, but over 20, so we rigged up the #4 jib and took off. Arthur put four waypoints in the GPS that would take us safely to Eckerd, and the course to the first mark was just a little to high to carry the spinnaker in that much breeze. Instead, we worked up some and made sure all the lines were run correctly for a smooth spinnaker set.
Turning down some for the next mark, we were able to carry the 1.5oz Runner with the #4 up as a staysail until the angle became too deep to keep the jib up. With more water between us and the weather shore, the chop and swell increased until we were surfing nicely. No one was watching the GPS, but I would guess we were hitting 12-13 knots when there were waves to surf. I can't wait to surf some endless Pacific rollers!
We made the trip in just over 3 hours, probably our fastest run. I don't know the mileage, but Arthur and I plan on keeping track of these runs and probably racing against each other for fun along this route. I kept Furthur at the Eckerd waterfront overnight and slept onboard, then left before anyone noticed. Furthur spent the today rafted up with Arthur's boat, but tonight I will anchor her seperately. I have class tomorrow, but plan on sleeping on the boat tonight and borrowing Arthur's dinghy tomorrow to go to class. Here are a few photos of the boats rafted up at the mooring field across from Eckerd.
Rowing from Eckerd with Indian Key and bridge leading to the Skyway in the background
Looking toward Eckerd. Furthur looks so much smaller than the Vital 26 even though she is a foot longer.
After finishing a job at Speed Merchant, I started servicing the old Barient 21 primary winches from Furthur on the work bench, when I noticed the winch pawls were about to fall out of the inside of the winch drum. Over three decades of use, abuse, and probable lack of maintainence, the pawl had worn its socket in the winch drum and the pawl spring was trying to push it out. I asked Brian what he thought about pawls, and when he saw them his reaction was one of horror. The winch was essentially fragged; with any more use the pawl could wear the last bit of the socket holding it in. This would leave only one pawl to hold the entire winch load, and it would inevitably fail as well, leaving the winch useless. Not a good scenario while racing to Hawaii. The other winch was in almost as poor shape, and a replacement drum would be very difficult to find as Barient is no longer a company.
Luckily, Brian had a used set of Harken 32 winches from his J/24 in the trailer. After some discussion and haggling, I bought them from Brian and began tearing them down. Brian said they were only about 5 years old and had been rebuilt every year. He showed me the correct way to rebuild a winch, and using gasoline to dissolve the old winch grease, and each piece was soon clean. The most common mistake in servicing winches is to use too much grease, making them hard to spin when unloaded. The key is to use just enough grease on the bearings and a light oil on the pawls and pawl springs. After watching Brian service the first winch, I did the second one exactly as shown. I initially used too much grease on the bearings and had to wipe some off to make the winch free-spin easily, but other than that the servicing went well and I know the winches inside and out.
The innards of a Harken 32 winch during the test fit
The downside of the new Harkens was they did not have the same bolt mounting pattern as the old Barients. Therefore I had to fill all the holes and re-drill them. Because the Santa Cruz 27 has a Balsa-cored deck, it is crucial that any holes drilled for fasteners be water tight. Even if the fastener is bedded in 4200 (a type of marine sealant), the cured 4200 could eventually tear and allow water into the core. Therefore, it was necessary to go over-kill on the new winch installation.
After using the winch as a template, I drilled the new holes. This is always never-wracking, as you are DRILLING HOLES IN YOUR OWN BOAT, but also fun in a weird way. I then over-sized the new holes to 3/8" (the winch is mounted with 1/4" bolts) and put masking tape under the holes. The reason behind this is to keep water out of the core, you fill the over-size hole with epoxy thickened with filler, then when the epoxy is cured, drill the correct size hole for the fastener in the epoxy/filler plug. The epoxy plug separates the fastener hole and core, keeping the balsa dry and the decks strong.
I did this with Sheehan's help; she loves working with epoxy and fiberglass. I hate it. We even added a step to the epoxy process to further seal the core. First, she injected just epoxy into the holes with a syringe, then sucked it out before it cured. This is because unthickened epoxy will better penetrate and seal the balsa wood. Next, Sheehan filled the holes with thickened epoxy for a stronger plug.
When the epoxy had cured, I drilled the 1/4" holes, and bolted in the Harken 32s. I used some 4200 out of habit, but it may have been unnecessary. The new winches are excellent, they free spin more easily, have a lower 2nd gear ratio for more power, and far more abrasive material on the winch drums. This was a huge issue with the old Barient 21s, even with 4 wraps on the winch the line barely held.
The newly installed Harken winch.
I also got to try out the new soft hanks on the Thursday Night Full Moon Race and they work very well. The jib was no longer at risk of pulling out of the heafoil, sets and douses were fast, and it was easy to control the draft of the sail with halyard tension. The only issue with the soft hanks is they can be hard to get on and off. It will be interesting to see of this gets better or worse with time. It would probably be best to get bronze hanks for the sails we'll be taking on Pacific Cup, but for now the soft hanks are cheap and work.
Soft hanks on the jib and forestay
The wind for the race was very light and we had a bad start in lee of all the big boats. While tacking to get clear air, there was such a massive wind shift that we actually aborted the tack. This put us behind the fleet at the first mark, but we began to catch back up reaching with the spinnaker. Unfortunately, this was the only leg we could fly the kite on and we had a close reach/beat to the finish. There were a few funky wind shifts near the finish that we probably could have played better, but sailing at night without local knowledge makes calling the geographical shift difficult. Arthur did put each DIYC race mark in the GPS before the start, which helped keep us from getting lost during the race. Time in the boat will also help our speed. We corrected out second to last, but nothing broke and everyone had fun so it was a good race.
Here is a brief race synopsis, I will be doing a full write-up of the race soon and hopefully get it published on the Sailing Anarchy home page.
We had a great race onboard the Corsair 28R trimaran Flight Simulator. Conditions were light at the start and our course to the first mark was dead downwind. This forced us to carefully play our VMG angles downwind and gybe on every major puff and wind shift. As night fell, the wind increased and our course to Key West brought the wind angle forward. While the monohulls struggled to carry their spinnakers and were eventually forced to drop them for a Code 0 or Jib-Top, we kept on flying with our Screecher. We finished at 05:39:37 Thursday morning, the second multihull across the line. When all the boats in the multihull division finished, we corrected out to first place in Multihull A division, first place Multihull Overall, and our navigator Richard was awarded the Navigator's Trophy for the Multihull division. It was a great race (but cold), we hit 18 knots, and everyone on the boat had a lot of fun. Here are a few photos from before and after the race; I brought a waterproof film camera for the race. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my film to rewind and was only able to shoot one roll of black and white.
The Screecher (a large jib/Code 0 sail) on its roller furler and tacked to the bow sprint. We raise it only when needed to reduce windage and weight aloft.
Ron packs the spinnaker.
The Head of the Department of the Interior, Richard makes sure everything is stowed low and aft in the main hull.
Getting one of our only instruments, the Tack-Tic compass, mounted.
I got flicked from my Melges 24 ride for Key West Race Week because of weight issues (I would need to weight 105 lbs for the crew to make the maximum class weight). This is a bummer because KWRW is fun event and I would have been sailing with some very good people in a competitive fleet. On the upside, I will have more time to work on Furthur, which is necesary as spring is fast approaching. I plan on towing her back to California during spring break so my Dad can do a professional job of wiring up the electronics.
However, I will still have plenty of opportunities to sail during winter term. On January 2, I did the 50-something mile Egmont Key distance race out of DIYC on the J/109 Mariah, along with Brian and Sheehan. We had some issues during the race and ultimately finished poorly, but it was a nice day on the water and Brian remarked that it was the first time he had finished that race before sunset. It was a good thing too, as the temperature dropped quickly with the sun. I wish I had raced my boat, as the wind and course had plenty of running and reaching with only one upwind beat.
I am also doing the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race on the Corsair 28R trimaran Flight Simulator, owned by Tom Reese. I did this race last year on Richard Stephen's Trevelyn, finishing first in our division and winning the multihull division overall. Richard will be navigating Flight Simulator this year, and I hope we can repeat our performance last year. Sailing lead-free is also so much fun, we rate faster than a Melges 32, but are 4 feet shorter. The Dark Side has good Kool-Aid.
Since mid-November, we have had almost nothing to do at Speed Merchant Serviced, until mid-December. Brian hurt his back and I was leaving to go home for the holidays, so of course the orders started flooding in. The most pressing was a re-rig on a J/29, which had been bought locally by a man from Jamaica and he wanted it fixed up before sailing to Kingston. Unfortunately, Brian and I were both leaving for the holidays, so with the help of Jed, we measured the boat for the new shrouds and made a list off all the parts that would need to be replaced.
While working for Speed Merchant Services has cut into my time to work on and sail my own boat, I am earning money, gaining valuable experience, and have ordered a bunch of new deck hardware to make sailing Furthur easier.
Here are photos of the completed worked with a description of what we did:
The old traveler was the original from the boat's construction and wasn't running smoothly. We replaced it with a new section of Harken track and captive ball-bearing traveler car.
We upgraded the outhaul with new internal blocks and high-tech lines for a purchase of 8:1 over the old 3:1 system. Also, there was no reefing system, so we ran a reef line and installed a cam cleat on the boom.
The vang was only 3:1 and used old blocks, so it was upgraded to 8:1 Harken Mid-Range Bullet and high strength blocks. A boom kicker was added to support the boom without the mainsail up or while reefing.
The old turnbuckles were pitted, which could lead to cracking and failure, so the standing rigging and forestay were replaced. We did this without removing the mast, so I was hoisted to each shroud attachment point and replaced the old shrouds with new ones, section by section. It was a little nerve-wracking at first, but the mast is pretty stout and the load of my weight nothing compared to sailing.
The foreguy was moved forward, its purchase increased to 2:1, and lead to each side of the cockpit.
The checkstay blocks were missing, so new Harken blocks with cams were ordered and installed on 1 1/4" cars to fit the toe rails. The lines used are Dyneema, a high-tech line with very little stretch. Brian tapered the cover to reduce weight, windage and friction on the blocks, while keeping the cover on the handled part of the line to reduce chafe.
The finished project, ready to go to Jamaica with her new owner.
Rowing from Eckerd with Indian Key and bridge leading to the Skyway in the background
Looking toward Eckerd. Furthur looks so much smaller than the Vital 26 even though she is a foot longer.
