First Sail

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First Sail Narrative

Friday - 6 June 2014

The Admiral and I took the boat out in the late afternoon and raised sail for the very first time.  Still having problems rigging the jib (still gets stuck about 3/4 way up), so we worked with mainsail only. At about 5:30pm, after clearing Great Hill, we turned into the wind and I went forward to jump the main halyard.  I respectfully requested the Admiral to hold the tiller so that we staying facing into the wind, while she pulled in the slack on the halyard.  She did better at the latter than the former, but live and learn....

Could not get the mail sail fully raised; the last 6-8" just would not go up.

Hmmmmmm.....

We sailed SSW for an hour or so, covering several miles and passing Bird Island until we stood off Aucoot Cove in Mattapoisett.  

Speed Demon zipping along at 1.9 knots....

At about 6:40pm, the Admiral order a change of course, so we came about and headed for home.  Half an hour later we were losing the wind, so we doused sail and motored the rest of the way back.  

Bird Island against the setting sun

We had a beautiful sunset in a glassy calm as we raised the mouth of the Weweantic, and were back on the mooring just as it was getting dark.

Sunset over Great Hill

Alas, it seems my mast lights to not work :(

The navigation lights work fine.

Admiral's First Cruise: Dexters-Buzz Bay

Surfs Up

Admiral's First Cruise

June 2 - Launch +4

Today my wife came aboard for the first time, and we spent a couple of hours motoring around the northern corner of Buzzards Bay, near Wareham.  She's more of a powerboat gal, whereas I love my 'rag time.'  I find solace and comfort in the quiet absence of machinery, in the sound of wind and water, even in the constant adjustment of rigging to winds, currents, and tides.  She does not.  She made it clear that the Admiral will not be doing any work aboard the boat.  "The only thing I want to hold," she warned me, "is a cold beverage."

Four days since launch and I have yet to sail the sailboat.  I do have the mainsail rigged and ready, but these first few outings have been about getting a feel for the motor and better sense of how the boat handles under power.  My most important lesson of this day, however, concerned not the motor but rather the importance of checking the marine weather forecast before heading out.

Admiral at the helm.

We headed out in the early afternoon, riding a light chop in the river channel as we made our way to the bay.  As we passed Comeset Point, on the northeast bank, the Weweantic joined the Wareham river, whose current added to the chop.  However, it was not until we cleared Great Hill, to the south, that we met the southwest wind so characteristic of afternoons on Buzzard's Bay.  Belatedly, I checked my weather apps.  Winds were at 28 knots, gusting to 33; waves were two to three feet.  Running a course into the wind threw up a lot of bow waves, and sent volumes of spray back across the deck.  I was soon drenched.  It was a real "Yeeeeeeee-haw!" day, when the boat pitched up and down across the swells.  I was just loving it....

The Admiral soon order a change of course, and directed us eastward towards Great Neck and Long Beach near Wareham.  This course, however, brought us parallel to the waves, which meant taking those swells abeam and, consequently, to some heavy healing.  A couple of times we both looked at each other and mutter, "Whoa."  Surf was breaking over the exposed rocks of Little Bird Island.  The Admiral, to her credit, was undeterred.  "I want to see what is over there," she gestured to the northeast shoreline.  A lee shore is over there, I wanted to say but dared not be insubordinate.

After snooping offshore Little Harbor, Bourne Point, and Warren Point, the Admiral decided we should make for the relative calm of a sheltered cove somewhere.  "I'd like to just sit and read my book now," she said.  So we turned southwest, into the wind again, and ran for Wings Cove.  The winds dropped considerably when we reached the mouth of the cove, blocked by the Butler Point headland to the south.  Wings Cove afforded an opportunity to test the anchor, for which I had purchased a longer chain and anchor rode.

'Piao' at anchor in Wings Cove

Winds were appreciably weaker, and the swell and chop much reduced, when we finally weighed anchor some time later and headed home.  I went forward to the bow and hung on to Der Furler as I took a short video.

"What do you do if I fall overboard?" I quizzed her.

"Head for home," she grinned.  "You are wearing a life vest.  You'll be fine."

Problem 001: Jib Furler

Noticed on launch day -- but not until after the haulers had departed -- that there are some issues with the jib furler.

First, when we tried to rig the sails at the launch-site dock, the jib kept jamming about two-thirds of the way up.  'Piao' has a CDI furler for the foresail, which allows you to furl and unfurl (rather than lower and raise) the jib by pulling on a line that runs back to the cockpit near the stern.  The sail is threaded into a track on one side and then hauled up; the jib halyard runs in a track on the opposite side of the grey plastic housing.  Now, the jib halyard runs freely up and down the entire carriage, but the sail itself gets stuck in the sail-side track.

Have yet to solve this problem, which means no jib.  My friend, the PO, who assisted me at the launch, hauled on that halyard with a good deal of strength (and he is a really strong guy), but it would not go up any further.  He was reluctant to pull harder, for fear of tearing the sail.  Mayhaps someone will have to climb up there for a closer look.

Then I noticed that the jib furler seems to have been mounted improperly.  The circular housing at the base contains a blue line, which runs aft to the cockpit.  You pull on this line furl or unfurl the jib.  The opening for the furler housing is supposed to face due aft, to allow the furler line to run freely.  

Something is wrong with this picture

Instead, it opens 90-degrees to port.  Consequently, the furler line rubs against the rigid metal edge of the housing, which scratches enough to fray.

When I crawled down to examine how the furler was attached to the deck, I discovered these three holes in a mounting fixture.  Mr. Three-Stripes thought, 'Hmmmm, if I could somehow move that furler connection from its present position to the forward hole on the lower plate, this would twist the furler housing 90-degrees and reorient the opening due aft.'

If I could just reconnect this to that hole beneath it..... 

But this posed a new problem.  The jib furler is also the forestay, an important piece of fixed or standing rigging that helps keep the mast from falling down.  The forestay runs from the masthead to the bow, contributing tension to keep the mast upright, along with the backstay (in the stern), and the shrouds (to port and starboard).  I was cautioned that it was inadvisable simply to release the forestay: the sudden loss of all forward counter-tension on the mast might bring it crashing down.  Even Mr. Three-Stripes understood that would be bad.  Hmmmmmm.

One friend suggested that I tie the jib halyard to a deck cleat on the bow, and let the halyard take the load.  This would maintain forward tension of the forestay for a few minutes while I uncoupled and rotated the furler housing to a new point of attachment.  Best to have someone leaning against the mast while you work, I was warned, just to be safe.  Hmmmmm.

I kept thinking that the O'Day 23 is a "trailerable" boat.  People haul them on trailers all the time, launching them at boat ramps on both inland and coastal waters, stepping their own mast each time.  What do they do to keep the mast from crashing down when they release the forestay at the time haul-out for the trailer trip home?  So I went to an online forum for owners of O'Day sailboats to seek advice and suggestions: http://oday.sailboatowners.com

Someone responded that re-orienting the furler opening can be accomplished without disengaging tension on the forestay.  The bottom of the furler housing has a series of holes designed for just this purpose.

What will happen when I remove those screws?  Hmmmmmm........

I will try to get to this in the next few days.  I'd really like to sail with the jib, too!

First Mate

May 30 - Launch +1

Took Dylan out on the boat for a quick run down to the mouth of the Weweantic River and back.  At first, he did not want to go -- for all his bravado, the guy is a bit intimidated by new things.  But I let him bring along his beloved fishing pole (sort of like his Linus blanket), and that helped.  First, he tried fishing from the dock, without success.  I suggested he might have better luck out on the boat, closer to the river channel, where the fish were swimming.  We rowed the dinghy out.  He did not have any luck at the mooring either, but then he suggested we take the boat out onto the Bay to try his luck there.

I told him what he would need to do to cast off the mooring lines, and what he would need to do to grab and secure those lines when we returned to the mooring.  He listened attentively, paraphrased the directions back to me, and said he was confident and ready.  Running the engine on dead slow, we threaded our way through the partially submerged rocks, out of the protected shelter of the cove, and into the river channel.  I let him drive.  He really liked that.  He forgot all about fishing....

Dylan was a quick study as far as navigation buoys were concerned. He sometimes confuses his right side with his left, but he understood clearly which side the green and red channel markers were supposed to be on the way out and on the way back in.

He asked me about the crew of a boat: captain, officers, and crew.  He asked if he could be an officer. I told him that since he was the first one to go out with me on the boat, he earned the post of "First Mate," and rewarded him with a luggage tag from West Marine.  He has since carried that damn tag around the house with him all the time.

"If you are the Captain, and I am the First Mate, then what is Mom?" he asked.  I explained what an Admiral was.  He mulled that over for a while, and then concluded: "So basically the Admiral stays at home and bosses everyone around."

Mooring Woes

When I put in the mooring ball back in early May, I noticed another mooring just east of mine seemed to be a little too close for comfort.  I mentioned it to a couple of people, but was reassured that it was no problem: boats will swing in the same direction at the same time.

But one day while working on the boat I watched as the stern swung around right over that other mooring, the barnacle-encrusted winter stick rubbing against the outboard propellor, the rudder, and the inflatable dinghy.  Something is not right with this picture:

I have noticed already that, on a windy day when an incoming tide is running against the river current, boats do not necessary swing synchronically around their moorings.

Judging from the amount of marine growth on the other winter stick and pickup buoy, this other mooring seems to have been sitting there unused for years.  Nevertheless, things just do not seem right.  I must speak with the Harbormaster.  Everyone seems to live in fear of him....

Launch: Sippican Harbor-Dexter Cove

10.39: SV Piao launched at Marion town ramp in Sippican Harbor. 11.39: Depart. Motored to mooring in Dexter's Cove on the Weweantic River. 1439: Arrive mooring Crew: Ric

Splash!

At long last, Launch Day Cometh.....

29 May 2014

Thirty-nine seemed to be my lucky number.

First, the truck arrived at 0939 to haul the boat to the launch ramp in Marion.  Neighbors came over to wish me well, a thoughtful gesture.  One even brought a gift of a bottle of champagne: a very thoughtful gesture.

One neighbor (a retired judge) wanted to correct the grammar on the truck's front bumper.  Mr. Three-Stripes just kept his mouth shut.

Thankfully, the boat haulers did not tear up the flowers my wife planted over the weekend.  I had been warned of serious consequences should that happen.  The guys from Brownell were just super.

"Oversize Load."

We snaked our way through town, arriving at the town boat ramp near Tabor Academy.

At the boat ramp, the haulers stepped the mast and backed the boat into the water at 1039.  

My friend assisting was the PO (Previous Owner) of the boat, who had donated the boat to MMA last year.  I sure was grateful that he on-hand to help.  He tells me, "You're a nice guy, but you don't know what the [expletive] you are doing."  Good friend.  There was a moment of anxiety as I tried to start the outboard motor -- a neighbor who used the same mechanic discovered upon launch of his boat that the engine transmission did not work.  I was more fortunate.

My first real test came as I had to maneuver the boat over to a nearby dock without crashing into one of very many, very expensive yachts in the harbor, including another sailboat that was tied up at the same dock ahead of us.  Dockside, we tinkered with the rigging and put on the mainsail.  It was too windy for us to fix the battens, so we decided to defer that task for another day.  There were also problems rigging the jib: the jib halyard ran free through the foil on the furler, but the jib itself kept jamming when we tried to hoist it.  After three or four attempts, we opted to defer that task also to another day.

The Admiral was on hand to do the christening.  I didn't want to shatter glass all over the town boat ramp or dock, so we opted to use Chinese baijiu (白酒) instead of French champagne.  I figured, a boat with a Chinese name deserves a christening with a Chinese libation.

The Admiral christened the boat using Chinese alcohol that I brought home from Sichuan.
I was loathe to waste it, but I'm the only one who seems to like it.  Years of practice, baby....

At 1139 we cast off and threaded our way through the harbor channel, heading out to Buzzards Bay. 

There are some very nice, very big, and very expensive sailboats in Sippican Harbor -- just outside the frame of the above photograph.  Watch out.  Eyes forward.

'Maneuvering with Difficulty'

It was a beautifully day -- the nicest day of the week.  We motored the 'Piao' out of Sippican Harbor, around Bird Island, and made for my mooring on the Weweantic River.

Piao heading NNE on Buzzards Bay, making for Great Hill and the Weweantic River.

The trip ran about ten nautical miles and took us about three hours.  Friends with a powerboat awaited us near the mouth of the river, but gave up after a while and returned to their mooring.  "What took you so long?," they later asked.  That trip takes them fifteen minutes, tops.

But what is the hurry?

In a separate post, I will upload the trip info from the 'Captains Blog' app that my friend designed.  I wish we could have tried out the sails, but that will come in time.

We arrived at the mooring in Dexter's Cove at 1439.  Finished with Engine.

Later that afternoon, after my crewmate had gone home, the Admiral came by the mooring to celebrate with a couple of cold adult beverages.  She borrowed a dinghy and rowed out to the boat.  Ruf start, but eventually she got the hang of it.