A very one design, the rebuild..

[The Q]

Took the Yeoman out of the water today, put Blue Moon back in.
Very windy blowing 40mph, which made it interesting dangling Yeoman, Reedlings, Yare and Bure one designs, and Blue Moon on the end of a crane.
Didn't put up BMs mast due to the wind, might try tomorrow.

 

[The Q]

Not a great day, dull drizzly and an awkward strong north easterly.

Not that it mattered. I didn't get to sail.
Spent the day at the SC sorting out the new rigging, steering etc.

The steering controls were moved back to their new position, blocks moved, ropes re fitted. They'll need tightening up next week once they've stretched to their task.

Went to rig mast found a major problem, the pin for the mast jib sheave is missing, the sheave isn't, it's forced down inside the mast...
I've just been online and ordered replacements.
If they arrive ok, I don't have to worry about destroying the old sheave getting it out.

So I did try the bodgered jib, though with not a lot of tension,. I've made the leech about 3 inches longer than needed, and the luff about 6 inches short. It can be used until I order a professionally made jib.
The jib halyard needs replacement, I've tied an extension on back to the new console, but the knot gets in the way.
Tried the new main, it looks good and fits well.
Didn't extend the main halyard back to the console because it too needs replacement.

Completely rerigged the vang, the bottom is now mounted on the forward cross bar, so effectively it's got its own horse.
This gives a more vertical down pull, less forward.
It also means the blocks are closer together, so it's rope is long enough to reach the console.

Topping lift is fitted but I managed to get the rope the wrong way through the block, that can be sorted next week.

Still to be fitted, main down haul, I'll use a bit of old halyard for that. Also the jib vang needs connecting up.
Time to go order some more dyneema..

 

[The Q]

Most of the day at the moorings.
First 20 minutes was spent sponging out BM, about a gallon in there, but split between several separate zones, some difficult to get at.
We've had very heavy rain for several days.

Then mast was taken down most of the way to about 30 degrees from horizontal. The foot trapped under the foredeck, just below the mast halyard exit sat on the tabernacle.

I tried the new jib sheave it was about a millimetre too fat, a little filing soon sorted that. Very very careful fitting it. As it's 19mm by 6 mm with a 5 mm pin through, which is held by a circle split ring, all being tiny, and reaching up high over the water...

Then the old jib halyard was removed, fitting the new one was more difficult, especially, down at the bottom sheave exit. The new rope needed to be pushed through a small hole, and then persuaded to turn 90 degrees round a sheave to exit.
The main halyard was then replaced, fortunately the in mast length, is actually in the mast groove, so you can feed it in fairly easily. The only worrying thing is you have to remove the top sheave to feed the rope in... Even higher over the water!!!.
The ropes were left uncut until they could be properly fitted in the boat.

The topping lift was then rerouted as it was twisted .

The mast was then put back up.
The ropes were then fed through the sheave blocks I'd installed on the hull at the bottom of the Tabernacle, then to the centre console.

What's missing from the above explanations is the repeated rerouting of ropes due to errors or just changing my mind as to the best route.

Then I looked at the vang, it wasn't operating very well, partly due to crossed ropes in between the blocks, and partly due to incorrect angles between vang, mast and boom.

So the mast end was moved back onto the tabernacle, the ropes were removed, and re-fed through the blocks ( twice). It required an extension to the rope by a couple of feet, but the knot doesn't get in the way.

The jib sheets that hold the jib club out, were refitted, and a new eye loop fitted behind the jammer, to which the sheet is tied. That means it won't pull out, and is held in a position where I can grab it.

Then all the ropes were all set to their minimum position at the console, bobbles tied on, and the spare tails cut off.


During the day the weather went from cold and drizzly. To sunny and warm, unfortunately I couldn't take off my salopettes as early on there was a ripping sound and the seam of one leg of my normal trousers let go crotch to knee. So I got somewhat warm...


And how long did this long did take?
5 hours excluding breaks... Much longer than I thought..
So unfortunately no sailing today for me.

 

[The Q]

On the way to the SC the radio in the landrover, which lives in an overhead cubby hole, decided to launch itself out, luckily all the leads unplugged themselves and the radio landed on a pile of ropes left over from last week's rigging out.

Went to set off on the river, and the rear slider fitted under the boom holding the mainsheet launched itself into the river. Luckily there is a spare, but with out tools I couldn't use that, so bodged some dyneema on to do the job.
Sailed up to the broad, to find on the way in very gentle winds the gooseneck had broken.. more bodging with dyneema.

The wind was south easterly,
very light and variable for the first race,
light and variable for the second race,
and reasonable and variable for the third race.

The courses today were a capital M, starting at the bottom of the right hand leg, into the wind then after the M sailing across the bottom from leg to leg of the M.
The reason was it was south easterly is across the narrow width of the broad.

Race 1,
Started well , to windward of the other boats, caught up the back end of the previous fleet within 200 yards, they started 3 minutes ahead of us. Reached buoy Y first, but the others blocked the wind from behind on the leg down to X, came out last. After that it was follow the leader for the three laps, kept up well with the other boats, gaining on the windward legs, loosing out on the run and the long broad reach across the bottom.

Race 2
Missed the start by 15 seconds, I'm too used to 5 minute intervals between races.
Follow the leader all the way. The following fleet caught up with BM, one tried to overtake to windward. That didn't work, BM is definitely pointing up well.

Race 3,
Hit the start near perfectly, was in the lead for a large part of the first leg, but was just beaten to buoy Y, by 1 boat.
Held second until the end of the M, but across the bottom of the M, the 20% longer waterline length of the other boats paid off. Two more laps of follow the leader, but I kept them with in distance, pretty sure BM won that one on handicap.

Got back to the club to find an unopened can of diet fizzy still on the table where I'd left it, lots of people inc children around too.

New gooseneck ordered.
Need to get some tell tails for the mainsail.
Need to add a couple of inches to the bottom of the jib wire. Just to lift it up a little, because the jib club occasionally hits the tabernacle.. another dyneema bodge will sort that one.

I need an eyelid inspection.

 

[The Q]

Making a good start in Blue Moon, note the distorted sail is due to the broken gooseneck

 

[The Q]

Sadly the new gooseneck has not yet arrived, so no sailing today.
All that was done was filling the holes left by the removal of the tube that had been the horse for the old shorter boom.

 

[Boats13]

Wow, just binge read this entire thread. Thanks for sharing with all of us, Q. Inspiring!

 

[The Q]

Gooseneck arrived So...

Went to the SC,

Got tools, put in rowing boat,
Rowed across to BM,
Took cover off took front hatches off.
Reached across to put tool kit in....

And slipped,

Row boat tipped to 45 degrees , started filling with water ( it's unsinkable).

Toolkit fell in water,
Wrenched back holding on.



Club rescue boat was putting buoys in, saw this and once I was verticle on board towed me back to the club, crawled out of the boat, pulled it up far enough to pull out drain plug.

Sat on quay heading for back to recover.


Friend arrived who doesn't live local, but he still owns late parents house, after a chat he went back to house. Came back with a landing net.

Went to club house bosun's store. Got dydle, and big magnet on a string.



Rowed back to BM.

Went fishing,. Water depth 3ft 6inchs

Each net pass came back with a load of mud.
Several attempts later, plastic bag containing gooseneck, bolts, rivets, value £75 inc postage.

Magnet Deployed, many many passes later, several drill bits, turnbuckle, Allen key set, shackle and block, new long tape measure, and new tenon saw. £40

I'd hit the drill several times with net and magnet but it wouldn't lift.

Deployed dydle
Hit drill first time. But it took till third attempt to hook on.

Edge of battery hooked onto edge of dydle. Very gentle lift managed to recover drill. £50.

Paddled back to club house.


Picked up piece by piece put them on quay heading.

Even harder to crawl out of boat.
Sat on quay heading for considerable time.

Rolled over onto side, then knees, used dydle as pole to haul myself up painfully.

Returned dydle, fishing net, magnet to their homes.

Left gear where it was,

There was plastic deck chair just near, sat it that for considerable time.

Collected gear up put in box .

Got mop out

Washed mud covered dinghy, mostly from a sitting position on the quay.

Drained dinghy.


Stepped slowly to T bar for muggacoffee and bacon roll. Several members showed their concern at my stagger. I couldn't carry coffee and bacon roll , club members put them on nearest table for me

Sat for a considerable time.


Back to boat, paddled across

Put covers back on, washed BM, and the next door boat where mud had escaped.
Paddled back.


Had to crawl out again,

Another club member hauled dinghy out and put it way for me.

Went to club facilities had a good wash.


Sat at front of club with more coffee.

Had the coronation buffet lunch, which included coronation chicken and quiche of course.

Sadly unable to take part in the coronation races, for which there was special glasses as prizes.

Nor can I take part in the coronation parade later with boats dressed overall.

The club house and about 1/4 of houses were dressed up with flags in the village. There was a band on on the village green, mostly jazz but a variety of other music.



Now home lying flat on my back. Pink pills taken.

 

[The Q]

Today ( and yesterday) was the international Topper Class Association, traveller event at our club.

Meanwhile the rest of the club, had a down river race have lunch at a pub and race back.
Except yours truly was on rescue boat duty. For the down river.

Due to light winds, the race distance was shortened by towing the boats down river about 2 miles. Then we very slowly followed them down to the finish. A further 3.5 miles further on. That took, nearly 3 hours!!!!, I've sailed the full distance in under 2.

Having followed the last boat down we only had 30 minutes break, so no pub lunch, just cheese sarnie and a can of Coke.

Coming back the race was even shorter, , starting at its normal place at the end of the pub dyke. But finishing just 2 miles back up river.

So a lot of towing was done both ways. With, three 20 foot open Keelboats behind the dory.
I was out of the house from 08:00, to 18:00, with about 8 hours of the race between, in the rescue boat...

 

[The Q]

Finally, rowed across and towed Blue Moon back to the club, found a mooring out of the way of everyone. Covers off and then I'll begin..

Well the mast is probably 50 years old, the new gooseneck is of course made to the original shape of the mast groove.. it didn't fit.
Much persuasion with a hammer.
Then holes drilled,
Then fitted with aluminium filled epoxy between mast, and gooseneck then rivetted together.
More epoxy shaped to fill in the joins.

Missed the first race, still working on BM, only just made the second, didn't get a mast chock right, mast was leaning to far aft. This affected the jib set up.

Third race got the chock right, jib still not right, topping lift jammed couldn't release it. Definitely affected sail shape on port tack.

4th race, jib ok, did well 2nd to finish probably 1st on handicap.

Next week is Broadland Model Railway Clubs show. So I'll be busy with that.

The following weekend is The 3 Rivers Race, and I'll be on duty..

 

[The Q]

Yesterday was a very gusty wind from the north , with the occasional bit of west in it. A very difficult direction, as the means it comes round the houses on the river bank, causing wind direction changes of up to 120 degrees every few yards..

It was a problem when I arrived at the gybe mark to find this 20ft from it..

A few thoughts on yesterday.

1, I think I've made the rudder a little too small, low speed control, when hit by a gust was not good.
2, also tiller loading is high, due to the short arms, of the tiller head but there's not much room to play with.
3, the new gooseneck requires a slight re route of the halyards, but that is an easy fix.

 

[The Q]

My view for the next 24 hours +

Well actually I'm in a motor boat moored at the end of the pier on the right. Waiting for the 3 River Race competitors to reach us.
Web cams here,

Norfolk Broads Webcam

Check out the best webcam on the Norfolk Broads! You can see the Broads and Potter Heigham in gorgeous clarity. See the weather or plan your holiday before you leave!

www.herbertwoods.co.uk

And

Horning Sailing Club

www.horning-sailing.club

 

[Xeon]

Have a great day. The wind forecast look ok. Is the north east direction good or bad ?

 

[The Q]

The best directions for the wind are from the north west or south east, this is because the first and last mile through Horning is down a 200 ft wide or less river, with houses one side and trees the other.
Those direction are up or down river. Elsewhere on the course the direction makes not to much difference as you are generally out in clear air, and with all the bends in the rivers you sail in all directions.

There were 111 entries in the end, 5 withdrew before the start, 19 retired from the race.
Some retirees were gear failure, others just got dispirited, there was a heavy dew, It went down to 6 C. No wind.

Two boats / crews entries will not be allowed again, they stopped, parked up a dyke and went to pubs ( different ones). That meant they disappeared from our boat tracking, and a search rescue boat had to go out looking. This is a big no no , it's in the race rules, and in the race briefing. You MUST inform the nearest guardship or phone the line crew of your retirement.


The forecast wind was correct during the day, many boats going exceedingly fast around the course.
However come sunset the forecast was very wrong, the wind dropped and finally died about 03:00, this combined with an out going tide meant many boats took 4 hours to do the last mile, in some cases 4 hours within sight of the clubhouse!!
Many boats chose not to do the short legs of the course early, but came straight up to Hickling so we saw our first boats just before 14:30 and the great mass of boats before 17:00.

There was then a couple of hours gap before those that chose to do the lower bure buoy after the two short legs, came our way.

21:00 I went out to the buoy to put it's light on, put the guardships light on ( on roof affect our sight).

we saw our last boat at 02:33, then settled down for a couple of hours sleep before first light, then we could see to pack everything away.

I arrived back at the clubhouse at around 06:00, after returning the equipment,was sat having breakfast when the wind started returning.
Boats started struggling in against tide, the first took 5 attempts to pass a moored pair of boats. Each time it tacked out to avoid them it caught the current and drifted back down river.
Later boats had more wind and sailed straight through.

The first boat home was a Thames A rater, in just over 8 hours, but their + 30 % handicap puts them well down in the results.
Here's a pic of the first few results on handicap.

Videos etc will be posted when available.

 

[The Q]

 

[The Q]

This year's Official race video

 

[The Q]

The forecast was occasional showers and grey all day..
Grey morning. , Until I got to the sailing club then it was sunny,
Sailed, sunny all day
Drove home and it was grey...
Good job I had a pair of sunglasses on board, could have done with a hat though. Top of head is a bit warm ...

In the middle three races were had,

Race one. OOD, had a bad morning, the course set was impossible to sail , it was pointed out to him , there was a postponement until he reset the course.
Didn't do well, water very low occasionally ploughing the soft mud bottom, steering loose, ultimately very loose, a lock nut decided it wouldn't lock.
Finished the race with difficulty. Scrambled around in the bottom of the boat, found nut and bolt, put them back on, but with out tools very loose for the rest of the day kept checking nut was still on while racing.

Race 2, didn't do that well , low tide. Brown trail in places due to ploughing, rounding buoys appalling, due to slack steering. Did manage to pass the last boat of the previous fleet.
Had a boat from the fleet two starts ahead try to go past me to windward on his finishing line!! Since I was tight on the windward finishing mark, that was a bad move, he had to go back and try again.

Race three , still didn't go well, , block of wood that sits behind the mast, pushing it forward, went walk about, that made the rig very loose, with poor steering, that made the race even more of a struggle.

Next week is a pursuit race Saturday afternoon, I'll go down early to sort things out.
The Sunday is a race down to a pub have lunch and race back.

 

[The Q]

Got to HSC about 09:00, retrieved my boat from the other side of the river, did some repairs.

While doing that got asked to cut a hole in Hemsby life boat** which I did.

Meanwhile an ambulance appears at the Village staithe dinghy dyke. Then a van with red yellow hazard stripes, then two coast guard 4x4 . Then the broads rangers boat and later the police boat.eventually Hemsby new lifeboat appears in HSC carpark gets launched and disappears down river,, stopping by the ambulance on the way.

Some time later it reappears stopping by the ambulance again, goes back to put car park is recovered and disappears..

Even later a helimed fly's over, circles then
somewhere down river lands, then some time later reappears fly's off in the Direction of Norwich and the hospital..

Nothing yet on the Hemsby lifeboat pages.

**** Oh hole in Hemsby inshore lifeboat? The sailing club now own Hemsby's old one and it's going to be used as a workboat for the club + standby rescue boat.

Anyway today's reason for being at HSC, it was pursuit race day. Two 1 hour races and today favoured the light dinghies as a strong incoming tide slowed the displacement boats.

Race 1
First start 14:00 ( Toppers)
BMs start 14:04:30
Splash start 14:05: 30
Big sailing cruiser 14:06
Then lots more boats over the next 14 minutes.
Up wind with tide start. Wind almost South Westerly, Very long tack on starboard, then a rare short tack on port.

Started well slowly catching the toppers, the reach the top buoy first. Turn for the run. I follow, and so does the big cruiser, it sat on BMs wind all the way to the bottom mark. Lost out big time.
Lasers and splashes passed BM, never recovered from that eventually finished mid fleet.
Especially as the wind was severely dropping in the second half of the race.

Race 2, the the wind had switched to a north easterly Sea breeze .

Started well, slowly caught and passed the toppers, but with a displacement boat coming back against the side, all the faster dinghies went past. But this time finished between mid fleet and top.

but I was happy with BMs overall performance, much better than last week after making and fitting a new mast chock, and getting rid of the slack in the steering ropes.

Tomorrow we have a down river race to the Thurne lion have lunch then race back again.

I believe there is also racing by EACC at Thurne tomorrow which might make thing interesting down there.

 

[The Q]

Blue moon to the left
Then a Yeoman Keelboat,
A splash dinghy behind,
Then a laser.

Three of these in the same race.

Plus the odd motorboat in the way.

 

[The Q]

An enjoyable if somewhat warm, sail. Due to another sailing club having an event further down river, we started at the waterworks, which is a couple of miles down river.
Wind south easterly 15mph, very warm, forecast temperature 29C

We started with the tide, but into the wind. A fair amount of tacking needed, the non locking lock nut failed again, which made life difficult. I'm not happy with the steering, it's very heavy, and I'm definitely not happy with the failures.
Quite what I'll do I don't know..

Return leg was earlier than normal, timed to start between the other clubs races of big broads cruisers.
The tide had turned but the wind hadn't, it had however increased to 25mph. Had a tacking match for the first half mile, then it was turn up the river Bure onto the run reach all the way home.
The trip was so fast the race officer missed the first boat of the first start, the first start was 20 minutes before the last, then he had a five minute walk to his car, drive 10.5 miles, down narrow single track roads for much of it. then a 2 minute walk to the finish line.
Even BM took only about 1 hour to sail the 5.5 miles home, yes it's only half the distance by boat, the very fast 40ft yacht probably took 40 minutes.

It's probably one of the fastest trips I've ever had sailing from the Thurne Lion to Horning, 2 to 3 hours is common..

Since all fleets were handicap I have no idea of the calculated results, BM will certainly not be last in her class and probably did well overall.