Deja vu

It's that time of year again. The sun is up bright and early and fresh breezes entice the sailor down to the sea.  Somewhere a year has gone.. or more... without me capturing it here on blog.
It was a quiet year for sailing it has to be said, but when I find the time I will backtrack and fill in some of the missing detail. On the boat I finally got round to the fridge project- upgrading the battery, adding a solar panel, and wiring in for a small Weico electric coolbox. Time on the water on the other hand was limited. We sailed away at midsummer and took a few days down around Landsort, and later in the season a few overnight stops. And that was it. Life had other plans.

So now it's May and Mata Hari is back in her berth with the mast up and, almost, ready to sail. Life had other plans this summer to... But we will see whether wanderlust gets us out on the water more in any case.

I have in fact been thinking about moving up to something bigger- mostly because I saw a boat I liked at a good price. But a bigger boat is more work and more expense at at time when time on the water is at an ebb. So instead, there's a new plan. ..a plan to catch up with some of those things on Mata Hari that after 15 years are due some attention. And a new project on the horizon. Time for an auto-pilot? If nothing else I will get more time for blogging.....

The shape of things to come...

A fine sunny day in March. Time to take down the covers and start thinking about getting the boat ready for the season. I did say thinking about...it doesn't do to rush these things.

Coffee in the sunshine, check the berth, find where in the mast rack we left the mast... um and ah a little bit on how much anti-fouling it needs this year. That must be enough for one day.

Thievery and seasons end

Despite our best intentions late season didn't bring much sailing - a short trip to Kolnäsviken was about the sum of it.  The new tender arrived.. which was great - but a little too late to try it on the water.  That will have to wait for next season.  Then, after a weekend emptying lockers and taking down the mast it was all set to bring the boat out.

So, one Friday afternoon we left work early to take the boat round to the slip to be hauled up.  Imagine my surprise then when I went to set up and start the motor - only to discover it wasn't there....  Some blaggard had been and nicked it.  What sort of mean spirited soulless twat does that sort of thing?

 The marina were great and quickly arranged a boat to tow us round to come out - but it really did add the final touch to a pretty remarkable season... for all the wrong reasons.

Let's draw a close on sailing season 2012 and look forward hopefully to a sailing filled summer in 2013.

(Actually, on a positive note the new anti-fouling looks really good after a pretty inactive season.  Let's hope that means less work in the spring ;-)

Cheers!

... 

Carpentry

It has taken a while, wrestling with a space that curves in all dimensions, but now the new cupboard is finished. What used to be a dark hole with the cooker in is now extra storage and the stove is back by the door.

Overall I'm pleased with the way it turned out though it would have been a lot easier with a workbench out at the marina.

Back in the water on Friday!

Step one

Step one is always to get the hull sorted . Which this year involved some rubbing to cut back the rather jaded surface,  Dark blue gulls just don't like the sun. We finished off with a new incarnation of nano-polish that promises better UV protection. I wait to be amazed...

Below the waterline there's also a change. New rules in Sweden mean the existing anti-fouling is withdrawn and replaced with a copper based version instead. Didn't they ban copper? 

Of course the new paint was more expensive. Surprised?

The job list is quite long this year , but in principle now she can go back in the water as she is...

Progress

The rites of spring

It's not every year we have to clear the decks of snow before we can start work...

A step forward

One of the winter jobs was fitting a removable step on the bow.  Coming ashore is normally OK-but once in a while it's tricky for the crew to come ashore without a great leap of faith. 

The IF-båt is not that well suited for a step though - the bow is quite swept under which means that the strut from the step doesn't transfer all that much of the load to the hull... Most of the weight seems to be on the deck fittings.  The strut length makes a difference and the strut is adjustable - but not to any degree of finesse.  I tried drilling it but cutting a large hole in a curved tube without a pillar drill didn't really work.  So as a last resort I've added packing to the end, both to protect the hull and to lengthen it just a little.

Back on the boat it all seems to work in the marina - although the packing tends to move a bit under load so it is only partly doing it's job.  We''ll see how it goes when we get out to sea.....

Galley trigonometry

We were out to the boat today to collect the last of the things on the boat before the winter.  At the same time I took the chance to measure up inside.

At some time the stove has been moved from by the door to a new location just aft of the forepeak on the port side.  Cooking in the boat is a pain - no headroom and nowhere particular for the steam to go.  So, we plan to put the stove back in the locker by the door to be able to stand in the entrance when cooking.

The stove is an old Origo twin burner spirit stove.  In principle we could just have it stood straight on the drop down flap on the locker - but right now it's gimballed so I'm looking to build a frame to hold it that can be slid in and out.

The locker is not as tall as the existing suspension points so we need some re-engineering for the stove to fit...  so I'm sat down this evening with notebook and laptop to look at the geometry.  It's a long time since I needed to play with sines and cosines!

The first thing I find is that the existing solution is designed to just clear the surface below - it will work in principle with any heel angle. Nice!  With less height to work with we don't have that luxury, unless I make it height adjustable.  But - we never run the stove with the boat on the move - so that's unlikely to be a big problem.  Gimballing is to keep supper safe when we get waves coming in when we're anchored up.  How much is enough is hard to say, but 20 degrees maybe? 

Like most things the solution is going to be a compromise:  for a given pivot height, as you move the stove up to get more clearance (to tolerate more heel) but the result gets less stable. 

And you need to think about the pots as well.  Within the height available, more clearance quickly means the pots will be above the pivot.  Weight high up reduces the effective length of the pendulum - making it quicker -and too much weight too high is simply unstable..

So... a quick spreadsheet later, and the answer is.... 

Well not 42! 

The pivot moves down from 210mm today to circa 170mm. Then losing 5mm from the clearance should give me those 20 degrees of tilt and still keep stable operation.

Feasibility study: Check. Done

Widget wanted

It's a fine evening, and with great foresight I left a few things on board I need at home. So, after work, I caught the bus out to the marina to sit and enjoy a bite to eat at the bar on the waterside.
To while away the time before the bus back I set to on one of those small jobs that didn't make the winter jobs list Some time ago one of the handles on the floorboards broke. No big problem. I'll just swap the broken one for the one on the board with the spare anchor under.
As it happens it was not just a case off screwing it loose and screwing it back again. Strange but true, on the back they are not the same. So now, before I take a chisel to the floor I might as well see if I can get a new one.
Any tips?

Ready for the off

Not the sunniest of weekends.  We got rained off yesterday, but managed today to get the last of the 'must do before we launch' jobs done...  touching up the white waterline on the starboard side.

Somehow it's always the starboard side.  Think it's because with the engine on  that side the boat is never fully even and the paint ends up underwater at the bottom.  Toplac is for above the waterline....

Apart from that the cockpit got a clean, the cupboards got sorted, the cabin woodwork got oiled, and some of the deckhouse got polished.. plus I made a quick and not so very tidy job of renewing the silicone on the hull/deck join in a couple of places.  And then to finish off... a last coat of 'nanopolish' - in the hope that it will keep her looking good for ALL of the summer.

Hauling out

A grey and wet Friday- and Mata Hari is back in the boatpark. ...with the guys from the boatyard as efficient as ever :)

Panel Games

One of the things that's always been a bit hit and miss on the boat is the lighting. More specifically the Nav lights. The lack of a sternlight we solved a few years back, but the white navlight on the mast was more troublesome.

Eventually we diagnosed a dodgy contact on the switch panel and decided it was a good time to update the full panel rather than find a switch to fit. So we bought one... And there it has sat for the last year or more waiting to be fitted. Until now...

We were back early after lunch on Sunday so I took the chance to pull it all apart and make the change. The panel is the same dimensions which made life easy even if the screw holes were not.

I was able to simplify the wiring a little along the way, but most of the rat's nest behind the panel stayed as it was . It's sound, and it works.. And it is at least a little neater than it was.

A quick shuffle of the fuses then to suite what's connected and bob's your uncle.

The surprising thing is it all works too... :-D
...excpt maybe the Wallas heater but that's another project...

Shipshape

It was planned to be the first tour of the season - a short trip out for a bit of lunch. We got to the boat on friday night, ready for an early start, and made dinner on the spirit stove and settled in for the night... to the sound of raindrops hammering on the deck.

Breakfast time was not much better. A long lie in was rewarded with looming clouds and a forecast for 10m/s winds. So, after a pleasant breakfast of croissants and muesli (not in the same bowl you understand) we drew up a jobs list. Some were things that needed doing before sailing - and some were good to get done anyway: re-installing the freshly varnished board with all the cleats for the control lines, cleaning the anchor locker, sorting out the chart collection, freeing the spinnaker halyard (which was round the jib halyard on the roller reefing), polishing the topsides where the crib had been, sorting out the lockers down below, and taping up the bottlescrews on the shrouds.. no snags and no untimely surprises.

Between all that and a leasurely lunch in the cockpit, and the odd cup of coffee, we never did quite make it to sea... but by the time we were ready at the bus-stop for the trip home it was looking like it would be a really nice evening for those that made it out.

Men At Work

The covers are off... and the work has begun. There's still snow on the ground - but it turned out to be a mild day and we got done pretty much everything we planned. Sorting through last year's paint, polish and brushes to see what's usable - rubbing down the hull below the waterline (Thanks Pål!) - and cleaning out the lockers.

In doing the latter it looked at first like we'd got a leak - in spite of having the covers on. It turned out to be a bottle of 'lättöl' - low alcohol beer (!) - which had burst open in the cold weather. That and a locker full of empties says we didn't do such a great job preparing for the winter.

On the other hand the hull is still looking great - just what we wanted to see. It's going to need a wash off and a repolish but the rubbing stays in the cupboard this year. Finally!

What goes round comes around...

With a flourish of pre-season enthusiasm Pål has shipped off the outboard to the workshop at the marina to see if they can fix last seasons problems with cooling water.  Their prognosis matches mine.. most probably the impeller...  and if they can get it apart they will fix it.  But if after 25 years it's not going to give in to a little TLC we'll be faced with buying a new one.

So today we have been at the boatshow checking out the alternatives (I didn't know Johnson had disappeared!).  The going rate for a 5hp 4-stroke seems to be about 12 000 kronor...  somewhat more for a 6hp like we have today... so I have my fingers crossed that the old faithful will see reason and submit to treatment.

Back on the dock

Seasons end...

On Friday she came out the water for the winter and now is snugly parked up waiting on another trip to set up the covers. A bit sad really, seeing her back on land, out of her element - but there's a season for everything.

On the bright side, the hull still looks really good - some streaking from run-off from the scuppers but very little sign of the usual summer matting and fading. In fact it looks so good I'm keen to give her a wash and polish before the winter.. We'll see how the weather is when we come to do that job!

Namesake

After talking about it for seven years it has finally happened.... we have put the name on the the boat. ..and it looks great if I do say so myself!

Also after seven years I've fixed the seacock on the port side cockpit scupper... so now we are properly seaworthy :-) That was a job that used a tip from the IF discussion forum: We plugged the scupper and then it sat for a week and a half with cooking oil in to penetrate and lubricate. It still took a while to get that critical first small movement, and a while longer to free up the last couple of millimetres to et proper closure. But now it's done. No more wet feet when we have guests onboard!

True blue?

That nice blue hull looks really nice when it's given a rub down and a lick of polish.. but somehow it never lasts the season loooking that way. It quickly matts off and looks patchy and streaky... The gelcoat has had too many summers in the sun.
But maybe this year it will be different?

We spent the weekend with sander and polisher, cutting back with wet and dry and going over again with rubbing paste to bring up the shine - a compromise between wanting to get rid of the oxidation and not wanting to cut back too deep... Time consuming but hopefully worth it - the bit that's finished looks really good.

All in a days work...

It's that time of year again... the countdown to launch, and the clock has started!

Last weekend, amid the easter snow showers we were out to Karlslunds to take off the covers and give her the once over- which might have been more of a twice over if we'd remembered to bring the boat keys!

This weekend in the warmth of the spring sunshine it was time to start the work in earnest... and this time with a some new technical tricks to help things along (no not the brush!).

First, simplest and best was a long handle... usable with sanding block or roller for both sanding and painting the hull. .. and a very good job it did too. Much easier on the back and you don't end up looking like an extra from 'The Martians Have Landed'.

Next was the electric 'detail' sander - perfect for rubbing down the waterline... usually we rub it down by hand - but always in a hurry and it soon needs doing again. This year it was just as quick, but oh so much better!

And last... a natty new polishing machine for rubbing down the gelcoat. According to the plan we are going to do a 'really good job' this year. So far it looks much like it usually does after rubbing. Good - but still with room for improvement. We'll see how it looks next week after phase two...

All of which made for a busy days work - which is why it was a bonus to fit in one of those 'really ought to do' jobs: sanding down and glassing over the crack in the aft hatch cover.
I wonder if we have some deck paint left to tidy up with after???

101 things to do after breakfast.

Getting the mast down is the first step. Untie everything and wash it down. Refit the spreaders and the outer stays.. and then sort out the mess so everything will arrive in the right place when it gets upright. A bottlescrew that has a damaged thread and a trip to the chandelry at the shop. Not forgetting a new Windex (how many is that now?).
Lift over the mast to a trolley and carefully wheel 9m of mast out past the parked cars to bag a spot on the quay.

What sort of idiot moors a thirty-five footer on the quay half blocking the mast crane? We squeeze Mata Hari in to lie alongside and practise that peculiar ballet of getting the mast into position and the stays fastened on... and if someone can tell me a cast-iron technique for keeping the windex out of the mast-crane then do, please!

A spectator - great! .. stood impatiently watching with a mast on the roofrack of his Volvo, sticking out a good eight feet in both directions. A triumph of ingenuity over road safety! It turned out to be the mizzen for a (different ) 35 footer. Nuff said.

Just let's get the backstay in place and we can be off back to the berth to tension up everything. Boom, topping lift, main-sheet, kicker, downhaul, cunningham - hoist the genoa onto the roller reefing - Fit the the mains'l, boom cover, sprayhood.

..and refit the refurbished connector for the mast navlight. (Thanks Micke!)

All done :-)
Almost. The lamp's still open circuit. no.. yes.. ermm.. oh. an intermittent connection in the switch.

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day.. and we're ready to sail!