...almost there...

...absolutely knackered, but got loads done and to all intents and purpose my stuff is done and she's good to go back in.... 

...first - the mast foot is fixed...  my thanks to C&B Marine [clicky] at Chichester Marina - Chris is one of natures gentlemen and did an amazing job on the mast foot.... looked like new. Best of all only £45...  not bad given the time/materials required, and way cheaper than a new one - even if I could find one! Very happy, and recommend him/them completely if you need any welding or metal fabrication of any kind...

From this..

To this:

Not bad, eh?

Drilled out the mast foot for four rivets (monel [clicky] as recommended & 5mm or 3/16th) - two of the rivets are fitted, but I only have a hand riveter and it was bl**dy difficult to close them up due to the harder metal than aluminium.... for anyone coming after me, it's just about do-able with a hand type, but only just - you'd be better off with a lazy-tongs/concertina type gun. At the moment my plan is to put the mast up and put the last two in using some lazy tongs if I can find some to borrow...

Next - the hole is now filled....

From this:

...sorry for the picture quality - duff camera setting.

To this:

Superb job...  I got this done through the chandlery in Emsworth Marina [click here], they have a guy who does all the glass fibre repair work - he's been doing it for years, and it shows..  I had the good fortune to be there when he did this....

So - from memory (and I was also making tea for some of it!), he:

1. ground out both sides (he did the inside by hand "so I didn't have too much dust to clear up"!) 
2. then sealed the inside with some parcel tape, 
3. filled from the outside with a thick goop of resin (he works in polyester by the way - not epoxy) before putting some parcel tape over that from the outside to keep it in place...  
4. then applied the heat gun to set the mix quicker...
5. After that he applied some sheets of CSM on the inside, and then 
6. moved outside to sand the hole down and fill with about two or three layers more of that goopy resin this time with chopped strand mat cut up into it to make it strong....  
7. applied the heat gun again, another sand down, and he then 
8. applied a filler and sanded that down

...job done for that day - not a word of a lie he did the lot in about an hour, amazing to watch....  

He'll come back and do the gel coat this week - he reckons he can match it exactly, I've told him it looks good enough already!

A nice to have while I had the time was some prettify'ing in the cabin - like most boats of this age my headlining was drooping, especially at the back near the radio/companionway where I'd also lost the sheet that used to hang down behind the radio covering the wall...

When this stuff comes off there's loads of old decayed foam and glue left behind so while I had the time I whipped off the ceiling panels, and re-stapled (£5 hand stapler from B&Q is my wonder tool of the year) the surviving foam to take the sag and wrinkles out - just stretch and staple - I also whipped off the radio (steady on...) and cleaned up and and then painted the wall behind.... all screwed back and it now looks much tidier and I was left thinking why the hell I hadn't done it years ago, as 30 minutes work made a huge difference to how the cabin looked...  much cleaner/neater.

Last of all I fitted and wired in a new masthead light - as per the previous post I went with a straight forward anchor light as I already have nav lights at deck level - happily I was able to re-use existing drilled holes in the (home made stainless steel) mast head fitting, and I re-used the existing wiring.... having thought long and hard, I also decided to just go with windex rather than an aerial/windex combo...  there'll be time for a new aerial another time....

Proper job..  all screws/nuts/bolts stainless.....  despite appearances the mast is still down at the moment, just a spot of photo twiddling....

Just need to get that gel coat done and I can't start thinking about launch dates....

I also need to decide on my strategy as while I'm fairly certain I've fixed the source of my leak there's still a certain element of doubt...  I think my plan at the moment is to leave the mast down, launch before a good high tide, moor up to the club pontoon for an hour or so and monitor for leakages, and depending on the results of that I can then bring her out again, or take her under the bridge and back to the mooring...

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...making progress...

...or two steps forward and one step back... 

...I've sourced someone who can re-build the mast foot and have delivered it to them - he's called and said it will be £40'ish which is cheaper than a new one. He also reckons it'll be ready by tomorrow/Wednesday (22nd)....

...just spoken to the Chandlery and they're hoping to get the glass fibre'ing done this week as well - I'm dropping off keys tomorrow morning so will know more then...

...and one step back?  Well when I dropped the mast, it looks like the mast head light finally gave up the ghost and dispatched the top half of itself to the depths (that's everything in the picture from the black collar half way up to the top - so also the red/green bit).

It was very old, the lens's were brittle/crazed, and there was a crack in the bottom held together with amalgamating tape - it owed me nothing so I'll replace it while the mast is down with a plain straight forward anchor light...  my boat has separate navigation lights so it was always a little over the top....

Unfortunately the windex lived on top of the light, so that went as well...  and again - I was having problems with that this year as well so maybe someone was giving me a hint...  I'll replace it, but I'm in two minds at the moment whether to just get a windex on it's own, or get the VHF aerial/windex combination and kill two birds with one stone...

I'll sleep on it...

Three day weekend this weekend in the UK - I'm going to use some of the time to fit the light/windex, and some of the time to do some fettling in the cabin. I feel the need to take down one of the ceiling panels and re-fix the foam lining....while it's down I'll also clean and prep the surface behind the VHF for some paint...

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...find the leak...

..so with Pap ashore I could now devote some time to finding the cause of that leak...

..first things first though and a visual check of the whole hull, the good news is that she doesn't appear to be holed..  no holes/cracks or abrasions to be seen .. (I can't be certain until she's back in the water though...)

Next I then checked the rudder stock as I remember one of the other guys in the owners group telling us that he's had problems with his being cracked, and the stern locker filling... on Pap the stern locker has a couple of drain holes coming through to the main bilge/cabin so the water could have come from there..  I jacked up the front of the boat, emptied the stern locker of accumulated crap (how many 'useful' pieces of rope can you keep??!), threw in four buckets of water and retired underneath the boat to look for drips.. and nothing....tick...

...while I'd been on holiday I had a bit of a eureka moment and decided to test my theory - I'd noticed when I was pressure washing her after the recovery, that there had been a tide line on the port side deck which started me thinking about the sink outlet skin fitting...  I taped over the exit on the outside of the hull, filled the sink with water, and then shone the torch underneath, and saw this..



..bit clearer in this one...



...yup water...  looks like I found my cuplrit....  seemed to be leaking from the join between the two fittings rather than the actual hose...  got the jubilee off, went to pull off the pipe, and the entire inner fitting just snapped off... plastic fatigue...

Next, just to be sure I then dropped the nose down and let the water from the stern locker drain into the main boat, and added three or four more buckets full - still no leaks.....  tick...

Last of all I then checked the skin fittings for the toilet (two of them); these are gated valves, but I've never used them in all the time I've had the boat - if I had my choice I'd get the valves removed and glassed over, take out the old toilet, and fit a chemical loo..  either way they look good - firmly seated, hoses look fine...

...so - new fitting required for the sink, or fill it. Now I can never see the point in making holes in a boat - there's no need unless you have an inboard engine, and I see even less need for something as flippant as a sink drain, so I'm going to fill it - spoke with a friend who runs a local chandlery and he says it's a cheap fix, and is exactly what he'd do - I'll make arrangements soonest, and depending on how cheap it is I may even do the toilet entries as well....  could do it myself, but for piece of mind I'll get the professionals in...

...next I turned to the mast - less problems than I thought - mast is fine - I'll drill the old one's out...

Mast foot not so good - this is original (so 40 years of abuse and aluminium corrosion) - as I see it I have two choices - replace it (Z Spars might be worth trying), or find an Aluminium fabricator and get it repaired....  going to have a go at the latter first....

Onwards and upwards...

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..he's back...

...just back from a few weeks in the sun, certainly put the British "summer" in contrast - sunny every day, 35+C temperatures (one day we had a 45...!) but these things never last, and all too soon it was over and we return to grey sky's and rain...  but at least we get a curry...

The trip was not without it's own challenges however....  on the last morning before we went I took the opportunity to pop out to Pap for breakfast, just to make sure all was secure before I disappeared for two weeks..  imagine my shock to find that she was significantly lower in the water than she should be... 

Jumped on board, slipped back the hatch and found about 3 or 4 inches of water in her... when I'm due to be packing for holiday, I'm faced with a sinking boat....  😮

Now this year we've had issues with some boats being holed at their moorings as a result of having sat awkwardly on exposed ground tackle (the weather has been so stormy it's possible the moorings are being scoured by tide/wind exposing the sinkers, and ground chain more than they normally would) so my first concern was that she'd been holed..

Whacked the electric bilge on and started sucking water back to where it should be (good news - battery was not flooded) then dug all the seat boards up to see if I could see where it was coming from... nothing.... no clues....

Checked the skin fittings for the toilet - no leaks...

I have no other skin fittings below the water line so I'm forced to the assumption that the hull is leaking from somewhere I couldn't see, I have two hours of tide left, and I'm going on holiday in 12 hours... oh, and I haven't packed....

No good - she was going to have to come out.. no way I could go on holiday for two weeks and leave her on the mooring...

A quick call round (early on a Sunday morning!) and I managed to rustle up some tractor/lift support from the club (it is simply not possible to say how grateful I was) but being mid-season I didn't have the A frame/mast crutch on board, I'm on my own, and there was no time to get home to get it, and  I needed the mast down to get under the bridge to the club slip .. oh well, needs must and no choice, so I rigged the new mast head halyard to the main sheet, slipped the split pin under the furler, and started to drop the mast... true enough it all went to rat sh*t, mast veered to the side, couldn't get it back in time, and I popped the (new) mast foot... 😣

Having recovered the mast, I tied it all down, and within 30 minutes I was ashore in the pen on the trailer...  went home to get mast crutch and pressure washer, and having returned I did a quick tidy up, pressure washed the hull, and went home to pack and go on holiday....  more in the next post...

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Bosham bosanova...

...dreadful alliteration is a hallmark of this blog so you shouldn't be surprised by the depths plumbed for this title... 

...summer has finally arrived in my particular part of the UK, so an afternoon off for some sailing was the order of the day, and Monday was perfect, as with a 15:10 high (spring) tide I reckoned I had over 6 hours to play with...

..left work just after 12, and by 1300 I had already dropped the mooring and was motoring for the end of the Thorney channel..  forecast was a sea breeze of about force 3, and I have to say it delivered in spades..

Beautiful day, but not the most helpful wind direction as it was almost exactly south, with the tide being a big spring the tide was flowing fast this early in the day, so rather than spend the next hour beating across the channel in the same spot(!) I decided to motor down; the wind direction was such that I could bear away for the Chichester channel and Itchenor just after I'd passed "Marker"... bit of motor sailing got me down there quite quickly, but it was still a relief to turn the donk off...

 Fantastic sail..  shorts and t-shirt weather, force 3, flat water - good speeds as the tide was now with me once I got into the Itchenor channel....  superb day, but so busy, every sailing club and activity centre down there seemed to have a small fleet of dinghy's loaded up with kids all having the time of their lives...

Itchenor - boats coming at you from all directions, and no channel I could see, just moorings and dinghy fleets all over the show...!

Wind was fluky as I approached Itchenor, there are tree's along the southern bank that break up the breeze..  I pushed on as far as I could but sheer numbers of boats meant that in the end I decided to take a detour and head up the Bosham channel past Cobnor Activity Centre

I was glad I did because I met up with this chap...

"Faith" is a Paradox Sailboat... lots more detail here and also here but by the strangest coincidence the owner of that blog is one of my followers (!) so...  if that was you Bill, it was nice to meet you and say hello... let me know if you found that nice quiet mooring for the night you were looking for..

Stunning boat that has done some serious journey'ing...

...and so with a quick check of Bosham itself, it was time to run for home...

Lovely sail back, but that tide was an absolute killer...  fine beat back to the main channel, but the run up the harbour was interminable whilst being brilliant all at the same time! In the end with time running out the donk went back on and I ran for home at...... just 2.5 knots at full whack - huge tide, I reckon at least 1.5 to 2 knots against... I didn't have much fuel with me(* so much for lessons learned!) so the concern was I wouldn't be able to use the rev's to get back in time, or I'd run out of fuel before I got there, but happily all ended OK....  phewww.... 

Track for the day...

So how does all that pan out??

Distance: 16.08 miles (cumulative total in the 2012 mileage tab at the top of the page)
Wind: Force 3 dropping to a 2  later .. south, must have been a little westerly in it as well...
Sail Plan: Full main, full jib..
Speed: GPS says max speed was 5 knots which I think was under sail as I beat back to the main channel, average speed of 2.7 knots...

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Saturday afternoon potter...

An unexpected treat.. a Saturday afternoon trip to the boat..

 

I only had an hour or so, but as an additional treat it was also quite bright, if not sunny, and it also wasn't raining... anyway.. just a pootle followed by a beer and a cigar, oh, and an opportunity to break in the new hat..

Distance: 4.28 miles (cumulative total in the 2012 mileage tab at the top of the page)
Wind: Force 1 gusting Force 2 .. south easterly
Sail Plan: Full main, full jib..
Speed: GPS says max speed was 4.3 knots which was under motor on the way back, average speed of 2.4 knots

I have Monday afternoon off for a longer trip...

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Cowes Raid - "Lessons Learned"

Few lessons learned following the recent trip to Cowes..... both good and bad.....  

1. The Netbook plotter was worth it's weight in gold following a few minor changes in set-up. Last time I used it, the major issue was the lack of battery time, for this trip I enabled "battery saver" mode - a slightly dimmer display, screen saver/sleep after 5 minutes, hibernate after 30 minutes...  a press of the button however brings the Netbook from either hibernate or sleep very quickly and using this mode for the trip, the Netbook was still at 40% power when I got back on Sunday afternoon (!) I used it pretty heavily on the Saturday b.t.w when I was approaching Cowes - particularly useful to show me how close I could go to the headland, and where the new Shrape Mud buoy is that marks the start of the small boat channel...  it was also helpful on Sunday to identify heading for the middle opening on the submarine barrier...
2. You can never have too much fuel - on the Sunday I should have stopped at the fuel barge on the Medina as I had an empty fuel can available - an extra 5 litres would have gone a long way to easing some of the 'fears' on Sunday morning... (and I'd bought the 2 stroke oil with me as well)
3. "Coastal" type wet weather gear doesn't keep you as warm as "Offshore" standard - I have Henry Lloyd coastal wet weather gear and I was dry throughout the trip, but was getting cold on Saturday - at one point I could see my breath steaming! I'll take more layers next time.... in the meantime, the flask of coffee was a God-send...





Heading for home..  thanks to Ciao-Bella Phil for this one

4. With a displacement of 710 Kg's and a waterline length of 16 feet, a Fantasie 19 is a very light boat and they don't like bashing into chop. A heavier boat would cut through the chop rather than bouncing on top of it, or being stopped by it..... Phil's "Ciao Bella" (a Hurley 20), has a theoretical displacement of 1031 Kg's for much the same waterline length - that's 30% more weight in the same length......
5. Tide is king when your average speed is only 3 knots - last weekend was a neap weekend so the flows were not as great as I was expecting - now this may have been a benefit when I was trying to get into Cowes at the end of the day on Saturday (adverse flow much less), but if I'd had a better push during the day then I would have got their quicker and it wouldn't have been an issue...
6. A Spring tide weekend is a necessity - Cowes is (give or take) 30 miles from my mooring, 26 Nautical miles - average speed is 3 Knots, so a minimum of almost 8.5 hours - you need the spring tide to give the necessary push to make it a more feasible trip....
7. Tide time... originally I picked the weekend as it allowed an early start, but then I learnt more about tidal flows in the Solent, so rather than an 08:30 HT (Portsmouth) I could probably have done with one just slightly later - even an hour later would have given me a much better run at it....  downside of course is that it would have been an hour later getting back on to the mooring coming back...
8. Wind direction - if tide is king, then wind must be queen - I'll never do Cowes again in a dead westerly (or easterly! ) - you need the "angles" to make the speed, so SW-NW, or SE-NE are critical for Cowes..
9. With enough time to prepare I might be tempted to start from Langstone Harbour if I was to go again - Phil mentioned it some time ago but I didn't think it would save me much time given I'd have to drop the mast and find a temporary mooring on the other side of the bridge - I've now changed my mind... The slog across Hayling Bay, and the distance to get into Chi Harbour from the West Pole is not to be underestimated....
10. Humans tire quicker than boats - Pap could have gone on for ever, but I was pretty pooped by the end of each day! Big achievement though, that was my goal for the year...  I'm sure there people who pop over to Cowes on a regular basis who are thinking "what on earth's he rabbiting on about"...  I'd say try it in a small 19 footer and see if you change your mind. As Burseldon Blogger said, it really was an adventure right on my door step...

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