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2014 Sailing Season

49K views 528 replies 46 participants last post by  SVAuspicious 
#1 ·
Well here's to the New Year and may all have a great year for sailing.

Haleakula had to be rested on land a few weeks ago as a late fall hitting a submerged object in Cornfield Creek seems to have injured the keel bolt under the mast. There was a steady filling up of the bilge over time and it wasn't safe leaving her in her normal winter berth in her slip.

The mast will be pulled in a week oe so to access the damage, but there was evidence along the leaing edge and one side of the keel. It will give us he opportunity to doing some work conditioning thru hulls as well as put a New steaming light on the mast. Donna has finished all he new cushions.

The Ultima 60 we put on 3 seasons ago was still going strong.

Well March 15 won't be far away.

Good health and New Years to all our Chessie friends.
 
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#39 ·
Wow, my hat's off to you for getting an early start this season. Great to see our family with you too!

I checked buoy data, and looks like you hit 60F around noon today. We're not that far north, but we didn't get above 40.

Whatever the air temperature, don't fall overboard. Water temps down around 40.
 
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#41 ·
My plan was to launch about the 15th of March - and by plan, I mean hope. But, the weather hasn't cooperated. I need at least one more warm day to wash / wax the freeboard and paint the bottom - hull temp needs to be over 55 or at least not cold to the touch.

Used the last nice weekend to prep the bottom.

The extended outlook is calling for sun and 60s on the 15th. Hope it holds.
 
#43 · (Edited)
If you want to be right downtown, the closest to and safest is Baltimore Marine Center at Inner Harbor, adjacent to the Rusty Scupper restaurant. The marina is gated, has good shower facilities, small ships store and a short walk to all the inner harbor activities. This probably where we'll stay if we overnight before the game.

Another option for overnight is the city dock, it's relatively cheap but it's not gated. I have stayed here a few times. Only once have we had an odd encounter. It was in the middle of the night when someone boarded our boat. Turns out it was some guy on a large catamaran by himself whom said he lost one engine and was pushing off? It was strange and I reported it to the authorities. I observed all kinds of mess in the cockpit including open bottles of various beverages. And who wears work boots and a overalls when out sailing? Nothing happened but it was certainly start taking to hear footsteps on your boat and knowing someone's there.

Another option is the city docks, but the bulkhead right in front of the Light Street pavilion. Fun for these afternoon but I wouldn't stay there for the night.

Yet another option is the free dockage on the bulkhead in Fells Point. I've stayed here a few times with no isssues, it's right in the middle of FP, if you want to be close to 3 very thing it's fun. IIRCC, just watch the concrete bulkhead, you'll need some decent sized fenders.

There many marinas there, Harbor East is another and close to Canton. Canton has many good restaurants and night life as well.
 
#47 ·
I enjoyed sailing with you Rick and would again. Seriously, if you want to meet at Pirate's Cove after and talk about good crew *with* the crew I'd be happy to do so.

I'm working in Galesville these days so any time you want to catch up I'm local. *grin*
 
#48 ·
This has been one of those weeks where work just really gets in the way... After several gross weekends we get a great Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Sadly, instead of sailing this weekend I'll be waxing my hull, doing a little plumbing fix and installing a new bilge pump float.

See y'all on the water next weekend...
 
#49 ·
Messing about on boats is good, even if you're not sailing.

In spite of the favorable forecast, I won't be sailing. I have a club function to attend, and I'll be installing a stereo on another boat. At least I'll be messing about on boats! :)
 
#53 ·
I am on the hard still, and blocked in by two large powerboats. Between work and evening commitments, I've only been able to find hour-long slivers of time to stop by the boat on the way home from work. Monday I pulled the cover. Yesterday I scraped off all loose bottom paint. Today I applied sand-free primer to the bare spots, followed by bottom paint on those spots once the adhesion promoter was tacky. Weather permitting, I plan to polish the hull in a couple sessions this weekend, in between other stuff.

I hope to launch on Friday, April 18, but with 10 days of travel between now and then, I'll have very little time to wax the hull, raise the mast, and test the motor. If I miss my target date it will be another week delay because of unfavorable tides at the sling lift. And if the big boats blocking me in don't splash first, I will continue to be blocked in. It's a private club, so they will not launch a boat without the owner present, and the owners tend to run and hide if they're not ready to launch.
 
#54 ·
Finished a complete compound and wax using the Mainesail method the last few weekends and it was the best job the old gal Haleakula has seen. That Makita is the ticket for sure...though it gets heavy as the afternoon goes on. Used the 3M compund, Fiinesse, a the good paste wax as well

The have reglassed the 4 inch crack and replaced the shaft log and the shaft is out being trued so our splash is [probably within a few weeks. This is the lastest by a month for us to be in and out sailing.

Starting to plan our Long Island Trip beginning August 13.

Cant wait to raft up with Brain see Sharons and his luxuary yacht.

Dave
 
#56 ·
Ok.,,,,finally we are ready to go. Splashing on Wednesday,

We finally identified what caused the 4" crack in the shaft log. About 18 monmths ago we had everything replaced from the coupler back ( coupler, shaft, cutlass) and also had new motor mounts done. Evidently the nuts must be torqued again after a settling in operiod of 9 months so both the from nuts dropped off the motor mounts. The engine shifted and laid against the shaft log and cracked it. New fix has backup nuts to prevent this from happening again.,

It will feel good to finally get to sleep on the boat and get out on the water.

dave
 
#57 ·
We finally identified what caused the 4" crack in the shaft log. About 18 monmths ago we had everything replaced from the coupler back ( coupler, shaft, cutlass) and also had new motor mounts done. Evidently the nuts must be torqued again after a settling in operiod of 9 months so both the from nuts dropped off the motor mounts. The engine shifted and laid against the shaft log and cracked it. New fix has backup nuts to prevent this from happening again.,

dave
Covered under warranty..or..an excuse from the repair dealer that it was not their fault..??
 
#60 ·
Taught me a lesson. Torquing the bolts on the engine mounts and having another nut there so they dont back off is not an option...but SOP every year like changing the impeller, changing the fuel filter, and tightening the belts.

Dave
 
#61 ·
Mostly Sunny and 70's this weekend...oh yea. I don't care if there is wind or not but were going to anchor somewhere for night and toast the start of our season with a nice red, maybe a cab or pinot...um decisions decisions.

(we'll avoid Bodkin creek, apparently folks on the shore like to shoot at boats)

Maybe I'll even get motivated to install the new fridge :) Probably not.
 
#62 ·
Mostly Sunny and 70's this weekend...oh yea. I don't care if there is wind or not but were going to anchor somewhere for night and toast the start of our season with a nice red, maybe a cab or pinot...um decisions decisions.

(we'll avoid Bodkin creek, apparently folks on the shore like to shoot at boats)

Maybe I'll even get motivated to install the new fridge :) Probably not.
Good to see you guys have gotten out. Ho[pe to have Haleakula home by this weekend.

Dave
 
#63 ·
Planning an 0-dark-thirty departure from Herring Bay to Deltaville on Saturday. Wanted to leave Friday evening and go overnight, but Mother Nature says No.

Saturday should give us a beam to broad reach in 15G20+, but I'll take that over 30 on the nose at night.
 
#64 ·
Our lady made the short motor home with no issues. Water leakage problem fixed. So we spent the day cleaning. Putting water through the fresh water system, I was doing first flush in the head , when the sprayer/ faucet combo exploded in my face. First casualty of the sailing season. Order a new Scandivic from a Defender on sale. Looks like we may get out Sunday if we can bring all the cushions back, get the sails on and put the boat back together

Felt good to get back on the water

Dave
 
#65 ·
I've had two races so far.

First race, we were 15 minutes behind the winner, uncorrected.
2nd race, we were less than 6 minutes behind the winner, uncorrected.

3:13 behind the winner on corrected time. The second race was in 25kts, gusting to 33kts.

Good times.:cool:
 
#66 ·
YeeHa! Looks like we're in for a full day of that tomorrow, but if we do get the forecast winds at least they will be going more or less the same direction we are. No way would I try to beat into that.

The late forecast for the Deltaville area has the winds subsiding, so if we can hang on long enough to get past the Potomac we'll be golden.

Still have a bailout plan for Solomon's or maybe one of the creeks past Smith Point if its too rough.
 
#70 · (Edited)
Well the forecast was off a bit. The two guys that agreed to help crew and I spent Friday night on the boat for our planned 4 AM departure. At a bit before 3 AM was was awakened by the boat heaving in the slip and feeling the mast vibrate with the wind. I thought for sure we'd be going nowhere, so turned off the alarm and went back to sleep. At about quarter to 5, I woke up again and noticed the boat was still, so I took a peek around the marina finding it calm. A quick weather re-check showed the Gale waring ending at 6AM, so since the winds seemed to have already subsided we decided to depart. We joined the parade of workboats leaving Rockhold Creek and entered the Bay at 5:30 AM, expecting we'd be facing SCA conditions most of the day. What we found were minor waves barely whitecapping and going our direction. The wind was almost nonexistent, so the trip was totally unlike what I was mentally prepared for. Not only did we not need a reefed main, there wasn't enough wind to attempt to sail most of the day. However by mid morning we were motorsailing with jib only with comfortable cruise RPM the waves and a ebb tide gave us ground speeds touching 8 knots and averaging at least mid 7's for much of the day. Crossing the Potomac where I expected the roughest conditions, was actually the calmest. The wind got even softer here and dropped our speed into the mid 6's. Once past Smith Point the winds increased into the mid teens but had clocked to be on the nose so even here we couldn't take advantage of it and keeping our VMG in the 6+ knot range.

ET was almost exactly 12 hours (missed the Marinas Opening Day happy hour but were there in time for the start of the BBQ Dinner) to cover the roughly 80 NM from Herring Bay to Broad Creek giving a average VMG of 6.75. My wife drove down and was able to catch part of the happy hour and join us for dinner. The welcome from all our old Stingray Point friends really made it feel like coming home. It was great getting caught up with everyone.
 
#68 ·
Wednesday night was wild in Annapolis, with gusts to 35, one dismasting and one shredded sail.

Doing the AYC distance race on my boat this weekend as a tune-up to the Bermuda race. It should be a reach all the way down the bay, and upwind all the way back. So much for the prevailing SW breeze!
Joel
 
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