weekender blog
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Sail #2
Well, after lessons learned and bugs found from Sail #1, I spent the nights after work trying to fix the steering. Some really good suggestions were posted by members here and on the other board, and what I finnal ended up doing is doing 3 turns before the through-hole, tying the rope to itself after going through the shaft, and putting 3 more turns after the through hole. Tightened it all up, and it works well.
With the steering fixed and trolling motor ok (thank goodness for that), we set out on Lake Lahontan again this afternoon. This time it was myself and my two daughters.
Things that went right: Everything! We spend about an hour and a half sailing around. The winds were very light, but we did reach 2 mph (1.73 nautical mph). I remembered my gps this time.
Things that went wrong: Nothing, really. We all had a great time, but again, I forgot the camera. This nice jet skier used his girlfriend's camera to take a pic of us at the doc. Hopefully he'll email them to me sooner than the guy who helped me last week Wink (still haven't gotten them yet)
I did learn to make sure and pull up to the windward side of the dock (I didn't do that this time >8-O ) and the stern swung way out as I was trying to manuever her onto the trailer (yeah, I still had the sails up, but they were loose), but the jet ski guy jumped into the water and helped me load her up. All in all a great day. ¶ 3:52 PM 0 comments
With the steering fixed and trolling motor ok (thank goodness for that), we set out on Lake Lahontan again this afternoon. This time it was myself and my two daughters.
Things that went right: Everything! We spend about an hour and a half sailing around. The winds were very light, but we did reach 2 mph (1.73 nautical mph). I remembered my gps this time.
Things that went wrong: Nothing, really. We all had a great time, but again, I forgot the camera. This nice jet skier used his girlfriend's camera to take a pic of us at the doc. Hopefully he'll email them to me sooner than the guy who helped me last week Wink (still haven't gotten them yet)
I did learn to make sure and pull up to the windward side of the dock (I didn't do that this time >8-O ) and the stern swung way out as I was trying to manuever her onto the trailer (yeah, I still had the sails up, but they were loose), but the jet ski guy jumped into the water and helped me load her up. All in all a great day. ¶ 3:52 PM 0 comments
Thursday, August 18, 2005
She Sails!
After long last, I have reached a stage in the building of My Sailboat that she was ready for a test sail.
Guess what, she floats, she leaks (not bad), and she actually sails! I spent all morning getting things ready, and then at 2:30, this guy from a local sailing club (I had put the word out I wanted to do a shakedown sail and solicited help from the club - I'm soooo glad I did, read on) showed up and we headed out to a nearby lake called Lahontan - it's about 25 minutes away. So we got out there, set it up, and launched it. At the dock we watched water seep into the cabin. I was afraid of that, I knew that there was a small leak; I thought I might have fixed it, but no luck. It still leaked. But, since it was so slow, neither one of us lost confidence. We decided to sail.
We took it out with the mainsail only so we would have one less thing to worry about. We motored out (with this puny ass trolling motor - gonna have to fix that sooner or later) and we sailed it for about 10 minutes, and then we hit another problem. It became apparent during a tack that my steering control had gone. I could turn from straight to port, but not to starboard. The bad thing was that in order to sail back to the dock, we needed to turn starboard. So, we turned on the trolling motor and brought her about. That's when we noticed the third, fourth and fifth problems.
Third problem - I had reversed the wiring for the trolling motor. No biggie, all that meant was 3 forward speeds instead of 5.
Fourth Problem - Turn the motor to port, it hits the rudder. No biggie, I can move the motor mount and make another rudder.
Fifth Problem - Turn the motor to port, and it wants to lift off the mount and fall into the lake. Even though I really cranked down on the mount screws. No biggie, I can route a recess for the mounting brackets to prevent slippage.
We made it back to the dock, and assessed the steering. It seems that the rope I used as part of the steering system was slipping on the wheel's axle. Ok, so we wrap the rope around the axle two more times, and tested it, and it seemed taut, and good to go. No more slippage.
This time I headed out by myself, so my new friend could take some pictures of the boat out on the water (I was so nervous today I forgot my camera!). This time, because of the wind, I sailed right off the dock.
It was Frickin' AWESOME. For about 10 minutes I was in beam reach heaven. I was sailing, and not just sailing, but sailing a boat I had built myself. The wind was up, the boat was heeled slightly (I love that!) and carp were jumping all around me. It was a pretty darn good feeling. Then, the steering problem happened again. Ok, well, time to head back... But because of the wind, It was very hard to get back this time, but I made it it. I had to reach behind the boat with my arm to manually force the rudder over, but I could get where I needed to be. Or so I thought... I missed the dock and was being pushed by the wind right into the rocky shoreline adjacent to the dock. I had enough time to throw the motor hard to port to swing her around (but remember the motor - rudder situation?) the boat swung around, away from the shore, but... the water was too shallow for the rudder now (but that's ok, It's designed to "kick up" if need be, so, another ding, but no harm, no foul. I can always create another rudder, it's not to big a deal. So back again at the dock, we decide to call it a day.
All in all, it was a great experience, and I have some more work to do on this thing, but at least it worked for a while! Hopefully I can update this with some pics before too long.
Oh, and last but not least - I think I may have fubarred my trolling motor. I stowed it in the cockpit for the drive home, forgetting to disconnect the battery. When I retrieved it from the cockpit, the motor was too hot to touch. Uh-oh. The motor must have jostled and moved the throttle to an on position. I'm still afraid to see if it's burned out...
Guess what, she floats, she leaks (not bad), and she actually sails! I spent all morning getting things ready, and then at 2:30, this guy from a local sailing club (I had put the word out I wanted to do a shakedown sail and solicited help from the club - I'm soooo glad I did, read on) showed up and we headed out to a nearby lake called Lahontan - it's about 25 minutes away. So we got out there, set it up, and launched it. At the dock we watched water seep into the cabin. I was afraid of that, I knew that there was a small leak; I thought I might have fixed it, but no luck. It still leaked. But, since it was so slow, neither one of us lost confidence. We decided to sail.
We took it out with the mainsail only so we would have one less thing to worry about. We motored out (with this puny ass trolling motor - gonna have to fix that sooner or later) and we sailed it for about 10 minutes, and then we hit another problem. It became apparent during a tack that my steering control had gone. I could turn from straight to port, but not to starboard. The bad thing was that in order to sail back to the dock, we needed to turn starboard. So, we turned on the trolling motor and brought her about. That's when we noticed the third, fourth and fifth problems.
Third problem - I had reversed the wiring for the trolling motor. No biggie, all that meant was 3 forward speeds instead of 5.
Fourth Problem - Turn the motor to port, it hits the rudder. No biggie, I can move the motor mount and make another rudder.
Fifth Problem - Turn the motor to port, and it wants to lift off the mount and fall into the lake. Even though I really cranked down on the mount screws. No biggie, I can route a recess for the mounting brackets to prevent slippage.
We made it back to the dock, and assessed the steering. It seems that the rope I used as part of the steering system was slipping on the wheel's axle. Ok, so we wrap the rope around the axle two more times, and tested it, and it seemed taut, and good to go. No more slippage.
This time I headed out by myself, so my new friend could take some pictures of the boat out on the water (I was so nervous today I forgot my camera!). This time, because of the wind, I sailed right off the dock.
It was Frickin' AWESOME. For about 10 minutes I was in beam reach heaven. I was sailing, and not just sailing, but sailing a boat I had built myself. The wind was up, the boat was heeled slightly (I love that!) and carp were jumping all around me. It was a pretty darn good feeling. Then, the steering problem happened again. Ok, well, time to head back... But because of the wind, It was very hard to get back this time, but I made it it. I had to reach behind the boat with my arm to manually force the rudder over, but I could get where I needed to be. Or so I thought... I missed the dock and was being pushed by the wind right into the rocky shoreline adjacent to the dock. I had enough time to throw the motor hard to port to swing her around (but remember the motor - rudder situation?) the boat swung around, away from the shore, but... the water was too shallow for the rudder now (but that's ok, It's designed to "kick up" if need be, so, another ding, but no harm, no foul. I can always create another rudder, it's not to big a deal. So back again at the dock, we decide to call it a day.
All in all, it was a great experience, and I have some more work to do on this thing, but at least it worked for a while! Hopefully I can update this with some pics before too long.
Oh, and last but not least - I think I may have fubarred my trolling motor. I stowed it in the cockpit for the drive home, forgetting to disconnect the battery. When I retrieved it from the cockpit, the motor was too hot to touch. Uh-oh. The motor must have jostled and moved the throttle to an on position. I'm still afraid to see if it's burned out...
