End of season?

I thought I ought to put up a little post since it's September to remind everyone that the "sailing season" is what you want it to be. I know one reader of this blog whose boat will literally be under a foot of ice shortly so he has an excuse but for everyone in Blighty take a look at the following pictures and ask yourself whether you really want to lay up soon, or if perhaps November is worth waiting for?

Last week

Last week I sailed to the Isle of Man, and yesterday travelled 110NM from Peel to Scotland. None of this was on Magic, I'm only writing it here because someone on a forum used this blog as an example of my sailing experience, assuming that Magic was all I had sailed on and apparently 150 miles in a week in a Vivacity 20 makes me a poor sailor. With a bit of luck, said moron will realise that this blog is about the boat and not the sailor with this post and in future the blog can go back to just Magic related stuff :) The TT was awesome too by the way!

 

Tracks from the sailing

 The run in to Peel (5 hours with the Spinnaker up, 10kt max TTW)

 

 Loch Ryan, 5.30am

 Sulby Straight, accellerating so hard the front wheel is up at 180mph

The Bungalow from the top of Snaefell

Yacht name (at last!)

Finally I took a photo of the name. The colours are a little washed out in this picture, both the name and the boat look much better in real life. I'm very pleased with the font and colour and more than a little relieved that the second name stuck! Thanks again to the forum member who made this. 

Scuttlebutt Solent to Poole Cruise 2013

I'm a little too tired this evening to write up the trip, but here are the tracks from the last few days. Live Magic and I travelled over 100NM in 5 days with a top speed through the water of 6.4kt and a top speed over the ground of 10kt! We sailed through fog, ventured outside the Solent, and met some new friends from the forum.

What a weekend!

Well I hope all you folks out there in Internet land had as good of a weekend as me with your boats. I invited a friend along who, although we have sailed together many times, has never been aboard Live Magic. We slipped lines at Emsworth at around 8.30am on Saturday and left the marina with 6" of water under the keels. It's funny how you forget things like neaps over the winter, I think we actually could have gone out later but it still felt like a close shave. Adam took charge of the boat and I got the sails up almost straight away so by the time we passed the waiting pontoon in Emsworth we were under sail and the engine was silent with a nice easterly wind giving us a gentle beam reach all the way up the harbour. Once at the harbour mouth we sailed to Bar Beacon and turned for Cowes. I'll admit that because it was such a calm day we didn't actually get all the way to Bar Beacon, and had no intention of going near West Pole so started the turn early. On a run with the sails goosewinged we continued on toward the forts before crossing the shipping channel. We were nearly halfway across this when a ship steamed up and seemed determined to pass ahead of us, so we turned 90 degrees and sailed straight down the channel for a while with the ship passing us to port. A second ship could be seen at this point so we decided to wait for that to pass to port as well before resuming our crossing. Immediately after this we finished crossing to allow a third ship to pass to our starboard. After Ryde we turned in towards Cowes and on to a more sail friendly course until the wind died at Osbourne Bay. We started the motor for the remaining short hop to the Medina. After passing Shrape we noticed several new buoys marking the new small boat channel into Cowes. These are considerably more straightforward than last year with both red and green buoys, and an extra set being added. We followed this channel and motored up the river to East Cowes Marina. Having called for a berth we were told to proceed to Quebec 18 but when we arrived it was taken. Q16 then, taken as well, then Q15 and finally P18 where we eventually tied up. We then went on to have a couple of pints in various establishments on the island before having a decidedly disappointing meal in The Anchor. Hopefully they will improve again before the season but I Felt they we're now relying on the fact that they are close to the marina to get business where in the past the food had been good quality. Our "sizzling steaks" for instance were silent with raw onion beneath them on a warm cast iron plate. The following morning, due to tides, we left at 4am and motored back on mirror calm seas and saw the most wonderful sunrise. The remainder of the day was spent sleeping :)

How I made the cockpit tent

Sorry this one took a while to write up, I've got no excuses as I was on holiday and doing very little! To make the cockpit tent I decided on a design first. I had several choices to make here, one was using GRP rods to give a rounded shape. I may still do this longer term but chose to go ahead without for now as it seemed roomy enough without, and stowing them would be a problem since they would either need ferrules or be 3m in length. I then made the decision to fit over the boom, using it as a support. This is not just easier but also practical. To fit under the boom I would have needed to sew in some kind of ties to attach it to the bottom of the boom which would almost certainly have introduced leaks, but also would have meant I would lose the boom inside as a wet locker for hanging oilskins on inside the tent.

Once the design was decided upon the rest was easy. I measured the boom from the end at the topping lift forward to the first lazy jack on the stackpack. Since this cannot be removed easily the tent has to go around it and therefore this is where a split needs to start.

Next,I measured forward from the lazy jack to the front of the open hatch below. I could easily have gone further and may make another in future which goes all the way to the mast but I decided this would make it even harder to get on or off the boat. You'll notice I have photos of the measurements, this is not because I took them for the blog but because it's a lot easier to do with a mobile phone camera than keeping bits of paper. This way I also have context for the measurements and can actually see where I measured to.

The tent ended up the shape in this picture. It's not to scale of course, but this shows the general idea. I got lucky that the fabric was 150cm wide so two widths fits perfectly. The dashed line in the middle is the join in the sheets, and this was the first job to give me a double width sheet to work with. I spent some time making sure this was a neat join and tucked the edges of the fabric in in both directions, this is harder than it sounds but is shown in the following side view picture. I used venture tape (double sided tape) to hold it together and sewed two lines where the red dashes are.

As you can see, this join stopped for the lazy jack where I separated the sides and sewed hems on, again doing a double fold and using venture tape.

The venture tape gets stuck along the edje of the fabric and then a cool iron (as hot as the fabric will take, not very hot at all for rip stop nylon) is used to set a nice crease. Finally, the venture tape is folded over and the backing removed to stick it down. Don't try to remove the backing beforehand or you'll end up in a mess. Remove it in sections by holding the fabric in place and pulling the backing out from under your hand so that you can guarantee that section is in the correct place.

Once the seam is stuck down, just run a line of sewing down it. I then did a second line to make it a little more durable and help keep the shape. When sewing with sticky tape you may need to clean both the needly and foot regularly to remove gunk which gets pulled through while sewing.
When all of the seams are in place, use some eyelets (hipkiss kits are ideal) to put the shockcord through for fastening. I used 5mm shockcord in black with 5mm black eyelets and black hooks as they contrast nicely with the bright white of the tent fabric. In all this project cost under £20 although I was still using up the venture tape from the stackpack project. Be sure to use UV resist thread, I found some polyester stuff in Fabricland which seems to fit the bill but time will tell.

Chart case

Well, this one wasn't planned. I was sitting around today and had some spare navy blue ripstop sitting on the floor. This had been intented as the cockpit tent but turned out far too dark and I had yet to tidy away so decided to make a chart pack. I love charts and have quite a collection, mostly the big chart packs from the Admiralty but also a few of the old folded ones. These are hard to keep tidy due to their size, so they live under the sofa but still somehow end up working their way out, possibly in a bid to make me use them more. The case itself is very simple and took around an hour to make, consisting of a single piece front and back with separate sides. There is also a flap to cover the charts once they are in but no fastenings to keep it closed. The waterproof nature of the rip stop fabric should protect from splashes but also the dark backing will protect from UV fading the colours.

 Here you can clearly see the black waterproof backing which would have made the cockpit tent dark and depressing.

 To show the scale, here is an admiralty pack.

 And another, and finally here is the pack with the flap tucked in ready for storage.

Boat Name

Well, thanks to a member of YBW forums I now have a name to put on Live Magic as you can see in the picture. Unfortunately when we tried to fit one it was too cold and didn't stick, although this could also be a lack of thorough cleaning. When the weather warms up I'll have another go with this spare one and post some pics. Thanks again to the unnamed forum member who couldn't stand to see my little boat without a name on the back. I won't name him otherwise he'll be swamped with requests from my huge readership :)

Boom tent finished

Well, here are the pics of the new cockpit tent. It's made from rip stop nylon which is waterproof and windproof. I chose white to make it lighter inside on dull days, and it seems quite pleasant inside from the time I spent today. It looks a bit basic in the pictures, but it's actually longer at the bottom to give more protection, has eyelets with shockcord and plastic hooks to attach to the boat, and also eyelets with cord to tie in front of the stackpack cords to allow it to fully cover the hatch.

Cockpit tent

I've spent the evening making a cockpit tent. Hopefully some pics to follow, but for now all I can say is that rip stop nylon is the work of the devil with its nearly square pattern and slidey nature!

Locker Lids

Well here we go, after a few issues the locker lids are finally done and fitted. One lesson I learned along the way was never try to re-use old screws. The ones I took out of the old lids had gone soft and several snapped off inside the new lids meaning I had to move the hinges slightly. This weekend I also fitted two extra cleats at the mast so each rope now has its own cleat, got the battens replaced (only one came with the boat and that fell into the sea a while ago!) and even replaced the cork in the sink with a real plug :) The new fuel line seems to be better too, and with a test I had no issues with the engine and there was no leaking on the hose at all.  The boat is dirty in the pics by the way as the water is off at the moment due tot he cold weather, so next to the new lids everything looks terrible. With a quick hose and brush up though it will all look the same.

Cockpit Locker Lids

The cockpit locker lids on Live Magic were quite worn when I bought her 2 years ago. Since then thanks to them soaking up the rain they have worn quite quickly and have also been allowing water into the cockpit lockers. Thankfully this is only rain water but having to taste bilge water is not on my list of fun activities on a boat!
This year I have decided to replace the lids and will be painting them to match the rest of the deck. To begin, I bought a sheet of WBP plywood 18mm thick. This is the thickness of the existing lids and makes them flush with the cockpit seats. Although many would use marine ply for this application there is simply no need. The difference between WBP and marine ply is purely one of quality, with marine having no internal voids or filler. WBP is made of the same wood and uses the same glues but there may be some small voids and some filler used. Since I'm painting the lids anyway I'm happy to fill any remaining voids, and will be fully sealing the wood to keep moisture out. If I was planning on a varnish finish then marine ply would have been ncessary to make the lids look better.
Plywood sheets have an interesting pricing structure where a sheet is only very slightly more than half a sheet which is only slightly more than a quarter sheet, so I recommend buying a full sheet so you have sufficient spare material in case of mistakes, and also to allow for defects to be worked around, so you can choose the best piece for your lids. It's worth mentioning that a full sheet won't fit in a car so you may need to use a van, roof rack, or cut it in the shop or carpark to get it home. Alternatively you could get it delivered by the shop.
Next comes the cutting. Lay out the sheet on some saw horses and find the best parts. Place the old locker lids on top and draw around them, or measure the holes and mark them out. When drawing around old lids, you may need to mark the general dimensions and then fill in lines with a straight edge afterwards if like mine they are very worn. Use a table saw if available or circular saw if not. Don't use a jigsaw if you can help it as you'll struggle to get straight lines. It may be easier to cut rough rectangles around the shapes before the final cut so that you're working with smaller pieces of wood which are more controllable on the saw. At this stage, try the lids on the boat and mark up any hinges and locks for cutting. You may also want to write "top" or "front" for reference if you have odd shapes.
Once you've cut the shapes out you'll want to do some finishing. First and foremost, use a very sharp plane to straighten all edges. Because plywood is laid up with opposing grains for stability a blunt plain will tend to rip the end grains so make sure it is sharp before starting. Remember that a plane is to flatten the bumps and sandpaper is for smoothing to a finish. There is no point trying to sand something flat, even with an electric sander, you'll get bored long before you achieve your goal! I decided to cut the hinges into the lids to give a tighter fit. To do this you can either go the traditional chisel route, or use a router. I used a router, and clamped the lid to the side of my workbench to do this. Make sure they are very securely mounted before using a router. I first cut the ends square with a chisel to get a good finish, and then routed between these marks. I set a standard routing bit to a depth appropriate for the hinges and made the cuts. Next, I used a curved bit to round the front tops to match that of the boat and to provide a more resilient shape. A perfect square edge will wear very badly so try to avoid these anywhere on the lids, and always round off the corners a little with sand paper.
Once all hinges and locks have been cut in, start sanding. An electric sander is fine for this but you'll probably also need a flat block of wood and some hand paper for the fine detail work. Start off with 80 grit and work down to 120 or 160 for a fine finish, making sure to round off corners where appropriate.
To finish, I decided to apply two coats of exterior varnish to seal the wood, sanding with 160 grit between coats. After these, a final sanding and then the painted finish gets rolled on just as I did with the deck. The top side will have a non slip finish using non slip pearls. Don't try to save money and use sand here as it destroys expensive sailing gear. The pearls are only a couple of pounds even at a chandlers and since they are plastic will not wear out your oilies as quickly.
I'll post pictures later this week of the finished lids when they are done (and the new washboards!) and then hopefully some of them on the boat next weekend.

2012 Sea miles

Well, only 210 miles on Live Magic last year but here are the tracks in all their glory.  

This year I also did a few miles on Juno III, a friends sailing boat (40' carbon fibre race yacht by Rob Humphries) :)

 

Update on the stackpack

Well, the new sail bag has been on for over half a year so I thought a quick update might be welcome since it's the most popular post on the blog. The design has worked incredibly well and made my life as a single hander much easier. If I were to start again the only change I would make is a third support line to hold the bag at the end of the boom. On this size boat it's not strictly necessary but the bag would balance better with it. I've had no degradation at all of any seams, zip etc. and water build up has not been a problem. Overall I'm very pleased with it and would happily make one for my next boat.

Just added new pages for the previous couple of years logs on Live Magic as well as a jobs list to try and focus me into getting the jobs done finally rather than sailing all the time :)

It's been a while since I updated the blog. The reason for that is very little has happenned. I've not had time for much sailing and not needed to do much work. This week someone asked to buy Live Magic so I had a tidy and took some new pictures. It turns out he didn't want her as much as I did so the blog will continue :)
Here are the pictures from today of the inside, and some from last year of the outside.