Beaulieu River

As well as woodwork, last weekend I took Live Magic to Beaulieu River for the first time. A friend and I had discussed this earlier in the year and never made it, and neither of us had been before. Alan was also somewhat new to anchoring - something we all suffer from in the Solent due to the relatively few anchorages and many marinas and moorings available. So, in the pub on the Friday night following a very warm day and with more forecast for the weekend we decided the time had come. The following morning I checked the tides to find that we didn't need to leave until 11am. This is new to me, having berthed in Emsworth behind the cill for three years I'm now able to leave any time I like and plan around tidal streams. It turned out that we left at 11:30 and slowly made our way down Portsmouth Harbour - I sailed most of the way but with a southerly wind ended up motoring the last bit which is also a requirement when leaving Portsmouth Harbour anyway.

Once out into the Solent we sailed west and caught a storming tide. I had 1kt through the water and 4.5 over the ground most of the time.

Since the wind was behind me, and due to speed and direction was very light indeed, I cooked dinner while sailing towards Beaulieu. I'm kind of lucky in that I can just take my cooker on deck and cut veg and stir the pot while also sailing if it's calm. Unfortunately this means when it's rough I have no gimbals and no hot food but it's a fair trade off.


Once we arrived in the river we were expecting chaos. It was the best weekend of the year so far and all reports say that this river is packed all the time. As it turns out, the anchorage was virtually empty, with only a single other yacht when we arrived. Once we had anchored, I inflated my dinghy and Alan launched his. We didn't need two, but I don't get to use mine very often and he was testing a new to him engine. We motored against the current for a while in some of the most beautiful surroundings I've seen on any boating trip - this is what boating is all about! We met with the harbour master who gladly took out £5.50 anchoring fee each in exchange for some knowledge of the river. On we went to tie up at Bucklers Hard and a quick pint in the Master Builders pub. This dinghy journey had been around an hour including a refuel stop (not planned :o/ ) on the way so we only had one pint in the lovely beer garden. In future I may skip the Spag Bol in favour of their barbecue burgers which looked great, but on this occasion we were both very tired so sped back to the boats in the dinghies this time with a little tide, and steering with body weight (a far more exciting way to steer the boat!).

Once back on board, I reheated the bolognese and cooked spaghetti (only realising at the last moment I have no colander on board). While cooking I poured a glass of cold Marlborough white wine and deflated the dinghy and put the engine away.

After dinner Alan and I chatted between boats on deck for a while until sunset while listening to the twitter of the birds on the Island and the gentle lapping of water against mud on the bank.

The following morning I awoke to paradise - another sunny day and still water.

I cooked bacon and made tea then did the washing up before we headed for home. With the wind from the south east against the east going tide it was a little rough on the way home but a fun sail nonetheless. Finally got back early afternoon and washed the boat down before heading home for a rest.

New Teak

Hi all, sorry it's been so long since I've posted any updates I've been very busy. I've just replaced the teak strips either side of the companionway as the old ones broke - never hold on to the sliding hatch for support at sea!

The new ones are also teak, which I sourced from Robbins Timber in Bristol, UK. This is sustainable teak and although more expensive than other hardwoods isn't as expensive as you'd imagine. I ordered a single length planed to size, the single length was to avoid a charge per piece for two separate pieces. Once it arrived, I cut my two lengths and had a little left over to use for plugs.

I then used a router to round the edges. To do this, I first rounded the top corners using the router end on to the wood to give the rounded end, then used the same bit to round the long edges and around the top. Finally I flipped over the wood and rounded the bottom edge as the Vivacity has a curve moulded in to the fibre glass between the step and where the wood attaches.

Next, I bought a plug and cutter set from Axminster tools. This includes bits for cutting plugs and matching holes which are used to cover the screws. I also bought a pillar drill to make sure I was cutting square on with these bits although it would be possible to carefully do without one.

Once the screws were in I glued the plugs in with wood glue. There is some argument about whether to use varnish, glue or nothing for this but I went with glue as I have no intention of removing these again while I own the boat.


A few hours later, I used a hacksaw blade to cut as close as possible to the wood. The tape is to avoid marking the wood too much.

Next I used a plane set really fine to plane off any remaining plug to flatten. It's possible here to just sand back but that would probably lead to a less flat surface even using a sanding block.

Finally I sanded back to smooth with a sanding block and 120 then 180 grit paper. Here you can clearly see the double rounded top edge.

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 :)