Blue Moon

[The Q]

Howling winds with some heavy rain were the main aspects of this weekend..

So what got done?

First the mast got rigged, new main and jib halyards and the jib vang, Though that may get re rigged yet..

Why? well there is a hole though the mast for the old spinnaker halyard but unusually no sheeve, there's just a plastic tube in the hole, I guess Teflon tube...

Then at the bottom of the mast no sheeve to turn it to the crew, But signs there was one once. So I'm thinking on that one.

Unusually the halyards do not go down inside the mast but down inside the luff groove, which made it much easier to rig..

Then I thought that mast could do with a clean, so after the rain had stopped again, it was washed down and old tape removed.. Now it's a lot less green..

Old tape, yep, boom and sail limits plus some over holes from old fittings.. The removal of tape showed the mast had been a Goldspar, sadly now very grey, what can be done about that I'm not sure.. Recommendations anyone?

Then I made a wooden V to go in the keel trough, this will stop it moving forward in transport and guide the boat into the correct balance position on the trailer. That's now drying in the workshop and will get a good coat of paint before installation.

A box of ratchet tie down straps arrived, I've installed three, which are now helping hold the cover on.  I think in transport 4 will be needed.

[The Q]

Not as much work done as I'd hoped this weekend.

Mast tidying up was done but the jib vang rerouting wasn't... why? I tripped over a stay and hit the floor heavily, left arm and shoulder now very painful..
Prior to that I'd sanded above the water line, cleaned off, tak ragged, then painted the hull above the waterline.

The material for the boat cover was placed on the boat and marked out to fit.
then removed to the mobile home floor where after joining the dots, all forward of the mast was cut along with the mast hole and collar.

Next week the work hopefully will be sand below the water line and antifoul (first coat)
trial fit the mast... However..

Fridays forecast is 50MPH winds and Saturdays not much better..

[The Q]

Friday,

Took cover off, and the crack I caused previously when overtightening the tie down straps had reappeared, an inspection inside showed nothing there.

so nothing for it but.

Mark up 3.5 inches either side of crack, get grinder out, took paint undercoat and any filler down to the fibreglass skin that covers the ply hull.

Covered that with a thickened resin, pushed a six inch wide strip of glassfibre tape onto the resin, until it was properly coming through the weave.. covered top with more mix, used a straight edge to get a smooth fill.

Sanded most of the Bottom in preparation for antifouling.

Saturday. Rowed across  to the motorboat found the port stern mooring rope undone, this would have been the leeward rope during the storms  so why ? , No damage to the boat or its cockpit hood.

Then off to the local chandler's for another tin of Toplac, and home via a hardware store for non boat related stuff.

home, sanded the repair, that of course showed minor imperfections needing a finishing coat of filler.

Sunday,

Sanded repair and rest of  bottom of hull, gave the non repair side of the hull a coat of topcoat. Managed to just get that out of the previous tin of Toplac. Gave the repair a coat of undercoat.

[The Q]

Friday,

Sanded primer, on the repair, tack ragged and painted the entire repaired side.

Got the running lights working on the light board, there appears to be a problem with the wiring for the brake lights to socket wiring in the landrover, further investigation required.

Saturday.. Rain... other duties carried out,  

Sunday,

The mast was finally put up, an interesting problem on a 15ft long deck 6ft above the ground putting the foot of a 23ft mast down the hole.. Tip of the mast was pointing into the wind before being lifted, a very chilly North easterly that was..

Most of the rigging went well, except for a 20mm cheek block leapt off the deck and is not to be found, Myself, SWMBO and the dog had a good search, but it's gone missing.. as it's one of a pair for the Jib sheets, another has had to be ordered.

The other problem is the Jib vang routing, trying to find a suitable route back to me in the boat with out too many turns and not impeding the Mainsail vang.

Noted, I don't need the forestay fitted to the mast,  the Boat has the jib wire while sailing and the Jib vang as a backup. The jib vang can be moved to the jib attachment when not racing, keeping the tension off the Jib Club.

Also noted, I've forgotten to fit the block to the mast for the topping lift, need to do that and one on the boom..

 

So the currrent list left to do before the 27th March..

Other jib Cheek block,

Main sail vang,

Mainsheet,

Lock nuts on the steering controls,

Antifouling,

Second coat of paint over repair..

Trailer mud guards need fitting,

Brake lights need  fixing.

Warning triangle for boat overhang needs making..

 

[The Q]

Friday more finicky details worked on,

Various search's through the box of delights, aka the accumulated spares box, provided parts for..


Main Vang rigged,


mainsheet rigged and cut to length, ( off a 50m roll),


Sat in the chair and played sailing checking all the ropes and sheets came to hand.


Hull given a last hand sand, in particular those awkward bits like the hull to keel joint.


Masking tape applied to hull ready for anti fouling.


Then we went to collect a loom, full size floor standing, a two shaft table loom, a warping mill with Heck, and various bits and pieces. The big loom in kit form went on the Landrover roof, the rest inside, just, there wasn't much room left. New retail price for that lot, maybe £5000, second hand £1000, price to us... A bottle of wine..


Lowered mast 50mph winds forecast.





Saturday,


Hull given two coats of VC17M.


Top 6 inches of the hull below the waterline, which gets the most weed here, given a third coat.


Leading edges of bow, keel and rudder given a 4th coat.


Small amount left in sealed squeezy bottle to do bottom of keel when she's next hanging from a crane.


Blocks fitted for topping lift


Steering controls fitted properly with lock nuts and washers,


Steering control lines where they cross fitted into PTFE tube.


Decided another packing washer in the steering will help, a piece of HDPE has been identified as a candidate.


The New boat cover fitted, it just needs the excess material being cut off and the boat number put on.


The boat number 1260A is required to be put on the cover because the cover obscures the number on the boat.


SWMBO had painted the big loom with woodworm treatment during the above, we've just moved the parts to the woodshed for storage until we organise room for it, it takes, a 6ft square cube of space but with access required all round that's 10*10 ft floor area needed.


Sunday!!!


Cabinet building in the mobile home for the TV and heater, good progress on that was made until I ran out of screws.
So a kit of parts was made from the remaining plywood and Battens for future work on the cabinet.

The warning triangle for the boat cut and given a cut of paint. ( required by UK law due to the amount of overhang beyond the trailer lighting.).

The new washer was made, by marking up a square of plastic, then putting a bolt through the middle before installing that on the lathe, it was then just a few minutes work to turn it to size.







Left to do


Install That washer,


Fenders need made to measure attachment ropes and caribina hooks.


Mooring ropes need cutting to length and attaching to caribina hooks.


20ft tow rope needs selecting from stores, (club requirement for all keelboats)


Topping lift needs fitting,


Trailer needs mud guards fitting, hubs regreasing,


The warning triangle needs painting and brackets fitting so it will fit the boat.


The weed deflector needs fitting in front of the rudder.





Went looking online for more VC17M, before they change the formula and because with the current high inflation it's only going to get more expensive.. Found two 750mil tins at 60% off, yes please I'll have some of that!!!.

[The Q]

That washer was fitted ,

Fenders ropes made and fitted

Mooring ropes made

20ft tow rope cut to length

Topping lift not done yet but fittings are installed

Trailer  mud guards fitted, hubs regreased,  

The warning triangle made

The weed deflector. eventually found it when I was looking for something Else, it's now installed.

 

Here she is almost ready to go to the party.

[Chris Waite]

Is it my imagination Q

....or does she have a rather unusual concave aspect leading into the forefoot?

Chris W

[The Q]

She does, a miscalculation on my part when doing the original calculations of the design I got the angles the ply would bend to, wrong.
Realising that while building her, I could to loose waterline length or alter the bow design, so you can see the results of the redesign, as it is I think it should still work OK in a straight line but there might be slightly more tendency to dig the bow in when tacking.

[The Q]

just went outside to walk the dog, and realised something....
Tomorrow I need to tow my boat to the sailing club..
Problem,
The boat is now on a 3ft keel, hull and cockpit depth, 2ft 6inches, trailer bed above ground 14inches
That's a total of 80 inches..
Landrover height 77inches

At the end of this road is a hump backed bridge large diameter concrete pipe with a single track road over it.
There's another of those a mile or so further on.
And about 5 miles further on there's a full blown hump backed bridge.
Boat is 16 ft long
Landrover is 15ft 7 inches long....
Alli mast is 23ft long.
So either way I have around 7 ft of overhang. Today I urgently need to find a way of propping up the mast at one end by maybe 3 ft.

[Paul H (admin)]

Q,

If you are worried about bumping a bridge with your pride and joy.....maybe use scrap material to make a worst case model that sticks out awkwardly, then drive through the bridges as a test?


Maybe get a club member to follow you, with a hands free phone call? They can spot things you can't and we have all broken something while towing, despite taking care.

Been there, broken it!

Paul

[The Q]

Thanks,
I solved the problem as you can see,



I'm leaving in 3 minutes...

[Chris Waite]

You're not travelling very far by all accounts

Take the mast on the Landy, with a separate trip?

Chris

....sorry, just seen your last post

[The Q]

Yep. We got there,

[The Q]

and the full Story of the long weekend..

Friday,

Loaded the landrover with everything I could think of that we  might need.. and forgot the paddles...

Pumped a bit more grease into the trailer bearings, tightened the wheel nuts, hooked up the landrover.

Put on light board made it secure, checked the lights work OK.

Put the mast on the landrover roof experimented a bit and but tying it down on the forward slope of the cab roof found I could get enough clearance over Blue Moon to get over the hump backed Bridges.

Put warning triangle on the bow of Blue Moon.

 

Saturday,

08:00 set off for the club, after about 3 miles stopped and checked everything over. As the trailer has new hubs, new wheels, and everything on the trailer was effectively new. All OK.

About 3 miles later hear a strange noise, couldn't stop, I was on a zigzag bend that goes round the walls of a pub. About a hundred yards on I can stop..





4 screws have pulled out of the lighting board and the board is on the road. all lights destroyed..

Nothing I can do but find a bit of rope out of the Landrover and tie it on..

Get to the club and undo the lock to the gates. it's only a combination lock but unless you know there are some pins to remove or it won't unlock.. It's difficult even if you know how..

Bring the landrover and boat in and park it appropriately.. While putting the lock back on the now open gates, three of this years club officialdom turn up..

Release trailer from Landrover, manoeuver front of landrover to back of crane. Go onto the island to get from the locker the bag of bits needed to operate the crane.

Hook Landrover front towball to crane having removed another lock, pull crane back , push Blue Moon under the crane arm..

Get The ladder off the trailer, get into BM and sort out the lifting plate. realise i need some bits from the crane bag, climb out again get them climb in again, sort that out, climb out go to winch add handle from the crane bag, wind the hook down into the boat. Climb back in again and hook up.

Wind up to take the tension,  get the mast off the land rover, stand it leaning against the boat, climb onto the boat lift the mast up and put it into place loosely tie on the stays.

Wander off to a near by cafe get a takeaway coffee.

Unload Landrover onto Dyke bank, sit in Blue moons chair on the bank, and drink the coffee, just as I finish the Yeoman Keelboats start arriving for lift in..

Now there is a second trained crane operator there I can wind up BM off the trailer by about 6 inches, remove trailer and anti foul the bottom of the keel.

Then using the landrover push the crane to the dyke, wind the boat to just above water level, and wait the 15 minutes it says on the can  of antifoul before launching..

Lower her into the water for the fist time in 23 years...

Pull back the crane so the next boat can be readied for lifting.

Load all the stuff into her start paddling round the Island, and... Run aground,

Various club members take a rope and start pulling from the bank, eventually a club rescue boat turns up and tows BM round to the front of the clubhouse.

It was low tide, and we've had High air pressure over use for several days, that pushes down the North Sea, and lets the water out of the broads... So our water level was 2 ft lower than normal. all the Yeoman being launched had the same problem.

Start fitting out BM, with the odd interruption as I go across to push each crane load to the water..

Try pulling up the sails ... And...

The mast is too low, the boom is trying to take my head off..

14:00 all the boats are in the water. there's not much more to do to do to BM, so she gets moored on the club island in what we call Dinghy Dyke. it's where they tie up between races.

Hook up landrover to trailer, go home..

Make a temporary set of blocks to move the mast up by about 8 inches..

 

Sunday..

08:00 head for the club..

Uncover BM remove mast, extract holding plate for the  base of mast from the depths using a very long screw driver extension.

Insert blocks, screw blocks into place put mast into place, temporarily tie mast in place, haul BM round to the clubhouse front as the dinghies are starting to turn up..

Head into the club house for a coffee and a bacon roll, coffee 60p bacon roll £1.50, the first cash I've used in a couple of years..

After consumption finish rigging, miss the first race as I wasn't ready. but while the are out go for a trail sail, clamps on the steering gear slip, have to return to the clubhouse by pulling on the steering strings directly.

Realign and tighten up clamps, enter the 2nd race..

Started quite well it was a broad reach later a run.. But tacking back I find problems, I can't set the jib properly, the jib club is snagging on the jib furler line, the jib club outhaul line is snagging on  the bow cleat..

As I finished the race the Nylock nut holding the pivot for the steering control decided it wasn't going to lock, so it came off as I came into the quay..

That was put back on, then lunch.

Rigging had slackened off tightened up, this race went fairly well but still had problems tacking.

4th race, put a block of wood behind the mast pushing it forward, helped keep the tension on the rig, sailed a lot better...Then I ran aground and needed a tow off... mud banks aren't where they were 3 years ago!!

jib club removed and is now in the landrover so I can modify it.

BM wrapped up, I tried towing her with a rowing dinghy across to here mooring alongside the motor boat. When I climbed up on the motor boat I find the rear cabin roof hatch is missing (21inches by 19 inches) I'll have to make a temporary ply cover this week, then make a new one..

As for the towing by rowing, ok in light conditions but for stronger conditions I'll need to resurrect an outboard motor..

Get home at around 19:30

Review of what to do next.

Modify the jib club... Do I need a furler? it's a very small jib, might just try doing without next week, but I need to mount the club a Couple of inches higher.. still thinking on that one..

Move my seat back a bit, to get the boat balance a bit more aft, as she's slightly nose down when I'm aboard. That will require moving all the controls and cleats..

Wire the side stays into the cross trees, they keep popping out..

 

In the future,

The new Jib can be about 2ft taller,

 The new main  needs to be about 6 inches shorter, this old thing I'm using for development has obviously stretched.

I have some spare room on the boom,  might go for a slightly longer foot as well..

She definitely needs the new rudder design, she has a sweet spot of steering at the moment, but beyond that it gets hard to pull back to centre. This is because  the turning centre of the current rudder is too far aft, it was all I could do at the time due to the shaft size. The new shaft will be 1/3 less in diameter..

 

Hopefully some of this weekends club photos will appear on our websites and BM will be sailing on some, so I can post one or two here..

[The Q]

Development time..

Friday modified jib club, for new position of furler.

Saturday I went to the boat to make some changes.

Took the mast off, used 2mm dyneema to tie stays to the crosstrees.

Altered position of pins that locate mast into base plate.

Put mast back in, pin fell out, took mast out, bent pin a little, hard to do that, the pin is very strong.

Pin now locks in place, put mast back in. Loosely tied on side stays , mounted jib club in place.

Tensioned jib slightly, fitted side stays properly, put jib on, tensioned up rig, put all the rest of the jib rigging in place.

Moved main sheet to the end of the boom.

Sunday, race one. Seemed to go well, a bit difficult to judge when I have 6% handicap advantage. Just after I crossed the finishing line, mainsheet caught on a quay heading, boat banged into quay. Broke some rivets on the jib club.

Missed race 2 as I was busy riveting..

Lunch time used the Landrover to launch another Yeoman.

Race 3, during pre race manoeuvring the steering let go, the dyneema connection to the cross bar on the rudder shaft came off.

Few minutes to fix but not worth trying to race so stayed moored up, fell asleep in Blue Moon's chair..

Race 4, mixed Bermudan class, first leg, went very well, this fleet have 8% removed from their finishing time, against BMs 20%.  Kept reasonably close to them, it was a long tack short tack for the first leg of the race, second leg, equal amounts of tack., Third leg down wind, up went their Spinnakers and off they went.. , the second lap I didn't loose any more distance until the down wind leg.

On finishing, the others reckoned on handicap my BMs position would be close to theirs.

Development Notes from today,

The jib is now working much better, although the furler isn't, I'm not sure why. Further furler tweeking required.

Seat definitely needs moving aft, need to work out a new base for the chair and alignments for the sheets and halyards to reposition the cleats.

Also I need to find a way of moving the kicking strap control back to the new seat position, and the outhaul which comes out of the side of the boom needs moving back..

Just checked the results, came last.. Unfortunately this version of the software that shows the results online, doesn't include the times, so I don't know how far last we were.

[Paul H (admin)]

Q,

I do admire your determination to refurbish Blue Moon and sail her as well as possible.

For downtime, join the DCA and sail her to an East Coast rally.

Nobody will care about boat times.

Dinghies come in all sizes, including tenders ha ha.

Paul

[The Q]

Thanks,
I'll certainly try to go to any ukhbbr meetings on the broads, from next year I'll be retired, so once life gets sorted out I'll look at extending Blue Moon's range..

I spent waiting time at work working out routing of various ropes sheets and halyards. The solutions require at least two double through deck blocks.. at which prices started climbing,.
Since I've turned some sheeves for the mast, I suddenly thought, how about turning the necessary sheeves  sheeves for the through decks and use wooden blocks for the sides..
Now investigating ordering the acetal rod...

[The Q]

The damming evidence...

A video of our sailing waters, Sunday 27th March about 15:30, and at 3 minutes into the video. Yours truly and Blue Moon well and truly aground with rescue boat in attendance.. The rest of the fleet are up river somewhere..

https://youtu.be/61w5_ALo6ns

[The Q]

No more development this weekend, but I have noted more work for next weekend.

4 races were competed in on Sunday.

Wind light and variable, low tide was supposed to be 14:00 but was still pouring out at 15:00, hard work sailing into the wind and tide..

Race one, went well and BM overtook a boat 5% faster on Handicap, overall came in about mid fleet. finished on Handicap 168 seconds behind the leader on a 1 hour 15 minute race.

Race two, went well most of the fleet bunched up together , which on a river slows you down somewhat, So BM was able to keep within range. BM Won! by 134 Seconds , from the first home boat. (1 hour 20 minute race)

Race Three, I made a hash of the  start losing about 100 yards by the time BM had done 100 yards.. The wind went very light, eventually I retired , as BM was drifting down river on every tack..

Race four went well , more wind  but the others got away, came in last..

[The Q]

OK folks it's the Horning Boat show 30th April 2022 10:00-16:00.
Horning sailing club is having a club open day , with trips out in one of our open decked Keelboats, £5 for an Adult (free for accompanied Children).
The T bar is open, with cakes!! and we're cheaper than anywhere else!! you can sit, have a break and watch what's going on from the club quay..
Yours Truly is on Car park Duties at the sailing club (Exhibitors only in that one).