A delivery and a Greek One..

Mucho mileage this week (..so far? 🤔)

First off a delivery, which also gave me the opportunity to break my catamaran virginity..

My ride for the day..  Macavity

The club had it's second lift in this week, and those boats that for one reason or another had not been ready to go in on the first one finally had their chance to splash..  mate Julian (who I need to be nice about as he reads this drivel) offered me a crewing opportunity for Wednesday as his normal volunteers were unavailable. Having had to miss out on last years invite due to a clash of delivery interests I bit his arm off..

Julian moors in Chichester (like I do) but because the mast is significantly bigger he doesn't drop it for lift out/in, so this delivery would require a circumnavigation rather than a quick trip under the bridge.

Either way - after a wet launch from the hoist at roughly half 12, we had a cracking day on the water and the only real disappointment was the lack of wind, and the direction - easterly's continue, so dead on the nose for the transit across Hayling Bay, and precious little for the 'drop' down Langstone, and 'lift' up Chichester harbours..  motor sailed all the way (just shy of 3 hours for the transit), but the boat is lovely, the fodder was excellent (sausage rolls from his local butcher - top notch!) and he gave me a beer as well - fair to say I'll bite his arm off again if I get the opportunity! 😁

Then on Thursday it was time for the (full quorum this time) Jolly Boys to head to the water for another fun packed day of escapades and jolly japes (well it would make a nice change 😁) on AmiLy..

What a difference a day makes, Wednesday/Macavity delivery, had been light winds and blistering - think it topped 25 or 26'C which for May is ludicrously delightful, but Thursday saw a temperature drop of 10 degrees, the wind shift to northerly with just a hint of East (and I think that was why it suddenly got cooler) but it also strengthened by a couple of notches. 

Midday HT again and I'd been hoping the easterly's would continue so that we could finally get to Bembridge for lunch, but it wasn't to be, and with the wind on the beam/quarter it was definitely optimal for Cowes, even with an adverse tide both ways we were clocking 4.5/5's and for brief spurts 6/6.5's.

Quick trip as the midday HT gives us some tidal challenges with a late'ish start (10:00) and an early'ish finish (17:00) required because of water depths on the berth, but even so, what a cracking sail - she was absolutely hoon'ing it coming back.. chuffing cold though after the day before. Lunch in the Lifeboat (again - we know it's boring keep going to the same place but the food is lovely especially the Greek One burger!)

Delivery Log:

Distance: 14.47 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 / East going SWxS
Sail Plan: Full main but mostly motor
Speed (Max/average in knots): 6.3 / 4.4

Jolly Boys Log:

Distance: 26.34 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4 gusting 5 ; NExE going NExN
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa with/without motor
Speed (Max/average in knots): 6.8 / 3.3

East'ing...

What a stonking day on the water and as is usually the case when a sailing day exceeds expectations, so unexpected..

Arrived to the club to find it suspiciously light in the wind department when all the forecasts were screaming out F4 and I'd been wondering about reefs when I left home. Either way after a brief chat with fellow club member Martin (an Anderson 22 owner) who had the same ideas me, I was in the tender and then on board Sparrow by 0845'ish.

Plan was to get sails ready as I went as with the wind very firmly in the east it was clear that I'd have to motor to the end of the channel before any sailing could be done - despite that direction I still love an easterly in the harbour as that means the options for fast passages to the bottom of the harbour and back, and also a run down the channel back to the mooring should anything go wrong. 

So a gentle motor to Sweare Deep, sails up and out in what was only a gentle F2, but happily we are on Neaps so far less water sloshing round than last time - bore away, and then had a  lovely 4 knot reach down to HISC

...fool on the hill? I think not when I think of all the poor souls in the office on a day like today...

Turned and headed back to the top of the harbour at NW Pilsey as I still wasn't sure whether it would be one or more tacks to get back, but as it turned out, just the one to make a little east'ing..  glorious - and so good I then repeated it..

Great to be out on the water - joined by the aforesaid Martin, and also mate Simon on his boat Marcy - all of us agreed that the whole summer could carry on doing that as far as we were concerned, as it was more than adequate recompense for a winter of grovelling in the mud and the gravel to get our boats ready.. 😏

Log:

Distance: 10.6 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 (occasionally 2 and occasionally 4!) / NExE going E
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots):  5.1 / 3.1

Scorchio..!

With Jolly Boy Smiffy away the cats will play and so it was that the rump of the Jolly Boys decided on a mid week dash to Cowes in what has been the hottest week of the year so far in the UK..  mid twenties in April..  unheard of but hugely welcome..

The downside of this of course is that we're in a fairly chunky High so wind was never going to be in abundance (as I found on Monday), but also a brand new moon continues to provide a mahoosive tide (4.8mtrs yesterday), and the aforesaid tide times were not super helpful for the day we were proposing to go either..  

..however...  needs must and the Jolly Boys convened at Rods gaff at 9, and were on AmiLy by 10 - dead low water had been 3 hours before, and with the state of tide lots of mud was still visible, but as a fin keeler had gone just before us we took our time getting her ready and slipped about 20 past - with 0 mtrs under the keel we were away..

Main up as we went past the aircraft carrier (singular - "Prince of Wales" is off on duty) but it was pretty much just a case of showing willing as there was precious little breeze about. Enough water by now for the inner swashway as we exited the harbour but every time we dropped the engine revs the apparent wind also disappeared and left us rolling and in the end, with a fairly tight schedule and lunch beckoning we left the engine on and motored all the way..

Vickies gaff.. 😏

Lunch in the Lifeboat (again..  but we love the food and the moorings in East Cowes are very handy for it), and then a repeat motor home as although the wind had picked up, it was dead on the nose and against that same huge tide...

The sun shone, the Solent glittered, we may have seen our first dolphin (it may have been a seal), we were all burnt, salty round the edges, and what a cracking day..  

Log:

Distance: 23.74 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): SSE going SE ; F2 going F3
Sail Plan: Main/genoa (but mostly motor)
Speed (Max/average in knots): 7.8 / 3.9

Shakedown sail and first fish

Look at that little beauty..  juvenile bass, just a teenager but a bit of a fighter..  it went back to see it's brothers and sisters (but if the population of the harbour is anything to go by, to feed the seals probably! 😀)..  first fish on my new rod (the Frankenstein is no more) so doubly welcome..

..but I jump ahead of myself..  it was also another first, as in first sail of the year yesterday, and as is fairly usual, just a short one to make sure everything that should be working is working, stays/rigging is tight enough, sails hoist ok, genoa furls ok, etc etc..

Astonishingly beautiful day, but not a huge amount of wind to counter the quite astonishing amounts of water sloshing around on what must be the biggest tide since we launched..  looked like a couple of knots of adverse water as I headed east, and as you can see the tacks were flat in the main channel - just enough wind not to get swept sideways. Abandoned any hope of getting to Marker without a lot of engine noise so settled for sailing in Sweare Deep before heading back to the mooring - job done, mission accomplished..

Log:

Distance: 4.83 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): Both ends F2 ; SExE going SW
Sail Plan: Full main and 90% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5.5 / 2.4

Busy busy busy... and a bad taste... 😒

Time to catch up after a week which comprised 4 days on the water..  not a bad one then..  😏

On Tuesday it was time for the first trip of the year on Jolly Boy Smithy's pride and joy, the GP14 "Hanoly"..  I like going out on her a lot, as one, I'm not the skipper, but two, I just think you are closest to pure sailing on a dinghy than probably any other vehicle except maybe windsurfing (others may disagree😁).. 

Either way it was a lovely trip - not too windy, but the sun shone, we had a flask of coffee, and we ticked off a couple of our season goals (a moving target we make up as we go along 😁) in this case a north to south transit of the "North West passage" (a small channel running between one of the islands and the sea wall on the edge of the marsh, but with prevailing winds being what they are round here, it's usually a south to north transit), and we also got to see the site of the old Oyster House..

..the Oyster House (picture following) is long gone, but the foundations are still visible..  more on it here [clicky] if you're interested..

No sooner were we back and rested from that though, than it was then Wednesday and time to put the mast up on Sparrow.

Now the mast raising on Sparrow is a Jolly Boy Event (tm 😁), and I like to think is appreciated by all parties, we know what were doing now [clicky], but I think most would agree the best bit is the beer, pork pies, kettle crisps and pickled eggs afterwards. It was a relatively trouble free lift to be honest..  no snags or hitches, and all went as per the checklist in that link, the only downer was that when we got it up it was noticed that were missing the forks from two of the bottle screws.. 😒

Now one missing I could accept may have been an accident, but those forks take a lot of screwing in and two missing is theft, pure and simple..  no idea when it happened, either in the yard, or on the mooring, whoever it was left the bottle screw body, just took the forks...  it was a boater did that, and that leaves a nasty taste.. 💩

Happily, and in the best spirit of what the Jolly Boys are all about, Dave had a spare bottle screw sitting in the spares box on his boat, and wonder of wonders it fitted (and that is not a foregone conclusion as I found later) so one was done, which just left the other to source a replacement for.. I had a couple of old one's in the garage I was hopeful would do that job but it turns out they were M8, and mine are 5/16th's (and the rigging is swaged stud so I couldn't just swap out the whole bottle screw)

...so near yet so far...

Bit the bullet in the end and bought a whole new bottle screw,. There are sources online where you can buy just the fork, but 

1. you need to be sure you have the the right thread*, which was difficult to tell on the fitting I was using as a template, and 
2. required a wait for delivery, and 
3. was still £15

...I didn't want to faff around, as sailing awaits..

* (apologies if this is teaching grandma to suck eggs, but the following was new to me, so there may be others who it will help) One end of the bottle screw is a left handed thread, and the other end is right handed, this allows you to turn the bottle screw to engage the threads on both end fittings at the same time to tension or de-tension the screw

..yee gods imperial measurement bottle screws are a price...  I guess because they are not as commonly used as the metric ones..  (next time the standing rigging is done - which is soon - I'll ask for metric bottle screws, and not with a swaged stud, as an eye fitting would have let me swap out the entire bottle screw, so far more flexible)... anyway - just need to swap out the new fitting, and she's done, but the sails are now on, and the new UV strip on the genoa looks cracking...

...so with the lift out of the way that only left time for the Jolly Boys to get away on one of their "one day dashes".. 

The forecast for Thursday had been monumentally good; wall to wall sunshine, with a SE'ly in the morning, going westerly in the afternoon, which would theoretically give a broad reach in both directions if we timed it right..  tides were also optimal - the 'conveyor belt' running to the west in the morning and then turning east in the afternoon.. perfect...  what we actually got was the sun and the tide, but precious little of the wind, or indeed the direction... so a lot of the day was spent on the motor, but we did get a little sailing in, but most of the time it involved pointing in a non-optimal direction just to get some wind in the sails...

Leaving Portsmouth in the morning..  glorious day..

Lunch stop off was in East Cowes (£15 for a lunchtime stay compared with £10 last time - summer rates are in.. 😏) and absolutely fantastic .. "The Lifeboat" is very much recommended by all of us - food, service, and beer choice excellent..

Snooze in the cockpit followed, before dropping the mooring and heading for home about half 3'ish as the tide was turning in our favour..

..and that was largely it - stopped off for a quick refuel in Gosport, but I was home by half 7, slightly burnt round the edges, and a little salty, and that is what it's all about..  brilliant day.

Log:

Distance: 24.77 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): AM: F2 PM: F3 ; AM: E PM: SWxW

Sail Plan: Full main and jib
Speed (Max/average in knots):  7.5 / 2.5

Last jobs, and splashed..

...and not so much with a bang but a triumphant shout..  we're in..  but not before a whole of other nonsense was/had to be done first..

On the Thursday of last week we had been aiming to go for a little jaunt on "Hanoly" - Smithy's GP14 - but when we got down there, one the wind was non-existent, and two, the boys had started to lift boats in early - they're nothing if not a little claustrophobic after a long winter, so I subpoenaed Smithy into giving me a hand on a task I had been wanting to complete for an age..  last year (it may have been the year before) I did a GPS survey of the club mooring buoys on my side of the bridge, and was then approached by one of the committee guys to confirm it was very useful and would I do the same for the Langstone side of the bridge..  so a couple of hours, and 2.5 miles, later it was done...

😂😂😂

Back on land it was then time to start thinking about getting ready for my lift in which was a mere few days away..  first order of the day was getting the top tackle on to the mooring ready to tie up to. The next day we borrowed the workboat and Jolly Boy Dave, mate Simon, and I killed multiple birds with a single stone by doing five moorings in one go..

...this turned out to be not as simple as we had envisaged, as the mooring team had been round the buoys over the winter putting new shackles on, and removing anything extraneous, which included Simon's swivel...  then Dave noticed he was missing additional shackles, so we had to hot foot it back to the pontoon to go rooting around the maintenance shed for replacements - all eventually done, and it was good to be out on the water..

...and so it was finally the day before lift - I decided to bite the bullet this year, and rather than get up at oh crack sparrow fart on launch day to put the engine on before it got busy, I would do it the evening before. Since the last but one got nicked I've been a bit wary of taking any risk, but with the outboard lock, and taking the cowl home, I figured it was as safe in the yard as it was on the mooring - probably safer, as a number of the guys are sleeping down there in their camper vans at the moment getting the last bits done on their boats..

Engine on it was then time to put the cockpit hatches back on - pleased to say the temporary one's did a good job, then re-attached the wind vane, and finally give her a damn good wash to get rid of a winters worth of green slime and dirt..  she looks a million dollars OK.. 😏

So nice and early next day (clocks changed to, so it was even earlier..  really...😬) it was time for the traditional final job of the lay over..

...before making my presence known to the moorings team to let them know I and the boat were ready for lift in when they were...

Usually the boats going round the island (Hayling Bridge sits between our two mooring area's) get priority and so it was today, but they'd made such good progress over the previous couple of days there were only nine boats to go in today, so I got a quick lift, and they dropped me so far down the slipway that even four hours before the HT was due I was already seeing water round the keels

So many expectations at the start of .. etcetcetc.😏

Time then to get on board sharp'ish... enjoy the view..

...and wait for the tide to do the job.. first the boat started rocking, time to get the engine going.. fuel was already attached, choke on, gear in neutral check, pulled her over and she started first time..  left her in tick over and put her in reverse..

...and bugger me if less than five mutes later we weren't off and moving (according to the club webcam at about 10:26)

10 minutes later I was on the mooring having transited under the bridge..

Super easy, non-stressful launch - my thanks as usual to the guys in the club who sorted this for me and the others as they do every year..  was also a glorious day..

Next jobs - get the tender ready, then arrange a mast raising party..

First sail of the season and more jobs done..

The Jolly Boys have had their first sail of the new season, but before I get to that, first off news of further work completed..

It wasn't on the list but at the end of last season I had noticed that the boom/sail cover needed a little attention - I bought this in 2019, and compared with the one it replaced (which died after 6 years) it's in far better condition. This one is 6 years old this year, albeit we had a year of Covid where it didn't get a lot of UV - the material is OK'ish - just a little fragile on the fold lines, so I took the opportunity to reinforce the back of those with some sail repair tape. She's good for another year..

Which brings me to the Jolly Boys first sail of the year - which was.... utterly Baltic..! 🥶

Head gear de rigeur for the day.. 😏

Lovely sail over to Cowes though, including flying the asymmetric, but we were a boat on a mission for this first sail as tide times meant we couldn't hang around coming back.. we sailed almost all the way there, but then cracked and put the engine on for the last dash into Cowes where we got a fantastic berth in East Cowes (and only a tenner for a lunch stop as they're still on winter rates!)

...that was where we wuz.. 😁

Absolutely fantastic lunch in the Lifeboat, but with the wind dead on the nose, we motored for home..  we had to be back on the mooring by 5'ish or have to sit round waiting due to tides..  happily we did it, but yee gods it was cold on the way back, an easterly head wind is no fun in March..

Log:

Distance: 28.0 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 very occasionally bottom F4 ; SExE going SE
Sail Plan: Full main/genoa; and we flew the blue meany/asymmetric
Speed (Max/average in knots): 7.6 / 4.1

Antifoul, paint sloshing and pontoon bashing..

...the half day of yearly penance that is the antifoul application is done..

Obligatory before shots...

...and the after shots..  

...but what a truly sh*tty and awful job applying this stuff is, especially to a small twenty footer with a bilge keel cave.. but there's no denying it, boats look the dogs nadgers with freshly applied dark blue antifoul paint..  this is the best she'll look all season..  30 minutes after she goes in the water it all goes downhill on the looks front..  😁

..just the one coat this year as an experiment - most of the rest of the guys in the club do the same, and Sparrow's bottom is as rough as the surface of the moon so anything that stops further build up can only be a good thing.. I'm going to have to bite some serious bullets in the next few years on the maintenance front, and a serious scrape of her bottom is one of them.

Elsewhere unguents have been splashed about..

• the cockpit board lasted well after an initial treatment right at the end of last season but it's been a wet and wooly winter, and I noticed a few spots where it needed re-treatment so got the sander out and then applied some more preserver..  calling that one done..
• end of last season I two coats on the rubbing strakes and they're still good - calling that one done to..
• companionway hatches had two coats at the end of last season, are ok, but will get a couple more of which the first one is done - they're one of those serious bullets I mentioned above..  wondering whether to go the perspex route..
• while I had the sander out for the cockpit board, I also did the tiller pilot support and rest..  two coats later calling that one done to..
• after the major renovation of the tender last winter she's been stored all winter in the pen, albeit I turned her upside down to give some weather protection to the inside..  she picked up the usual minor scratches and scuffs on her bottom as a result of launch and recovery from a trolley on a stone surface, so I finished off the remains of one of the tins of black paint I had and repainted them - very happy with the keel reinforcements (nose and stern), by the way, still strong, and clearly doing their job..

This update is almost turning into a "more ticks than a mangy dog" post.. 😏

Either way - still to do - in no order of importance

• finish the cockpit hatches, one or two coats will do it, and then they need to go back on the boat
• a final coat on the companionway hatches
• a surface coat on the companion sliding hatch and forehatch
• an oxalic wash down of the hull after I've given the usual scuffs and scratches a rub down with fine wet and dry
• a damn good wash of the top sides to get a winters worth of green and dirt off her

Lastly, I had a work party at the club the other day - pontoon bashing but not how you normally imagine it.. 😁

The club has five pontoons that we use during the season for occasional cruiser mooring, waiting space during lift out and in, embarking and landing lift out crew, tying dinghy's up to on race days, etcetc. They've been in the water for 10 years and were beginning to show signs of wear and damage so were lifted at the end of last season for some serious love, care and attention..  

This is one of the worst ones - were cutting out the crap metal ready to weld in new replacement stuff..

..and at the end of a hard day this is one of the ones we were working on (following)..  this is 80 or 90% done, each of the floats has been attached with two boards underneath, to galvanised metal right angled shoes, with 4 x 4's to support a through threaded bolt all the way from the 4x4's at the top through to underneath of the shoe, through the 4x4, and also through the end of the board - M16 nuts and washers throughout, all wood work bitumen'd.

Just the fender boards to attach and this one will be done - you can see the new boards in the background of the picture above. Hugely rewarding but hard day..  I ache this morning!

Outboard serviced and the first Jolly boat in the water..

Slow but steady progress as February wends it's slow old way to the March launch month..

The engine has been serviced - it's still under warranty and I'm keen to ensure this continues but not at the expense of having the mickey taken. Last years service came to just less than 25% of the cost of the engine (! 😏) so this year I double checked before taking it back for another service with them and having confirmed it would be the same cost, this time after asking for recommendations, took it to another service centre..  

Very pleased with the service from Bursledon Outboards who are themselves a main Tohatsu dealer so my warranty has been maintained, but at an overall cost that was significantly less than the previous guys. 

Impellor changed, fuel filters changed, spark plug changed, new anode on the leg, and then a couple of things that for me confirmed my choice of changing to them despite the additional distance to get to them..  one the engine had been overfilled with oil at the last service, not something I would have expected from a main dealer..  what was also strange was that the bolts for the cover on the magneto fly wheel were only finger tight and had loosened to the point where the cover was now rubbing the fly wheel - weird... I would definitely have noticed it last summer, so my assumption was that the manhandling of the engine off the boat, into the garage, and into the car, had been enough to joggle it loose...  the engineer was happy that there was no permanent damage but was keen to see if it qualified for a repair under warranty - we'll see ..  either way, I was impressed with their customer service, and the engine is done!

Elsewhere, and in between the showers and shocking weather, the Jolly Boys convened  or the first Jolly Boys boat to hit the water this year, which was the good ship AmiLy who went in on Monday.. Rod's done a lot of work on her engine over the winter so clearly that needed testing, but he'd also contracted with one of the Hong Kong sail lofts for a new main sail. 

He's never liked the old one, which is probably original to the boat so he was keen to get that on as well to make sure it fitted. Hmmm... too windy really for a conclusive test, but the biggest "concern" is that the supplied sail was loose footed, which he very specifically asked for it not to be. He's back in touch with the loft and they have acknowledged their fault so he's just waiting for them to agree what to do - in all likelihood a trip to a UK based loft to have a bolt rope fitted, in the meanwhile though, a smaller subset of the Jolly Boys met on Tuesday (today as I write) to take AmiLy round from Port Solent to her home berth on Whale Island.

They're dredging the main channel into Port Solent, so we met these guys as we exited the lock

Glorious day, but chuffing cold, the sun eventually shone and an ideal day for a 40 odd minute perambulate down the harbour - all of it on a smooth as silk engine (Rod most chuffed) and 40 odd minutes later we pulled in on to the home berth. There is something very pleasant about slurping tea, on a boat, after a winter ashore... 😊

As the wind was considerably less (though still feisty) on the pontoon when we arrived, we decided to have another go at hoisting the new main - first, despite the fact that it's loose footed, it is an exceptional quality - it's fully battened and the pockets/tensioning system are amazing, very impressive. Good quality sail cloth, well stitched, with plenty of reinforcements and good reefing points. Most impressed, (as was Rod 😏)

Minor issues? Well apart from the foot, but two it's an absolute bugger to hoist and drop - now that may be as a result of the full length battens being over tensioned (?), it may also be that we weren't completely head to wind so there may have been some lateral wind pressure - what we are agreed on is that the sail is staying on and we need to go out and actually sail it to see how it performs..  bring it on we said!

Log:

Distance: 3.94 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4 gusting F5: NW
Sail Plan: n/a
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5.4 / 3.3

Glacial progress...

..is being made...

• The life jackets are serviced - no issues..
• I have a new mooring buoy shackle to replace the one half hack sawed at the end of last season 😏
• I put the genoa in for a new sacrificial strip as the old one was 10+ years old and beginning to shred - got that back from Batt Sails yesterday - lovely job and worked out at about £12'ish a metre to remove old, and replace with new
• I have a launch date - I'm going in Sunday 31st March 😀

...next jobs, get some antifoul and sort out an engine service..