Saturday 1st July
Three boats from the club were sailing in the annual “Round the Island” race today and the start fairly much coincided with the 10:00 meeting for newly joined members so we could have a tour of the club and an encouraging talk about volunteering. Slightly less use than intended as most of those who attended were involved on Thursday with the concrete pouring. 7 new members were there of which only 2 werent in the concrete team.
Later in the day Lexie and I went for a walk along the cliff top from Barton on sea along to the next village east. There were only a couple of boats when we were there but in the morning the sea between there and the Isle of Wight would have been occupied by over a thousand boats doing the round the Island race.
Monday Fitted the number plate on the boat trailer and checked the length of the cable needed for grounding the mast via the anchor cleat and bow roller. Also collected the appropriate crimp on tags from the boat so I can crimp and solder them at home and return another day to do the installation.
I had taken some oak filler that I recovered from the garage however on opening it the consistency isn’t right as it has lost a lot of solvent. I will see if I can solve the problem by adding some cellulose thinners but I may have to get a new pack anyway. That and the lack of coarse grade sanding disks meant there was no point in trying to do any sanding of the hand holds on the cabin top.
I returned to Doncaster to start working on the house but the power tools seem to be in the van so I couldn’t do much while I waited for Matt. He eventually escaped the motorway traffic chaos and arrived at about 11:45.
Home around 5:00 and I managed to access the welder to try to make progress with the pin that is intended to attach the throttle cable onto the engine block.
Unfortunately the piece of steel I had found melted when I tried to weld to it. I think I will need to go to B&Q to buy a thicker steel strip before I will be able to weld anything onto the pin.
Tuesday Another day, another attempt at welding a device to properly link the throttle mechanism on my outboard. This time it didn’t completely melt and
also cleaned up fairly well when I ground off the flux. Tonight I will paint this part but I still need to work out how to attach the bar somewhere to stop the pin falling out of the cylinder block feature that I am using to lock the throttle outer in place.
Around 8:30 – Off to work on the house for the rest of the day.
Wednesday The Arduino interface to RS422 which I ordered this morning is apparently on it’s way and will arrive tomorrow. This should help me to create a display to show speed and direction over the ground (from the GPS data), wind data etc as none of the chart plotter type programs seem to want to use that information.
Thursday After another day working on the house I made it into the garage to see if I can make some progress with packing stuff out there and maybe do a bit of work on the outboard engine throttle.
I managed to cut off the excess steel on the engine adaptation then add just the right amount of bend to put some spring tension on the pin. Needs some paint on the cut end and also a bit of re-painting where the bend was made as the Hammerite paint doesn’t seem to have stuck all that well onto whatever coating was already on the bar.
Crimped and soldered the two ends on the lightening grounding cable so that is ready for a fitting session tomorrow morning.
Friday Awake and on the move before 7am again. Today’s time at the boat was fairly productive.
I started off by installing the new piece of cable to link the mast tabernacle with the mooring cleat on the foredeck. That will mean that any lightening strike while at anchor can be potentially grounded via the anchor chain. Hopefully it will never be needed because 100 A battery cable is totally inadequate compared to the potential discharge currents involved in lightening but at least I have tried.
Second job was to make a start on tidying up the algae growing on the decks. I might also be able to deal with the source of the rain water that gets into the bilges. I am trying to clear out the gap between the top deck molding and the rubbing strake. Scraping that out and filling the gap with silicone sealant before re-painting both the deck and some of the rubbing strake ought to waterproof that joint. Started on the port side aft and have dealt with about the first half of that side.
Having found the serial interface in the boot of the car and down loaded a piece of software called “Cool Term” I have managed to confirm that the wind sensor system is working and sending valid NME0183 messages. As the mast is lying along the length of the boat that is not particularly meaningful wind data but the message format is as expected.
“$IIVWR,67.6,L,0.0,N,0.0,M,0.0,K*60” means the wind is from 67.6 degrees to the left of the bow at 0.0 Knots / 0.0 M per second / 0.0 Km /hour. The last bit after the * is the sentence checksum in hexadecimal which allows for error checking. Similarly “$IIWMV,300.4,R,0.0,N,A*3A” – means the wind direction is 300.4 degrees relative to the heading at 0.0 knots, A means the data is valid and the sentence checksum is 60 in hexadecimal.
The same piece of software also managed to connect wirelessly with the GPS and AIS system and was sending the equivalent position messages via the WIFI connection but the latter did not seem to be including the wind data after I connected the input. I will have to read the manuals for both devices and test it again next time I am there to see if I can work out what the problem is.
As I was at the storage site after 9am I could drop into the office to organise a move from quarterly billing to monthly as part of the preparation for moving the boat. I hope it will happen but I am not confident I will be off the plot by 28th July when the next payment is due so that potentially gets me a month’s leeway.
Set off home at 9:30 and went to start work at the house. Packed in at 3:45 as it is another hot and tiring day and Matt wanted to go home.
After a bit of reading I realised the solution to the missing wind data was in the manual for the anemometer. The information provided in the connection table would seem to never work because the RS232 data 1 is always going to be seen as a 0 by an RS422 receiver. However there is a footnote saying to swap the connections if it doesn’t work (By my understanding that would be always!).
The ‘swapped over ‘ version is described on several internet pages (for example https://stratusengineering.com/rs232-rs422485-conversion-cable-connection-requires-no-external-electronics-power/ ) as how to do a simple short range RS232 to RS422 conversion without the need for an active protocol converter (£18 or there about). I would go and try that out at the boat but the laptop seems to have decided to do some ‘critical updates’ (despite being on windows 7) and is currently downloading item 2 of 56. Should be a quick fix tomorrow morning when I go over to finish the work on the rubbing rail.
As an alternative I will go and cut the grass as that will otherwise be a job that gets in the way of something more important.
Saturday Breakfast done and almost at the boat storage when my 7:00 alarm went off.
Task 1 – Test the NMEA with the anemometer connections swapped round. The simple fix worked and the wifi version of the data feed now contains wind data as well as the GPS position. I still have to assume that there would be AIS data if the VHF antenna was connected and there were any ships in range. I didn’t have the tablet computer with me as it was on 1% battery but the next step is to get the position and other data into one of the chart apps. Another trip this evening or tomorrow once it is charged.
Task 2 – Finish the gap filling around the rubbing strip. Plenty of progress with this one too as I got all the way round to the stern on the starboard side. The photo shows what was the worst area of the lot with a little moss garden growing in the over sized gap. It is particularly hard to access as the deck is very narrow there and the motorhome next to me in storage is about a foot away. Next step is to sand and paint the toe-rail and top of the rubbing strip.
Task 3 – Impromptu attempt at sealing between the deck and the pushpit mountings as I was in the right place with the right tools and a gun full of silicone. Hopefully this might stop any standing water on the side decks from gradually seeping into the cockpit lockers and hence the engine compartment. That is the only other theory to explain the occasional ingress of rain water.
All that was finished by 9:45 and I was on my way home by 10:00 just as it started to look as if it would rain soon. Forecast today is for showers, potentially thundery. Easy to believe given the clear sky at home while I was doing breakfast and the fast growth of Cu Nimb looking clouds as I drove to storage. Not raining yet at 10:40 but there are rumbles of thunder in the distance. Lightening.org shows a band running from Leeds through Sheffield to Grantham with most activity at present between Leeds and Doncaster.
The potential storm didn’t really come to much but it did mean I spent the afternoon trying to sort out settings on the tablet computer so the new information will be displayed. This and getting the charts displayed are proving a little difficult because the help documentation for the android version of open CPN is no-longer available due to the newer version of android. You now have to sign up on http://bigdumboat.com/aocpn/forum/portal.php and that seems to take a long time to email confirmation when you sign up (so long in fact that I still dont have access when editing this for the blog in October).
I downloaded maps of the French river & canal system from within the program and they just come up as boxes along the route rather than detailed maps – Looks to me as if the uploaded files didn’t get put in the folders that they should go in as there are empty folders with the name of the river and a series of files in the root folder which have semi random number names – My guess is that those should be in the folders but who knows which file goes where.
The pattern is different for the “imported” files (the same UK charts that work in ‘Marine navigator’) as the different component files seem to be in the folders and there is a corresponding mnx file (in xml) for each folder. However those totally fail to show up at all on the larger screen as if the whole structure is in the wrong place.
Sunday Another early start so I was at the boat around 6:30. Everything still too damp to get the masking tape to stick but it was wet enough to wipe off most of the muck on the top and outside of the toe rail. Once it has dried out a little I can sand lightly and put on a coat of white paint. Home again by 7:30 ready for church.
8:45 Still no email from the open CPN forum but I have emailed the individual at LSC responsible for allocating moorings.
Still need to organise –
- Insurance public liability.
- Boat name & port (boat & tender).
- Update registration location
- Organise launching
- Organise trailer storage
- ? do I need to pay anything for mooring, harbour registration etc
- Organise with Karl to attach strops etc.
Once those are done I can move the boat.
13:00 still no emails from the open CPN forum. Quick sandwich lunch then I will set off to the boat to paint the toe rail and rubbing strip. Back home around 5 having done all round the rubbing rail with the white paint. Weather is still warm & sunny so the paint should dry fairly quickly and I can maybe do the varnishing tomorrow.
Monday Woke at 5:30 and starting my day by going to the boat. I did some sanding on the grab rails on the cabin roof and varnished three of them. 
The port forward one is in shadow at present so still very wet and can be done sometime later. The wood is soaking up the varnish quite quickly and it is warm already so maybe I can do a second coat this afternoon or evening and get started on the fourth one then.
After lunch I spent time in the garage getting closer to the back corner. Lots of electronics and old computer software stuff going in the bins. Also ‘found’ bits of old stuff including video tapes and my gliding instructor course paperwork.
There is still no response from open CPN although the developer is based in USA so maybe too early still. I have emailed with the screen shots of the folder structure and an attempted explanation of what seems to be going on.
Tuesday At the boat for 6:30 – Rather too drizzly to do any varnishing today but I brought a few cloths from home so used the dampness to help cleaning
up the outside of the cabin. I am not sure the cloths will ever come clean again but the boat definitely looks better. Almost good enough to be regarded as a boat to be proud of. I packed in at about 8:45 shortly before the weather decided to do a major rinse for me.
Wednesday Anti slip paint and varnish this morning. Looking good but I need the rain to stay away long enough for them to dry. Back home around 8 to clean the brushes and cloths used earlier and then get a haircut before Matt comes over. Maybe this afternoon or evening it will be dry enough to put another coat on the deck? Still no emails from the guy who looks after LSC moorings or from the developer of the open CPN app for tablet computers.
Thursday Another early start so I was at the boat for 7;00 and on my way home about 8:30. Managed to add another coat of varnish on the cabin top grab rails and a fresh coat of Sandtex on the side decks, entrance step for the cabin and the rest of the cabin roof areas. As this included the sliding hatch and the two patches on either side of it I had to leave the cover off. That gamble turned out ok as I haven’t seen any signs of rain although Doncaster is quite far from the storage location so things there might have been different.
I seem to have spent most of the rest of the day fixing down floorboards at the house we are working on. Home about 6:30 for tea and now I am heading back to the boat to put on the cover – There are a fair number of dark clouds around so maybe we will get some evening rain.
I decided to take the chance and also paint the cockpit floor before I put the cover on. Of course the inevitable happened – Large dark cloud decided to rain on me. Not a lot of rain and I was therefore able to paint from the stern towards the cabin and gradually protect the painted area with the cover so I got the job done in about 5 minutes and then put the cover on properly. As soon as I finished painting the rain stopped but there are other clouds waiting their turn. Provided we don’t get any massive downpours that leak into the cabin and trigger the pumps there shouldn’t be any water going through the cockpit until after the paint dries.
Friday 14th Heading down south again this evening so I am packing then heading for the house to make progress with the heating system plumbing.
I packed in around 3:30 and went home to grab a quick lunch and pack the car. Arrived at New Milton at 9:30 after a fairly problem free journey.
Saturday In the evening we discovered there has been a bit of a problem at the sailing club in that two boats from the outside mooring had broken loose and were aground on the beach near Salterns marina. One was caused by a broken mooring chain. Both were recovered successfully with minimal damage.
Tuesday 19th The final concrete pour is today – Notionally starting at 11:00. Helen is meeting Dawn at Castle Point shopping centre while we all do that. Weather forecast seems a little problematic because of rain showers – Hopefully not enough to make any difference to the pour and spreading process.
I dropped Helen off at Castle point at around 9:30 and arrived at LSC among the first of the volunteers. Concrete arrived at 11:30 ish. We were actually finished when one of the volunteers arrived.
Saturday Today is the start of the Fastnet race from the Isle of Wight and also the first day of the LSC annual regatta. I am crewing for Karl so we are meeting at LSC around 8 to get bacon bapps for breakfast. Dinghy racing is definitely cancelled due to the strong winds and forecast that things will get more lively. Karl’s boat will have 3 aboard. Our races will now take place in the harbour instead of out in the bay.
Ended up as the same course for both of the “gentlemen’s” class races. We did the first one following the only other boat in the class – That worked ok as none of us additional crew members were familiar with the boat or the names and locations of the racing marks. Start line to ‘North Chanel Buoy 40’, then to ‘Bell buoy’ and back to the start via the North channel. We were not far behind the other boat and proved to ourselves that we could be a bit faster than them.
Second race we got an advantage right from the start as we were lined up exactly as we wanted but kept the speed down so were ready to accelerate across the line. In the lead from there on although tactics were needed at a couple of the marks. Karl wasn’t sure whether our faster time would be enough because the other boat has a better handicap figure.
There were only two races today due to the steadily strengthening wind and rain.
This year’s Fastnet race was somewhat affected by the conditions – 450 boats leaving from Cowes and over 80 of those had retired by the end of the day having been put off by the conditions in the bay where we were supposed to be also racing.
Back to the club for 2pm. Went back to the caravan to change and returned for the evening entertainment.
Sunday Slightly later start to the racing today. There will be two races set in the Studland bay – The first one counts for the regatta and the other is named as the “Charity” race so has a cup of it’s own. Today our class was joined by “our Jenny” – They are in competition for the charity race but not for the regatta due to not being in the first two races yesterday.
First race was from the start line to “Pool Moorings” followed by a buoy closer to the old harry rocks. Then to ‘bar buoy’(the green entry buoy for the channel and tacking back to the finish line.
The second race was slightly different in that the second mark was channel marker no 2 (the red one paired with “bar buoy). Then down the channel round one
red can to port and the previous one to starboard before tacking back to the finish line. We overtook ‘Our Jenny’ during the leg towards the harbor entrance just before we were both overtaken by the Condor fast cat. They just managed to cross the line ahead of us because our last tack turned out to be a little too early and we had to do another to get inside of the end of the finish line.
Back ashore at 4 just in time for cream tea in the club house followed by the prize giving – We were the overall winner of the regatta for the gentlemen’s class and ‘Our Jenny’ won the charity race with us in second place. For our class there was a place for all three boats that competed.
Overall a great weekend of sailing and all of us got to do some of the helming between races. It has done some good to my confidence and I think the same for Paul.
Saturday 29th Awake before 5 so I went to the boat after breakfast. – Painted the non-slip on the side decks and port side fore deck. Then sorted out the pulleys and potential mounting strategy for the foresail reefing line. I will need to make some sort of adapter for the pulpit end of it so I brought the bits home to work on it if I get time. My idea is to use the stainless steel lockable clips to attach the pulleys – The aft one can clip onto the stanchion mounting brackets but the front one needs attaching to the pulpit tube using the U bolts that arrived with the anemometer. I should be able to make and bend a bracket that the clip can attach to.
Probably the simplest job of the day was also the most important as I now have the Poole harbor sticker on my port side window. Still need to update my registration, check the insurance and get the boat name and port of registration on the transom.
For some reason there seems to be a shortage of mooring pickup buoys at the moment so I ended up having to order the two that I need different chandlers. That shouldnt matter all that much as they will both arrive via the same delivery process although I am not sure whether they will come to Doncaster or get re-directed to Helen in New Milton.