This morning I picked up fender covers, a couple Harken 150 cam cleats and a sail track slide stopper. I also ordered a replacement mainsheet fiddle block with a cam & becket. I ended up ordering one of the fancy new all-synthetic Lewmars instead of a stainless Schaefer or a mixed Harken. We'll see how well that works. Other things on the shopping list (to aid my memory):
* outboard cover (smallest one from West)
* windex 15
* spin sheets (2x50 ft, 7/16 in diam)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Mainsheet data
Harken's Compuspec suggests the 1566 Midrange Hexaratchet as a replacement mainsheet block. This mainsheet load calculator suggests that at 25 kts (the most I imagine carrying a full main at) there should be just over 1,100 lbs load at that block. The 1566 is rated for 1,800 lbs.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The trip back
This morning I returned Koan to Ventura. There was absolutely no wind, so I motored at half-throttle all the way. I couldn't gun the engine, because it's still in its break-in period. I got between 4.5-5.5 kts, depending on waves, and burned through 2.5 gallons of gas in 5 hours.
It was beautiful on the Channel, with big interesting skies, lots of dolphins and little jumping fish, a couple sunfish. The sea state was a little confused, with a short period small swell from the SE, but you can't win them all. The dolphins were really the highlight, since they seemed unbothered by Koan's motor and hung around for an hour or so, pointing the way and playing along.
It was beautiful on the Channel, with big interesting skies, lots of dolphins and little jumping fish, a couple sunfish. The sea state was a little confused, with a short period small swell from the SE, but you can't win them all. The dolphins were really the highlight, since they seemed unbothered by Koan's motor and hung around for an hour or so, pointing the way and playing along.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Our first trip to SB
This weekend's forecast was fantastic, and our best friends from San Diego were going to be in town, so I decided to bring up Koan on Thursday and take the opportunity to get some other jobs done. I put on the jacklines, did the motor starting penance -- you have to pull-start the Johnson 15 times before it starts -- and headed out of CIH at noon. There wasn't much wind until 3:30pm, at which point I shut down the motor and sailed the last 9 miles home. I pulled down the jib about a mile out of SB, lashed the tiller, refilled my tank and restarted the engine, and I was at the guest dock by 5:30. Taking the boat to its assigned slip was a little more adventurous, as the harbor employee drew me the wrong directions on the little map and I ended up in the wrong finger. I did not know that Koan does not go in reverse, same as Shadow. I tried to reverse her, and killed the motor as a result. Thankfully there was barely any wind, and I had managed to slow down a lot. A guy grabbed my dockline and there were no collisions. In the end, we were assigned another slip nearby, and we strongarmed the boat in.
On Friday I just cleaned and lubricated things, and worked on my list of todos. On Saturday morning Dan and I took off the old Johnson, which I'm planning to clean, service and keep around, unless we get a decent offer for it. We then put on our brand new Honda 5 HP, which we're very excited about. On Sunday we took Francis & Rebecca out for sailing and fishing. There was maybe 6-7 kts of wind, so we did a couple nice legs out and back to the top of the Mesa, and then a couple drifts down the edge of the kelp beds. The menfolk, as Rebecca calls them, didn't catch anything except mackerel for bait, but it was fun nonetheless. We also learned that Koan drifts very very fast if there's any wind at all -- and maintains great steerage, at that -- so I'll have to devise some sort of drogue system to slow us down for fishing. This morning Greg and I measured the boat with the new motor and found it to be marginal for fitting in a 25 ft slip, at exactly 28 ft. This puts us at the mercy of the harbor employee who'll be measuring it, meaning it's better to take the motor off if we get a slip out here. Just another small bump on the way...
TODO items:
* make insert for v-berth and get cushion made for it
* replace mainsheet fiddle block with cam
* recondition running backstay block -- how to unseize
* make hole for gas hose
On Friday I just cleaned and lubricated things, and worked on my list of todos. On Saturday morning Dan and I took off the old Johnson, which I'm planning to clean, service and keep around, unless we get a decent offer for it. We then put on our brand new Honda 5 HP, which we're very excited about. On Sunday we took Francis & Rebecca out for sailing and fishing. There was maybe 6-7 kts of wind, so we did a couple nice legs out and back to the top of the Mesa, and then a couple drifts down the edge of the kelp beds. The menfolk, as Rebecca calls them, didn't catch anything except mackerel for bait, but it was fun nonetheless. We also learned that Koan drifts very very fast if there's any wind at all -- and maintains great steerage, at that -- so I'll have to devise some sort of drogue system to slow us down for fishing. This morning Greg and I measured the boat with the new motor and found it to be marginal for fitting in a 25 ft slip, at exactly 28 ft. This puts us at the mercy of the harbor employee who'll be measuring it, meaning it's better to take the motor off if we get a slip out here. Just another small bump on the way...
TODO items:
* make insert for v-berth and get cushion made for it
* replace mainsheet fiddle block with cam
* recondition running backstay block -- how to unseize
* make hole for gas hose
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