New Home

Big news in Koan-land! We've found a slip in Santa Barbara, and moved there from Channel Islands Harbor. In a big way, Koan has come home!

I didn't know whether there was an inspection coming up during this move. CIH Patrol did inspect Shadow Line when I put her into one of their slips, so I considered it a distinct possibility. Thus I decided I'd better be prepared and scrambled to make a necessary, but very frustrating repair: the steaming light. Both the deck connection for getting power to it was missing and the existing light was hopelessly corroded and disgusting. After trying out a Hella and a straight up replacement of the classic Perko that I'd just removed, I settled on an Aqua Signal 25 series. This has a deck lamp, as well, but the separate wiring for that wasn't run, so it's not operational. On Friday I did the deck wiring, which took a little creativity, because there are separate ground and hot wires running and it's tougher to insulate the entry of two wires into the connector. I ended up using a bead of polysulfide instead of the existing rubber gasket. On Tuesday morning I went up the mast and tapped two #29 holes for 8-32 machine screws, and installed the fixture. I've just received an LED replacement for the bulb, and once I ascertain that that doesn't nullify the light's USCG rating, I'll install that too. 

After that job was finished on Tuesday I got the boat ready and headed up to SB. There wasn't much wind to begin with, so I attempted to sail, but at 2.5 kts I thought it was impractical. I motored on up until a nice 16 kt breeze kicked up, then close reached in that for an hour and a half or so. The visibility dropped to maybe 1/4 of a mile at some point and I got quite nervous, because I knew there were oil rigs coming up in a mile or two. But the breeze slowly dropped and the visibility improved, so I put the motor back on for another hour. Then within 6 miles of SB another nice breeze kicked in, maybe 14 kts or so. This time I was close hauled and making 4.5 kts, but it was still worth it to sail instead of beating into the wind with the motor on, so I did it. I did a horrendous douse right outside the harbor, then motored in amongst a class of CFJs. I was dying to pee! I went up and got my slip assignment, and we were home. The next morning we did the paperwork for the slip and the rest is history. 

During the previous solo trip up to SB I had recognized the problem with the mainsheet fiddle block and cam. During this trip I discovered a more minor, but still important to solve, problem: the running backstay adjustment mechanism is really jammed. I've actually never successfully operated that thing, but when it's blowing quite a bit, it's absolutely necessary, both to give the boat a little more weather helm, and to tension the forestay and jib luff. I'm fairly sure the boat would point higher and handle better if I could work the backstay, and the reefer assembly would also have fewer problems. So, here's an attempt to list that and other projects I plan to play with next. 

Slip-related: 

• install bumpers
• figure out outboard storage

Rigging:

• fix running backstay tensioning
• put spacers in reefer assembly
• install outhaul
• buy spinnaker sheets

Interior

• Redo electrics
• make v-berth window cushion
• make window shades
• buy stove

• And finally we need a haul pretty badly!

A small project

When we got Koan we didn't find an insert or a cushion for the v-berth, so I decided to make one. Luckily it's just a 2x2 ft piece of ply, painted white on one side and China red on the other, with the Chinese characters for the boat's name on the red side. The cushion is going to be a little trickier. I'm probably going to buy a sewing machine and make a project of it, since I've discovered that some of our sails also need to be trimmed to size to work with the furler.

Dogs and boat therapy!

Sailors
Originally uploaded by slampoud

I am so lucky that my dog understands the concept of boat therapy!

Dan and I started acclimatizing Huckleberry (who is 5 months old at the moment) to the boat gradually, a few weekends ago. On the first time there we only walked the docks, tried on his lifejacket for a while, and took him on and off the boat by lifting him. The second time around we went for a sail, and held him a lot, so he could sleep while we were sailing (isn't that a great picture?!). Today there was a fierce Santa Ana wind blowing and I was alone, so we didn't go out, but we did spend the whole day on the boat. This time he got on and off the boat all on his own, met other boat dogs, and generally got comfortable, chewing his bone on the foredeck.

I got lots of little chores done, myself. I uninstalled the v-berth lights, and threw them away. The plastic was melted from, presumably, bulbs that got too hot. I also realized the inside power is on all the time -- no battery switch. I'm lucky something sparked and I realized I was working on a live circuit before I burned myself. I also ascertained that the main cabin fluorescent bulbs are all good. That means the reason the starboard ones won't turn on is that that circuit is messed up. I had brought a multimeter but -- Murphy's Law -- its five year old batteries had died, so I couldn't do any diagnosing. I charged the battery, then I used my new Mastmate to climb halfway up the mast and drop down the spinnaker pole topping lift. I came up with a way to sky that and the spinnaker halyard, and that situation is now ready to roll. All we need is spin sheets and we can RUN!

Back home, I'm almost done with building the 2x2' v-berth insert. Next up, make a cushion for it, and the v-berth will be complete!

More TODO's:
* replace mid-mast running light, connect wiring for it.
* install fuel hose thru-deck fitting
* install rubstrakes for new cam-cleats
* diagnose stbd electrical circuit

Shopping list

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)

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.

The trip back

dolphins on the way to Ventura
Originally uploaded by slampoud

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.

Our first trip to SB

Dan checking out the new motor
Originally uploaded by slampoud

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