Too much has happened since my last post. We launched, we shook down the boat, and we did all sorts of little projects here and there. There were plenty of fantastic sail days between 3/22 and 5/14 this year, unfortunately we just weren’t in a position to take advantage of them as we had hoped. The truth of it all is that land life took priority.
Overall, we were pleased with our new Winter cover from North Shore Canvas. We had very little in the way of water on the deck except at the mast and at the aft end of the boom. We installed it snug to the boom and had no major sagging or build-up with low lying areas. It folded up nicely in the Spring after we gave it a quick rinse down on the lawn. The zippers all worked great, the seams were in tact, and all of the tie downs were holding strong.
As soon as the Winter cover came off, I tackled a few actions at the mast. One being the replacement of our main halyard rope clutch. The original one fell apart right after we launched last year with the new rigging. I determined that the exit angle was greater than the recommended angle. I picked up a new Lewmar 10-12 mm clutch and installed a frictionless loop to pull the halyard towards the mast to reduce the exit angle. This worked great, but I realized quickly that the clutch was too small, so I upgrade to the 12-14 mm clutch.
I didn’t have much time for anything else that would require sweat and tears, so I turned to Annapolis Boat Service for bottom work. They sanded down the bottom, cleaned up the prop and the bow thruster, installed new zincs, painted the bottom and washed/compounded/waxed the hull. I was very pleased with this work and the communcations along the way were superb. They used my extra cans of Petit Trinidad SR Blue, which is no longer available.
Bert Jabins splashed the boat quickly. There isn’t much more that I can say with these guys. They operate like a well-oiled machine. I took down the WindPilot Pacific Plus, as mentioned previously, for the season because it isn’t a highly used piece of kit on the Chesapeake with the type of day sailing that we do. It also needed some attention mechanically, so it is currently in the garage.
We tried to capture the momentum of the speed the Jabin’s crew during the launch to get off the floating dock quickly. The engine had other ideas, unfortunately. We were able to move the boat under its own power, but I knew it was time to get the engine looked at.
Bring in the experts at Full Keel Marine Services. We have a Volvo Penta TMD31L-A which is a 100 hp, 4 cylinder diesel engine. They pulled all injectors, tested them on the stand at the shop and then replaced all copper sleeves and both (2) o-rings for each injector sleeve. They also replaced one of the injectors. They were very careful to only touch items that they needed to despite my request for more work; I learned a lot during this exchange about not fixing something that isn’t broken. They also replaced those coolant recirculation valves on the front of the engine that lead to/from the hot water tank. Those original valves were leaking and wouldn’t even hold 2 PSIG!
Full Keel got to work quickly with Pat and others getting involved. I was impressed with the engagement, honesty, transparency, and communications through the entire process. I think I could have done this work myself, but now after watching them do the work, I am definitely more confident. Again, I had very little time for doing this work myself, and I am grateful for Full Keel’s ability to step in and get the job done perfectly. No mess to clean up afterwards!
I got a few tasks taken care of like generator oil changes, engine oil changes, gearbox oil changes and fuel filter changeouts. In addition, we got the Port of Call re-applied, and I finally tested out our Elvstrom staysail on the removable inner forestay since Chesapeake Sailmakers installed new brass hanks for me. What a beauty!
The fun part of all of this is the sea trial – the first real day of sailing after a long Winter. I took some great friends down the Bay during the Helly Hansen World Sailing Regatta race weekend. It was a fantastic beam reach of 13 knots for a quick sail down to almost Herring Bay and then back up (total of about 25 nm). No issues were noted.
We sailed through 100s of boats and 3 race courses. That was crazy, and we probably shouldn’t have been going through those areas. But we managed fine and we didn’t interrupt racing in any measurable way that day.
Thanks to all of those services providers, trades, and suppliers that helped me get Skyward ready for another awesome sailing season. We are very lucky to live in the Annapolis area around so much talent, knowledge and capability.
The Loxodograph 