Month: June 2016

Trying Out The New 150 Genoa

On By David BranbyIn SplendidoLeave a comment

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The big news for us this season is a new 150 Genoa from National Sail Supply. Readers may remember me writing that we’d shredded the old genoa last season during the Tahoe circumnavigation. Bottom line, the old 150 genoa didn’t have a sacrificial sun cover, so I suspect it suffered UV damage while on the hook, probably at a much greater rate than other locales where the sun is not so intense. At any rate, ordering the new sail was a snap, and when it arrived, it felt like Christmas. Already, I’m very impressed by the quality workmanship from head to foot, luff to leach, and she pulls Splendido like a dream.

Debbie and I had another lovely sail on Sunday, June 19th … early on, we motored south to the northern edge of Meeks Bay, then threw down the hook in the white sand bottom we enjoy so much at the southern end of Sugar Pine State Park. We were in about 9 ft. of water, and the winds were forecast to be out of the northeast all afternoon, which is unusual for Lake Tahoe. After spending a few relaxing hours just hanging out and listening to Carla Bruni’s Quelqu’un m’a dit CD (perfect for restful listening aboard a gently rocking sailboat), we sailed off the hook and enjoyed the fun, consistent easterly winds on the sail back home.

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Launched! 2016 Sailing Season, Here We Go!

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning2 Comments

IMG_1931Sailing is a year-round sport, even in a place where you can only sail five or six months a year. That is the essential truth I learned this year. It was a lesson learned the hard way: by putting off all the crap I should have done over the late fall and winter months, I set myself up for some heartburn this spring when it came time to commission Splendido for summer. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that the 32 items on my Kanban list (that’s my favorite new tool for project management … learned from watching Eric Brechner’s excellent video a few months ago) included rewiring the entire length of the boat trying to fix the depth gauge (only to find out it didn’t work) and snaking the entire length of the mast to check the wiring on the anemometer (that didn’t work, either). My highlight on launch day (May 31st this year) was gingerly moving the boat around a very tight marina and thinking she was in neutral when she was actually in reverse, and banging the sugar scoop transom on a piling. With my wild imagination, I thought the boat was going to sink right there and block the narrow entrance to Obexer’s marina. The reality was, my pride was hurt much more than Splendido — she suffered the slightest 3/4″ chip in her gel coat, dead center on the stern, and a very thorough inspection above and below decks showed she was unscathed, and that it was time to grab the gel coat repair kit for a touch-up. Still, I was embarrassed, mainly because brother-in-law Tracy and a few other folks were standing on the docks above watching the whole thing unfold.

On Saturday, June 4th, Debbie and I headed up to the lake early and spent the morning and early afternoon fine-tuning all the running rigging and doing tedious things like zip-tying the turnbuckles and lifelines. We were able to get out for an evening sail, and it was magical. The winds were warm and light, so we spent a few hours sitting back and just enjoying being out on the water again.

Four days later, I heard that it was going to start getting really windy at Tahoe, so I drove up after work to check on the boat and its mooring lines, and decided to go for a bit of a sail. Here it is, in amazingly low-resolution video, for your viewing pleasure:

 

Anyway, we’re excited to get out as much as possible this summer. More when it happens!

Fair winds and smooth sailing, DB