Category: Mechanical Stuff

Back in the Boatyard

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, Splendido1 Comment

Splendido is nearly 28 years old and it’s time for me to get after some refitting projects this winter. I am continually inspired by SV Delos skipper Brian Trautman (a fellow UW grad) not just for the cruising lifestyle but also for the hard work he puts in maintaining his 53-ft. Amel Super Maramu.

What I like best about the SV Delos video series—apart from the beautiful locales and fun adventures—is the accurate depictions about the amount of effort it takes to keep things ship-shape. So, duly inspired, I have a list of things I’m going to attack this winter:

  • Tailoring the lazy bag to fit the sail more snugly—hopefully with less windage
  • Checking all the standing rigging for signs of wear
  • Removing all the brightwork that needs refinishing and getting that done in the garage
  • Light sanding and repainting the trailer, which got pretty scuffed up in recent years
  • Changing the oil and filters in the Perkins Perama diesel
  • Polishing the fuel so it’s ready for spring sailing
  • Replacing the incandescent bulbs with more LED lights to reduce battery drain when boat camping
  • Repacking the rudder shaft stuffing box
  • When it warms up, touching up the gel coat
  • And a bunch more stuff I haven’t thought of yet.

A special shout-out to Ancil Sigman of Le Crapaud fame for letting me work on Splendido at his place this winter. Thanks, Ancil!

I’m also stoked to discover that Brian Trautman’s brother Brady Trautman and his partner Alex Blue (and their new rescue pup, Sharky) have settled for the time being at Lake Tahoe. They’ve launched a new business called Cruisers Academy and have a small fleet of Catalinas at Tahoe offering lessons for all levels. They are both accomplished scuba divers as well, and they’re offering dive adventures next year, starting with what looks to be an epic adventure for more advanced divers in the Galapagos Islands. As an SV Delos fan and supporter, I hope to see them out on the water in 2021. Welcome to the Tahoe sailing community, Brady and Blue (and Sharky, too)!

The pandemic—and my struggles with anxiety related to it—have got me thinking about how I would like to live my life with more adventure and fun in the future. I’ve decided to get a PADI Open Water Diver certification as soon as it’s safe, so hopefully I can participate in the Clean Up The Lake diving project in 2021. I’m also learning video shooting and editing to bring more short videos to this blog, so keep an eye out. I’ll start with simple GoPro videos about my projects this winter as I dip my toes in the water.

In the meantime, mask up, stay safe, and drop a note in the comments below about how you like the blog and what kind of content you’d like to see more of. As this crazy year draws to a close, Debbie and I wish you health, happiness and peace—and optimism for better days ahead.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB


A Strong Start To The 2018 Season

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Overnighters, SplendidoLeave a comment

First, a word of thanks to my friends who helped make commissioning a lot easier this season: To Michael Salley, who generously let me store Splendido in his industrial yard, with access to water and electricity (and a forklift!), I am much beholden; it allowed us to get everything ship-shape in record time. To Jamie Filbin, my dear friend, fellow adventurer and sailing enthusiast, I am deeply indebted for the many hours of prep help, cleaning and waxing the hull (thank goodness for Collinite), helping paint the bottom and (this is where the forklift comes in), knowing how to drive one so we could lift the mast up 13 feet from the sawhorses it was resting on while we checked the rigging, replaced the halyards, and rebuilt the masthead.

Owning a sailboat in her prime (Splendido turns 25 this year) has its challenges, and one of them is parts wearing out and needing to be replaced. Notice that I was careful not to say “older” or “aged” sailboat – I am reminded of my favorite Aubrey/Maturin stories written by Patrick O’Brian:

Dr. Stephen Maturin: By comparison, the Surprise is a somewhat aged man-o-war. Am I not correct?

Captain Jack Aubrey: Would you call me an aged man-o-war, doctor? The Surprise is not old; no one would call her old. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She’s a fine seabird: weatherly, stiff and fast… very fast, if she’s well handled. No, she’s not old; she’s in her prime.

One of this year’s challenges was to repair, replace, or fabricate the masthead divider plate for our weatherly, stiff and (relatively) fast Splendido. Our masthead divider plate had worn out – had broken, in fact – and so I contacted Catalina Yachts in Florida and they searched the warehouse and couldn’t find anything that would work. So, I had to fabricate it myself, which was not difficult, and I actually enjoyed the challenge of finding the proper type of plastic and doing the engineering drawings and making the thing whole again. While I was at it, I also replaced two of the Delrin masthead sheaves (as well as the ones for the deck organizers, which had worn flat spots in them after all these years).

Once we launched the boat, I noticed a slow drip coming out of the sea water pump when it was running. Jamie and I pulled the pump, examined it, and couldn’t figure out why it was dripping. I got on the phone with the kind folks from Transatlantic Diesel, and they said it was probably the seals that had worn out. So, one evening over beer and pretzels, my engineer/brother-in-law Tracy and I disassembled the pump, replaced the seals I bought from TAD, and it’s been running like a top ever since. (Thanks, Tracy!)

Sailing? Why yes, the point of all this activity was to actually get out on the water. Long story short, the sailing has been great. Here’s a quick YouTube™ link to perhaps our best sailing day, June 25th, with Splendido rocking out in 21 knots of wind, racing southwards at 6.5 knots plus for miles on end.

On more normal sailing days, with 10 – 15 knot Zephyrs, Debbie and I have gone out and enjoyed gentler sails. On the eve of July Fourth, we had a wonderful sail with one reef in the mainsail and about 50% of the genoa out, which took us to our favorite gunkhole toward the south end of Sugar Pine State Park. There, we saw Terry Wasik and his 41-foot Hunter, Cheeseburger in Paradise, with the hook down, settling in for the night. We dropped the hook about 75 yards away and grilled steaks on the Magma BBQ while the sun sank in the western sky. As the sky darkened, we saw the flashes of fireworks at King’s Beach on the north shore, and sat on the deck enjoying the show.

Once again, I am filled with gratitude at the gift of friends, this lake, this boat, and being healthy and able to enjoy it all. To my fellow sailors, I have a deep appreciation for all the hard work, headaches, and heartburn that goes into pursuing our shared passion for life under sail. What’s remarkable to me is that every season, getting out on the water, trimming the sails, and cruising along with one foot on on the wheel and the wind in your hair is like a magical amnesiac that makes all the effort worthwhile.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Dude, What Happened To The 2017 Season?

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Overnighters, Splendido4 Comments

I didn’t post much last year (actually, I posted only once), and for the past six months, I’ve been thinking about why that was. The truth is, last season was a bit rough for Splendido, but we still had a lot of fun when we did manage to get out on the water. So here’s the story, belated though it may be:

splendido-before-the-bright-blue-paint-fiasco

At first, I thought the season was going to be a breeze. Spring commissioning went really well, with lots of new upgrades, including a new mainsail, lazy bag, and lazy jacks, Raytheon wirelesss instruments, and new Navy Blue Krypton bottom paint, too. But then…

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I noticed hairline cracks in the fiberglass in the bilge area made me nervous (this does not take a lot, as friends can affirm). After grinding out the cracks and thoroughly inspecting everything, I realized the repair was beyond my comfort level, so I took Splendido to my local fiberglass expert. A cool $950 later (ouch!), she was better than new. The repairs set us back a few weeks, so we didn’t launch until nearly July. So there’s that. Then…

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Wildland fires in California made the lake basin smoky for a good part of the season, so that cut into our sailing time a bit.

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Thunderstorms kept us guessing for a fair amount of the season about when and where to sail.

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The weather patterns seemed different, although they made for some very interesting cloud formations. I believe the clouds shown here are called mammatus clouds, and they form on the underside of anvil clouds. They have a particular beauty, especially when the sun hits them at a low angle.

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When the sailing was good, it was epic, and so I tended to try to squeeze every drop out of it. Hence, the burkha-like headgear to protect my pale skin from Tahoe’s high-elevation rays.

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Boat camping was a standard weekend activity for us when conditions permitted. We enjoyed a number of two-night stays at anchor, often rowing in to shore to take walks and explore Tahoe’s forests and glades.

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Sometimes you can sail in the morning at Tahoe. One weekend when Debbie was hanging out with one of her girlfriends at our home in Reno, I spent two nights on the boat. This shot is of a 7 a.m. sail northwards, just ghosting along at about 2-3 knots with a gentle westerly.

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Other mornings, you just hang out and enjoy the beauty of a quiet anchorage while you sip your morning coffee.

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In August, the water was warm enough for swimming, and Debbie and I did a lot of swimming off of Sugar Pine State Park.

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Debbie is getting a lot more comfortable being skipper, although she clearly still doesn’t like having her photo taken.

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A rare easterly storm in late September shook my brand-new wireless Raytheon wind instruments off the mast and tossed them in the drink. Because Splendido was on her mooring ball when this happened, I knew they had to be somewhere within a 50-yard radius of the ball. So, on a placid day in mid October I donned a wetsuit, gloves, hood, flippers and mask and tried to find this precious gear somewhere on the lake floor. After two hours of diving and chilled to the bone (the water was 50 degrees F.), I spotted a glint in the muck at about 25 feet deep. I broke an eardrum and got a bloody nose because I didn’t clear my ears properly, but I got the d@#ned instruments. Best of all, they still worked after spending three weeks in the water.

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Royal blue is not Navy blue I loved how good the Total Boat Krypton Navy blue paint looked on Splendido at the beginning of the season (see the first photo at the top of this post), but I didn’t buy quite enough, so I ordered another gallon about a month after I bought the first gallon. The day before we launched, I touched up a few areas on the hull, and the color looked normal when it was applied over the rest of the Navy blue. However, when we pulled the boat at the end of the season, I was stunned to see that the “touch up” part was actually Royal and not Navy blue. I called Jamestown Distributors to tell them they were putting the wrong color in the Navy cans, but they thought I was hallucinating – until I showed them what the hull looked like. They sent me another can, free of charge – and it, too, was labeled Navy but filled with Royal blue paint. Bottom line, I guess Splendido will be sporting a Royal bottom this year. Word to the wise: Always buy your paint at the same time – and check the cans!

Fair winds and smooth sailing, DB

The Labor Of Love, And A Launch For 2017

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, SplendidoLeave a comment

I have to laugh when I think of the popular view of sailing as a leisure activity for folks who wear ascots or sport Hermes handbags. It may be that way for some, but for those of us “Good Old Boat” lovers, it’s literally a labor of love. (By this, I really mean lots of hard, physically and sometimes mentally demanding work.) This year, I will be the first to admit that I was overly ambitious with winter/spring/early summer commissioning, putting in well over 100 hours of time attacking the following projects:

  • Sand entire bottom to remove flaky old hard Pettit Trinidad paint
  • Repaint hull with Total Boat Krypton ablative antifouling
  • Remove all original instruments (wind, speed, and depth) and wiring
  • Replace with all new Raytheon wireless wind, speed, and depth, and rewire nav sender
  • Discover – to my horror – significant cracks in the stringers athwartships in the bilge area
  • Grind out said cracks to see how extensive they were
  • Abandon all hope of self-repair and take the boat to Ted Thurston at TNT Auto & Marine for some serious fiberglass work, including on the transom from last year’s piling knock
  • Check and repair/replace lighting (swapping out old lighting to new LEDs), which involved soldering (which I am not the most skilled at doing!)
  • Replace and rewire fuel tank sender unit, as the old one was on the fritz and we were judging fuel levels by estimating engine hours-to-gallons (not very accurate, esp. motor-sailing)
  • Install a new mainsail, new lazy jacks, new lazy bag system
  • Reconfigure the 1997 Hood Sea Furl furling headstay, replace broken centering assembly, adjust length while the rig is standing (a major, major PITA requiring two stout men to do it)
  • Replace punctured (due to age/dry climate) Whale Gusher Urchin diaphragm
  • Replace all the locker elbow latches inside the boat
  • Replace the Shurflo twist-on pipe strainer on the water pump under the sink
  • Repair flag holder assembly that had worked loose on the stern of the boat
  • Replaced worn-out oar locks on our Walker Bay dinghy
  • Re-veneer woodwork in the salon that was damaged from some water infiltration (thanks to dried-out porthole seals) due to our 2x-normal wet winter (and yes, I need to replace those seals!)
  • Clean up edges of bottom paint along the boot stripe by hand, with acetone and a rag
  • Wash hull twice, wax with cleaner wax, and polish to a gleaming shine

Long story short, I am exhausted; my entire body is sore from the effort, but I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. A million thanks to my brother-in-law Tracy, the engineer, whose brilliant mind and ability to trouble-shoot almost anything mechanical never ceases to amaze me; to my friend Michael Salley for letting me use his industrial yard to work on the boat this spring; and extra-special thanks to Debbie, to whom I gave two bouquets of flowers on the eve of launch day this year – the first bouquet for putting up with me for being a cranky bastard for the past four months, and the second bouquet as a hedge against my being a cranky bastard in the future.

The good news, though, the boat is finally in the water at Tahoe, and sailable as of last night, June 24, at 6 p.m. It’s the latest start we’ve ever had. There is still some fine-tuning to do on the lazy jacks and lazy bag, but she looks good; I feel confident that all systems are working great; and I can’t wait to actually sail her and enjoy the feeling of gliding across the water to our favorite gunkholes around the lake. To summer and sailing Lake Tahoe!

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

 

Fuel-polishing the 1993 Catalina 270

On By David BranbyIn Mechanical StuffLeave a comment

Lots of great sailing on Tahoe this year, and more on that in future posts, but I want to take a moment to talk about polishing the fuel system on a 1993 Catalina 270. As I’ve chronicled before in other posts, I have had more than one “fuel starvation/I think it’s the filters clogging up” incident aboard Splendido. On July 2nd, I went out for a singlehanded sail, and since there was no wind, I ended up motoring out in the direction of Sugar Pine Point.

About 1/2 mile off the point — and about two miles from Obexer’s marina — the engine started to weaken and then just died. I drifted for a bit and re-started it, and was able to sort of poodle it back to Obexer’s, where it once again died, just close enough to coast into the guest dock.

night-dock

Thinking it was clogged filters, I tied up and proceeded to change the secondary filter, as that was all I had on the boat, having just changed the primary filter in May. I was not happy, as you can see from this dockside selfie.

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Luckily, my friend John Turner of the new Grand Cru was just wrapping up for the night, and he came by to help. Long story short, we couldn’t get her started, so he did a workaround that bypassed the primary fuel filter but not the secondary, and it fired right up. The workaround was made using the “straw” from a handsoap dispenser and a fair amount of electrician’s tape. Anyway, I needed to get back to our mooring ball about 1.5 miles to the north, so I set out under a darkening sky and hoped that our workaround would actually work. (It did.)

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The challenge, of course, was motoring up the West Shore of Tahoe at night, hoping the engine wouldn’t quit, and planning what to do if it did.
night-view

All my anxiety was for nought; with the compass and GPS on my cell phone, I was able to cruise up the coastline and snagged the mooring ball on the first try. I rowed the dinghy back to shore, plotting a “permanent” fix for this irritating problem.

To back up a bit, I realized in April that I had forgotten to top off the diesel tank over the winter, as this prevents condensation from forming in the tank, which then sinks beneath the diesel fuel. In this fuel/water interface, microscopic fungi, yeast, and bacteria — up to 27 different kinds of bacteria, in fact — can grow, creating organic matter and sludge that clogs fuel filters. So, when the engine started making sounds of fuel starvation, I naturally thought that this is what happened.

So, I pulled out my September/October 2012 issue of Good Old Boat magazine, as I remembered an article by David Lynn that showed how to make a simple fuel-polishing system from a good filter, a simple fuel pump, some wire leads, hose, a switch, and a wand to stick in the tank. With a lot of generous assistance from my friend Michael Salley, the final product looked like this:

polisher

Oddly, I decided to go up early on July 4th, hoping to polish the fuel and get everything running like a top so Debbie could come up and join me on the boat and we would watch fireworks together that night. Or, as Debbie likes to say, “from your mouth to God’s ear.” I fired up the fuel polisher and hooked it up to the end of the gravity-fed fuel line that goes into the primary fuel filter. It took nearly three hours to process the first gallon of fuel, which I hoped to decant into three 5-gallon buckets (the ’93 Catalina 270 has a 14-gallon fuel tank). It was taking so long, I thought something else must be going on.
polishing

I opened up as much access as I could to the fuel tank, only to find that there are no large circular plates to unscrew so you can get inside the tank and wipe out the sludge that’s left over (like it showed in the magazine article); in fact, there was only a couple of places you could reach with tools, so I attacked the fuel outlet fitting. With a couple of turns of a wrench, I was able to pull out a 9-inch “straw” or “wand” that went down into the tank through about a quarter-sized hole. I unscrewed the wand from the fitting, and, on a hunch, blew through it. Hardly any air went through it. It was packed full of something. Wiping it down with a rag, I unscrewed the wand from the 90-degree fitting, and lo and behold, there was a bunch of degraded black webby filter material that had gotten sucked up into the wand and stuck in the 90-degree angle. I cleaned it out thoroughly, reassembled everything, and went back to the fuel polisher. Sure enough, the polisher began pumping out five gallons every 20 minutes or so, and in no time, I had drained and polished the entire tank. I decanted the sparkling-clean fuel back into the tank, bled the lines, and she fired up within 15 seconds. By this time, I was slightly overcome by fumes and the rock-and-rolling of the boat, because everybody and their mother was out on Tahoe for the Fourth, zipping around within 100 yards of the bouy field and creating quite a chop. Nevertheless, I was happy and relieved, and I let the engine run for a while to charge the batteries while I cleaned up the mess. I called Debbie with the good news, and we decided to bail on watching fireworks from the boat, as by that time it was late afternoon, and I was ready to be done.

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Since polishing the entire tank, our little blue Perkins Perama has fired up quickly every time, and has just run like a top. I can’t tell you how confidence-inspiring it is to know the fuel is pristine, and also to know a little bit more about how to work on diesels in general. The fuel polisher cost around $160, but I can use it over and over again, or lend it to fellow sailors in need of a polish. I have read about some sailors paying $1000 to have their tanks polished; bottom line, a visit to Napa Auto Parts and a little monkey-wrenching can save a sailor a bundle.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

Squeezing Every Last Bit Out Of The Sailing Season At Tahoe

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Splendido3 Comments

last-boat-2013The weather in the Sierra Nevada has been absolutely spectacular for the last three weeks or so; high pressure locked in, the leaves on the aspens and cottonwoods ablaze with color, and a breathtaking stillness that makes Tahoe flat as a millpond with virtually no wind. The lake level had dropped significantly over the past month, so my springtime plan to offload the boat using the Skyland pier fell by the wayside, as there was no hope of getting anywhere near it, much less to tie up and unload. I called on Obexer’s to arrange the haul-out, which we scheduled for Tuesday, October 22. I went up on the 20th for a final sail, but there wasn’t much wind and I just made a nice motor-sail day out of it. Mike Bryant came along for company and we spent the balmy afternoon putting up to Tahoe City to take in the fall color.

The next day, I drove up once again to take the boat down to Obexer’s for offloading. The logistics of the offloading were a bit like an athletic event: I had to drive the van up, drop it off at Obexer’s, pull out my bicycle and ride it two miles north to where Splendido was moored, row out with the bicycle in the dinghy, unfasten the mooring line from the buoy itself, tie off the dinghy to the back of Splendido, and then motor down to Obexer’s. It was all a bit of sprint, because I had to get everything done, be back in Reno by 4:30 p.m. for a short nap and then go to my statistics class in the MBA program from 7 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. Fortunately, when I arrived at Obexer’s, they let me pull into a vacant slip, where I proceeded to empty the boat of every last item, from cushions to glassware and sunscreen, and transfer it all into one of Debbie’s catering vans. Luckily, I had borrowed the big Safari van, and filled every inch of it. That made me think that the boat could probably add a knot or two to its top speed if only it wasn’t so laden with creature comforts. But, after thinking about it for a few minutes, I decided that it was all worth it if it kept Debbie happy and sailing with me.

This summer, I paid particular attention to making sure I was staying hydrated, because at 6,239 ft. elevation, it just wicks it out of you. I would find myself dry-eyed and unusually weary and headachy after being out on the water for four or five hours, and I attribute it to dehydration. So, on my offload day, I packed in a cool gallon of spring water and drank from it often and deeply. At about 2 p.m., I had everything off the boat except the sails and boom, so I attacked that chore next and was surprised how quickly I got things bagged and put away. With that, I locked up the cabin, grabbed a delicious pulled pork sandwich at Obexer’s General Store, and headed home.

Tuesday morning, I met my brother-in-law Tracy at his house, and we drove over to Kro-bilt trailer repair in Sparks to pick up the trailer. I haven’t written a lot about that trailer, but one thing we noticed over the years was that it didn’t fit the boat particularly well, and the stress was showing on both the trailer and on the boat. The uprights were holding the boat like tongs hold a thick ribeye steak; “squeezing” the boat rather than supporting it from underneath. This resulted in stress cracks in the uprights (as well as visible signs of them “splaying” outward), and it was putting dimples in the hull of the boat over the winter months. So, I got online and looked at all the latest sailboat trailer sites, and put together a plan to rebuild the whole dang trailer. I ordered six new boat stand and pads from Brownell’s, and had the Kro-bilt crew grind off all the old uprights, moving everything in 6-8 inches and replacing the old uprights with beefy Schedule 80 tubes and square-tubing supports. Now, the thing is sturdy as an aircraft carrier, much to my relief and Tracy’s, too. After all, Tracy is the one guy generous enough to haul the trailer with his huge Ford diesel truck because he takes great joy in anything mechanical–although the janky trailer was causing him a bit of heartburn all the same. At any rate, the Obexer’s crew was ready for us Tuesday morning, and it was a smooth process from unstepping the mast all the way through strapping the boat down and driving away. Of all the many moving parts involved in hauling a sailboat, the one slight mishap was that we left the dinghy in the harbor and didn’t realize it until we parked the trailer down in Reno. A quick phone call to Obexer’s confirmed that they had noticed it and locked it up until next weekend when I could manage to get back up there to retrieve it.

All in all, a pleasant season that ended well. I’ll post again with a photographic recap, but until I do, fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Big T & Big D 10-21-13

 

 

Fixed Just In Time For Some Cool Autumn Sailing

On By David BranbyIn Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, SplendidoLeave a comment

As it turned out, the broken seacock was not the end of our sailing season (although it was something of a comedy of errors trying to get it fixed). In the end, Brian from Tahoe Sailing Supply towed Splendido over to Obexer’s, where the skilled mechanics there lifted her out just above the water, quickly made the swap with a brand-new Marelon® seacock, and dropped her back in. Brian and a helper motored her back to her buoy, and she was good as new. Thank goodness for the good folks at Obexer’s Marina!

The weekend of Sept. 14th, Debbie had a big wedding to cater near Homewood, so I went up for a light-air sail and ghosted around a bit as she and her staff worked their rear-ends off in the heat of the afternoon. About 7:30 p.m., I put the boat back on the hook just in time to receive Debbie’s phone call that she was free. I rowed in and picked her up, and I could tell she was really tired after a long afternoon. I got her onboard Splendido and opened a Robert Parker-rated 90-pt. Garnacha I found at Ben’s Liquors for $9.99, and lo and behold, she liked it! (You never know about these things, especially when your mate’s a professional caterer and chef who’s got a palate like Debbie’s. 🙂 Debbie_Obexer's

I was a bit tuckered out after spending the earlier part of the day taking the GMAT test (four hours of hell), so I made sure she had something to eat and then I hit the hay. I awoke Sunday morning to find her bundled up topsides, sleeping in the cockpit, where she had gone to watch the incredible Milky Way that shines down on Tahoe at night. We did a quick tidy-up and then motored south to Obexer’s for coffee and breakfast burritos (they do a great job with those, by the way) and then motored out for a sail. Silly me, I forgot to listen to the weather radio, and soon we were getting pitched about by crazy gusts. A strong cold front was approaching Tahoe, and so we “beat feet” out of there and did a little motor-assisted sailing back north to our buoy, where we put her on the hook and called it a day.

On Saturday, Sept. 21st, another strong cold front came through, with buckets of rain in the Sierra and a fair amount in Reno, too. Sunday broke brilliantly sunny and clear (though a bit cool), so I called brother-in-law Matt Waddington to see if he would be up for a sail.

He was, so we headed up to Tahoe, cheering on the Tahoe Ironman competitors as we went by. Winds were light with occasional moderate gusts, so we headed toward Tahoe City, then downwind wing-on-wing to Dollar Point, and then tacked back and headed home. It was only 50 degrees out, so we found ourselves bundling up in fleece and gloves. Debbie made some yummy chicken, arugula and heirloom tomato sandwiches on thick, crusty bread, and there was half a bag of stale Cool Ranch Doritos left on board, so we were in hog heaven.

Matt Waddington Sailing Splendido 2013This week, it got quite a bit cooler here in the high country, and so my thoughts turned to pulling the boat within the next three weeks or so. The trailer is down at the welding shop getting rebuilt (turns out it never was a good fit for Splendido, having been made for a different boat altogether), and I am awaiting the arrival of new boatstand pads via UPS, from Brownell’s (www.boatstands.com). I spoke to brother-in-law Tracy today to schedule a pull down from the lake to our lower elevation in Reno (~4,550 ft.), where wind and weather won’t be so tough on Splendido. There’s so much to do, and so many things to work on this winter. Still, it’s been a fun season of sailing, and I’m going to do my best to get a few more days in before Mother Nature sends us packing.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Is This The End Of Our Sailing Season?

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Mechanical Stuff, SplendidoLeave a comment

failed-seacockLast Saturday, Debbie and I finished up our long list of chores around the house and snuck up to Tahoe to go for a relaxing sail. While she got out the cockpit cushions and prettied up the topsides, I went below to add water to the Perkins and to open the engine cooling inlet. Snap! The handle sheared off in my hand. It was one of those “Whoa! Can I hit rewind?” moments, as I realized the ramifications: I’d have to haul out the boat ($250), replace the seacock ($45), hope that the existing thru-hull was still viable, and drop the boat back in (would they charge me another $250?), plus $85/hr. for the guy helping with the repairs.

Disappointed, we packed up our gear and rowed the dinghy back to shore. The 40-mile drive  home was a quiet one, to say the least. In the back of my mind, I was thinking about the sailboat trailer welding modifications that I needed to make, and had been saving my pennies for this summer.

The next day, Labor Day, the family came over for BBQ ribs, and we talked about what had happened and what to do. Brother-in-law Tracy (the engineer) wondered aloud whether we could just put a wine cork in the inlet from beneath the boat, swap out the old seacock with a new one, and call it good. I floated this idea by the guys on Yahoo!’s Catalina 270 forum, with pretty much universal condemnation. What if the thru-hull exploded? What if the cork popped out?

Debbie called a guy named Brian at Obexer’s Marina and he suggested a “short haul” where we’d just lift the boat out of the water so the hull was clear, make the seacock swap, and call it good. That is, unless the thru-hull exploded (although I’m not sure why it would), at which point, we’ve have to totally pull the boat out, put it on boat stands, remove the old thru-hull, let the hull dry, re-install the thru-hull, etc. My anxiety level has been rising as I see dollar signs and a limited window of fair winds and smooth sailing for the remainder of the 2013 season.   —DB

Cruising Tahoe Wooden Boat Weekend with the Shrivers

On By David BranbyIn Food & Drink, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, SplendidoLeave a comment

Sailing Tahoe 2012 aboard SplendidoDebbie and I pulled Splendido up to the dock around 3 p.m. yesterday to await the arrival of our guests, Bob and Pam Shriver of Reno. As we gussied up the boat below decks, I was startled to feel a jarring “thunk thunk thunk” as some swells from a passing speedboat caused Splendido to smack her keel against the rocks about a foot below. I quickly “beat feet” above decks and pushed the boat back about 10 feet so there was a little more room beneath her keel. Clearly, the lake level has dropped from where it was just a few weeks ago, and the reminder of my mistake can be seen by the blue bottom paint on the rocks just off the pier. I put on my goggles and jumped overboard, swimming down to inspect the keel on both sides. Nothing major to report–luckily–except a little chipped bottom paint. I ran my hands over the keel bottom and everything seemed OK, then did the same thing along the keel-hull interface. I was a bit rattled by the experience, but that seems to be a weekly occurence when owning a sailboat.

Bob and Pam arrived and we shoved off. Winds were light and very shifty, so we headed north to Dollar Point, hoping to see some of the classic wooden boats celebrating the Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance at Sierra Boat Works in Carnelian Bay. We were thrilled to see a number of beautiful woodies, including the famous Thunderbird of Thunderbird Lodge fame.

The winds were so twitchy–swinging wildly from WNW to S–that I decided to tack right off Dollar Point, rather than go deeper into Carnelian Bay with all its boat traffic. It was 5 p.m. at that point, and I figured it would take a couple of hours to get back, tidy up, and get dinner going. The winds picked up considerably on the ride home, so Debbie drove while I manned the mainsheet. My rule of thumb with guests onboard is to keep the boat relatively flat and comfortable, so it was a bit of work to get upwind in the face of some pretty good gusts. We had spray coming over the bow from time to time, but we managed to stay dry and sailed over to  within view of Obexer’s, then tacked back toward home. Because the gusts were getting a bit hairier, I had Debbie fire up the engine and motor into the wind while I did my best to flake the sail over the boom. After finally getting her buttoned up, we tied up to the dock and sat down for some amazing ribs and fresh corn salad, courtesy of Bob and Pam, while Debbie served up a rich, fruity Zinfandel. Afterwards, she broke out a fresh Marionberry pie with a wonderfully flaky crust. I sat back and could’ve fallen asleep in the cockpit, exhausted but fulfilled after a fun afternoon on the water. The winds died down completely; Tahoe’s skies took on their rosy hue, and we bid our guests a safe trip back to Reno. I shooed Debbie off the boat with our bags and baggage, as it was getting dark fast, and I was a bit concerned about finding the buoy without a deck light to guide me (still haven’t replaced that #@&! bulb!). But, I just took it slow and got the line on the first try while Debbie watched from shore. I went through my security checklist one more time (Seacocks closed? Check. Head pumped dry? Check. Boathook put away? Check.), turned out the lights, and rowed the dinghy in the blackness toward shore.

Next weekend, I’m hosting some folks who won the “afternoon sail aboard Splendido” silent auction at Reno Chamber Orchestra’s 2013 Derby Day celebration…which means I’ve got a couple dozen things I need to do to make the boat pretty. Nothing like a hard deadline to inspire massive action!

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

All The Little Things

On By David BranbyIn Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, Splendido1 Comment

Here we are at mid-summer (late July) and we’ve had a lot of fun sailing. Tahoe is warming up (don’t know if that’s good or bad…climate change?) and so we’ve been swimming a lot when the boat’s on the hook, and using the boat as a relaxing platform to hang out, eat, swim, sun, and read when it’s hot in Reno. Having said all that, there are a bunch of niggling little challenges I need to work on.

1. The wind speed indicator isn’t working.

2. The depth meter also called it quits.

3. Then engine is running like a top…but I just found a split in the exhaust hose, which explains why the bilge was constantly wet. (In the video above, you can barely make out some dripping water, but it’s actually spraying a fine stream of water/exhaust against the port wall of the engine compartment.)

4. Little things like the traveler cleats are wearing out and need replacing. Yesterday, one broke while we were sailing and spit out all its tiny plastic ball bearings.

5. The sailboat trailer needs some serious beefing up before fall. (Do I see a welding class in my future?)

6. The stereo speakers in the cockpit are becoming yellowed and brittle from the UV and need replacing.

7. Debbie noticed yesterday that the “skylights” have released from their bedding compound and popped up.

8. The water coming out of the water heater has a serious “rotten eggs”/hydrogen sulfide smell. No idea what’s causing that.

9. Debbie’s also noticed that the porthole lenses are “dogged,” or cracked, from old age. (Add that to the Christmas list.)

10. And those 40 pieces of teak that I took out of the boat last year? They’re still on the floor in my garage, awaiting sanding and varnishing.

wood

Oh, and to add insult to injury (wait for it…), there was a FRESH GRAPE on the floor of the cockpit when we boarded Splendido yesterday! I have no idea where it came from, but Debbie suspected nefarious grape-eaters boarding our boat by the dark of the moon and having wild grape-eating parties, peeling them and wantonly sharing them with each other while lounging (or maybe even dancing!) on the hard plastic of our uncushioned cockpit!

(I’m thinking either one of our gentle sailing guests dropped it from his or her munchies stash and I didn’t notice, or a jokester kayaker launched it while passing by on a morning paddle.)

Moving on from this reverie, I was excited to see blog followers Zack Sisemore and Sara Barnes pass by us in their lovely yacht, the Love Boat, along with a very cute dog in a life vest. Sailors unite! I look forward to seeing them plying Tahoe’s waters and living the sailing life more this summer and beyond!

OK, off to the garage to start on that wood. Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB