Archive | August, 2012

Place for Books

August 23, 2012 by
Just Some of Our Books

Just Some of Our Books

Books have always been a key part of my life. I must decide what to do with our existing books and which books will come aboard in hard-copy or digital Kindle format. Gone are the days where at anchorage you could see boats struggling to float above the waterline because of their extensive libraries.  Some apartment books are headed for storage and the rest will given away to new loving homes.  I bet the new owner of Numerical Recipes in C++ will be excited to own this dog-eared book.  The huge task of book sorting will start like Marie Antionette’s walk to the guillotine, one step at a time.  One box at a time: books for the boat, books for storage and give away books,  Our sailing reference books will join us on board as problem solvers, except that  I will not  be reading a chapter on heavy weather sailing during the 50 knot storm.  The reference books will be handy for fixing engines and other systems.  There is a spot on the bookshelf reserved for  Jimmy Cornell’s famous world cruising routes and our Yacht Maintenance Handbook. There is also space for South American cruising guides and the unread gems on the apartment shelves that were purchased but never enjoyed.  Moby Dick will be top of that list.  In due time, I will post the full list or our library.   Please use the comment feature below to suggest your desert island books.   Most of the library will be on the Kindle . This will consist of a mixture of more unread classics, books with a South America theme, and perhaps the full set of Robert Caro Lyndon Johnson books.  After I read the first Caro book on Johnson I was irate for months because I had learned what an awful person Johnson was. Maybe at sea I can be a bit calmer.

Please comment with your favorite must-read books and I’ll be sure to load them on to the Kindle before we set sail. I’ll make sure to write reviews of the more notable reads and to keep a widget with Recently Read books on the sidebar. I can’t wait.   — Gail

 

 

Gail Takes Basic Coastal Cruising Class

August 10, 2012 by

We have recently spent a lot of time buying tools, learning about engines and other non-sailing boat activities so I thought it might be good for me to learn how to sail. Not that I haven’t sailed before. Jason and I raced Vanguard-15s for a few years and we did take a course in BVI (click here to see the post), but I still need to develop a better feel for the water and work on my ability to execute actions quickly.

I decided to enroll in Manhattan Yacht Club’s (MYC) Basic Coastal Cruising Class (aka ASA 103). MYC is a hidden treasure. They have a fleet of J-24s and a J-105 docked right at the World Financial Center. Jason has belonged there for over 20 years but because he was mostly racing J-24s, I never accompanied him. I decided not to start at the very beginning level – Basic Keelboat – but to go out twice on my own with an instructor and then go to the class.

My first sail was 2 hours with instructor Andrew. When I got to the dock, the boat was fully rigged (yeah!), except for the Jib because he wanted to see me tie a bowline. Fortunately, I had practiced that the day before. For anyone looking to refresh boat knot skills, I highly recommend Grog’s Animated Knots app. My big accomplishment was steering the whole time we were out. We had some great weather – wind 10 to 15 knots – and I learned first hand about weather helm. Andrew’s calm demeanor was great and he interjected with some very useful tips from time to time. Good news again when we got ashore – they were using the boat again and no de-rigging. Did I mention that when we sailed Vanguard-15s I was a bit of a Prima Donna? When we got back to the sailing club, I always got to shower while Jason de-rigged the boat. That may change soon.

The next week, I went sailing with Andrew again and told him I had two goals: 1) Control both the tiller and the main sheet, and 2) not get seasick. So I made sure to take Bonine and drink lots of water and he helped me get more comfortable at the helm. Progress!

So now for the big event. I was slightly trepidatious about two full days of sailing. Ever since a few bad seasick experiences last year, I get slightly nervous about going out. I took my medication and drank a lot of water and I was fine for both days. The sailing couldn’t have been better. Our instructor, Javier, was also great. He was calm, knowledgeable and very thoughtful. We rotated being at the helm, so I had to forget about being timid very quickly. On our first day we sailed to the Verazzano Narrows Bridge and back. Lots of traffic in the harbor made it challenging, but with many lookouts and voices on the boat, we were safe. We all had our own points of view – mine was that we were in a cruising course and really shouldn’t need to tack and gybe so much. Others were focused on finding refreshments or going for a swim (Yes, in the Hudson. Not for me.) Needless to say, Javier didn’t really agree. We tried to convince Javier to take a break at Red Hook – some of the crew were focused on some afternoon caffeine but our request was vetoed. We also practiced man overboard, or lifejacket overboard and docking. Everyone had to take their turn steering through both skills and we all made it.

Rolling Hitch Knot

Day two the wind was light (1 knot gusting to 2 knots) in the morning so we stayed on land and took our exam and practiced our knot-tying. Javier was a good teacher because I finally can remember how to tie a rolling hitch! We also all passed our tests! All of those pop-quizzes Jason has been giving me have finally paid off.

We headed up to the George Washington Bridge very slowly because the wind was still light, reaching back and forth across the Hudson River. As you go North, there are fewer boats, so that part was a bit more relaxing. Eventually we anchored and took a break at the Inwood Marina. We were again turned down when we asked to let one of the crew swim ashore and fetch some refreshments. Maybe when we come through with Two Fish the Marina part will be open. I had fun using the Navionics iPhone app to check our depth, report on the windspeed at Robbins Reef, and record some of our track. By 4pm, the wind had shifted and picked up during our return, so it was a fun sail back and we were all ready for some drinks at The Mermaid, MYC’s marina barge.

It was fantastic for me to be sailing and to gain a few more skills and increase my confidence. Mostly, it was great to have a fun time on the water and remember what all of the current planning is working towards. I hope to go out with the MYC boats a few more times this summer and keep learning. –Gail

Tools for boat repair

August 5, 2012 by

After graduating from our boat repair class in the UK we decided it was time to dive in and buy some tools.   The shocking part is how little we know about tools.  The nomenclature of socket wrenches and electric drills is mystifying.   After a bit of web surfing I learned that a driving drill pulsates like a hammer and is good for placing bolts into concrete.   Hopefully the boat is not made with concrete so we passed on the driving drill.  If your plan to learn about tools is to go to Home Depot and have the staff tutor you then you should work on your plan B right away.  The Long Island branch reps are not like the ones in the commercials but in the end we were able to buy many tools from our list.  We got a great list to start with from   s/v Field Trip and s/v Escapade.   Click on what to buy for an Antares to download the excel file.   We then added to the list some items we had been told about in our maintenance classes.    Craig from s/v Alberta Crewed advised us on our Sears purchase when he was staying with us in NYC.

Before ordering we looked at our current supply of tools. As we are long time Manhattanites, this consisted of a hammer with flowers on the the handle (Thanks Mom), a screwdriver and a number for a handyman.    We grabbed the credit card and hopped on the Sears website.   I will give the short version of the story which lasted 2 hours.   It was hell after the credit card was rejected for “our protection”.   I am not sure whether to be angry at Sears or American Express, I settled on being angry at both. I had to ask Gail to leave the room since she was about to travel through the phone and wring some necks.

We set up a a Bento Database to track all of our purchases.  When the list is complete, we will post a PDF of everything that came aboard.  This supply mission is something the US Army would be proud of.   Tools and other items  will have to travel a complex supply chain from store, to apartment, to rubbermaid box, to plane, to storage facility in Buenos Aires, to Two Fish and finally to a the proper storage locker.

Now lets highlight a few tools:

Puller

 

Impeller Puller:   Impellers are used in engines to promote the flow of coolant (typically sea water).   These little rubber paddle wheels need to be changed and checked on as when they fail they can send debris into the heat exchanger.    Buy the right tool and a tough job becomes easy.

 

Protection:  We bought gloves, eye protection and even a full bunny suit for messy jobs.

 

Bosun’s Chair

 

Bosuns Chair:  This chair can be renamed Gail’s aerial throne and will be used for sending Gail up the mast for fixing broken anemometers, installing chafing sheaves,  taking aerial photos and for quiet time.

 

 

 

 

Multimeter

MultiMeter:   Gail will very much enjoy this tool.   It is the first step in tracking down issues with the 12 volt system.  12 volt is too weak to kill you unless you try hard while 110 is fairly dangerous.   So amateurs are encouraged to stick to the weak stuff.  Same advice works at bars by the way.   Coors light is 12 volt and dry martini is 110 volt.  The multimeter we chose is the Fluke model number 117. It can measure voltage drops and a other metrics to confirm that your system is healthy or to diagnose that dead switch

 

—Jason

Boat building progress

August 4, 2012 by

 

Molds being joined

Are you part of the 1%?  The rare minority that can visualize a house when it is only 2×4 timber.  Among the tools, materials, and trash, can you visualize the roaring fireplace in the winter time?   I am in the 99% that just look at the mess and make wildly wrong assumptions.   The living room is too small or the ceilings look too high.    My lack of visualization skills for half-built suburban homes extends to an inability to visualize half-built boats.

Here is my version of how they built an Antares-do not try this at home without adult supervision. It starts with the molds that are used on every boat.  The molds are based on the same technology as is used in the cupcake industry.  Pour in cupcake dough, bake, and out pops a cupcake.   The problem is that a catamaran is too complex a shape to use just one mold so it is more like a tiered layer cake.   Use a variety of molds to create a complex shape and bond it together with icing.   I sure hope they use something stronger than icing to bond together Hull #44.

The workers clean the molds and wax them so that the Boat (cupcake) pops out easily after baking.   The boat’s “paint job”  is installed first by applying gelcoat to the mold.   Then layers of fiberglass and foam core are installed via a complex process called vacuum bagging.   It is okay if you are confused since I have no idea what I am talking about.  I do know that if I see more  2 x4 ‘s, the splash date for my cupcake is coming soon.  Did I mix too many metaphors?

The splash date for the boat is a year away but there is plenty of variance in this estimate.   The first photo shows the hulls before the two mold pieces have been connected.  Go get the cake icing.  The sand color material is the foam core to the boat.   It is  better than the the commonly used alternative, balsa.  Balsa is inferior as a core since it can absorb water and is more complex to repair.

In one of the photos there is a more complete boat in the foreground which is owned by a gentleman from Malaysia.  He is looking for crew from Argentina to Malaysia.  Not a short trip but if you are interested and a real sailor suppose you should drop him a line. — Jason