Getting it up

The new Topping lift that I purchased a few months ago in anticipation of my next mast climb was installed this week, but only to break when under strain! Grrrr.

I ordered a new topping lift wire, it goes from the mast head to the aft end of the boom and holds the boom up when the sail is stowed. So today, I climbed the mast with the safety assistance of the neighbor (Don) that lives opposite where we keep the boat.

Climbing he mast is a process! This time, I used the bosuns chair that I found on the boat and a home made harness and some rock climbing techniques to get up the mast.

Don acted as a safety while I was climbing the Main Halyard using a pair of Prusik knots for my foot harness and bosun's chair harness, with a 1st safety Prusik knot secured to the bosuns chair and the running safety line being maintained by Don. It's seemed to take a while to climb the mast, probably 15 to 20 minutes, but I was able to get within reaching distance of the mast head and install the new topping lift.

Once the wire was installed at the masthead, it was time to descend. It was actually easier than I expected, just had to figure out the maximum I could descend each transition from sitting with my weight in the bosuns chair to standing in the foot harness.

Safely back on deck, I thanked Don, just having him there helped. Now it was time to connect the topping lift wire to the block and tackle on the back of the boom. Arrrrgh! The wire was too long! The riggers had made it 42 feet instead of the prescribed 38 feet!

To get it adjusted would require that I climb the mast again to disconnect it from the mast head and again to put it back! It's not easy climbing the mast, not a bid deal, but it takes a lot of effort to lift my 180lbs 46+ feet up the mast.

After discussing it with the rigger, I purchased a swage tool and swage ferrules with the intent of shortening the wire without having to climb the mast again.

After an hours work, I finally completed the task, the wire was now 4' shorter and the block and tackle on the boom fit great! Phew!

With the boom topping lift installed, cross another thing off the ToDo list in preparation for our sail on Christmas day. - Of course the weather has some say on that, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.

See you on the water.

Christmas day cruise

Looks like we might be taking Eximius out on Christmas Day - if the weather is nice!

This will be our first time out with the new sails! I wonder if anyone else will be nearby?

We'll probably head out of Port Everglades, head up/down the coast for a while, at least 3 miles out ;) Will take our good camera just in case we get to see any other sailboats in the area and post their pics.

To Do's before then include Oil Change, New Topping lift (the 'new' wire slipped out of it's eye at the crimp!)

High Tide at Bahia Mar is around 07:30, so we should have no problems getting out of the slip on the New River in the morning.

There are no reported closures of the bridges on the New River - There should be tenders on duty, we'll have to make sure to thank them for opening on Christmas day!

So, that means we should be able to get to the Ocean around 10am ish (no rush), Wind looks good too, (but we're 8 days out, might change :)

Low tide (Spring!) is around 13:30, so we'll have to stay away from the slip till around 15:30. But we might hang out at Lake Sylvia or Sunrise Bay overnight.

New River to the Ocean

New Rags

New Rags (Getting a New Set of Sails)

We knew this was in our future, it's time to replace the Sails on Eximius. 

Our choice was to go local, not the cheapest but there's a lot to be said for giving business to local companies. We chose Super Sailmakers in Fort Lauderdale. Their sail loft is only 20 minutes away from the slip where we keep Eximius and the rep lives even closer.

One choice we made was to go with a loose footed mainsail. Instead of the foot of the sail being attached to the length of the boom and at each end, a loose footed sail is only attached to the boom at the front of the sail (the Tack) and the back of the sail (the Clew), this allows the sail to take a natural shape along it's foot. But the Clew is secured to the boom by the Out Haul, and that piece of rigging is 27  years old! Might need to replace it.

Good decision! While inspecting the out haul rigging I noticed a crack in the fitting that connects the boom to the mast (the Gooseneck) so I ended up taking the boom off the boat and replacing the end fittings, 

Here are the new end fittings (top is the back end bottom is the front end)

Nice new castings and no cracks in the steel.

This is the old front end fitting. Yuk!

It was a challenge to get the end caps off. I drilled out the screw heads but could not drill out the screw shaft. In the end, I just punched them through with a nail punch. They were self tapping screws into pre-drilled casting holes.

There's a lot of surface corrosion, the sheave has a couple of broken edges and the split pin holding the gooseneck fitting is a renown failure point.

Of course the tackle looks pretty shot too.

 This is the aft end boom fitting, a bit of corrosion, it's missing the topping lift tang and the sheave has a few broken edges.

You can see the out haul wire, it's in pretty good shape, but I hope never to have to open the boom again, so I'll change it out now.

This shows the tackle that is inside the boom, it's a 3 to 1 purchase and the line is pretty much past it's best by date. The blocks are ok, so I don't have to replace them.

The inside of the boom has typical surface corrosion, but the end where the caps fit (this is looking from the front of the boom) inside need a clean up, a hard scrub should suffice.

Notice the lines have suffered over the past 27 years.

Looking deep inside the boom, nothing other than surface corrosion showing that might bee snagging the lines, so I'm assuming the line damage is just ages of abrasion against the edges of the boom.

Thinking about putting a pvc tube inside the boom, nice clean smooth surface, that should eliminate the abrasion.

Had a really good day working on the boat!

Completed the replacement of the outhaul and the Gooseneck Casting Assembly and aft boom casting.

Replaced the Topping lift control line and the Main Halyard that's the white line with blue flecs.

The line is a bit long right now, but I'll wait till the new sail is installed on Tuesday before I cut it shorter.

Have to find out something to do with the 100' of the old halyard line.

With the new lines in place, I put the Cradle cover back on the boom, the support lines are temporary (the old lazy jack lines) and the cradle is empty right now, waiting for the new sail to be installed on Tuesday.It's starting to come together.

Next projects are:

• Repair the broken stitching on the aft end of the dodger canvas (the blue cover over the cabin entrance)
• Modifying the Bimini beneath the solar panels to eliminate the puddle that forms every time it rains.
• Re-working the jib furler system so that it's easier to roll in and let out the jib as the wind dictates.
• Install hand holds each side of the dodger to make it safer to get out of the cockpit and go forwards without having to grab hold of the canvas (that's why I'm having to repair the stitching on the dodger!)

So today was a really good day, crossed off several items that were bugging me and got the boat ready for the new sail install Tuesday, assuming the weather co-operates.

Talking about weather - do I really need a wind turbine? Hmmmmm.

See you on the water.

Giving Thanks 2015

What a great weekend!

As planned, with a slightly later start, we left the slip and headed down the New River on Saturday morning. Bridge tenders were all on the ball and bridges opened without any delays, thanks guys!

Once we got into the Intracoastal and turned North, we headed up towards Los Olas Blvd bridge, past all of the Mega yachts tied up by Bahia Mar Marina. Bridge opens on the 15&45, and no issues despite a really strong current through the bridge fenders. Then a sprint up to Sunrise Blvd Bridge in time for the Noon opening. Wind was building up, but nothing nasty.

As we left the Sunrise bridge behind us, we called Spruce Goose on VHF 68, they were already at anchor. We agreed to raft up tied on their port side. Peggy did a great job of getting us along side, no sweat!

We both had fenders out, just as well as the wind was due to pickup. There were several boats in the bay, 4 rafted up included Valhalla, Cheshire, Kokomo, and Alebrije, Diversion (Bob & Joyce) were between us and the yacht club, Bold Prospect was nearby, Blue Belle and Hullabaloo were in slips. Sorry if I missed anyone.

The club boats had the Blind Man Dinghy race before we got there, hope I get some pics. Around 2pm, we all headed ashore, the dinks back in action acting as ferries, for games at the club.

Hector had setup a Knots Quiz, we all learned something, (like - next time, make sure your partner participates, else you only score half points!) It started to rain, but nothing serious. Bob & Pat from Esprit Du Vent drove down to be with the club members - they probably knew about the food!

We all headed back to our boats (dingy ferry again) to freshen up and get ready for the 5pm BYOF dinner.

If I have not mentioned it before, let me state it here - the HISC knows how to socialize, and that include how to have a feast! We all ate very well and desert was - incredible! Thanks everyone that brought something, (I think it had to be everyone, there was so much food!)

Back to the boats in the dark. Anchor lights around the bay, we all got back to our bunks safely.

Sunday Morning we all ferried back to the club house for Brunch - they told us it was going to be good! IT WAS! We beat the crowd, arriving at the club around 9:45, and not only was the food great, service excellent, but the conversations at the tables were lively, great social.

After brunch, we ferried back to our boats ready for departure. Eximius, Spruce Goose, and Cheshire were about the last boats to leave. They all headed North, while we headed South with Hullabaloo in front of us waiting on the Sunrise Bridge opening.

Getting back to the dock was an easy motor. We spent a while packing up gear to take home and loaded up the car. Home for a shower before heading out to the store for the week's groceries. Back to solid ground.

It was a great weekend, now we're looking forward to the New Years celebration in Lake Boca, should be a good turnout.

Thanks everyone for making the event awesome! Especially the Ferry boats.

Comment to USCG reference New River Drawbridge Regulations.

The USCG asked for Comments to be considered during upcoming meeting.

Comments may be left until December 3rd at:

Here's the link to the Comment form

Here are my comments:

Agency: Coast Guard (USCG)
Document Type: Rulemaking
Title: Drawbridge Operation Regulation; New River, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Document ID: USCG-2015-0271-0010

Comment:
The bridge being closed for 60 minutes will cause a back up of marine traffic in both direction.
The Rule should include a maximum period that the bridge can be closed to marine traffic. eg. the Maximum time the bridge may be closed to marine traffic is 15 minutes. This would help alleviate the back up of vessels waiting for the bridge to open.

There would still be an issue with vessels held up at the bridge forming a backup to the east and west, impacting the opening and closing for vessels at the Andrews Avenue Bridge, and the 7th street bridge and beyond in both directions.

The ambiguity in
2. The bridge tender will utilize a VHF-FM radio to communicate on channels 9 and 16 and may be contacted by telephone at 305-889-5572.
Should be removed.

Replace it with
2. The bridge tender will utilize a VHF-FM radio and telephone to communicate on channels 9 and 16 and Pone: 305-889-5572.

The ambiguity in:
6. When a train approaches, the lights go to flashing red and a horn starts four blasts, pauses, and then continues four blasts then the draw lowers and locks.
Should be removed, it does not clearly indicate the opening sequence nor does it specify the timing of the events.

Replace it with something that could be adhered too:
6. Within nn seconds of an approaching train, the lights go to flashing red and a horn starts four blasts, a pause of XX seconds followed by a 2nd set of four blasts, then after YY seconds and if the waterway is clear of passing vessels, then the draw lowers and locks.

My input on these articles does not endorse the concept of giving the railroad operations a free pass on how long they may obstruct a citizens right to use the waterways, they simply indicate the need to provide rules that will hold the railroad operators responsible for unreasonable delays to marine traffic.

Because marine traffic may be held up for a considerable time, the railroad should maintain signage that indicates where vessels may anchor in the New River adjacent to the Bridges (all of the bridges on the new river as a backup at the East Coast Railroad bridge will impact marine traffic at the other bridges on the New River.) Vessels cannot be stopped on the spot in the way that Road Traffic is held up when a Bridge opens for Marine traffic. Vessels are on a moving roadway! They only way they can remain safely on station awaiting a bridge opening for more than a few minutes is by dropping anchor or going along side.

Unlike the Intracoastal waterway, the New River traffic has to deal with multiple bridges within a short distance. Marine businesses and businesses that rely upon the New River Traffic will be impacted if the New River navigation inhibits use of the river. Many of the recreational vessels that use the river have to do so when the water depth permits. Adding more restrictions to navigation of the New River will result in many vessels moving out of the area, further impacting businesses on the New River. Visitors will be impacted by navigation restrictions as businesses that provide visitor services will be impacted.

Getting this bridge opening and closing management right is vital to the area residents, businesses and visitors.


This information will appear on Regulations.gov:

First Name: Paul

Last Name: Alcock

Must do - upgrade the shore power plug

Seeing yet another sailboat destroyed by fire today, and suspecting that the shore power system had something to do with it, I must get to do the install of the new Smart Plug Shore Power Connector before the weekend.!

Plans for going to the HISC Thanksgiving Cruise 2015

Thanksgiving Cruise with HISC

Last year we celebrated Thanksgiving with the HISC on Joint Decision, our Catalina 250, this year, we're taking Eximius, our 'New to us' Catalina 34. We have spent the past few months working on upgrades and repairs on the boat, it's time get her out of the slip and down the river.

I'll spend some of Friday (day after Thanksgiving) on the boat finishing off the Water Filter system, replenishing the water tanks, and cleaning the cabin, generally making it look nice. Cooling the Fridge Freezer down and stowing food & drinks for the weekend. Making sure all of the necessities are on board and stowed: Pots, Pans, Bedding, Linens, Towels, Toiletries, Books, Electronics, etc. etc. I'm working on building a check off list to make things easier in the future.

The plan is to get to the dock before 8am Saturday, final few bits to be loaded on the boat and cast off by 8:30am. We'll check all of the Electronics and the Engine before disconnecting the Shore Power and casting off the lines. The Dodger windscreen will be in place, we're expecting some crummy weather, but it will be fine. 

We'll head down the New River, past the Swing Bridge, 7th Avenue Bridge, East Coast Railroad Bridge, Andrews Avenue Bridge, and 3rd Avenue Bridge, that will get us through the New River Bridges and it's clear till we get to the Intracoastal. When we reach Sand Bar Park, we'll pass on the North side keeping clear of the shallow waters there. It's really skinny inside the markers, on Thanksgiving day there'll be a good crowd of power boats, anchors hanging just off their bow, partying big time. 

Once past Sand Bar Park, we'll head up the Intracoastal, ok, we'll be motoring East, towards Los Olas Blvd Bridge, that opens on the 15 & 45 minute marks, so we'll time our arrival. Next bridge is at Sunrise, that opens on the hour and half hour, 00 & 30 minute marks, so we'll have 15 or 45 minutes to get between those two bridges.

Our destination is the lake on the North side of the Coral Ridge Yacht Club. So that's only a few minutes North of the Sunrise Bridge on the West side of the Intracoastal Waterway. We have read about the shallows on the southern side of the lake entry, so we'll be entering closer to the North side of the lake.

If all goes well, we'll be dropping anchor by 10am (ish). Remember the Sailors Motto - Better late than dead on time.

If you're heading over the Sunrise bridge, you might see us at anchor, beep your horn!

See you on the water.