Tier 4

I really hope that the title of this post makes no sense to anyone in a few years time. Louisa has been in Tier 3 for the past 6 weeks and now both I and Louisa have been put in Tier 4. I suspect that this will last for around 2 months so it is going to be March / Easter before I get to check her moorings. That is 4 months. Worried yes, but hopefully someone at the club is keeping an eye on things.  

COVID-19

 Another couple of weeks before I can contemplate a visit to Louisa, this is getting a bit boring now! 

More sheet winches

After getting myself in a tangle when trying to run downwind with a preventer and poled out genoa on my last boat I thought it would be worth looking into twin winch options. As Louisa has an inner fore stay the option of a cutter or slutter rig also seems worth having a go at. So I have bought a couple of twin speed Girdlestone 23 winches cheap off ebay. They are the forerunner of Barton's composite 23's. If I can position them to allow decent sheet leads and improve the winch handle positioning I might improve matters in a number of ways.

New winches installed and tested. 

 

The new winches have full handle swing so sheeting in is much faster. Because they are further forward there are harbour blocks to lead the sheets appropriately. So far so good but not much wind to test them against.

Heating

 As a measure of how soft I am getting I have decided to put heating into Louisa. The plan is to fit a cheap chinesium planer heater in the engine bay, duct warm air into the cabin and take the cool air from the back of the quarter berth. The exhaust will route through to a transom stern gland. 

The heater is bought and onboard, slightly disappointed that I selected the heater for it's simple controller and a more complicated one arrived. I have opened the cockpit sole hatch up so access is good. The route for the warm air duct isn't straight forward but it looks like I can lead the duct through the locker under the quarter berth, only 4 off 60mm holes to drill! The exhaust pipe only needs to go through the aft bulkhead in the engine bay but considerations around heat are a worry. I have made up a bracket to support the heater and ordered the extra ducting and exhaust pipe.

Next stage is to drill holes, some big holes and probably 10 of them! 

Initial install went well apart from a couple of minor problems. A hole in the wrong place and several broken drill bits but the main system is in and working. It took a while for diesel to make its way through to the heater and the transom outlet hasn't been fitted yet. 

Redsands

First sail for a few weeks and with the hull recently scrubbed off and the prop clean we had a lovely gentle sail out to Redsands Towers in the Thames Estuary. A friend came along and we put the big blue sail up as soon as we got going. F1/2 SW'ly and we made a solid 5 knots with the ebb. 3 1/2 hours later with the big blue one down we rounded the towers as the wind picked up and backed to SSW F4. With the self steering doing it's thing we made it back to the Medway against the tide in good time. A great sail back to Gillingham reach where we put the engine on for the last 1/2 mile to the mooring. Whilst bringing the big sail down the halyard left the top of the mast so a quick run up the mast on the block and tackle with bosun's chair and that was fixed. The tide was set for an earliest return to the club of 18:30. We missed one of the whithies and had to punt through the shallow mud to find the channel. As we reached the club the end of the dinghy slip was just covered. All in all a very successful trip out.

Racing

 To be clear, I am not very good and I only race to try and improve my sailing skills. I took part in two of the autumn regatta races last weekend and came last in both. Beaten on handicap by a Westerly, a Trapper and a Cormanche cat. It wasn't even close but as the skipper of the Trapper said as he overtook me shortly after the start of the first race. 

"This is a race for who has the cleanest hull" 

and Louisa was fairly weeded up. Another factor that only became apparent on the upwind leg, when I tacked from starboard to port, the genoa caught on the cross trees. To get round this I needed to partially furl the genoa before tacking. I reckon that with a clean hull and the obstruction on the cross trees sorted out I might be in contention. I do know a bit better how to sail Louisa and she can sail downwind by the lee. Rigging a preventer and poling out the genoa is very straight forward so down wind legs are going to be better. Upwind still needs work but I have some ideas.

Club Rally

 Went out for the long weekend with the intention of sailing to Brightlingsea but about a hour out of the river Medway and the F8 Northerly was too much so I turned back and met up with some other club boats in Sharfleet Creek.