1990 Canadian Sailcraft CS34 Shoal Draft
Sail #8268

1982 Catalina 22 Fin Keel
Sail #10506

1994 MUMM 36 ACE
Sail # 29206

Thursday, May 30, 2013

C22 Whitby Single Handed

Thursday single handed, two boats, me and Gruntled (C&C 29mk2).  SE wind about 5 knots, minimal waves, could get the boat going about 3.5 knots with full main and light #1.

Course set for 6-8-2-9.  Winds were dying on the second leg, so we shortened the course to finish at mark 8.  I finished about half a mile before Gruntled with about 2 knots of boat speed.

Trip Odometer: 5.7 miles
Moving Avg: 3.3 knots
Moving Time: 01:44:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130530.kmz

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

C22 Wednesday Race Night

Got down to the club and fixed the autohelm socket; will need for Thursday single handed!

Ajax weather buoy was saying 14 knots from the SW with gusts to 18.  Decided at the dock to go with the old main with a reef and the light #1.  Got out of the harbor and the wind were down and waves up, very lumpy.  Dropped the old reefed main and hoisted the racing main.  Perfect amount of sail for the conditions.

Course was 3 short.  Really like that the race committee has shortened the course for the small boats; it means that we finish about the same time as the rest of the fleet.

We finished 3rd of 5 boats, and probably caught some on corrected time.

Trip Odometer: 9.85 miles
Moving Average: 4.1 knots
Moving Time: 02:23:00

Google Earth track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130529.kmz

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

CS34 Electric Head Mod


OK, so the new Jabco Lite Flush electric head didn't have clearance in the back for the raw seawater intake.

This shows it well
There is no way to get a hose on that!
Actually, the unit was not pushed all the way down
I took the unit apart and to my surprise the water intake pump could be rotated around.  All I had to do was drill a hole in the outer plastic casing of the bowl unit, and push the barb fitting out.


This view from the back shows how the input barb fitting now goes to the left instead of out the back.


This is it all plumbed and wired up.  Works great!  Looking at the battery monitor, the feedwater pump uses 2 amps for about 3 seconds, then about 6 amps for another 3 seconds when pumping/grinding the business to the holding tank.  It is no louder than the water pump for the sinks in the boat now.

I could not get the unit mounted in the final spot because the stainless hex bolt won't work; need panhead machine screws.  Also, I didn't have yellow crimp connectors for 10 guage wire.  Also need to more hose clamps.

Problem solved.

YouTube video: http://youtu.be/wuU8-w5iUdg

Monday, May 27, 2013

CS34 Head Wind Cleat

Got down to the club after work and prepared a messenger line on the wind transducer cable in preparation for going up the mast.  Over to masting area for a quick pump out, waiting for help to arrive. 

Harvey and Yvan hoisted me up the mast on a bosun's chair using the mast crane.  We rigged up the main halyard as a backup safety line.  Good thing as the mast crane comes to within 2ft of the top of the mast.  Harvey winched me up the final 18".  I took the screws out of the wind transducer and removed it.  The plan was to pull the transducer wiring up out of the mast with the messenger line.  However it would not budge, leaving me to believe that the cable is pinched at the mast step.   Now the mast has to be raised, or taken down.  Since there were some boats in the queue to put their masts up, I shut it down for the day.

I think I will just take the mast down this week and troubleshoot the cabling/transducer on the ground.

Back at my slip, I took the old head out:

Water supply on right
Big black hose is the waste outlet
The two white hoses at the back are the vented loop
Was a pretty easy job, using the battery shop vac to suck up any water that did come out.

I had purchased a replacement Jabsco Lite Flush electric head.  Supposed to be a direct replacement for the old manual one.  Well the mounting bolts lined up, but the intake for the raw water goes directly back and touches the angled fiberglass behind it (actually this is the hull).  So there is NO WAY this new head will fit.  There is NO WAY to attach the 3/4" intake hose.

Going to call the manufacturer and see if the make an option to run the intake fitting to the side, otherwise the head will have to go back.  Also thinking I can add 1" of starboard underneath the unit to raise the inlet hose enough for clearance.

On the plus side, the water around the docks had cleared up and I could see the mid ship cleat I had dropped overboard, and was able to scoop it up with a fishing net!

All is not lost, there's Still Time!

CS34 Photo for Autograph

Here is a photo of Still Time taken the evening after we launched her on April 28, 2012.

The best pictures are always taken at or near dusk
It is the best picture we have of her.

The name Still Time is the title of one of the songs buy our farourite Canadian artist Ron Sexsmith.  The song and lyrics mean a lot to both of us.  It makes a great boat name too!

http://www.ronsexsmith.com/Music/Songography/default.aspx?songid=9998107f-4771-45e8-83b2-84fac53c8cd1

We go to see him on concert in Whitby next Saturday, so I am going to get this printed out for him to autograph.

Here is a B&W copy of the autographed photo of the first Still Time:





CS34 Wind Transducer

Electronics update: the wind transducer is not being recognized by the iTC-5 instrument pod.

I took the iTC-5, along with an i70 to my dock neighbour's boat and hooked it up to his working wind transducer.  It worked fine. Left it hooked up for a half a hour (two beers).

So that means there is something wrong with my wind transducer or the cabling.  Going to put a messenger line in the cabin, go up the mast with a bosun's chair, and take the transducer and cable out of the mast to troubleshoot further.   Perhaps I kinked the cable, who knows.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

C22 Whitby Single Handed

After missing last night's race for a Justin Hines concert (awesome by the way), I was eager to get out on the water.

Winds were howling 18 knots constant with gusts in the high 20s.  Took the time and rigged up a double reef on the main and set the storm jib.  The new tiller does not have an attachment for the autopilot OR the tiller tamer, so I switched out the tillers to the old one.  The autohelm has an electrical connector issue in that it would lose power, so I would giggle the connector, and it would start working again.  Could not rely on it, so I rigged up a line for the tiller tamer since I would be single handing.

Got out on the water a little before 6pm, did not see anyone else at their boats getting ready.  Ross from Gruntled called me on the radio, and too much wind for his C&C 29 singlehanding.  I was the only boat out there.

A LOT more wind out on the water, from the north, so no waves.  Perfect amount of sail, got the boat moving over 6 knots on several points of sail.

Coming back to the lighthouse, I noticed a boat leaving the harbour.  It was Harvey on French Vanilla, taking fellow club member Paul on a sailing trial.  Paul is VERY interested in the Mirage 33.

I tacked around them and said hi!

Time to head back in the channel so I hove to and got the motor deployed and running, and dropped the jib, lashing it to the deck with a bungee cord, and dropped the main on the cabintop.

This was a really good test for the 2HP motor. The wind was howling on the nose in the mid 20s, I had the motor going 3/4 throttle, and could make 2.5 knots into the channel.  Might be a little concerned if there were waves to pound through, but it drove the boat nicely.

Harvey, Sherry Lynn, Mel, and Paul caught me at the dock.

Trip Odometer: 7.33 miles
Moving Average: 5.1 knots
Moving Time: 01:26:00

Max Speed: 8.7 knots!

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130523.kmz

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Tiare Delivery Part Two

Sunday, Harvey and Sherry Lynn picked us up and drove us to Cobourg, were we had a wonderful breakfast at the Buttermilk Café.

Always Good!
Back to the boat, and over over to the fuel dock:

That's one hot model in front of the boat
We got out on the water, wind from the east about 6 knots.  We tried to sail, but the boat didn't like dead downwind.  Changing point of sail to a broad reach, we were heading toward Niagara, and the GPS calculated it would take over 10 hours to get to Whitby.  We furled in the main, motor sailed to Whitby.  After a while we just furled in the jib and motored.

New boat owners Harvey and Sherry Lynn:



We arrive at 4:40pm in Whitby and were greeted by all our friends.

Trip Odometer: 41.10 miles
Moving Average: 6.3 knots
Moving Time: 5:43:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130519.kmz

Friday, May 17, 2013

Tiare Delivery

Harvey and Sherry Lynn bought their parents 1999 Hunter 38.  French Vanilla is for sail!

Thursday night we drove to the boat in Belleville and slept overnight on the boat. 
Harvey, Yvan, and Me.  Sherry Lynn drove back home.

We got off the dock at 7:30am and got through the Murray Canal at 9:30am.






We did do some motor sailing and the light winds were close hauled.  Found a problem with the top of the furling main sail.  Had to drop the sail on the deck.  Turns out the webbing at the top of the sail had twisted the furling track.  Was an easy fix.




Once out in to Lake Ontario, 3-4 knots of wind RIGHT ON THE NOSE.  Didn't even bother with the sails.

Arrived 3pm, F dock (north side of the harbour)



Trip Odometer: 46.8 miles
Moving Average: 6.3 knots
Moving Time: 07:23:00

Google Earth track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130517.kmz

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

C22 Whitby First Race

Raced home from work and got the shrouds tensioned up. 
Put all the tubes to hide the turnbuckles on.

Wind was howling 20+ constant with gusts in the 30s from the WNW.

Took the time to rig the main with a double reef and the storm jib.
Wade helped me finish tightening down the bolts on the port jib track.

2HP motor pushed us no problem to the race course. 
Course was 3Medium (3-5-7-3-7-9).

UPDATE: Since I was in Holland for the presentation on the updated sailing instructions (SIs), I missed the fact that they changed the courses for this year.  Looking at the 2013 SIs, we actually sailed a 3 Long!!!

3M is 3-5-7-9-7-9
3L is 3-5-7-3-7-9
Oh well it didn't matter in the end!

We were overpowered during the puffs, but PERFECT amount of sail.
Winds started dying on the 2nd last leg.  We dropped storm jib in favour of the light #1 and shook out the reefs for a full main.  Kept the boat moving close to 6 knots the entire time.

The new deck organizers and cabintop winches made a world of a difference.  For the first time I was able to tension the luff off the headsail, especially after a sail change.  Shaking the reef out was also much easier.

We were one of the last boats out there, but got the gun to take line honour in our division.

Poor boat was nuked.
2" of water on the cabin floor.
John's stuff got soaked; we were taking waves over the cabintop, and water was leaking between the poptop and the cabin.

Awesome sailing; sore, tired, and satisfied.

Trip Odometer: 16.40
Moving Average: 5.8 knots (WOW)
Moving Time: 02:50:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130515.kmz

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Sumac Shake Down

Peter, John, and I went out on Sumac (Viking 33 who has won the club championship for past two years).

Winds were 10-12 knots from the SE, PERFECT for tuning the rig.  We went out with a full main and #3 with John on the helm.  Went about 2 miles south into the lake, then tacked towards Oshawa.  On the downwind to Whitby, we doused the jib and hoisted a spinnaker.  We kept our boat speed close to 6 knots the entire time. 

Peter spent some time snugging up the turnbuckles on each tack.

John did a great job helming!

Trip Odometer: 6.13 miles
Moving Average: 5.4 knots
Moving Time: 01:07:00

For some reason my handheld GPS did not register the track!

C22 Masting

After work John came down to the club, and we got the mast ready to be installed.

John had to run to Home Depot to get a longer stainless bolt.  We installed the VHF and windex, and taped off the spreaders.  The new turnbuckles are the wrong thread to use the existing T Bolts on the shrouds.  Will figure out later.

Peter came by and helped put the mast on the boat at my slip.  No issues really.

John and I worked for about an hour to tighten the fasteners for the jib tracks.  John kept the bolts from spinning while I turned the nuts on the inside. The bolts can't spin soasnotto beak the watertight seal of the butyl tape.

After sailing on Sumac, I got the boom, vang, and mainsheet rigged.  All that is left is to tighten the shrouds.

First race is tomorrow night, and the forecast is LOTS of wind!

CS34 iTC-5

Seeing as my wind and depth transducers are not working, I have shipped the iTC-5 instrument converter to CMC Electronic in Mississauga for evaluation under warranty.

I am hoping that it is this unit because if not, I have to pull my mast for the wind transducer, and haul my boat out for the depth transducer.  I will try to re-terminate the pins on the wire before doing anything drastic.

Fingers crossed.

UPDATE: got a call back and the iTC-5 is defective.  They shipped a new one to the Rigging Shoppe, will pickup on Saturday!

Thursday, May 9, 2013

CS34 Instrument Transducers

This year I have replaced all the instruments transducers for depth, speed, and wind with the latest and greatest from Raymarine.  Before I started running the wires all over the place, I wanted to make sure that they were all working.

All the transducers connect to a connection box called an iTC-5

Speed/temp on top
Wind in middle
Depth on bottom
This unit talks Raymarine's SeaTalk NG (a variation of NMEA 2000) to all the other displays (two i70 multi function displays and an E7 chartplotter).

The other day, nothing worked.  I had emailed Raymarine support, and they suggested some things.  Turns out the bus connector between the iTC-5 and the i70 was not pushed in far enough.  I now have depth, speed, water temperature, and wind data.

 
The boat is stationary, so no speed data, and there isn't enough wind to register wind speed, but it is showing the wind direction!


 This shows the sea temperature.

This is great!

C22 Deck Organizers

Mounted the deck organizers on the cabintop.  These are used to run the halyards to hoist the sail from the mast back to the cockpit.

Starboard

Port

Also drilled holes for the cabintop winches, but need to get some stainless machine screws to mount them.  Sorry not pictures.

The poor boat is NUKED!!!


CS34 Interior Cushions

New cushions with new foam... NICE




This is the before shot:


The old cushions were 23 years old, and smelled like it.  The windows had been leaking and they have gotten wet many a time.  The fabric was very dated.

I really didn't think they were in too bad of shape until the fabric fell apart as we removed it from the old foam.  The old foam was broken down and hard.

The new cushions are fresh and should last another 23 years!

CS34 Masting

Got down to the club after work to help Harvey put the mast on French Vanilla.  Also helped Elaine, Colin, Ben, and several others get their masts up.

Managed to run the TV antenna wire and attach the spreaders on my mast, so I jumped at the opportunity to get mine up.

Very busy masthead
On the top of the mast is
  • VHF antenna
  • TV antenna
  • Windex
  • Anchor light
  • Wind Instrument
I enlisted the help of Peter, Tony, Dave Irons, and Dave Mitchell to help out.  This is the second season with the big boat, so I felt more comfortable with these guys helping me.


As masting was a last minute decision, all the lines on the mast were a mess.  With the mast in the sling positioned on the boat, I noticed that one of the intermediate shrouds was twisted around the upper cap shrouds.  There was a lineup of a couple of boats waiting to use the mast crane, so I just put the mast up and will fix the one shroud with a bosum's chair.



Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Santeria First Sail

Went down to the club after work and mounted the wind instrument on the top of the mast, riveted the bracket for the TV antenna to the side of the mast, and dry fitted the starboard jib track on little Still Time.

Got down to Newcastle a little after 6pm.

Neil and I went out with his new North Sail Asymetric Spinnaker!
Awesome, we got the boat going close to 6 knots the entire time with only 6-8 knots of wind.
We went about 3 miles (one beer) out in the lake.





Trip Odometer: 8.31 miles
Moving Avg: 4.7 knots
Moving Time: 01:45:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130507.kmz


Saturday, May 4, 2013

C22 Launch

Got to the club a little before 6:30am working the west crane crew.
First lift was at 6:30am; perfect weather for launch.

Little Still Time was in the way for the transport truck putting in the power boats, so she went in sooner than usual.

Start of lift
In the air


New 2hp motor drove the boat nicely.

GOPRO recording from the bow rail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS_X_Yytdb8

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

C22 in Amsterdam

Rita spotted this C22 in a canal... good eye Rita!





Poor thing!

It is an early C22 (early 70s) as it didn't have a hull number on the transom, didn't have a pop top, and the winches were as different than anything we use today.