Nav Light Fitted

Well, I got on the boat and got the Nav light done. Took two days as I only stayed on board for about an hour each day. I'm still quite washed out from the heart attack.

Yesterday I didn't have enough stainless nuts, so a trip to Marine Superstore at Port Solent got me a few nuts. Thankfully they are open on Sundays early enough I could pick up my bits and get on the boat before high tide.

But here it is in all it's glory:

The white gel coat is spread about a bit as I used it to fill in some spider cracks that were in that area. Looks like the core had blown a bit there. 

I fitted a socket rather than use the original "wire through the deck" approach. If it ever becomes necessary to replace the nav light I can simply wire it to the socket and bolt it to the bracket. It just makes the job simpler and if necessary I can wire the lamp up ate home and take it to the boat to fit it, saving time.

The back of the light is fully sealed and being LED I shouldn't have to worry about it for a few years.

Looking around the boat, the windows are in urgent need of replacement rubbers, so I'm going to have to save up for that. I'll do one window first so I only order a quarter of the rubber I need. I don't actually know what the sizes are and Google unfortunately isn't helpful, 

So I'll order 3 metres of rubber and have a go at one of the windows. If the rubber isn't the right size then I've only ordered one window's worth.

Right now I'm back home, the Mrs is doing tea and I'm recovering. This heat isn't helping!

Sitting and Waiting...

That's all I can do at the moment. It seems we've had storm after storm, all of which seems to know when it's the weekend. Only 1 casualty this winter: one of the guys on the Solent Sailors Facebook group has reported a little fishing boat has turned turtle.

So far Sprite has been ok. I went out before Ciara hit and took the boom and mainsail down and put them in the cabin to reduce windage.

Other than that, that's all I've done. I've lost yet another mooring buoy despite all the shackles being wired up, so I'm looking into something I can keep on the boat and inflate and attach to the mooring chain when I leave the mooring. Maybe one of those big exercise balls in a net bag.

I've not got around to 2019's expenses yet, but they are pretty much the same as 2018 apart from the fuse box bits which I've already documented and that cheap laminate sail.

It seems that a few salvage yards have started getting supplies of French hardwood sleepers, which may do for a mast beam. At £19 I'm tempted to make the journey (collection only) to Sussex or Devon to get one. Certainly worth checking out as a source of cheap oak. If they do turn out to be oak that is.

I have a new cockpit cover I got for £20, but I've resisted fitting it until after storm season. I want to use some old tent poles to hold the cover up so I can have decent working room in the cockpit but still be enclosed. Something for the spring.

The wife has booked us on a cruise on the Ventura in June, so that's another expense for this year and two weeks out of my summer season. Lets see if the lure of the sea is the same when someone else is driving!

Hopefully I can make some progress by being a bit canny with money again. My money-saving mojo has begun this year with finding the existence and source of those sleepers. There's enough wood in one sleeper to make two mast beams. The plan is to make one up and test it to see if it is load bearing.

Fingers crossed the mast beam will be sorted this year at the very least. Then the only other major jobs will be the window seals and antifouling.

Hopefully The weather this year will be conducive to getting some work and some sailing done. It looks like the last spell of good weather was back in 2017, so we're due a nice long sunny spell surely.

The Third Man (or Buoy)...

So, one of the things I haven't really blogged about on my local moorings is the amount of Piracy.

Not Olde Worlde Piracy, with Beards and Swords, but the odd bit of pilferage. I did report some years back that a few boats had been broken into and at that time I put a strengthening bar in the bar of my washboards, to avoid them being kicked in easily. I bet the knee joint of anyone that tried would come to grief on the teak beam bolted into the middle of them.

Anyway, over the past couple of years when I've been able to afford one, I've fitted a decent mooring buoy. The last (second) buoy was a rather large one. Half of a pair I got on eBay for the ridiculous price of £15. I thought a pair would come in handy if the Pirates struck again.

And they did about a month ago. Buoy number 2 disappeared.  Given the buoy was shackled in place an the shackles were seized to avoid them coming undone. To see the stainless shackle and the buoy missing was a bit depressing.

So, the second twin, the third buoy was fitted to the mooring chain this weekend.

Here's the installation...

Yes, that's a bloody padlock. I don't care if it turns into a ball of rust inside. That's actually better, because no-one will be able to force the lock. They'll have to cut the chain. But this time, no easily-undoo-able shackles, no cuttable rope. Nope, 8mm chain and a padlock. Lets see if that's secure now.

Take that, Mr Pirate....

Costs for 2016 and a Review of the Year.

So, here's the annual round up of costs for the previous year.

As usual first are the basic expenses.

£132      Mooring Fee

£160      Insurance (reflecting a higher valuation).

Up £10 on last year at £292.

Fuel this year was £11. I only bought 10 litres as I spent most of the year using up 2015's stockpile.

£2.50 Absolute tides Update.

£13 Navionics Update. I think it was around that much.

£5.00 Sail Bungie Ties.

£6.00 20m of 8mm Rope.

£5.95 Barometer set from Sue Ryder shop

£0.00 2.5 litres Hempel Classic Antifouling (was £35, but it was a late Xmas present so zero cost)

£19.95 Hempel Waterproof Undercoat.

£25.00 Various bits of sandpaper and cheap paint brushes.

£8.00 A few sets of needles for sail stitching from the Craft Shop.

£12.99 Speedy Stitcher.

£6.95 Mooring Buoy (subsequently lost)

£15.98 2 x 1oz Reels of Polyester sail Thread.

£28.88 Marine Ply for locker tops.

£19.00 Stainless Hinges for Locker Tops.

£19.95 Grey Paint for Locker tops (Hempel Gloss)

£17.95 Undercoat for locker tops.(Hempel Primer)

£20.88 Head Gasket for 2.2 outboard. (still needs an impeller)

£6.00 Assorted Stainless screws. (for cam cleats, etc.)

£17.75 Barton Cam Cleat.

£7.70 Second (and hopefully current) Mooring Buoy.

£2.99 Polyprop rope to secure Mooring Buoy.

£4.99 Set of 4 Nautical themed mugs.

And they were my last purchase for the boat.

£570.41 is the Total Expenditure on the Boat for this Year. (£47.54 per month)

Which isn't bad as it corresponds quite well with last year's £556. Considering the amount of  Paint and related painting kit I've bought this year, it surprised me that the yearly costs were so close.

One of the stand-out features of this year has been the lack of time spent on the boat. This time partly to do with the weather (which still didn't deliver a long enough spell of settled sunny weather to do any planning ), the other part to do with other commitments: Birthdays, weddings, holidays and the like.

The plan to grab odd days or half days on the boat worked reasonably well. So that will probably stay as a theme for 2017. I neglected Sprite a bit last year, not really following through with jobs like the antifoul and the port side locker top. Hopefully I can muster the gumption to get these done this year. From the amount of time it took last year, I'd say I need a long weekend when the tides are right to clean the hull and get it painted.

I learned in 2016 that a sailing boat needs a clean hull to perform well. I also came to the conclusion that I really do need to do longer sails than just up and down the harbour. But to do that I need to be able to plan a couple of consecutive days of mild weather. The only decent periods of weather we had in 2016 I was either in France or at my stepdaughter's wedding.

I also learned that Sprite's rigging can take a bit more stress than I thought, having sailed down Langstone Harbour with Sprite on it's scuppers, although at the start the weather helm was horrendous. Trimming the sails for less weather helm is another lesson learnt. :-) In my case, ease the main as the wind picks up.

In 2017 I'm visiting family in April so if things continue that may be the best weather period of the year for everyone else out there. Mark your diaries.:-)

New eBay purchase

I mentioned in my previous post that I've got something new for the boat.

Well, here it is:

It's a Mariner 2.5Hp two-stroke outboard. For less than £40. Bargain!

It has issues, though. At that price it would be silly to think it wouldn't.

The first issue was it started but died not long after. That was traced to a dodgy fit on the cap on top of the carb. It looks like the cap which the throttle cable goes through and the throttle mechanism bolts on to has stripped it's threads. A temporary fix with araldite has made the engine work and stay working, but at some point it needs a more permanent resolution. The throttle seems to have been designed badly, with the throttle lever mechanism bolted onto the cast alloy cap. Any tension on the throttle mechanism pulls on the cap and strips the soft alloy thread.

A while the engine was running in the dustbin it's apparent that there's still something a bit iffy. The exhaust note isn't right. Looking around the engine there's a water within the casing. It looks like the head has cracked and possibly the gasket sealing the power unit to the leg has failed. But the leg is fine, the impeller seems to be pumping water, so there is good news.

The cylinder head seems to be another point of especially bad design: the head is a casting which includes the moulding at the rear of the engine. If you drop the engine on the ground hard you crack the cast moulding or in some cases like this one the head.

But this engine is a lot better than my Seagull that has never started. I'm going to bung the Seagull on eBay as spares/repairs and use the money to put into the Mariner. Despite it's problems, it still runs which means its worth spending the money on.

So I'll be stripping the Mariner and checking on it's issues over the following weeks and making a shopping list for boat jumbles and eBay.

Oh and also today I installed Jim's solar panel on his boat. I'm pretty sure his battery is buggered because I checked it's voltage and it was 2.9 volts. He needs a new battery for the panel to keep charged.

I tried a spot of sailing on Friday but the mainsail had other ideas, jamming about 2ft from the top of the mast. Some dry lubricant sorted that out but I only fixed it when back on the mooring. By then the tide was dropping. I lubricated all the blocks and also re-jigged the downhaul which was also jamming. A bit weird because it all worked last year. It just goes to show checking all of these things in advance is worth it.

The VHF is back on the boat but I didn't have time to give Solent Coastguard a call. Too busy sorting the rigging and doing bits on Jim's boat.

Clearing MMSI from a Midland Neptune Tranceiver

Okay, as all you blog followers know I'm always out for the thrifty option when it comes to things.

Now I understand that Digital Selective Calling is a wonderful thing and it can make emergency calls as easy as a few button presses.

Part of this is a unique identifier called the Maritime Mobile Service Identity (get me I remembered that from memory!) for the ship/boat which you program into the radio. All great in theory: you change your licence details on Ofcom's website and eventually your ship/boat is allocated an MMSI number. The number appears on the licence and you program that into your radio using the setup menu(s).

However, there's a but (and it's a big one!): the transceiver manufacturers and the authorities put a restriction on the number of times you can change the MMSI number. In some cases you can only enter it once, so you'd better get it right first time! Some other manufacturers allow up to three updates of the MMSI. Now as the Skint Sailor it offends me when manufacturers limit your ability to change things, or force you to return stuff to the dealer to get it modified. I mean, the memory is already in the radio, the limit on changing the MMSI is made in software. I suppose they could argue this stops stolen radios easily changing their MMSI but technology has a habit of circumventing any restrictions but on devices in software.

Back when I had my powerboat I bought a Midland Neptune VHF DSC transceiver, which was duly programmed with that boat's MMSI. When I sold my boat I kept the radio, thinking I would get another boat some time and I'd fit the radio. Always the optimist!

Anyway, the Neptune falls into the "can only enter the MMSI once" camp. A bit of a bugger really as you have to send the transceiver back to the dealer or manufacturer to get the MMSI cleared off the radio.

However, there is another option: Midland do a program that can program the MMSI and ATIS numbers and also add private channels. So when I got Sprite, I thought great, I'll nip down the local Midland dealer and buy the programming software and wipe the MMSI. Ah, there's a but: by that time Midland had discontinued the software! Bugger, back to square one!

Anyway, proving the internet is a wonderful thing eventually Midland put the PRG Neptune software on their old website for download. I downloaded it straight away!

Now the only pitfall was the fact I didn't have an interface between my computer and the radio. I bought one I thought might do the trick but it didn't work. But a few months ago I bought one that does! Its a USB to RS-485/422 convertor interface off ebay. Cost: a fiver!

You get a short cable with the Neptune to connect to NMEA devices and its this cable you connect to the RS-485 convertor, to the D-/B and the D+/A connections:

Then you plug the connector into the NMEA connector on the radio and run the software and hey presto, the original MMSI is cleared:

Lookee that, a clear MMSI!

By the time I'd done all of this, Sprite 2's shiny new MMSI popped up on my Ofcom licence details, so I entered it into the radio.

I've also added the MMSI to my CG66 entry on the MCA website too.

Next thing is a live test. Might give Solent Coasties a call at the weekend to check out the procedure. 

Talking about Solent Coastguard, I noticed today they are still having bandwidth problems on their links from the new(ish) centre and their aerials. Quite a few transmissions today had digital artefacts corrupting words spoken by the coastguard. I'm not sure what that does for clarity of communications in an emergency situation, or when trying to listen to weak signals. 

I have a trip out tomorrow morning to get another eBay bargain I won today. More on that tomorrow.

Update: Sadly I lost the PRG-Neptune software in a computer crash at the beginning of 2016.

 

It's possible to email Midland customer support and get a copy of the PRG-Neptune software emailed to you. All you have to do is ask them. I know because I did it back in 2018 and got a new copy emailed to me

 

 

Boat Clearance 2

Went down to the boat today and the Harbourmaster definitely has been busy sticking notices on the boats.

Here's a selection, although there are more than I could snap in a lunchtime flyby:

First was Doug's boat::

Then Merganser, that hasn't had a ticket on it for a couple of years:

Also the Westerly that got blown up the beach at the start of 2014:

Even this tidy Snapdragon has a notice on it:

This Leisure 17...

Mashooka normally leads a charmed life, but she's now got a removal notice:

This motor boat too...

And a few more boats besides... I said the harbour board have been busy didn't I?

Boat Clearance

I had a couple of hours on the boat yesterday, doing some tidying of the wiring an swabbing the decks from mucky footprints and the muddy anchor after last week.

While I was there the Harbourmaster come round and took a boat off the beach. I guess there's another round of boat clearance in progress. I assume it hadn't had harbour dues paid on it. Surprising given it's in pretty good nick. I know the owner sold the engine off it last year, but since then the boat has been rattling round on the beach.

I just wonder if the video from last week was something to do with this and if any other boats will disappear from the beach.

Mast Rigging

Yesterday (Tuesday) was my second day off work and I spend a couple of hours on Sprite sorting out my bent mast.

I noticed a couple of days ago that the top of the mast had a distinct curve to port after I changed the rigging turnbuckles, so I set to straightening it. I removed the boom so I could lie on the cabin roof and look up the mast. Not the easiest or comfiest thing to do, scampering off the cabin, into the dinghy and then adjusting the turnbuckles.

I got it straight and then had a coffee.

While i had my coffee I watched a couple of what looked like lecturers were on top of the Portsmouth Uni buildings with a video camera taking video of the harbour and the beach (including wrecks) below the Uni buildings:

Anyway after refitting the boom I thought I'd take a picture of the straight mast to show off my prowess at rigging. This is the picture:

As you can see there's a bend at the top to starboard. Looks like I'd over-done the adjustment. Mind you it is the first time I've adjusted a mast, so I had no idea how far the mast would move due to adjustment of the turnbuckles.

Anyway, the lightbulb came on, because if I could see the bend by just taking a picture on my mobile, it saves me lying down on the deck, removing the mast etc.

So that's what I did: do half turns on the turnbuckles and take a picture to see the results. It seems only small adjustments were needed, a lot smaller than I anticipated. After a couple of pics the mast was as straight as I could get it:

It might need a slight tweak in future: those spreaders look a bit odd and its not quite perfectly straight, but not bad for a first try!

And that was my Tuesday on the boat done apart from wiring the rigging to stop it coming undone again.

Quick Check

I've finally managed to have a couple of days off work. I have to cover a couple of different departments at work and people I cover have been on holiday for the past few weeks. Couple that with shows and bank holidays, it's been several weeks since I got a day off authorised.

So today I nipped down to the boat to make sure it wasn't sinking thanks to me scraping chunks off the bottom and getting the speedo wheel working.

While I was there I took a photo of the newly tidied 12v sockets:

All tucked up under the plate rack out of the way. I have 3 12v sockets fed from the original single socket.

To the right you can see my light switch. One switch switches the cabin lights on, the second switches from white to red in the cabin and the third switches on the red lights in the cockpit.

To the right of the switch is the 12v socket for my solar panel.

Luckily the bilges were dry so no worries in the leak department.

So just after high tide I came off and went home. I have a lawn to mow...

A Very Productive Day

Yesterday I spent all day on Sprite. Well not so much on board, I'd put her on the beach, but I did quite a few jobs while she was there. I unhooked from the mooring at 11:30, which was just over 2 hours past high tide. That way I could just beach her and I knew then that I'd be floating well before high tide in the evening.

First off, while I was waiting for the water to recede I got to work in the cabin brewing a cuppa. :-)

Next job in the cabin was to sort out the fixings for the table. It fits in several places on the boat, but the chart table position fixings had broken. It just needed a couple of pieces of thin plywood to sort out the brackets, but its something I'd not gotten round to. So out came the hacksaw and the hand drill to make some. Job done in an hour or so:



Table in place. That cup looks empty.... time for another brew!

By then the water had receded far enough to have a look at the state of the greenery attached to the hull of Sprite.



This picture was taken on my Hudl2, the rest on my Galaxy S2.

So I set to with my favourite tool, the garden hoe. It's got a handle long enough to keep you away from the nastiness but it certainly works scraping the hull clean. Last year I didn't have anything to lay on, so I left the hull between the keels untouched. This time I was prepared, so set to work with a small scraper.

I found that between the keels there were barnacles upon barnacles, creating a layer about 1cm thick in places! Don't get me started on how fouled the speed sensor for the log was... but I cleared it and got it spinning again. Just need a head unit now...

Eventually after much scraping the hull looked like this:



Its not pretty but its free from weed and barnacles.

Free from weed maybe, but that staining looks unsightly.
Something the Mrs keeps having a go at me about. She like a pristine boat she does.



Yeah, one day  I'll be able to afford to antifoul under the waterline.

Not sure if you can see the amount of barnacles on the ground. There were lots!

So... Bottom declagged, what next. Well, I've seen the videos on youtube about cleaning hulls with oxalic acid. As you can see, I had a major staining thing going on with the hull. So for just over a tenner I got a kilo of oxalic acid crystals delivered off eBay.

I used about 200 grammes in 2 litres of water. That de-stained the whole hull!



As if by magic the staining has gone.



I need to research removing waterline algae next if the acid hasn't killed it.

Within minutes of application with a sponge, the hull had returned to white.

I don't have any pictures, but it even reduced the rust stains on the transom.

All I can say is, its great stuff for cleaning staining off the hull. I bought a kilo and only used 200 grammes, so I have four more hull cleaning sessions before I need to buy any more!

One word of warning is don't use it on painted surfaces, because it will bleach the paint.

So, once done it was back inside to brew another coffee and wait for the water to return. I did a couple of jobs that I'd been ignoring like screwing the 12v sockets in the cabin in place properly. Then a well earned rest for an hour or so, resting my back.

Finally the water stopped slopping under the hull and started floating the boat, so I could pull Sprite off the beach using the anchor. The force 5 that had been blowing all day and prevented me having a look at the sails died down after dinner time which was a bonus as I got off the beach and hooked up without a fight. I was back on the mooring at 20:30.



What a lovely evening.

And today I'm full of bruises and I ache. Rest day today I think.

Updated to add the usual disclaimer: ALWAYS use Gloves and Eye protection when using Oxalic acid as its pretty nasty stuff.

Windy Wednesday

I had planned to do a shakedown sail this evening after work, as the tide was timed right and the weather had been fine for the past couple of days.

Then this morning the shipping forecast mentioned gales. Great. I don't really want to push the newly-tensioned rigging through anything extreme on a shakedown run so sailing was off the schedule.

I still persevered and even though it was blowing force 6 I rowed out to Sprite for a brew and a quick check over of a few things. Force 6 in the dinghy doesn't really faze me now after rowing out in a similar gale when Sprite was on the deep water mooring.

I checked my re-glued locker top and the rigging from the weekend. I can now adjust the mast because above the baby stays it has a slight kink in it. I also ran the outboard with some Redex in the petrol as it was not sounding right last weekend. Probably a bit gummed up from not being run.

I brewed a cuppa and came off the boat as the Wednesday night club from ECC were running up and down the harbour entrance which gave me some entertainment. Even the big boats were finding the wind a bit strong:Through the entrance to the harbour where it was more sheltered from the wind the y were upright, but once they had got clear and entered the harbour proper, they went over as the wind caught them.

A couple of boats went out of the harbour with heavily reefed sails. Brave souls!

There were a couple of strays at Eastney too, probably blown off course:

Then Jim and his other half turned up, they'd just been to the chippy and had come down to check on the boats and have dinner.

This weekend I want to put Sprite on the beach at low tide and scrub off the bottom, ready for next month's week-long cruise. The weather looks wet but I have a tarpaulin I can put over the cockpit to keep things dry. I also have a decent waterproof coat. I've ordered some oxalic acid crystals off ebay so I can have a bash at removing the water staining on the hull. There's some rust stains on the transom that could do with being removed too.

Morning high tide on Saturday is 09:16 (4.4m), the low is at 14:47 and the late high is at 21:53 (4.7m). Hopefully I can stick her on the beach two hours after the high and float off two hours before the next high.

Good Weekend

I finally got more than a fleeting visit aboard the boat.

Saturday I was babysitting all day, but Sunday I got out to the boat as early as possible, about 3 hours before high tide.

I had to repair one of my locker tops that had started splitting: my fault for using exterior grade plywood I suppose. Some Marine ply will be on the shopping list this autumn then.

I also sorted the other turnbuckle on the main stay. Jim snapped me at work from his boat:

The dinghy looks almost as big as Sprite, which at 14ft I guess it is!

Here's a zoomed in look:

With that complete, it was a case of have a brew and wait for high tide and another job: using Sprite 2 to move Nicky's yacht Meagles to a new mooring down the beach.

Not an easy task given the number of mooring ropes fouling the shoreline from all the boats on or very nearly on the beach. But with a bit of effort we got Meagles away from the ropes and into clear enough water to move her down the beach.

No pictures of this yet. I was too busy at the time! But Jim took some from a distance so I may be able to post them later.

So a swim from Nicky pulling ropes out to us and me using Sprite, we got Meagles down the beach to her new home.

Then back to my mooring for another brew and then pack up and row ashore.

All in all I think I had 4 hours aboard Sprite and the Sun shone all the time, so not a bad day at all
.

Time on the Boat at Last.

Finally got to get on board the boat today.

Flipping the dinghy over and dragging it down the beach was fine, no back strains there.

I went out and changed the starboard turnbuckle on the main stay. It was a bit windy so it took a while to devise a knot to tie on the stay to hold it down and prevent anything happening to the mast.

Anyway a few loops wrapped round the stainless wire were tied just above the eye and then the rope led down to the deck fitting. before I undid everything I fitted the new turnbuckle to the deck fitting so I only had one end to deal with reducing the time the stay and the mast were loose.

Anyway everything worked out, got the turnbuckle on working from the dinghy lashed to the side of Sprite. That way I could work sitting or standing up, keeping my back straight. After doing the starboard side I decided the port one could wait. I drank my coffee and decided to head back to shore while the tide was relatively high and there was less beach to drag the dinghy up.

Just pulling the dinghy up after getting out made my back twinge, so I emptied the dinghy and chucked the stuff in the car.

Then I returned to the dinghy with my back-saving not-so-secret weapon: a rachet winch:

With a double pull through a block it can pull up tree stumps (allegedly) but I rigged it for single pull, which sped up the pulling process. The bad news was it was still painfully slow, lots slower than dragging up the beach by hand. Especially having to do the pull in stages. I felt such a fraud, but at least when I got in the car to go home I wasn't in agony!

So, only a couple of hours on board today but I feel so much better for it.

No visit to Sprite tomorrow, I'm off to Littlehampton for lunch.

By the way there's a really nice looking Invader 22 on eBay at the moment. £750 with only 2 hours to go. No bids on it... Very strange, but I guess the bad weather this Spring has depressed the market a bit.

Stormy Weather

I took this video last Friday to show how bad the weather was and how high the storm surge risen. You can see the dinghies under water that would normally be on a dry beach, so the surge was almost a metre higher than normal. That meant the boats at the bus stop at Eastney were floating rather than sat on a safe beach and once again they were bumping into each other. You can also see the little blue boat that was very low in the water.

You can tell its been a bit wild out there because today I checked on the boat at lunchtime and noticed something white behind Sprite 2. Yes, its a capsized boat!

If you check this picture you can see the boat right way up behind Sprite 2:

It looks like the cabin and the engine are under water along with the accessories that'll have spilled out of the boat.

Its a shame really but it does show the force of nature that the boats have been putting up with over the past few weeks and days.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, but they were taken through the lens of my binoculars.

UPDATE: 

I've just looked through my photo records from the weekend and that capsized boat was afloat yesterday, so it must have turned turtle overnight. Possibly a combination of wind and a lot of rainwater on board sealed its fate.