Winter Blues

[rwdsr]

Let's see what happens with this.

[brackish]

Nice work RWDSR, you're bringing it back in high style.

Dragging this thread back, I'm declaring winter is over.  My daffodil first bloom occurred on 2/20 and that is usually the two week notice.  A little longer this year, but went to the boat yesterday to do the first visit clean up and maintenance and worked in shorts and a tee shirt.  Hooked all my plumbing back up, retrieved the heater, installed my vang bales, took a few measurements necessary to sort out this confusing sail buying process, and generally hung out in sunny, 70 degree weather.
Motor started on four short bursts of the starter button (hope I can continue to find that alcohol free gas) and ran smoothly.

The nicro solar vent coupled with the heater set to only come on at freezing kept the cabin completely mildew free.

Boat, although uncovered for the winter, was remarkably clean on the outside. 

Nothing else to do.  Sailing on the next trip.

[Bob23]

Brack:
   I like your way of thinking...spring is officially here! Almost.
   An aside- do you use premium fuel in your outboard? I've used prem in outboards, generators, chainsaws, etc. and have had no problem. I've heard that there is less alcohol in premium. i wonder if it's true or just psycology playing tricks on me.
Bob23

[nies]

Bob, I have always used premium in all my equipment, especially my outboards, in the amount used in a year , the increased cost is very little to make me feel like I have done my best to assure I will not have fuel problems...............to-date its worked...Phil

[bmiller]

Well, for what it's worth, nothing new to report here. Still cold, still snowing, lakes still froze thick.
Skiing has been pretty good though!!

[brackish]

t.
  An aside- do you use premium fuel in your outboard?

No, I haven't to date.  There are two stations in town that proudly sell alcohol free gasoline.  I buy from them.  Not sure the compression ratio in my motor would warrant the use of premium although probably wouldn't hurt.

Oh and bmiller, that's good since I'm coming up there in a week.  I want there to still be some snow on the hill.

[Craig Weis]

I do run high grade gas in my Mercury short shaft 5hp 2 cycle O/B ONLY from BP [British Petroleum] and ONLY because the high test has no ETHENOL in it.
Not for a while anyway. Then the stupid F*****g Federals will make BP add it to the tune of 10% +. And then I can go back to cleaning out that green gelatinous jelly from my carburetor jet. Doing it on the water no less.

skip.

[bmiller]

Oh and bmiller, that's good since I'm coming up there in a week.  I want there to still be some snow on the hill.

That won't be a problem. In fact I'm sitting in a duty station on top of Copper Mountain and it looks lke something is coming down the valley. Skiing has been really good the last few weeks.

Edit to add a couple shots from the lake yesterday.

The dock:


The ramp:

[rwdsr]

I welcomed spring in yesterday in the best way you can.  I went for a sail!  I've  got the boat ready to the point now that I can take it out anytime I want to abd enjoy it.  Of course, I've still got a laundry list of things to do to it yet and work will probably be working on it for quite a while.  I put the genoa up for the first time yesterday and while I love the extra boost I get out of it in light airs, I do not like the sheet that came with it - it's just oo stiff and won't go through the fairleads and camcleats smoothly.  So that has to be replaced.  The trailer works like a champ, I got the boat on and off it easily yesterday with no trouble.  And, I didn't get wet this time either.  I took the Admiral out yesterday for her first sailing trip ever.  I don't think she is going to make much of a sailor, she thinks you need to be on a timeframe all the time and doesn't understand that sailing isn't like that.  She doesn't understand tacking.  "Hey, why are we going this way?"  "The harbor is over there."  The winds were probably around 9 - 15 and a couple of times, I got up to 5.5 mph indicated by the gps I had on board.  The started to lay toward the end of the afternoon so I turned on the electic motor and started back to the ramp and it burnt up, so we ghosted along at about 1.5 mph.  That really thrilled her I can tell you.  She has a bad knee and couldn't get comfortable in the boat either.  She did say that she wants to see what a bigger boat is like - maybe................anyway the season has started for me here and I couldn't be happier.  It's raining cats and dogs today and so I'm going to not do anything for the rest of the day, just be lazy. 

[adifferentdrummer]

Woohoo... way to go, Bob! I'm still waiting for my first sail of the season, but I'm sure glad to hear you got one in already. I noticed the water level in the lake starting to rise just two days ago and it's filling up fast. In just a couple more days I should be able to launch right out in front of my house. It won't be long now!

I noticed a question you had posted to me in another thread about shortening sail on the 16. The roller reefing system on the main is not the greatest set up, but it does work. If you haven't tried it yet, you need to. You should do it a couple of times so you'll be comfortable with it (and fast) if you ever need it. Just loosen the main haylard and topping lift (if you have one), pull back on the boom to disengage it and spin it around a few times to wrap the mainsail around it.

Also practice heaving to. There's lots of info on that in here. And remember to reef sooner rather than later. These little boats will knock down in a strong gust, so if it starts kicking up batten down the hatches and reef those rags. She'll be quite manageable with just a reefed mainsail in strong winds, but a storm jib would be a big help if you were having to work your way back up wind.


Milt  CP16 #635

[rwdsr]

Good to hear from you Milt, I've been keeping up with the weather over your way from my sister.  One of these days when you least expect it, I'll be sending you an e-mail and heading your way with the boat for a sail.  Thanks for the information about reefing the sail, I haven't done it yet, but as soon as I can, I'm going out for the weekend alone and that's when I'm going to practice reefing, heaving to, and all the other things I need to do to familiarize with this boat.  I do have a storm jib and have used it in higher winds once and really like it.  I need to replace the sheet on the Jenny.  After trying to use it the other day, I came home and cut the old one off.  It just isn't the right kind of line.  I'm really happy with the way the trailer came out, it was super easy to get the boat on and off this time.  I've got some PVC pipe that's about the right size I'm going to cut and run the shrouds thru to hopefully eliminate chafing the jib sheets against the turnbuckles.  As soon as I try it out, I'll let you you know how it works.  I got the lights hooked up inside the cabin.  Makes it real homey in there in the dark.  For the past couble of days have been working on a kitchen box to go inside the boat.  Now I'm going to have to start thinking about digging out the mower and gearing up for the cutting season.  The dates of the spring camp on Kentucky Lake has changed to allow one of my cousins to make it.  It's going to be 23 - 30 April.  So if you can make it to Paris Landing anytime during those dates, let me know - 2 sailboats are always better than one.  I'm going to take the boat to the little camp ground we will be staying at between now and then and see if I can launch there.  I may have to launch, and then rig it on the water.  I think that's doable.  Anyway, the work continues............
BobD

[rwdsr]

Meant to also say that Sunday when it was raining so hard, I went out and got up on the boat and opened the hatch to check for leaks in the cabin and there were none, dry as a bone.  So I'm real pleased about that.  Are you going to try to make it to Lake Carlisle in July? 

[rwdsr]

I'm here to declare winter blues is over!!!!!  So I'm gonna start a new post, but first let me close this one out telling about todays sail.  Went back to my favorite launching spot and took about two hours to rig sails and such.  I found a big can of silicon spray lube and went over pretty much anything that moves on the boat.  Sprayed the tracks on the mast and boom, and anything that slides in the tracks.  Now there is no sticking or binding anywhere.  I cut two sections of PVC pipe about 36 inches long and slipped them over the shrouds on both sides to save the wear and tear on the jib sheets.  Winds were at 10 - 15 out of the south weather clear, sunny, mid 80's,  Had a wonderful sail, got up to 6.3 mph according to gps.  Singlehanding is a lot of work for me, and l don't like doing it with the genoa.  It's a handful all the way around.  I can see I'm going to have to lead all the lines back to the cockpit if I'm going to get to where I can do it easily.  I did my first heave-to today!!!!  It was kind of an accident, but came out really well.  I was running under full sail and jenny in about 15 mph winds, heeled over really well, and headed back into the marina to the dock.  I thought I was going to get in there a little too fast so thought I'd drop the main and come on in on the jenny.  At that point I thought to myself that this would be a good place to heave-to, but couldn't remember how to do it, so I thought well I'll just round up into the wind to take the pressure off the main and then drop it and go on in.  I started my turn and about that time a gust of wind hit the boat and really heeled her over and I looked down real quick to make sure all the sheets were where they needed to be and when I looked up again the jib was backwinded just right and everything looked good!  Real quick I loosed the main sheet and let the main swing free and then i couldn't remeber which way the tiller was supposed to go.  It only took me a second to figure it out and get it lashed down, and there I was, sitting dead in the water!  I'm going to practicde that untill I can do it without thinking about it.  I dropped and tied down the main and came on in on the jib.  I have to tell you that jenny dragged me along at about 4.5 mph, and for me that's pretty good.  All in all, a good days sail.  Next time it's an overnighter with my grandson.

[Salty19]

Ohio is one of our favorite states.  Brenda's father went to The Ohio State University and lettered in marksmenship.  Brenda grew up in Marietta and still has distant relatives running around the area.  Our oldest son recently graduated from TOSU. ( Now all we have to do is finish paying for it.)  

You must not get around much   j/k...    I'm roughly 20 mins from OSU.  Becky went to grad school there.   Columbus is a pretty nice to live but the weather could be better.  The Marietta area has some nice scenery in the appalacian foot hills. Not much opportunity down there though...

[bmiller]

Pooka's winter came off the other day, the weather was perfect. This morning she is covered with a fresh coating of CO spring snow.
It's still winter here.