Legacy maiden voyage on Canandaigua Lake

[brianb]

We've finished our first week and a half on Canandaigua Lake with our new Legacy.  So far the weather hasn't been especially cooperative.  Hot hot days with little to no wind have predominated.

Our first voyage a week ago Monday was mostly motoring with no wind from the marina where we could rig and launch the boat to the marina where we had rented a slip (closer to our cottage but no way to rig before launching at their ramp).  The sky was pretty ugly but the wind was almost non-existent.  We have a Torqueedo outboard that let us motor the couple of miles to the other marina.  As frustrating as it was to have no wind (the previous weekend featured nice steady wind or course) it was fantastic to have our beauty out on the lake.  Motoring gave us a chance to get familiar with the lake and practice dropping sail while on the water.

We launched at German Brothers marina on the northwestern end of the lake.  The staff there were very friendly and cooperative.  They don't have much space near their ramp inside the power lines but they very helpfully moved a parked boat/trailer out of the way to make room for us.  The rigging of the boat (first time we had ever attempted it) went very smoothly.  Mast raising on the Legacy is a very simple process.  Of course having my 19 year old son along to lift the mast simplified my life considerably...

Once we had everything rigged and the boat in the water (the marina staff used their tractor to put her into the water for us) we were set to get going.  We made a few last minute adjustments at the dock and then I hit the throttle on the Torqueedo and destroyed our prop.  Well, maybe that's exaggerating.  I did goof it up pretty well though.  In the interest of helping someone else avoid making the same stupid mistake - here is what NOT to do with a Torqueedo.

If you are at the dock and about to motor away do NOT leave the boat's rudder up where it sticks out away from the boat about at water level.  Don't let the tiller shift so that the rudder is turned over in the direction of the Torqueedo.  And whatever you do, DON'T forget to press down the lever that locks the motor in the down position before giving the motor reverse throttle.  Looking back now it seems like slow motion but of course it all happened in fraction of a second.  The prop started spinning in reverse and since the motor wasn't locked down it just tilted up.  When it tilted up the prop came up to the surface and hit the stainless steel rudder that was conveniently up at the surface to catch it.  The chunk of the prop that came off wasn't very large but it can't be a good thing...  (new one on the way - hopefully installed tomorrow)

The really great thing about the impact, other than the chunk of my ego that went into the water with the chip from the prop, was that it caused the Torqueedo itself to malfunction.  The technology of the Torqueedo is great but the error codes are pretty annoying.  There I was with my new boat finally in the water and my lovely wife looking at me expectantly at launch, trying to recover from the snafu of a moment ago, and the Torqueedo sat there laughing at me with its E24 error code (or whatever it was).  Turn off, turn on, try again.    What is this a computer?  PC Load Letter?  What?

Call the son back at the cottage to look in the manual (yeah, shoulda brought that along in the boat...) to find out what the error code means.  Motor power surge.  Yeah I bet a high RPM collision with a piece of stainless steel will do that.  Reconnect all of the wires, reset, try again.  Hey! It works after all!  Maybe ought not to get the RPMs too high with that chunk out of the prop. :-)  Hey at least there's no wind so we get to motor all the way to the marina with a cracked prop.

I am making it sound worse than it was of course.  We had a great time and got to play around with our iphone navigation software, look for our cottage, and figure out where our slip was.  Not the most glamorous first voyage but it was ours, we learned a lot from it, and we had a great time.

[jthatcher]

Great story, Brian.    Sorry the wind has not been favorable!  And, you certainly did pick a hot week to get started    But, I bet that it is beautiful up there.    On a trip earlier in the month,  my prop came in contact with the rudder  twice       .. not exactly the same scenario, but still a bummer.   In my case, the foil rudder is plastic, so it took the brunt of the exchange..   Good luck with the rest of the summer..  where will you be sailing next?   Maybe Barnegat Bay for  BBB2013??   jt

[SpeakEasy]

Welcome to my neck of the woods! Sorry to hear about your prop mis-hap, but at least you're able to keep it in perspective.

Pretty much the whole summer so far has been disappointing in terms of sailing weather. Lots and lots of rain and very little wind. I hope you get some good wind while you're here.

I would invite you over for a sail on my 23 on Cayuga Lake, but unfortunately, work is interfering with my sailing life at this point in time.

Enjoy the Finger Lakes; try some Abbot's Frozen Custard; take a hike; visit some wineries (my favorites are Ravines, Heron Hill, Goose Watch). We're famous for our Rieslings around here.

-Speak

[brianb]

Thanks guys.  We have been sailing a few times since then and have had great fun when the inconsistent winds obeyed.  The finger lakes region is very beautiful and Canandaigua Lake is a great place to sail when the winds are cooperative.  The prevailing winds seem to blow across the lake so it's easy to sail North and South.  It doesn't take much to push the Legacy along (5+ knots) so I expect we'll have more chances in the next few days.  I hope so anyway.

We'll look up Abbott's for sure!

[brianb]

Quick follow-up: John from The Sailboat Shop in Skaneateles drove over today with the new prop and installed it on our Torqueedo.  They are a great bunch of folks over there.

[Craig]

John is a great guy! We bought our Suncat from him when we lived in Cortland and he brought her down here after we moved to Punta Gorda. We kept Cattitude at Finger Lakes Marine Services on Cayuga and enjoyed sailing there for several years. Congrats on the Legacy!

[HideAway]

Great story - I'd be willing to bet  that no Compac ever made is free of scratches and such on the rudder to say nothing of custom prop blades - Not that HideAway has any of those {HA}  After awhile it will be second nature to steer with one hand on the tiller and the other on the motor-Trust me on that  Matt