A fall to forget, a summer to remember

Oh ... summer

Salt is on terra firma and low pressures are marching in towards the Norwegian West Coast – in short – it’s winter.  I know I have been slow on this blog for some time. It seems that the Australians, the Freya double enders and a few international readers interested in Refleks diesel heathers that find this blog interesting. I truly understand you all. I will try to do better.

Let go.. Well – the race season was a nominal disappointment. I don’t think we ever did better than becoming number two or at the best one number one. Consequently, I have decided to forget the season.

To be remembered.. However, I will not forget this summer. We had a long cruise in Ryfylke sailing all day in the sun and warm wind. That is something I haven’t experienced since we sailed the Bahamas. Going downwind it was so hot we had to swim time and time again.

 

Erfjord in Ryfylke. Motor cruising.

Every night we anchored in a new spot. Most of the time pretty much alone with few other yachters around. The deeper you go into the fjords the less other yachts you will see. Ryfylke really is an El dorado for us seeking nice natural harbors or appreciate the tranquil blond Scandinavian nights quietly hanging on the hook. A gin & tonic sun downer with Salt moving in harmony with the wind and waves – hanging on the anchor – is truly a nice experience.

Spring brings new possibilities…Next season I plan to try out the un boomed mainsail and a battened number two genoa, overlapping, and self tacking. Engøy Seilmakeri has redesigned two sailes to fit the above description. In theory this will make her more easy to

Fresh summer sailing at Sjernarøy

singelhand, more effective –particlaryly while reaching – and safer. Most sailing accidents involve the main boom. Getting rid of it will make things easier. The overlapping 130% Genoa will be boomed by battens, switch by the mast, and be regulated by one sheet only. Sounds to got too be true? Right. Even so, I did test it once this fall. Moreover, it all worked out. Admitting, it did not blow much – in fact next to nothing – and I had to take the sails back to the loft – but it did work. Both the fully battened main and Genoa tacked without problems. So this spring we will see.

Furthermore, I plan for a new trip to Shetland, Fair Isle, Scotland and through the Caledonian canal. I am afraid this so far is fireside sailing.

Incoming from Kvitsøy and Skudeseilasen no1. doublehander

However, I do think a lot about it. Time will show.

Once more…Besides, I will participate in the Seilmakeren – the race from Bergen to Stavanger (Skudenes) and back. But this time in someone else’s yacht. Two races in no wind is enough in Salt. So I guess it will be a real blow this spring.

Best of x-mas to you all!

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside

Windy Wednesdays Wins

Finally – two Wednesdays in a row the wind has blown more than a trickle and we have won both races. I know, it’s just a race and nothing to brag about. But still, it’s good to know that there is life in the old whale when it comes to a blow.

 

It is annoying to make a third or a fourth place when there is no wind at all. However, considering the competitors up front who all have brand new high tech sails and are race boats by pedigree, it is fairly nice that 30 years old Salt still hang around and sails in her handicap. It is a fact of life that something has happened the last 30 years of yacht construction. I bet Salt weights twice, if not thrice, the weight of a few of our companions. And I have missed crew a couple of races so I have had to single hand and double hand a race or two. I am telling you that she is not easy to handle alone in a blow among hard-core competitors with no faint heart for the single handler.

 

I am just so pleased with finally winning a few races. And this weekend we are sailing a short hand races from Saturday to Sunday with the weatherforcasters promising rain and wind – the nicest flying whale weather you can think of. The assurance of winning a race makes me optimistic about the next one.

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside

 

 

Sunny races with little wind

What a slow season so far. The weather in Stavanger – and most of the South and Western part of Norway – has been one long sunny day for a month. I don’t complain, but it would be nice if the sunny days also included a few races with more wind than a trickle.

When nothing else works, blame somebody

Somebody has to take the blame for the bad results so far. Why not the sun or my absent and unreliable mate and brother?

Salt has so far only been able to come up with thirds and fourths. The only Wednesday it has blown I was forced to singlehand. None of my trusty mates showed up for the race. I have to say though I was close to win or at least come in second. But I was forced of the finishing line with half the boat over the line by a fierce competitor coming in low on starboard tack. It was by the rules. I could do nothing but jibe out an come back. By the time I got the complete boat over the line several late coming competitors beat me to it. Fair and straight, but very frustrating. One more hand and Salt would have been first across the line. She beat them all to the weather marker, but could not hold the competitors behind during the spinnakerleg – I can’t set the symmetric spinnaker single handed when the legs are so short – so I had to watch them pass. However, Salt came hard back upwind. All in all a good race.

Bob Dyland weekend

This weekend we where supposed to sail Utsiraseilasen 2008. Last year it was postponed because of a storm, this year I had to postpone the race as a result of the lacking wind. Ugh – the result was a long weekend working in the garden.

 Well – it could have been worse. Friday Bob Dylan performed for close to 20.000 fans in Stavanger. I was among the fans and enjoyed it immensely. Not as much as a windy race, not even Dylan can compare to that – but Dylan performing Like a Rolling Stone sure helps.

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside

 

Quick and dirty solutions: Splashproof laptop

I have searched high and low to find an affordable waterproof box for my laptop to be used onboard. Most of what I found was either very bulky, very expensive, very unpractical, just plain not usable or a combination of all.

Ever since I started using Tiki Navigator as my navigational aid and electronic charts, I have been in need of something to protect the machine. Problem is that in foul weather the rain and spray will find its way down to Salt’s charttable. If the outside wet and cold don’t find my laptop, I will most certainly bend over it and drip salt water all over the machine or somebody is going to spill a cup of tea, leave a wet hat … you know, something bad including water will happen and the mishap will show up in the most disadvantageous time.

So here is the cheap and dirty – but effective – solution. I bought enough sprayhood-window, you know the sort of soft bending stuff used for windows in sprayhoods and yacht-canvas, to cover the laptop 2,5 times. The plastic-fabric cost me less than 30 dollars. Besides I bought some double sided Velcro and some extra broad tape.

Ten minutes

It took me less than ten minutes to make an “envelope” of the window fabric, with a double flip-cover on top of the laptop. I put Velcro underneath the laptop to tape it inside of the cover. I taped the sides of the cover, and used Velcro for the top panel of the envelope. The cord for the charger and the GPS comes out under the top flip. The cords are double bended – coming up under the flip, covered by the Velcro, and then down to the laptop. The laptop is secured by Velcro inside the envelope.

Underside of the cover has Velcro which mates with Velcro taped on to the chart table top. The hole thing just sits totally secure. It so happens that the small cheap GPS for the computer works fine under deck. All I have to do is to place the small GPS among by navigational books. This works fine.

During dark and rainy nights with hard landfalls, I can move the laptop out into the cockpit. The Tiki Navigator has a nifty night solution where everything turns read to keep your night vision keen and bright. The chart is so big that I have no trouble checking it out while sitting at the tiller.

Dry fingers

My computer has a mousepad easily used through the cover. I can still browse the charts, change sizes and find my routes. The only problem is that you have to have dry fingers using the mousepad through the cover. So I have pad of paper towels in close reach. However, it’s hard to write with the cover on. But I won’t write much as I am navigating – particularly not during cold and rainy nights.

I was afraid the cover would make the computer overheat. This is not a problem. In fact the computer is no hotter inside the cover than without it. The reason might be that navigation is not hard work for the laptop. In fact it’s hardly using any brains at all. Just sits there.

I have a cheap charger connected to my main battery. The whole contraption sucks more electric juice than I expected and the battery for lights and electronics are to small, only 70 amps. It keeps the computer and everything else going for most of a day, and then I can run the navigator on the laptops internal battery for a few hours. It works, but 70 amps is not enough anymore. I will change the battery and install another to keep it all going and to avoid running the engine to charge.

That’s it – a fast and cheap answer to my computer problem onboard. It has worked since last spring. It has worked in heavy weather, in rain, hail, summer, sunshine and dark nights. What more can you ask for 32 dollars of waterproofness?

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside

 

 

 

 

 

AIS does the job

Going full blast from Korsfjorden outside Bergen towards Stavanger last week, spinnaker drawing, some ocean swell unsettling us, but with a nice breeze from behind, the fog set in. Woolen as cotton, cold and wet as rain. I could not see more than two or three boat lengths forward into the heavy ferry and ship infested North Sea. As nightfall set inn, I could even see less.

Boy, was I glad I installed the AIS I won last year in the Shetland Race. I didn’t have any positive expectations. In fact I was rather annoyed for having to install two new antennas and another peace of equipment drawing ever more electricity.

The Simrad AIS 150 sender and transponder really made me feel safe. You can spot ships 32 miles away. That is nice. But even better, you are telling them where Salt is, who she is and her call sign, plus our speed and course.

Even ferryboats reacted to our signal. I have never experienced this before. But with the AIS going I am convinced the ferry-skippers really made an effort not to run us down.

I guess the real secret to this is that the AIS will show up on their screens, alarms go off, and a possible collision will enter the professional electronic logs. Running us down will simply look bad on the officers CV and it will be possible to find out what happened. Using their powerful radar’s they knew we where out there in earlier days too. But as a cynic I must say the AIS makes the trick of being seen and avoided so much more easy and convincing as it makes tangible and lasting electronic records of our existence.

It doesn’t draw much electricity either. Even if it did – it sure is nice to know that commercial freighter skippers know where you are and are heading as their tall sharp bows are towering over you.

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside

No wind, no result

The first race of the season is most often a disappointment. Things that worked last year doesn’t work the first time out. We are unorganized and slow. However, the Seilmakeren 2008 is the worst start ever.

Seilmakeren Doublehanded 2008 is a race from Bergen to Stavanger and back. It’s more or less 180 nautical miles long and it shorthanded limited to a crew of two. It’s a free race with only the start, pitstop and goal defined. It’s up to every boat to choose it’s track. In principle you can either go out into the ocean outside of all the island, or go in-between all the island.

The ocean track is a little shorter, but not much. However, the North Sea will whip up some waves as soon as the wind picks up, and if the wind dies the waves will stay on for quite a while. Going inside is risky as the wind tends to die at night, but you sail faster with less wind and waves.

Wrong track twice

We choose to go out into the ocean. We lost more or less 4 hours by this move. So we decided to go inside north and Back to Bergen. Both tracks where the wrong decision. Going North there was no wind at all. In periods we went backwards. In periods we moved by the current, we where swirled around, we sailed into wind-less areas while we could se boats passing us outside.

In short a rather frustrating race. But it started well:

We had a wonderful sail to Bergen in incredible spring weather. Sun for a week is not common at the West Coast of Norway in May. But alas, no wind.

As a painted ship upon a painted ocean we sat from Wednesday until Saturday morning. Then we just gave in.

We started well and choose to go with the new asymmetric spinnaker. A good choice the first few miles. Further up the road we should have changed to a symmetrical, but then it was to late. When we finally changed we got back the lost but shot into a windless spot and stayed there while the others passed us at good speed.

The same story happened over and over again.

It was all in all a wonderful trip, but a rotten race.

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it – Rubber Bumper for the old Whale II

Finally, it’s all done and Salt is ready for the salty seas. I got the Keel-pro glued on, layers and layers of putty, hours of sanding, and new layers of VCTar and VC17.

No more putty

I have chosen not to add on an extra million or more layer of putty to make the Keelpro totally flush with the aero dynamical, or is it hydro dynamical, form of the keel. Instead I have chosen to make the keel protection as friction free as possible with harmonious lines.

I might be wrong

However, I have no more time for spring chores before the yacht is lifted and back in the sea. Besides – the Keelpro looks ok. There are no disharmonious lines and no lines from the Rubber Bumper along the keel that should disturb laminating water flowing along the keel. Actually, the lines along the keel are now rather modern. She looks like she has been given a modern bulp stern. In theory this should work out positive.

Positive

While most of the curiosity during the fitting has been rather negative, the attitude is now turned more positive. Most of the old salts now agree it is a good idea, and that it might protect me from hitting a rock in the first place, and if I hit one – it might give the Kaskelot some protection by flexing the rubber and getting rid of the kinetic energy by pressing the water out of the Keelpro, while seven tonnes of yacht stops dead on a submerged rock.

I don’t know for sure. However, the thing looks good, and it is adding another 10 kilos at the very bottom of the boat. The general rule is that 1 kilo in the mast has to be compensated with five kilos in the keel. Consequently, this has to work the other way around. Added 10 kilos at the very bottom of the keel will compensate for the weight of both the main and the genoa – say 50 kilos or 100 pounds. This should give me less listing and thus a better upwind performance. Besides the keel has become a little wider, which might give Salt improved helm balance.

Negative

The negative argument is of course the possible non-harmonius lines along the bottom of the keel, which might disconnect the laminating water and slow me down in no-wind conditions. If it works out negative I will add the extra million of putty layers during summer or at end seasons.

Time will show and the living will see. I’l be around to check it out.

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside

Rubber Bumper for the old Whale I

Just a short update for you folks. Spring is here, and I am working on the boat. I just love messing around in the marina with all the old Salts from the yacht club coming over to comment anything and everything I am doing.

Nothing catches the old salts curiosity more than the keel protection I am fitting. Nobody really believes it’s worthwhile – that is to say nobody but some of the female sailors. They know their husbands hit’s a rock every now and then.

My answer to all the curiosity is the truth. I would have sailed on happily and hoping not to hit a rock if I had not read about the Keelpro. Now that I know I can protect my happiness and reckless sailing days, it would just be too annoying hitting a rock knowing better.

I really think the rubber bumper will protect me against ever hitting a rock again.

At least I tried.

It is quite a lot of work getting off years of old bottom coating and 10 millimeters of putty to get to the iron keel. With everything off, the iron keel had to be coated with 5 layers of two component paint – witch took forever to dry. The paint needed 5 degrees or more to cure. Nowadays there are few days and nights above 5+. Weill – it worked out.

Today the Keelpro is glued on to the keel with massive amounts of glue. So far everything looks good. However, the temperature is moving up and down from 3,7 to 14 – and the glue needs 5 degrees all night. I have borrowed an infrared heater to keep the old girl hot.

Tomorrow will show whether I failed or succeeded. Salt will be put back into her element Saturday no matter what. And I am traveling to Tønsberg Thursday. 3 more days to go and that’s it.

I will write something more about fitting the Keelpro as soon as I am finished.

Soon the cruising and racing season are starting up. It keeps me bright and alert all day and night.

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside

Hot Shot Kaskelot slideshow

Several of you have asked for more photos of “Salt”. Her’s a slideshow for all of you:

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside

There is a hint of spring in preparing “Salt” for a new season

It’s time to start spring planning. The rubber bumper Keelpro is soon to arrive from Sweden, the spinnaker is finished at Westaway Sails and all details have been varnished 5 or 6 times in the basement.

Twice shorthanded

Furthermore, I am going to participate in both the Seilmakeren race and the Simrad Onestar. The first is a double handed race from Bergen to Stavanger and back. The Simrad Onstar is a single hande race in the triangle Hankø, Risør and Vä derø erna on the Swedish west coast.

Both races are pretty pretentious for an old man in an old boat. But, what the heck? What can I lose?

In a good day, all I can win is a race. On a bad day, all I lose is a race.

If the weather turns rough, we might do a great race. Quite a few of my competitors, both at Seilmakeren and the Simrad Onestar are rather flimsy yachts. As soon as the wind start blowing a few of them will be very hard to master alone or short handed. Most of the yachts are made for having the crew hiking out, while ”Salt” is sturdy and doesn’t make a big deal of having ballast on the outer edge or not.

So, it might turn out well. Besides, racing is most for the competition and the fun, not for the winning. Right?

The Kaskelot depiction takes you topside