Spring 2017

Spring 2017 is Here

Removed the winter cover

Before

After

Prop Problem/Sail drive Problems
I had to have the yard maintain/repair the prop.  Notice that in the before picture the mechanic for the previous owner replaced two of the stainless steel bolts holding the prop together with non-standard bolts that rusted.  Given that there was water in the sail drive oil in both 2014 and 2015 and that the mechanic found that the lower sail drive unit was improperly installed, it would seem that the previous owner of the boat had the boat serviced at a lousy yard.  But that is evident from the number of other maintenance and repair problems that I've found.

Prop before

Prop After

Now the prop and the bottom are ready for the summer

Compare this to the sail drive picture in Winter 2016-2017

Retractable Bowsprit

I'm still reengineering the retractable bowsprit for the spinnaker roller furling.  I wanted the furling mechanism for two reasons.  First, is safety.  It's much safer to furl the sail from the cockpit than it is on deck.  If the sail needs to be furled quickly, it means that it is less than safe to have someone on the foredeck, in general.  Second, my experience has demonstrated that dropping the sail requires more than two crew members or more just getting the spinnaker down quickly (and bringing a spinnaker down slowly is never a good idea unless it is dead calm.
  
In order to have the spinnaker furl properly the line that it twists around must be as tight as a G-string on a violin--i.e., very, very tight.  Unfortunately, we found, as so many others have, that when you get the line tight enough to furl, the retractable bowsprit deflect upperward at least 6 inches.  And that means the line is not tight enough.  Rather than finding out if I could get the line tight or if the bowsprit would break first, the sailmaker recommended that I install a bobstay.  This I did during the winter of 2015 to 2016.

The Retractable Bowsprit and Bobstay

The Retractable bowsprit and Bobstay--Retracted

I found that during the summer of 2016, the sail occasionally furled properly, but many times didn't; so that the head and upper leach would blow in the wind.  The reason is that adjusting the length of the bobstay is difficult to determine because its difficult to get all of the lines adjusted the same way each time.

And then there is the added problem of making sure the bobstay stays out of the water when the bowsprit is in the retracted position.  I solved this problem with a very long bungee cord as shown in the second picture.

Interior Work
The companionway and steps were/are in miserable condition.  However, the cherry underneath the coating was in good condition.  Unfortunately, some areas of the companionway are not even coated; the companionway was treated so badly.  So I've started to refinish it.  I will complete it next winter.

One wall of the Companionway as I was stripping the varnish

As shown above, I first used a chemical stripper to get the old, sun yellowed varnish off; it was the color of the yellowed panel on the lower left. This is a nasty job, but I needed to do it this way because sanding veneer is a good way to eliminate the veneer (and the walls are cherry veneer).  I then lightly sanded it will 100 grit sandpaper, cleaned it with a tack rag and coated it with an approximate 1 to 2 mixture of thinner and varnish.  This open the wood pours and allowed the first coat to soak in a seal the wood.

After the first couple coats of Varnish

At the time this second picture was taken after I had sanded the first coat with 150 grit sand paper, removed the dusk, and applied a second coat.  I will be using 220 grit on the next 4 to 6 coats.

Now that the first wall is completed, the before and after colors show as in the before (blond pecan color) and after (cherry).  I will need to complete the rest next fall.

Before and After of the Companion Way

As is shown in this before and after picture, the woodwork of the companion way was both beat up and faded.  So there is still much more work to do. Now, however, most of the rest of the interior is up to "good enough" as shown in the following pictures

Main Salon looking forward

Main Saloon looking aft across the Galley to the Aft Cabin

The Nav Station Looking toward the Head

The Forward Cabin

The Aft Cabin

The Head

One great thing was added to the decor of the aft cabin was a quilt made from many of my old but favorite tee shirts by my sister.

The Tee Shirt Quilt

Solar Panels

Since I've decided to get the boat ready for real blue water sailing, I know I have create a grid for the boat so that I can keep in touch with the world, even if I can't grab on hard, like I'm doing now.  And to use the electronics and other technology in the boat I will need electrical power.

You may or may have noticed that in the maintenance sections of many of the previous posts on this blog, much of the work was in terms of repairs or upgrades of systems existing on the boat when I acquired it.  This is really the first new sub-system I've added.

The Wiring for the Solar Panel on the Dodger

The Wiring for the Solar Panels on the Bimini

Since the utility closet is located on the starboard side aft, the simplest way to run the wire for the panels was down through the starboard deck, as shown above.  While, in theory this sounded good, Cliff, the electrician, found running the wires difficult; but he did it.

The next step was to install the charge controllers for the Dodger and Bimini panels, as shown below.

The two Victron Charge Controllers and the Bluetooth Dongles

After he connected them to the batteries, it was time to reinstall the hard dodger with a single panel and the bimini with two panels.  The canvas company that I contracted to attach the solar panel brought the dodger to Milford CT where I was in the process of commissioning the boat.  The following picture shows the dodger just after it was reinstalled.

Overview of the Dodger with a Solar Panel

As initially installed the solar panel on the dodger had two problems.  The first problem was cosmetic, the wiring showed.  This can be seen in the photo above.  The photo below shows the panel after the electrician hooked up the 120 watt panel to the charge controller, as shown below with the wiring nicely seated but still showing.

The Wiring for the dodger Solar Panel

The second problem was much more substantive.  The zippers holding the panel in place were attached to the dodger by screws.  Unfortunately, as initially installed the end screw was 4" or more in from the end of the zipper as shown below.

The Problem with the Zipper attachment to the Dodger

The Canvas company has since resolved this second problem by adding tab that have additional screws as shown in the following picture.

The tabs holding the Solar Panel in Place

The canvas company has also promised covers for the wiring.

However, the canvas company did not reinstall the bimini until the boat was back in Mount Sinai Harbor.  So two friends of mine, Jim Murphy and Alex Snedden set sail to bring the SV Calypso back.

Ready To Cast Off from Milford CT

After getting her back, in zero to moderate wind--in about 3.5 hours--the boat was ready to have the bimini reinstalled.  That seemed to take longer than necessary.  But its done.

The New Canvas with the Solar Panels Installed

The Canvas Company did a very good job on the installation of the two 140 watt panels on the bimini and with the addition of the tabs, the panel on the dodger seems secure.  And with the help of Alex, doing the majority of the work, we were able to attach the both bimini panels, in parallel to the larger charge controller.

One of the Aft Panels

The canvas company did a good job of constructing the bimini in such a way that the wiring is internal to the bimini.  And by running the wiring through the tubing, not much wiring shows.  Now, I'm ready to start testing this 400 watt system to see how many amp hours it really can produce.  More about that in my next post.  

Winter 2016 to 2017

The Boat is on the Hard with its cover on.

The cover is on tight

Checking out the Saildrive and Prop

Inside "The Tent"

Additional winter pictures of Calypso in the winter of 2016

Getting Across on the Ferry

Coming into Port Jefferson Harbor

In Port Jefferson Harbor

Here is a list of the Work Completed over the Winter of 2016 to 2017

I will be updating this post once winter turns into early spring and the yard and I can start working down the list some more.

During the late fall some work got done on Calypso including:

Repaired Forward Hatch: The large forward hatch (shown opened in the following picture) was leaking badly, enabling mildew to form on the mattress below it; not a good thing, as the mattress is a "tempur pedic" style foam mattress.  The yard's personnel were able to find the leak and repair the hatch.  Now I will need to check it this coming season, but I expect that they have repaired it and it won't leak...they have been very good with all of their previous work.

The Forward Hatch in the open position

Repaired rotting walls:  Once we found the leaks in the cooling system and after I watched the base of the bulkhead not fill with water over most of the summer, Mike and I started to repair the damage.  As shown below.

The Wall into the Head before

The Wall into the Head After

Rotted Wall Base

Detail of rotted area in the Wall

Reconstructed Wall Base

Acquired Mattress pads for cabins: Given the quality of the mattresses on the boat and the fact that they were getting continually more soiled, I decided to protect them with mattress pads that could be taken off and washed.

Getting Mast Lights working: Since I've had the boat all or half of the navigation lights on the boat's mast have not worked.  The yard tells me that they now have almost all of them working.

Tighten Keel Bolts: On the C&C 121's the keel is bolted onto the hull.  Many boats are constructed this way.  Occasionally, these bolts have to be tightened.  I had to have it done twice on Starwood in the 20 years I had the boat.

Repaired Radar: Getting and keeping the radar working has seemed to be a constant repair job in 2016, after not having any problems before that.  Cliff, the electrician, found that a wire had been crimped and that knocked the radar out this last time--more learning for me.

I will update this as we get further into the work in the Spring

Thoughts on C&C 121 and SV Calypso

When I first saw pictures of the C&C 121 in 1999 I fell in love with it.  After acquiring one in unreasonably rotten condition (as can be seen from the posts on this blog) I'm still in love with it and especially Calypso.  Why?

Having sailed for over 60 years raced sailboats for over 55 years, I was and am particularly interested in the speed and sail handling characteristics of the boat, even though I had decided to not race the next boat, but to get into cruising.  Since or maybe even before I was 8, when I first read Joshua Slocum'sSailing Around the world alone, I was interested in sailing hither and thither over the oceans; in other words, cruising.  Actually my sister reminded me of this in a recent phone conversation.

Being 8, I decided that O'Day 23 to 25 would be ideal. By the time I was 12, my focus had changed to a Pearson Trident yawl --I liked the idea of having two masts.  However, when I was 12 I had saved enough money through working as a paper boy, moving lawns, and saving my small allowance to buy a sailfish kit boat.  I named it Wet Fanny.  That started my racing career.

Fast forward 55 years.  During that time I had raced and maintained a sailfish (low maintenance), sunfish (no maintenance really and for me, no repairs), a wood lightning (constant maintenance of a wood boat, a new mast for racing, new sails as often as I could afford them), an 0'Day 23 (constant maintenance of the wood--I any boat in saltwater takes four time the maintenance of a boat in fresh water), and a C&C 34, Starwood (with its wood trim requiring significant yearly maintenance).

However, I still considered Starwood for cruising.  Since she was built in 1980, with 1980 vintage primary and secondary winches (for which it is increasingly difficult to get parts), a 1980 vintage engine, which worked exceptionally well, but which the yard said I should replace for cruising any distance, and many other items to replace or upgrade (i really would need an autopilot), I figured the total cost of all the replacements and upgrades would be two and one half times the maximum I could sell the boat for.  Part of that is because I would want everything on the boat to be first class, which is the way I treated Starwood as a racing boat.  And the boat was small for a coastal and/or blue water live aboard cruising boat.  So I looked around for a new boat that would meet the following requirements in no particular order.

The Requirements

1. Big enough to cruise comfortably--I wanted a boat that 2 to 5 people could sail on for two weeks minimum without too many vehemently intense discussions.

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2. Easy to sail single handed--I should be able to handle all the sails from the cockpit.  For me sails include the main (with 2 reefing points), a number 2 jib, and a code 1 spinnaker.  For me being able to work a spinnaker single handed means that I needed a bowsprit, particularly a retractable bowsprit.  The reason that I worked on getting both my code 0 and code 3 asymmetric spinnakers to roller furl on Starwood.  I had previously tried out other methods, like a spinnaker sock, for dousing a chute and found it frustrating at best and frequently infuriating, and occasionally dangerous.  I also found that on Starwood, when the roller furling worked properly it's simple.  On Starwood, without a bowsprit, it frequently did not work properly.     

3. No exterior wood--it looks beautiful but requires constant maintenance to look beautiful, and I want to sail the boat not constantly maintain it.

4. Fast--A slow deep hulled "seaworthy" boat is good if you like spending many nights going bumpity, bumpity, but I would rather get there and avoid the bumpity.  In other words, I wanted a boat that could avoid, for the most part, serious storms at sea.  And fast in light air.

5. Livable--I wanted some of the comforts while cruising.  For example, Starwood was designed so the entire head would become a shower stall.  Unfortunately it would still need a hot water heater and a shower head (other upgrades for cruising).

6. Maintainable mechanical and electrical systems--On Starwood, the mechanical systems were mainly under the deck and difficult to get to, especially the port side of the engine.  And because others before me had changes electrical components and systems, the wiring was a mess.

7. Up-to-date and complete electronics--This is a very hard requirement to meet because electronics becomes completely obsolete within 3 years of the time its introduced. So, I decided to revise the requirement to a "must meet" of supporting the latest NMEA 2000 standard for interoperability of the electronics.  This should include an autopilot both for safety when sailing along or with only one other and for convenience.

8. The ability to get from the deck into the water and back without a boarding ladder--I wanted a stern swim platform for three reasons, two dealing with safety.  The first is that in case someone falls overboard they can climb onto the swim platform, then onto the deck. The second is that it aids in get off and back onto the boat from a dinghy.  The third is that it will allow me to easily get into the water to clean the bottom of the boat, if and when i'm on an extended cruise.

9. Good refrigeration--This may be a sub-requirement of liveability, but having electric cooled refrigeration was important to me because when I sailed on even relatively short cruises on Starwood, and before that, it seemed I was always in search of ice.  On an extended cruise there may be no ice houses floating around just waiting for me.

10. Self contained and sustaining electrical and water--For extended coastal or blue water cruising it seems to me that having a source of electricity on a boat, not based on burning of potentially expensive and heavy fuel was a must.  So I gravitated to solar panels.  With respect to water for long cruises, I think that a watermaker must be high on the list for two reasons.  The first is safety, it's nice to have water if something untoward happens.  The second is that its nice to be able a shower ever once in a while without counting drops.

11. Saildrive--I wanted the boat to have a sail drive because it greatly reduces the space needed for the engine and drive train, while not really increasing the drag on the boat.

12. Color--While I suppose any topside finish would do, I really liked the Awlgrip finish that I had the yard put on Starwood, a Flag Blue color.  After fighting oxidation of the gelcoat on both the O'Day 23 and Starwood, (I would spend more than a month fighting polishing on the topsides of Starwood and it would look good for maybe a week at most), I had her refinished in Awlgrip.  For the 10 years following, I could polish the topsides in at most, two days, and they would look sparkling for the summer.  It is looks good for the new owner.

There may have been others, but these are the ones I remember.

The C&C 121 and the SV Calypso

As I said earlier, I had my eye on the C&C 121 since 1999.  When I finally decided to replace Starwood, I looked on line for a C&C 121.  After looking at three, each of which was fairly expensive and which came no where close to the boat I wanted, SV Calypso came up for sale.  Theoretically, it meets all of the requirements, above or at least has space so they can be implemented.

However, as you can see from the last two winters of work (and some in the summer), the boat was in bad condition, far worse than I imagined, even taking into account, a deaf and blind surveyor working in the seller's interests.  Still, with a lot of remediation of all of the systems, Calypso is beginning to meet the requirements.

1. Cruise Comfortably-- Calypso has two cabins that can house two people and if necessary an insert that can turn one of the saloon setties into another bed.  So it can serve 2 to 5 crew members.  It has a head with a separate shower stall, and a reasonably equipped galley (including a microwave, which was not a requirement of mine but would most likely be now). Additionally, it has a TV and DVD player (which I would never have thought of for a boat) that I've been told is a nice thing to have on a cruise.  Finally, the boat has tempur pedic style mattresses and air conditioning, neither of which I would have ordered if I had purchased the boat new, but now, after reading and watching Youtube videos I realize can may life on a cruise much more enjoyable and relaxing.

The forward Cabin

The Galley

2. Easy to sail--After racing 55+ years, the last 10 with a fairly complete sail inventory, I decided that my cruising boat would have a roller furling jib, roller furling spinnaker, and all of the control lines led to the cockpit.  The C&C 121 was constructed with most of the control lines led aft to the cockpit through a tunnel under the deck.  This means that the deck is clear of lines.  The lines end up under the dodger in sets of line stoppers.

Starboard stoppers

Port Stoppers

There are still two lines that need to be run back, the tack reefing points.  I will get this done by 2018, I hope this spring.  Then all of the control lines will be ending in the cockpit.

3. No exterior wood--Given the issues I had with maintaining the exterior wood I had on my two previous boats, I'm very happy that this boat has none.  Yes there is a lot of bright work to polish and wax, but I found myself doing that on Starwood.

4. Fast--From everything I could tell and everything I could read, the C&C 121 is fast.  I didn't know how fast.  It's very fast for a racer/cruiser.  As I showed in the video on my Summer 2016 post, in 15 to 20 knots of wind, the boat was moving at close to 10 knots just with a 10 year old #2 jib up.  And I know that on the first sail from Salem MA, where I acquired the boat that we made 75 miles in 9 hours, including 3 hours going through the Cape Cod Canal at 3.7 knots over ground under power and against the tide to Ascent Bay. Since the instruments weren't working properly the first day and since I didn't know much about the instruments, I'm really not sure how fast we were actually going.  But the thing that has astonished me more is the speed of the boat in light air.  The video below shows that we were making about 5 knots in a 6.5 wind (a wind that was off the water.  So while this isn't nearly the speed of today's flat out racers, this more than fulfills my requirements, especially when you consider all of the weight in comforts and conveniences carried by Calypso. 

Going 5 knots through the water in a 6.6 knot breeze
(Nice to have a clean bottom)

5. Livable--I suspect that you can see from my description that it's easy to see that the C&C 121's interior has been designed for being able to live aboard for extended periods.  For a boat of its size, the designers and engineers did an excellent job.  There is a shower stall in the head with pressurized water, factory installed air conditioning that I can use in a marina, and so on.  So the C&C 121 and Calypso is quite livable.  

6. Maintainable mechanical and electrical systems--As I stated earlier getting to and working on the mechanical and electrical systems on the O'Day and Starwood was difficult for me.  I'm not really good at "fixing" things because of my lack of both small and large motor coordination.  But, on both boats the systems, such as they were, were buried in places only a contortionist could reach most of the time.  Those were good places for them until I had to try to work on them.  Even the coordinated friends I had help me (thanks all) had problems. However, in so far as possible on a boat of its size, the C&C 121 is well designed for maintaining the mechanical and electrical systems.

7. Up-to-date and complete electronics--This really isn't a requirement, its wishful thinking as I've found out many times in the past.  By the time you get the latest and greatest, the electronics industry has made it obsolete.  Fortunately on the Calypso, the instrumentation had been updated in 2012 to the NMEA 2000 standard.  This should mean that for the foreseeable future, I should be able to update the electronics as necessary and as I can afford it. 

8. The ability to get from the deck into the water and back without a boarding ladder--The C&C 121 was constructed with a retractable swim platform.  This would fulfill this requirement except that the actuator mechanism seems to be a weak point of the design. All four of the boats I looked at had problems with the actuator.  From the previous posts you can get an idea of the problems I've had in getting it repaired and working again.  I'm still working with the yard to get ameliorate the problem of saltwater getting into the mechanism.

9. Good refrigeration--The C&C 121 was designed with a refrigerator of good size, at least when compared with the icebox on the C&C 34 (another thing that I would have had to add for long distance cruising is the refrigeration mechanism).  As you can see reading some of my previous posts, the actual refrigeration unit on Calypso was worn out and malfunctioning. Now that i've replaced it, it should be good as long as I have the boat.

10. Self contained and sustaining electrical and water--The C&C 121 was designed and constructed before the advent of price competitive solar panels or relatively small, but efficient watermakers.  Additionally, the available amp hours from the batteries onboard is relatively small.  So I may need to upgrade that.  With respect to a watermaker, right now there is some disagreement on whether a watermaker is required.  Since I still have time to decide, I haven't made a decision; partially from procrastinating and partially because watermaker technology is changing.  So it makes sense to wait. 

11. Saildrive--The C&C 121 was design and constructed from the get-go using a saildrive.  And so far, I really, really like it.

12. Color--While Calypso has an Awlgrip finish (and in Flag Blue), the boat has been nicked, banged and scraped to the point that it needs to be refinished (additionally there are some tiny cracks in the topsides that need some work before they get worse). 

Overall, for me, my budget, and my requirements, the C&C 121 is a spectacularly good design and Calypso has more than I thought I wanted in a boat of its size.

Summer 2016

Getting to the Boat

I have an interesting method for getting to the boat in Milford CT from Long Island.  I drive to the Bridgeport/Port Jefferson Ferry, walk on as shown below.

Getting on the PJ Ferry

(This is Actually in Bridgeport)

Going across the Sound

Walking to the train station

(Notice the Ferry in the Background)

Getting on the Train

Going up Two Stops

(Sometimes with a Friend like Alex Snedden shown here)

And finally walking a few blocks to the Marina

I start to work on the Boat

Not a Good Spring

2016 was not a good spring (or year for that matter) for me, health-wise.  The first thing that happened was that I came down with a case of bronchial-pneumonia just before I was to start working on the boat.  It was a month before I felt I could start working on the boat; so that put me 4 weeks behind.  Consequently, I started working long hours to get me back on schedule...bad idea.

Up my Big Ladder Working

I was just finishing polishing the topsides when I decided to use a light aluminum ladder, in the yard to finish the last bit of the transom.

"The Ladder"

The ladder collapsed under me.  Down I went hitting my head on another boat on the way down: concussion time.  It took me two weeks to feel good enough to start work again.  Then I had a recurrence of the bronchial-pneumonia.  Finally, four weeks after that and paying the yard to complete the work, the boat was ready to sail back across the sound.

Got the interior all ready to go with a great deal of help from my friend.

The cabin sole (floor) is looking good

Ready to sail back

Sailing Calypso Back from Milford

In Mount Sinai Harbor

Pictures of and from the boat over the summer

The Swim Platform Actuator

I finally got the swim platform actuator and motor out (together with a faulty switch) and had them repaired and replaced.  If finally works reliably 

Pictures from our single cruise to Essex CT.

That's it for this summer.  We'll see what the winter and next summer brings.