Saturday, December 26, 2015

Planned works for the winter...

Quite a lot of works planned for the boat during the winter, here's some of them listed... Hopefully we are able to get everything done before we splash the boat again

1.
Electronics: Install B&G Vulcan 7 chartplotter. Flush-mounted to the angled part of the deck behind Stbd. primary winch. At first the idea was to have one display on both sides of the wheel but just one should do well as the main purpose for this display is to have something to help with navigation when shorthanded in archipelago/shallow water. When the chartplotter is not needed it can be used to track windshifts, performance data, etc... The main Nav. station is still downstairs. 

Also need to install a Mastervolt inverter, Plan is to get only a small one, 300/500W, mainly used to power up the new computer screen and occasional charging of things. 



2.
Change the color of the decorative stripes and name/logo to "Gloss Charcoal Metallic". Also the previously painted bootstripe will be wrapped.


Old vinyls are removed and new ones are going on. The Charcoal Metallic Grey should play well in the daylight with little glitter without being too "goldy". Idea was to change the color to give more contemporary look and distinguish the boat from others. Old vinyls were not in a really bad shape but were peeling off here and there. This job was planned and 1/2 paid for to be done in Valencia. The English guy who was supposed to do the could not complete the job and walked away with my money..

3.
Fair the bottom & foils, re-coat and get the finish to look like the bulb on the picture below. Paints arrived from UK just before Christmas, I am hoping to get this job started by the end of January, but it really depends on the painter and his (and his shops) availability. It would be nice to do the bottom of the keel as well but I do not know if it is possible? 


4.
Upgrade the seacocks to a flush type for optimal light wind performance. Marelon Flowtech - closing flush valves would have been nice but there is not enough clearance for the valves. 

4.
Eberspacher or Webasto heating. GS 45 has limited option for ducting and it is pretty tigh fit but hopefully we can get a nozzle to every cabin. We might leave the Aft toilet without a warm air -nozzle, the Fwd. toilet/shower is more important as it is used for drying gear. Haven't yet decided on which model to go with but it all point towards Eberspacher D4 or D4+. Reason is the wide power range, especially in the lower end of the scale.

5.
Uprade the Solimar 170cm. S/S wheel to a composite wheel. Also at least the lower rudder bearing needs to be changed, top one we'll have to inspect when the rudder is dropped. Plan is to make an slight upgrade to the system as well. 




Saturday, December 19, 2015

Christmas at Gulf of Mexico

The boat is in a warm warehouse, crew is out working to get the means for yet another adventure in the future :)

Crew T-shirt v1.0 in test.

Happy holidays!

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Jobs contn'd

Prop Painted for Mediterranean in 04/2015. Unpainted prop on the Mediterranean would foul like there's no tomorrow. In the Baltic Sea it is not common to paint the prop as there is much less growth...

Paint removed and almost done with the polishing. It was a PITA to get all the paint off. Prop had some corrosion hiding under the paint, not too bad though, for a 10 year old prop.
Started the winch maintenance, used lamp oil+brush for the cleaning. 3/6 done. The smallest, 46.2 were easy to do, 48.2's were bit more complicated, but with help from the exploded view -drawing it was easy to put them back together. The 60.2's should be bit more complicated but as said, just need to follow the drawings...
Winches were in relatively good shape, I though they had almost no friction before the cleaning. I was wrong. The cleaned and newly greased/oiled winch was considerably more light to turn. They had a tad too much grease on them, now I only applied a very thin film of Harken Winch Grease with a small paint brush and Harken Pawl Oil to the Pawls.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Off season works in progress...

Boat got a skirt... Antifouling is not very thick but it was still in such shape that removal off all antifouling is needed in order to get a smooth (and fast) bottom. Some fairing needs to be done, but before that can be even considered we need to get the scraping/sanding done. 

Plan is to continue with Nautix A4 T.Speed hard matrix antifouling or with something even slicker...
Ant then let the scraping begin.  
Getting the antifouling off is pretty exhausting job so need to take breaks pretty often. Well, not a problem as there is plenty other "light" stuff to do. For example today the old AG Neovo 15" screen had to go, replaced by HP 17" Pro display. Consumes about 1/3 the power and weight saving about 2 kg's :)

Thursday, October 22, 2015

3794nm

Here´s some pics from the 2015 season in no particular order...

Waiting for weather at Klinthavn, Møhn, Denmark. The Marina was full when we arrived as the weather had already picked up. Harbour master assigned us a berth at the fishing basin of the port. I believe we got one of the most sheltered spots in the harbour.

Passing Gibraltar and Europa Point. Krister on the wheel.

Leaving Tallinn, Estonia after Helsinki Tallinna Race.

Seanna at Marienhamn, our first port in Finland. At that time we had covered some 3500nm since departure from Valencia. Dinghy got appropriate stickers, T/T SEANNA sticker inside the transom to comply with the law in some countries...

At Atlantic after departure from Lagos, Portugal

One hour to first race start with new boat.

Pretty much hitting the targets...

Enter the Baltics, bye bye tidal Europe. We were parked in Brunnsbuttel Marina, ships passed maybe 40m distance from our berth.

Vlieland Marina was 100% full and we were lucky to get a berth. Nice Marina, too bad we did not have time stay longer.

Seanna at her home berth at Skifferholmen, Helsinki. We almost never use the spray hood. That is why we got a boom tent made, it still needs some adjustment and more securing points. Next season will show whether it will turn out to be practical... 

Sails changed, anchor and extra cruising stuff removed. Ready to depart for the start line of Helsinki Tallinna Race 2015.

Finnish Summer.

At Oostende Food festival. Perfect day to be at Oostende. We stayed for one night at Royal North Sea Yacht Club, very nice marina, a bit shallow but near the entrance it was deep enough for us.

Kiel Canal, Holtenau Locks.

Chief Mate arrives :) Captain very happy

Home sweet home

Bay of Biscay

Mariehamn, Åland Islands, Finland.

Departing Cartagena, Spain

Hull got  some TLC after arrivla to Marienhamn

Our Yacht Clubs private island Andø

Hull cleans up nicely after 6 months idle at Marina Real Juan Carlos, Valencia. Nautix A4 T.Speed seems like a good choice for anti-fouling.

Marine Del Este. A marina well worth a visit!

Heavy traffic under the bow at coast of Portugal.

Brunssbuttel

Elbe- River, Approaching Kiel Canal with the current.

Kiel Canal, Holtenau Locks.

Heading for Tallinn, Full speed under Code Zero

Taking fuel at Ibiza, St. Antoni de Portmany

Helsingfors Segelsallskap club house terrace. De-Briefing.

No visit to Ibiza without checking the original Cafe Del Mar. Have to say they have done a better job with the CDM Singapore.


Hull after HP wash at Valencia, Spain

Wind picking up at HTR 2015

Ready for the long trip to Finland from Spain

Scheveningen at sunset. Headwear sponsor Superyellow Flag flying of course.

Testing the new boom tent.

Lunch at Tarifa while we were waiting on weather at Gibraltar.

Marina Alcadeisa, La linea, Spain

HTR 2015