Fortunately, chica-san made me buy another boat. I believe the most convincing part of her argument went something like, "Ok, we move to the south end of Puget Sound and you don't want another boat. WTF, mate?" Then, fortunately, there's this gang of real sailors we've fallen in with who are experts at looking at me wolfishly and saying things like, "Yeah, let's use your boat for some winter races. Do you have an anchor? What about reefing?"
All right. It's on. The date's been set for a real sailor inspection and outing. I don't know if they'll laugh and walk away or pile on and head out. Let's see if we can get the beer cooler and propane heater to work properly... and the anchor. What is, how you say, "reefing?"
Apparently there's this thing called "PHRF" which I'm going to have to look up. Hmm. "Performance Handicap Racing Fleet" is what Mr. Google suggests. idk. Apparently there's a number I'm going to get assigned based on some stuff about the boat. Maybe about me. It seems to have to do with winning, losing, and time.
So, for some reason we don't quite fully understand yet, the South Sound Sailing Society allowed us to sign up, even though I (Tim) was the third admiral (I know, the Internet never forgets) of the Rat Island Yacht Club. There must have been a failure in communication somewhere. The black ball was definitely dropped somewhere between Florida and Washington. It's a long way, and diametrically opposed. Black ball dropping can happen.
So, these SSSS luminaries, with whom we would be delighted to drink beer, will want some information about the boat, I suppose. Specs, bay-bee!
- 1979 Cape Dory 27 at Sailboatdata.com
- Yeah, but what sort of stuff you got below the waterline?
- Critters growing on the no-grow paint?
- No idea. How about some pics from May 2016 or so? I promise I've done nothing to the underside since these pics except spin the prop both directions and clean the knot meter paddlewheel. Well, there was that time I squirted the boot stripe with the water hose.
We did install a high performance zinc so the prop shaft wouldn't break when we fire up the engine and cheat with the iron wind.
There was a hole in the stern where a PO (previous owner) thought an outboard would be better than maintaining an inboard. It got patched with stuff and bondo. We re-patched it with glass and epoxy. Hopefully the boat goes faster and leaks less.
lookin' much like the sailboat data line drawing...
There was some painting that happened
If my math is right, the prop might not chew a hole in the boat. It certainly might cavitate. Of course, math was never my strength... Maybe I would like to believe more than calculate. That puts me with the majority of monkey-like bipedal organisms on this planet. What could possibly go wrong?
Nice, big, honkin' prop. Notice that the performance slider is slid toward "push the boat against the tide" over "race the boat."
The knotmeter paddle wheel and depth sounder surely add some drag. The paint is... red? Interlux Trilux, purportedly. It's not racing paint, obviously - no stripes :-)
Nevertheless, the boat simply flies
and floats, right side up mostly, which we tend to thumb up... and eat breakfast in celebration of.
it's a reasonably goode olde boate
the chicken ladies of GRuB agree.
So, let's go racing
self-rescues might be possible if we blow up the secondary boat
and then there's that reefing thing. One reef line. The next line up is really a row of telltales.
And for reasons I don't understand, the aft reefing block is secured by the shoulders of two rivets. Gah. Gotta fix that.
Finally, the wind-o-meter might be telling the truth about the very scary mid-October 2016 PNW storm. Conditions in Swantown Marina were nicely protected and comfortable.
Then, there's that one thing I still worry about for real. The exhaust system doesn't have a gooseneck. It will be interesting to see how several real sailors with wolfish grins weigh down the stern of the boat and dip the exhaust through-hull. Does the saltwater get into the engine? Oh, please no. It's such a fancy and new engine. Saltwater wouldn't be good. Gotta deal with that, too.
Alright. That's all I've got for now.
