Fredric, Holly's husband, came out to check out Lake St. Louis. He has an O'day 27 in Memphremagog.
We drove to the club, set sail in rather light winds. It was warm. We just set the Genoa. Sailed to Pointe Claire and back.
Had a fish and chip at the club and went back to NDG for Porchfest.
Maud and John came out for a four to five-hour sail.
We tacked through the channel to Baie-d'urfie and ran back
The weather was supposed to be warm and nice, but it was cool and very gusty.
Redo the rudder bottom
Redo the keel joint retorque keel bolts
New Shaft packing 5/16
New LED navigation lights
Acid-wash the hull to remove mastache
Nauti Control Wireless Autopilot
Updated Raymarine Axiom firmware
I had an uneventful Haul-out at 12:30, single-handed. Fuel and pumpout.
I helped Eric with pump-out, fueling and winterizing his engine. This was not a very satisfying experience.
Ended up wet and cold.
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| Note the rudder damage |
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| Mustache is back |
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| Keel damage |
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| Grounding on keel |
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| Thats how I left my dock |
So the boys took a family day off, and we met at 10, departed the dock at 11 after borrowing life jackets from Norm. They had outgrown the ones I had last year.
Broad reach to Baie D'urfe and then tacked back through the gut and started the motor just before the club channel. Almost no fuel was consumed.
The words of the day, everybody had were, "Kill", and "WHY?".
They kept using these expressions. I would ask them to do something, and it was always WHY. Eric encouraged this as he thinks it helps them to understand. But it did not produce a good crew. I clearly told Eric not to release the dock line - I told him to hold on to it. He heard but didn't understand why, so he threw the line off the boat, causing us to drift towards Flirtation. When I explained why, he understood. But it was too late.
Reminds me of
CHRIS, GET ME A KNIFE!
WHY?
— BECAUSE I NEED ONE!
It seemed to me "Kill" was just an expression they kept using.
Interesting day. Nice winds.
It was an interesting week at the club. Came down on Friday to help Sylvie if she needed to haul out Tara II. Had supper with the gang.
Saturday, we demasted the sharks. Lunch with Allan Rheaume and saving the mast of Elixar, who had a broken forestay.
On Sunday, Maud, Scarlett and I raced the last Frostbite. Caroline had a bad back and could not make it. The wind was 5 knots when we departed and forecasted to increase to over 20 by the end of the previous race. That was in the forecast, so I decided to keep the 155 on, aiming for at least two good races and taking a chance on the third in stronger winds.
Even though we did badly, we came out 6th in the series because we raced every race.
https://gnsracing.com/results/2025/2025-FROSTBITErs.html
We did terribly, but most of the other boats were hardcore racers. Came back to the club and Flirtation had a difficult time docking in 20-knot winds.
Friday was fabulous, and I procrastinated going to the boat.
On Saturday, around noon, I took the car to the boat, making a stop at Akavan to start clearing things out for winter. I checked the oil levels after the oil change, removed the bimini and solar panels, and winterized the Johnson with Norm. At 5:40, the winds shifted to the east, and I headed out to the sandbar to spend the night. BBQ some marinated chicken legs.
The next morning was relatively cold at 8 °C and 15 knots of wind at 7AM. I pushed myself (and BELLUM) to PCYC to pick up Scarlett and Maud. The visitor dock was still occupied by Capricorn. I tried to head for the sheer legs, but it was too shallow and I got stuck. I managed to back up and took an empty short dock near Breakaway and Pollywog. I felt BELLUM touch bottom, but managed to make it in single-handedly and tie up the boat to the short dock.
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| BELLUM at short PCYC dock |
I had texted the crew to come earlier to change the headsail. The forecasted winds were supposed to decline. The dock was too small to bring down the sail and fold it, so we decided to head out with the 155, reefed on the main and genoa.
After the first race, the winds declined, and we shook out the reefs for the second race.
The first race I screwed up the approach and we started 2 minutes 20 seconds late.
We performed better in the second and third races, where we utilized the whisker pole.
Scarlett helmed the first two races, and Maud helmed the third race, where we beat Matthew on the First 32 - le Fou Du Bassan
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| fitique |
After the race, we sailed around the lake until 5, when we returned to PCYC to drop off the crew and then I returned to the Royal under power.
I loaded up the car with a bunch of stuff and came home about 7PM.
Fredric, Holly's husband, came out to check out Lake St. Louis. He has an O'day 27 in Memphremagog. We drove to the club, set sail i...
