Saturday sail with Chiheb, Marie, Natalia, Bulent -

I did my last FFR presentation on Friday night, moving the duties to Emma and Gerard. 

Saturday morning, I lounged a little and tidied up the boat and locker.

Chiheb, Marie, Natalia, and Bulent came at about 1:30 and we set sail in 14 knots of fairly steady winds. We sailed to 5:30, anchored, BBQ some hamburgers, lounged and sailed back arriving at the dock at about 20:50.

GNS warm up Race 2

Bellum's first race of the season.

I biked to the club arriving at 4:40.  No winds.

Scarlett and Norm came out.  Guylaine cancelled at the last minute (again).  

It still looked windless.  We motored out to the race area, Norm helmed.  We drifted around and the race was postponed for about 30 minutes.  Just as RC was about to cancel, the wind picked up and RC set a short course with one windward mark and one start.  

I had already opened a beer, expecting not to race.

We decided to do a port start which worked except that we were about 40 seconds late at the pin.  Chaos went through early - about 40 seconds and never returned.  Complaining on the VHF but she never returned. 

We were behind but did catch up to some sharks and Genisis.  It seemed we were not last. But as of Sunday, no scores were published.

We decided to sail back to the club to a cold supper.  The staff was concerned.  The bar was closed but we were able to improvise.  

Should have gone with Norm's suggestion for BBQ aboard.

Norm had to send MLM to pick up C. I thought we could finish everything before 9 easily.

I ran the race on the starter battery and the battery did not last the evening.  Had to switch to the House battery to get the Yanmar started.

On Friday, I decided to go home after the meet the flag night and I missed the aurora borealis on the lake.

On Saturday, I rode down to the club in the late afternoon hoping to catch some.  Jessica just cancelled as I was riding to the club.  

It was a little chilly.  I opened the "turtle behind the companionway to clean it and test the Autohelm wind instruments I borrowed from Boathouse.  They worked fine.  I reassembled the turtle, washed down the debris from the turtle and about 7 motored down the channel to anchor at Valois Bay.

Aurora Borealis

The depth sounder was still acting up.  It works if I knock the transducer.  But it was not very reliable.

Made myself a Barvette steak and went to bed early.  Slept in.  the next morning.  It was drizzling with 7 knots from the east.  After lingering around, I hauled anchor without the engine.  The windlass made loud clunks as the bronze plunger hit the stripper and cam key.

I sailed in a run to before the gut and decided to tack and return.  Tacked through the channel back to the club and motored back into the harbour.

I sent a message to Chiheb that I was going home.  He was at PCYC rigging a boat.  They were going to go sailing but had problems with the Genoa Halyard.

At the dock, I tightened the Allen key screws on the stripper and cam key.  That resolved it.  Will need to loctite it later.  I also disassembled the washdown switch which had failed over the winter.  (Addison)

Spontanious sail and anchorage Grand Anse - PCYC

I biked to the club on Thursday for the Tactics and rules seminar by Peter Hall and Joe Jospe.  I stayed on board afterwards.  It was cold.

The next day I worked on tidying up the boat.  I tighened the stuffing box. At 4PM, the sun came out and there was a light east wind so I took off on a run to Grand Anse, anchored.  

Still got this hacking caugh.  

Saturday moring, I pulled anchor with the motor on at 8:15.  Winds were from the East.  I sailed close haul to the sandbars.  

Saw a stuffed bear floating on the water.  About 4 foot long.

I texted John at PCYC to see if he needed help.  He was not too sure of the timing but it was going to be soon so I docked at PCYC and helped John with his mast and Bruce docking.  It was crane day at PCYC.

Came back to the Royal under motor, washed the boat as it was supposed to rain Sunday.  Lingered around and then bike to the Queen Elizabeth to try to fix my caugh, but made appointment for Monday.

Motor run fine.  Some soot especiall on starting.

Clogged Primary fuel filter

Primary Filter

Chris drove me down to the club with boat stuff for his launch and to resolve my Yanmar problems.

We launched Flow Control with Norm and I cleaned the primary filter housing.  The filter was filthy.  I spent 15 minutes "polishing" the fuel tank using a pump and filter from Norm.  No sign of dirty.  I was going to change the secondary filter, but it looked spotless so I did not change it.  

I had a hard time bleeding on the high-pressure side. It may have been some kind of residual effect from the engine failure.  Eventually, it did start and ran fine for a while before I brought her back to the dock.

Shakedown sail with Maud and Chiheb - Yanmar failed

Chiheb, Maud and I went out for a shakedown sail on Saturday.  Winds were forecasted to be 12 knots 18-degrees C.

Winds were approximately 18 to 20 knots from the South.  The wind instrument and dept sounder were intermittent. 

I biked to the club.  We departed about 2 PM, had a nice sail to Beaconsfield and tacked and gybed around.

About 4ish, on the way back, we furled the sail, started the engine, and put away the main. As we were heading into the harbour, the engine started to lose power.  It was too windy to try to dock with sails.  I dropped the anchor and called the club for help.

Anchored outside the harbour

Jim and Jacque L were at the T-dock to help us stop the boat at the dock.  They suggested trying to sail it, but I felt the motor could get us in if they could stop us.  It was a pretty good docking but popped an old fender and a minor scuff of the hull.

Blown Fender on docking

I opened the primary fuel filter and it was somewhat dirty.  It started to rain and I decided to take the bus and train home and work on it another day.

Launch 2024

 Lots of work cleaning the hull, polishing and waxing.  I did not use the buffer on the starboard side and it looked fine and was much faster.

Major anti-fouling job using half a gallon of Fiberglass Bottomkote with xylene solvent to thin it.

Did a boat survey.  

Replaced the cutlass bearing, fixed the bottom of the rudder that was damaged from hitting the bottom the previous year and installed at thru-hull for overboard discharge.

It was a very busy week before launch.  Monday was freezing. Tuesday was Survey and anti-foul, and Wednesday was cold and wet. Thurday was the final antifouling with cutlass replacement and rudder work.

Launched on Friday morning, but on Thursday afternoon, I had an opportunity to leave Bellum on the slings, so I anti-fouled the cradle pads.  That let me sleep in a bit more for Friday's 7:30 launch.  The club was quiet, so I was able to backup the car to unload directly at the travelift well. - Quite a time saver.

Let the engine run.  Water from the exhaust seemed low at idle.  Ran the engine for 15 minutes while loading. Motored to my dock with ease in almost zero winds.

I spent the rest of the day tidying up, installed the speed transducer, and inspected the impeller, which was fine.

The depth sounder was not working at the dock. I thought it was shallow water at the dock.  But the water level was high.

It was getting cold and I biked home just missing the rain (and snow in Ile Perrot)