Hi All,
As I mentioned last spring as part of a question about life
rafts, I had planned to sail my C&C33-1 solo to Bermuda
and back (double handed) in the Bermuda1-2 race. I did, It
was fun, it was terrifying, it was expensive to prepare for,
and it was frustrating as I did not do well (dfl) in my class
in part because of the high winds and seas near the gulf
stream probably favored the HR49 and other heavyweights in my
class but mostly because I was climbing a steep learning
curve. Of course, a C&C35-1 won the return and did well
on the way there so (in my case) it's the sailor not the
boat. In preparation for the next one, I need to resolve a
few issues with the boat and a lot with the skipper. I was
putting together a list that I thought I would share.
(1) The autopilot has to be more than bullet proof. I
thought my below deck pilot was, but I was wrong, and as a
result I found myself upside down in the cockpit locker and
crawling deep underneath the cockpit floor in horrible
conditions to tighten bolts that allowed the tiller arm to
slip (no woodruff key or slot to put it in). I lost a lot of
time bobbing around with the sails down repairing the
autopilot or sleeping. The fix for this one is obvious but
will require dismantling the quadrant and figuring out how to
bolt the tiller arm to it. Other issues with the autopilot
were completely my own fault as I made changes to the
electronics but did not have time to proof test the changes.
(2) When a wave fills the cockpit and it gets flooded (and
it did repeatedly) the engine instruments are going to get
wet. This is not good as the switches will (and did) fail, I
am considering relocation or creating a waterproof cover.
(3) Following seas WILL drive water up the tailpipe and
into the engine. As a result, I sailed into St Georges harbor
and up to the customs dock then I spent a day in Bermuda
sucking water out of the engine and drying it out enough to
get it started. For the return trip, I put a plug in the
exhaust pipe but the plug was washed out in the "washing
machine like conditions" and ... we got to sail the boat into
the Newport Yacht Club dock at 3:00 am on no sleep. Then
spend another day pumping oily water out of the engine. Yeah,
slow learner.
(4) The fuel tank vent on my boat is high up on the
starboard side but by the time I got to Bermuda, the tank had
a quart of water in it (which I siphoned out). Good filters
(a racor) helped but I need to relocate the vent -- the
question is where? It may not be wise but on the return trip
I wrapped the vent with tape (which, if I had run the engine I
would have removed) A better solution is needed.
(5) Reefing has to be quick and easy -- I spent far too
much time screwing up enough courage to go to the mast to reef
and shake-out. My current reefing system (probably original
to the boat) has a winch on the boom which makes the first
reef fine but I used all three reef points and releasing the
last reef before pulling in the next in 35-40 kn of breeze is
a nightmare. I need to work on leading the lines to the
cockpit.
(6) A removable inner forestay and a blade foresail might
be nice. My new furling 130 spent a lot of time furled 50%
and that really has screwed up the shape of my formerly new
and now blown out 130.
(7) The boat was reasonably dry inside (a result of hours
of rebedding hardware) but somehow the mast collar leaked like
a sieve. The boot looks perfect so it has to be the where the
Al collar (mast partners) meets the deck -- who would have
thought that the one place I didn't rebed would be a problem!
(8) Hoisting a radar reflect on a flag halyard to the
spreaders seems like a good idea until the line breaks and you
lose both.
(9) The one turnbuckle that I did not wire was the port
diamond stay. Turns out the mast will stay up without this -
whew! It is extremely unnerving to see a piece of wire
swinging around at night in a blow. Wire everything. And use
lock tight on critical bolts -- my solar panel broke loose as
a result of a bolt getting unscrewed.
(10) Fighting with a 10 foot long spinnaker pole to fly
the spin gets really old. Luckily the wind only died down
enough to fly the spinnaker at the end of the race but if the
conditions had been more benign, I would have had to fly the
spinnaker much more. An assymetrical with a short prod would
be nice (but probably outside my ability to rationalize the
spending).
(11) Getting a decent weather (GRIB) file occasionally
would have been really helpful. I suppose I need to figure
out how to do a SSB or Sat phone modem.
Tons more lessons learned but that's enough for now.
Best,
David
