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Dear Wayfarers,
I have posted a log of my latest cruise with my father and Pinčika (W10435).
The address is:http://sites.google.com/site/sailpinchika/Home/logs/a-variety-of-conditions
I have borrowed the title from one of Dave Barker’s posts – Dave I hope you don’t mind.
If you have any comments, be it positive or negative, be it grammar or seamanship, I would appreciate if you posted them either here on the forum or directly via email.
Best regards,
Mato
Hi Matoi
This was a delight to read! Thanks for taking to time to write such an interesting and personal record of how your cruise went. To see the photos and videos has encouraged me to find some time off work and go cruising for a few days myself!!
Jon
Thanks Jon! I was getting worried that the log is either boring or that there is something inappropriate, since nobody else commented. Hopefully people are just being busy in and around their boats!
Happy sailing!
Mato
Mato
Excellent – keep ’em coming! I thought it was always sunny with you!
I’d be interested to see a picture of your spinnaker pole tube.
David
I have really enjoyed reading this log and have bookmarked it to re-read in a couple of days time. All very thought-provoking stuff!
Thanks Mato. Best wishes to your father too.
Thanks for support guys! It means a lot. Here are a couple of photos of the bowsprit tube installation.
The wooden plates are placed either side of the metal twin bar. Our first idea was to place a sewage drain tube (dia. 110mm) into the round socket of the inner wooden plate that you can see in the image. It would be held there by the big washers (the tube has a bit wider part at one end which normally holds a gasket on the inside). The problem we initially forgot to think about was that the bowsprit isn’t perpendicular to the plane of the twin bars. So we had to make the tube in two parts. The first one is a short ‘ankle’ piece (7 or 15 deg can’t remember any more), attached permanently to the wooden plate. To this short tube, a longer straight one is attached, and this one is removable. The rear end of the long tube is suspendid by a piece of wire from the top of tabernacle. The bowsprit is kept centered to the boat at all times, by the hole in the wooden plate which is just a little bit wider than the sprit diameter. That way, it is not possible to swing it any more, but there is some virtue in having the thing simplified. The plus of this system, which was mostly crafted by my father, is that there is no drilling of the boat. The original setup can be brought back without a scratch. Well, almost – we did one little drilling thing to the bowsprit: there is a black plastic ring at the rear end. It has a wider end which is normally on the rear. We took it off and placed back (with pop rivets) the other way around. That way the wider part serves as a stopper when it hits the wooden plate, preventing the bowsprit to be pulled out of the boat.
There is a potential problem for bridge shooting: to raise or lower the mast one has to remove the long tube. And to remove the long tube, one needs to push (or more correctly pull) the bowsprit into sailing position… This could be avoided if the bowsprit was cut a bit shorter than original, and a shorter rear tube used. There are two more possible excuses for shortening it. The first one is that it might be good to be able to withdraw it fully into the boat when mooring. The other reason is that the bowsprit has a reinforcement inside which stretches from forward end to a couple of inches short of rear end. Perhaps it would be better if the sprit leant against the wooden plate with this reinforced area, rather than with the thinner part… On Pinčika, we didn’t do this shortening yet, because I wasn’t sure how it would affect the sail shape. But after experimenting with the asymmetric hoisted and bowsprit not fully extruded, I believe that a difference of a few inches isn’t noticeable.
Unfortunately I can’t provide more photos now, as the boat is far away from me and I’m leaving for a holiday the day after tomorrow. If anyone is interested I can give some more details when I return.
Also, I heard from Ralph Roberts that he has been helping a French Wayfarer with a similar thing. I haven’t seen any photos of it yet, but he told me that they used a thinner tube (75mm if I remember correctly), and managed somehow to make the thing removable more easily. Weather they shortened the sprit or not to achieve this, I don’t know yet.
Best regards,
Mato
Bump. For a W friend to show the sprit guide idea.
Last year I saw how Ralph solved this bowsprit tube/guide on Jacque’s boat. I noticed that his WWorld has a different metal bar, so Ralph’s solution was different there. Also, he cut the bowsprit shorter, used a narrower tube, and fixed tube’s rear end to the floor just in front of the inspection hatch. The advantage is: more space because of narrower tube and possibility of lowering the mast without fiddling with the bowsprit installation first. The advantage of solution on Pin?ika is that it can be reverted to original system completely and easily.
And a link to higher resolution images: http://picasaweb.google.com/matopics/AsyTube?feat=directlink
Regards, Mato.
Hi Matoi,
Just read you log – it makes excellent reading. I can sympathise with your feelings of frustration when things go wrong – It can feel like you have put a lot of effort into planning and yet you still have some problem or other. The main thing is that it didn’t stop you sailing.
I especially liked your quote from the old lady on the beach – something like “when God goes sailing there is no more sailing” 🙂
regards
Keith
Thanks guys!
I can’t wait to sail Pin?ika again. Previously, before holiday, I would be totally preoccupied with organizing gear, assembling gadgets, tools, maps and whatnot. Now, after 1 and a half year of W abstinence, I don’t care about any of that and just want to drop her into sea and get away… Unfortunately work has me tied down for some more weeks, but the time is getting nearer!
Happy sailing to all!!!
Mato
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