Took a quick Saturday morning sail on the Barba Roja. Headed out to the Bay, hoping to find reaching conditions, and we ended up with a beat partway across the Bay. Spun around and headed for home after a couple hours. Great to be out there enjoying the cool but sunny weather!
Century Club: Jonathan Nepini
Saturday, February 3, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
Beautiful day out there, all the summer sailors are missing out!
Saturday, February 3, 2024 to Saturday, March 2, 2024
Number of days:
10 days
Hanging nicely after lots of fiddling with the lines
Lots of old crumbly pool noodles - need a new internal floatation solution
The red came back great
The boat's namesake flames without the old, failed varnish
Pressed & clamped to fix a split
Fiberglass reinforcements
Little ding on the end of the rudder blade - just into the core so it gets filled & fixed
Centerboard cap & tiller handle getting new varnish
3 coats of epoxy & 1 of varnish - so far, so good!
Second coat of varnish
Using this post to log my 10 allowed boat work days, as well as any others. Days where I also logged an on-the-water day are noted.
2/3 (also a sailing day) - Spicy Meatball - rewire trailer lights, reposition hardware to allow boat to sit in bunks correctly, replace lifting lines & adjust for correct angle
2/4 - Spicy Meatball - #1 - reinstall rub rail, rebed 3 inspection ports, remove rotten pool noodles from inner hull
2/8 - Spicy Meatball - #2 - Met with my canvas guy to measure for a jib cover, and installed shims on rudder head to fix tiller handle angle issue
2/10 - Spicy Meatball - #3 - Polished starboard side
2/11 - Spicy Meatball - #4 - Polished port side & bottom
2/16 - Spicy Meatball - #5 - Removed centerboard trunk cap & associated hardware, discovering substantial rot to be repaired
2/17 - Spicy Meatball - #6 - Stripped centerboard trunk cap, removed damaged wood, injected epoxy into voids to shore up delaminations & applied first layer of fiberglass for additional structure
2/18 - Dangerous - #7 - Cleaned cabin
2/19 - Spicy Meatball - #8 - Sanded & applied second layer of fiberglass, applied thickened epoxy to repair dings in rudder blade
2/20 - Spicy Meatball - #9 - Sanded & applied first coat of epoxy all over
2/22 - Spicy Meatball - #10 - Sanded & applied second & third coats of epoxy, sanded rudder blade & filled additional epoxy where needed
2/24 - Spicy Meatball - #11 - Sanded & applied first coat of varnish to centerboard cap & tiller handle, final sand & polish on rudder blade, cleaned up mainsheet mounting hardware
2/25 - Spicy Meatball - #12 - Sanded & applied second of varnish to centerboard cap & tiller handle
2/26 - Spicy Meatball - #13 - Sanded & applied third coat of varnish to centerboard cap & tiller handle
2/28 - Spicy Meatball - #14 - Sanded & applied fourth & final coat of varnish to centerboard cap & tiller handle
3/2 - Spicy Meatball - #15 - Reassembled tiller handle & drilled holes to reinstall centerboard cap
Friday, January 26, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
The Barba Roja sailing into the sunset, seen from Heart of Gold
Barba Roja & Heart of Gold
Some of tonight's crew, with yours truly at the helm
Out for a sail on the Barba Roja with friends to enjoy the unseasonably warm, spring-like weather. Not much wind left by the time we made it out, but we enjoyed a great leisurely run up to the bridge anyway. Found some friends out on their new boat Heart of Gold and had a little friendly racing action. I took a long turn on the helm, and we turned around at sunset and made a leisurely ride back down to Solomons. I'm glad I was able to take advantage of the fantastic weather and get out on the boat with some friends for the first time in quite a while.
Monday, January 1, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
A couple snapshots of today's crew
A couple snapshots of today's crew
Participating in Century Club was one of the highlights of my 2023, and with 156 days on the water it certainly helped me get out there often. I'm going for it again this year, and I started off the year with our traditional New Year's morning sail on the Barba Roja. It was cold and cloudy, with good breeze coming out of the river. We sailed out to the Bay, and beat up north until we could see the Cove Point lighthouse. We set a nice reach back, and passed by Arctic Tern, the Coast Guard Academy yawl sailed by NPSC, in the river basin. We sailed out in front of Solomons and then headed for shore. A nice brisk morning and a great way to start the new year!
Saturday, December 30, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
About to round the lighthouse
Some of today's crew
Out on Barba Roja today for the last sail of 2023. We decided to take advantage of the steady, moderate breeze and run down to Hooper's Island. Nice sunny conditions made for a pleasant run down to the lighthouse. Our intent was to round and beat north far enough to reach back to Solomons, but after a couple hours of beating into 15-19kts apparent the wind shifted and we had to beat back anyway. I spent a good turn on the helm and enjoyed spending time with friends. A great day out on the water to close out what turned out to be my best year on the water yet. Here's to doing it all again in 2024!
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
New main looking much improved from the old one
Out for a quick test sail this morning with our local Quantum rep to check the fit of the new main Dewey ordered for Dangerous. The sail looks great and will be a welcome upgrade from the thorougly worn and delaminated old sail. We found light conditions so we also took a look at our light #1. After we sailed we packed the boat up for winter storage. Excited to get out there next spring!
Friday, December 15, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
End of week sunset
Quick after work cruise up to the bridge on hte Barba Roja. Very little wind, so we motorsailed for the most part. A nice sunset followed by rapidly falling temps made the ride back a little chilly.
Saturday, December 9, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
Racing to the dock
Lighted spinnaker
A great, full day of unseasonably warm sailing. Spent the day out on the Spicy Meatball racing in the Freeze Your Bucc Off race, the last event of the SMSA season. A great turnout, with 17 boats on the line for 5 good races. I wasn't quite on my game, but we still had a lot of fun and managed a 7th of 17. Still working through some quirks on the boat and techniques for mark roundings, etc.
Spent the evening on the Barba Roja with Steve and the Pax Sail high school team. Lots of well decorated boats, but only one actually sailed part of the event... us, of course. We motored most of the route through Back Creek, but put a spinnaker up once we got out on the river, and lit it up with projector lights. Our efforts were rewarded with an honorable mention.
A great late-season day on the water once again.
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
Spectacular Sunset
Met up with Steve to take the Barba Roja on a quick sunset run up to the bridge and back. Left just as a truly spectacular sunset was getting going, painting the sky with a carpet of reds & oranges. Enjoyed the view as we motored out to 6A, then sailed under headsail up to the bridge. Cold temps but nice to be out here as always.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
Went for a short sail on Dangerous after a long & involved halyard problem that had me spending about 4 hours hanging from the mast. Cool, damp conditions and little wind made for pretty mediocre sailing, but nonetheless it was nice to get out there after working on the boat, and we did see some cool cloud formations as the fog rolled in.