Century Club: Richard Turman

On Sunday, May 7, I was working on my sailboat and happened to hear the bilge pump on my powerboat run about every 20 minutes.  Since it was in the water and not on a lift, I was worried it might sink before my mechanic could take it on Tuesday.  So I took the sailboat off of the lift, placed it on the dock, and drove the powerboat around and onto the lift.  The lift didn't break, but the bunks bent in a way they don't normally with the sailboat.  Received huge help from my neighbor and my daughter in this boat jockeying.

On Tuesday, May 9, I drove the powerboat to the Herald Harbor boat ramp once I verified that the mechanic had his trailer in the water there.  The bilge pump ran constantly, and continued to do so once we got the boat out of the water.  Found a nickle-sized hole in one of the bellows.  Frightening!

On Friday, May 12, met the mechanic at the boat ramp and was overjoyed to take possession of the boat again, though once I saw the bill I did a double-take.  Both bellows were replaced as was the trim sending unit, the seals were replaced on the hydraulic arms that control the outdrive's trim -- which was the problem in the first place.  The lower unit was also lubed.  Took my friend on a boat ride out into Round Bay; significant amount of chalky water coming out of the bilge but verified with the mechanic that this was because he'd washed the boat and this was the soap.  Whew!

On Saturday, May 13, drove the powerboat to Jabins' boat yard so she could get put into the boatel.  Took 10 minutes to get to Smith's to fill her up with 23 gallons of regular and then 20 minutes from there on a glorious ride across glassy water until I got to Annapolis harbor.  Got the boat battened down on the dock,ready to be forklifted out before the rain started.

Once I was able to connect with Torqueedo to get help getting my engine to work again (yay!), had a surprise chance to take Lark out on a Saturday afternoon where it had been forecasted to rain -- but didn't!  About 8 knots of wind scooted me right along with the genoa and the main; wonderful evening out there, and the wind held up well.  Sailed back into the slip for the 2nd time -- this time because we could, not because we had to.  

Found house battery completely dead so removed and took to get charged again.  No instruments or clearance lights, but that's fine.  Great evening, though!

Got my whole crew together on the boat for the first time and went out under main and genoa in 8 knots of breeze, with gusts in the 12 range.  Popped the spin up and she handled nicel all the way to Sherwood Forest from the top of Round Bay.

Luckily the breeze held up because on the way home the wind lessened so we dropped the genoa and pulled out the engine and it would not start.  At all.  No electronic readout on the controller.  :(. Luckily there was still wind so we sailed into the dock.

After finding my shroud unconnected to my port spreader, worked with the manufacturer to get replacement spreader tips, and then on Wednesday, April 12, used the engine to drive the boat to Smith's Marina, where they hauled her out and placed her on land.

That night, my crew of three and I dropped the mast by removing the forward pin holding up the mast, taking up the slack on the forestay by pulling the spin halyard extension forward, allowing us to remove the pin and slowly let the mast come down to two guys catching it whilst standing on the bunks in the cockpit.  Laid it on an 8' stepladder and tied it down.  Pulled out the tape and spreader tips and installed the new ones around the shrouds, drilling a hole through and placing a bolt with a nut to hold each in place and re-applying rigging tape.  Hardest part was getting the cotter pins out from the shroud turnbuckles so we could start the process.  Once spreader tips fixed, pushed the mast back up whilst pulling on spin halyard extension; re-pinned forestay and then breathed a sigh of relief.  Tightened shrouds hand-tight.  Then drank beer and ate pizza.

On Thursday, April 13, drove the boat back home and put her on the lift.  And put her boom back together.  And tightened her shrouds to 42 lbs.  

Gathered on Monday, April 17 to have a shake-down cruise after tightening the shrouds to 43 lbs each.  Breeze was up (15-18 knots) so reefed the main and then deployed the jib, with three of us on the boat.  Boat handled nicely.  Took us a while to rig the reefing line and even then discovered that we needed to re-run the lines at the front of the boom.  Shrouds moved a little bit, mostly the outer ones, so need to tighten further.

Noticed that battery charger wasn't working; didn't have instruments, since I'd taken the battery out to get it charged.

One problem rose up when the spin halyard shackle opened whilst we were pulling down the jib sock and got pulled to the top of the mast.  Spent the boat ride wondering how we were going to get the halyard back down.  

Wednesday racing on April 19 had three of us on the crew plus one additional from another RBSA boat who was looking for a boat ride.  Swapped out the jib for the genoa, which went fairly quickly, in the event.  Very light winds caused postponement of the race for 30 minutes; finally filled in about 8-10 knots from the South and had a beam reach course which had us moving at 5-6-7 knots.  Didn't steer well, but still beat some boats.  Had instruments again since had battery again.  

After the race, borrowed boatswain's chair from another RBSA boat and used it to good effect by raising one of our Thrillseekers up to about a foot above the spreaders, where he was able to use a boat hook with a coat hanger duct-taped to it to reach the errant halyard and pull it down.  Relief all around when he returned to the deck -- with the halyard.

Thursday the 20th took the boat out for a quiet evening of sailing by myself.  Beautiful night with 7-8 knots of breeze, allowing me to ghost along at 5 knots.  

Friday in advance of a storm coming through was able to furl the genoa more tightly and then get the jib sock onto it and tighten everything down.  Used a messenger line with the spin halyard shackle to ensure we can retrieve it.