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This Weekend's Achievements


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Although our engine/transmission issue kind of marred the end of our cruise, it did give us a chance (and motivation) to really try out the light air performance. We're running heavy with all the cruising crap on board (3 anchors etc etc. plus humungous amounts of French wine and food all packaged in glass...), and we have no A2 (yet), but we were able to keep ticking along at about 1.5-2 knts with 2-3 knts pretty much flat off, and coming around to about 125 TWA in about 4 knots we could sit for relatively long periods (4-5 min at a time) nominally above windspeed. We did have about 0.3 knt current in our favour, and I haven't done the calculation yet to determine how that would affect the actual TWS, but note the boat speed is through the water, so TWA will be further aft. Nonetheless, pretty happy with light air performance. 

IMG_8487.jpg (yeah it's not a great photo)

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8 hours ago, Fish said:

In NZ?

Would be nice, but alas, no :( - openings in my field are slim to none in NZ even in a good year.

 

On 28/09/2020 at 6:35 PM, Frank said:

No mean feat in a Covid economy.

Yeah, one area that's still doing ok is Pharmaceuticals and associated Covid research. Many investors looking for quick gains there.

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this weekend - Wairoa (Clevedon) River to Rotoroa Home Bay on Friday, pleasant day strolling around the island (water's still a bit cool for me for swimming) pre-evening drinks watching the sun go down and the moon come up in the company of about 12 other boats of various types.

Saturday Rotoroa to Rakino - I've lived in Auckland since 1989 and never been to either.  Slow going motoring against the tide up the Waiheke Channel but finally picked up some wind off Onetangi and circumnavigated Rakino before deciding that Home Bay must be good since they named it twice and everything else was like apartment living - Woody Bay was jam packed.  Wandered the ridgeline road and side roads marvelling at the state of island cars and the wide range of accomodation.  More pre-evening imbibing, another clear night with a bit less company.

Up at sparrow fart and off back to Clevedon as we are still not confident on the river approach at anything other than half-tide.  A nice sail from Rakino to Papakohatu where the wind died and the iron sail had to take over again.

Whle out we fitted tested and commissioned a new depth gauge, enhanced the stereo with a second amp and speakers in the saloon, installed skin fittings for the manual and electric bilge pumps and tried out a few bits of sailing and nav freeware.

First sunburn of the season.  Feels great.

 

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On 4/08/2020 at 11:55 PM, DrWatson said:

.... and coming around to about 125 TWA in about 4 knots we could sit for relatively long periods (4-5 min at a time) nominally above windspeed.

Nice! faster than windspeed while cruising! That's awesome, what design do you have?

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Weekend run - Friday night Clevedon River to Ponui Island, Chamberlain Bay.  Up early-ish and out around the gulf side of Rotoroa and Pakatoa, then up to Kawau smashing and rolling on a second-reefed main and semi-furled headsail.

I now know no more about the finer points of reefing than I did three days ago, but I do know that our set-up needs serious revision.

Bon Accord for the evening and then back into the Spin Cycle on a triple-reefed main and down to Oneroa for lunch and home to Clevedon at 6.30pm.

Blew out a headsail turning block (a spare in the tool box got us underway again in 10 minutes) and have serious doubts about the wisdom of the 5mm shackle holding the mainsheet to the boom.  She Who Has the Helm is a fan of the crash-gybe and other high stress techniques, so some upsizing is in order.

On the lookout for a couple of small-ish secondary winches, 16 to24-ish to improve cockpit language and relationship management.  Let me know if you have a pair gathering dust.

IMG_20201211_202655_953.jpg

IMG_20201212_161805_398.jpg

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Well done, We were in two house bay, Kawau. Great sail up there on Sat, touched 11.7 knots at one stage which is pretty good for us. Then back to Whangaparaoa today, about 50deg apparent in 20 knots true. Good sailing weekend... :-)

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Worked on removing the leaking injector pump from our Perkins 4108. In true british engineering fashion and after 6 hrs of cursing  the last bolt requires a 7/32 ball ended allen key bit on a 600 mm extension shaft with a universal joint in the middle. Gotta love old english diesel engines....not.

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1 hour ago, Frank said:

Worked on removing the leaking injector pump from our Perkins 4108. In true british engineering fashion and after 6 hrs of cursing  the last bolt requires a 7/32 ball ended allen key bit on a 600 mm extension shaft with a universal joint in the middle. Gotta love old english diesel engines....not.

at least they don't rust on the outside...

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On 14/12/2020 at 8:09 AM, aardvarkash10 said:

at least they don't rust on the outside...

The symptoms that caused it to be removed were interesting, basically the seal on the input shaft leaks causing fuel to contaminate the engine oil. Eventually the diesel rich mix gets to the point where it will support combustion then the engine revs madly independent of the throttle and the fuel cutoff wont stop it. To add to the alarm it is attended by billowing clouds of white exhaust, I'd  never heard of such a thing nor experienced it until now. In any case its a known issue with the CAV pumps on the Perkins but hopefully we have not done any damage, I stopped it by throwing it into gear when the revs cycled down.

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The other way to stop it is to block the air inlet. I've never experienced a run-away engine, but I have practiced blocking the air inlet at the silencer to kill the engine. Only issue with this is having to get up close to an engine that you are worried is going to explode...

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36 minutes ago, Fish said:

The other way to stop it is to block the air inlet. I've never experienced a run-away engine, but I have practiced blocking the air inlet at the silencer to kill the engine. Only issue with this is having to get up close to an engine that you are worried is going to explode...

I've seen a VERY large diesel go into runaway.  Ain't no way I was going anywhere near it and I suspect it would have sucked a horse up the intake with little obvious impact except to the horse.

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Weekend was great thanks!  Chamberlain Bay Saturday night - the view across to the riding lights of a packed Home Bay was spectacular at 11pm.

Home Bay to Coromandel (Te Kouma Wharf) the next day - it was meant to be a no wind day but we had a good run on a first leg to just off Happy Jack, and only started the iron sail as we turned into Coro Harbour.  Stooged across to Whanganui Island and had a pleasant lunch, swim and sunning before heading over to Te Kouma Harbour for the night.  There had to be over 150 craft of various types there.

Today, our first spinnaker run on Stepping Out,  with a kite that has to be 25 years old and showing every year of it!  More belly and wrinkles than a grandparent convention, and the sheets!  OMG!  Hand-eating 10mm that felt like they were glass impregnated.

Still, Te Kouma to Home Bay, Rotoroa in about 3 hours door to door in light a flukey wind.  Eat, drink, swim, sun at Rotoroa, then a kite run home to Clevedon.

Sunburnt, and I weigh more than when we left.

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