Shakedown Cruise in Scotch Mist

Well, I have done it. Officially. Sunday August 2nd, 2009 I took the boat out single-handed for a shakedown cruise.

I left the mooring a little after 7am about an hour before low tide. I did that on purpose so I would know how easy/hard it would be to negotiate my marina when the tide was out. All was well ,and before long my little outboard was moving me into the channel. I cleared Roberts bay to starboard and cut the motor.

Having never had the main up I was happy the wind was only about 3-4 knots . I had, the night before, run up the main and reviewed my reefing system “in case” so I was freshly familiar with the sheeting, downhaul, outhaul and overall flow of handling the main. It isn’t large so that too helps :).

Halyard set to winch, tailing to the lower port deck , and we’re off! I set the main and headed aft to unhook the bridle stay (my boom doesn’t have a vang, so there is a 3ft cable hanging from the backstay bridle adjuster which the boom hangs on to stabilize it when not in use or when raising/lowering) I checked the downhaul, set the downhaul traveler and released the boom. This was a fine moment because I was now handing over control to the wind and the wave. A rare moment that I was glad to have experienced alone. ( I won’t ever tell if I had shed a tear just then)

I was on a port tack in a beam reach and traveling about 2-3 knots, and that was plenty for me to examine everything. I really wanted to make this trip about learning how/what the boat can do and what doesn’t work for me. I would count this trip as a success on both fronts.

I left the outboard in the water on purpose, knowing it would impede my performance in the light air, as I wasn’t here to go fast. I jibed a couple times, and also hove to under sail to know what I should experience. I trimmed the main a bit, and set about attaching the tiller pilot.

The tiller pilot is simple and elegant. Plug in, attach to tiller, go for a coffee. Well, not quite but pretty darn close. I was happy to have the electronic hand to keep me pointing south. I can see that I would need to arrange bungy cords and whatnot to keep me pointing if I did not have this little beauty and decided just then that it was a good piece of equipment and care will be given to it.

A note about alarms. They should be used sparingly, and should all be distinct. I have an alarm for “shallow” & an alarm for “deep” water, an alarm on the tiller pilot which means it cannot steer a course, an alarm on the VHF (DSC stuff) and a bunch of alarms on the old GPS. I can tell you I had a couple moments when the sounder beeped like a 1940’s horror movie screech and I jumped. Turns out the shallow and deep alarm are the same tones :( There is little worse than expecting to run aground as you are passing the 100ft deep water mark because the depth sounder starts screeching!

I went slow. Really slow. I resisted the urge to get up and do the next thing, and just sat. Sidney was to starboard about a 1/2 mile or so off in the distance. I was in 100ft of water and at this point, in low tide. It worked out well because when it was time to go in, the tide would be with me, making easy to return. Granted I don’t know how hard it would be returning against the tide, but I figured I was in the right space :)

After about 45 minutes of this relaxing, I decided to come about and tacked, passing the bow through the wind and bringing the boat onto a starboard tack and heading for home I was almost into a broad reach, but not moving much, as the mid morning brought less wind. I had through this period of floating about, been watching a couple of larger sailboats in the distance run with Genoa and main, and finally decided I was too going to have a peek at the genoa that came with my boat.

I learned later after some conversation with my neighbor George and some analysis of my fore-stays, that the inner fore-stay (for which the stay-sail gets hanked onto) has a quick release lever and is attached via a caribiner so that it can be unclipped and moved out of the way so the genoa can pass unhindered across the foredeck during a tack. While on the ocean however, I hadn’t yet discovered the true purpose of that stuff, so I muddled about getting the genoa on and not tangled up in the inner fore stay, and trying to determine how the sheet should run so it could clear this stay. It was a bit of a mess because there is only a foot of space between the inner and outer stay.

This was not going to work. Period. But try as I might, I ran up the genoa and gave it five minutes. I realized that I was going to make a mess trying to tack so I hauled it down and put it away again and stayed on course with just the main for the rest of my journey.

I relaxed on the journey back. More looking, less doing. I have a new list now to go through to make sailing this boat more comfortable. Things I learned on this trip:

1. outboard races at higher RPM’s; Investigate.
2. something leaking in the outboard; more investigating
3. remote throttle for the outboard needs to be mounted as using two hands to adjust isn’t practical
4. side windows in dodger are not usable because I cant see well enough through them
5. downhaul traveler is awkwardly mounted; cars block access to cockpit seat hatches
6. traveler line too short; boom can only be let out to 25^ or so; no running like that
7. boat does sail in light wind :)
8. seating is uncomfortable; get cushions throughout and make cushion for sitting high on cockpit sides
9. shorten tiller pilot power cable; its in the way of the sheets and can tangle
10. install radar reflector; (to whoever was on the radio trying to contact vessel without radar near Sidney, I hope you weren’t talking to me, sorry :( )
11. I can singlehand my boat after all (phew)
12. Get wind speed/direction transducer installed on mast
13. get a sounder installed that will feed instruments in cockpit so I don’t have to go below to see if I am going to run aground
14. get knotmeter working/replaced
15. build/buy a larger bimini; (the sun is really hot)
16. get better lifevest; the over the head ones suck when climbing around on the boat
17. remember to make tea before leaving and store in thermos
18. bring pop and ice
19. practice deploying/retrieving anchor while moored so there are no surprises
20. bring someone along because talking to someone instead of just talking makes you less crazy;

I found overall that I was much less nervous this time out. I still worried about the outboard, but knew I could sail to something that I could tie up to or drop anchor if I really needed to. I also didn’t worry about fuel this time out which was nice.

I did experience the scourge that is the over-sized motor-yacht making a wake that could swamp a monster truck (you bastard!, you know who you are) but that was anger, not fear. I happened to be standing at the mast bringing in the main when the big yacht overtook me (passing to port no less) doing 15 knots if not more and as such I hugged the mast for a moment while I see-sawed from his wake.

Flying my colors

My shakedown cruise was a success and I am really proud of my boat, and proud of all the sacrifice I (and others) have made to get it and get it to the point that I could take it out and sail it.

Most of all I am proud that I haven’t forgotten how to dream because without the dream one really doesn’t have much reason to get up in the morning…