New Anchor

We have had difficulty getting the anchor to set on several occasions.  It has been so challenging at times that I was hesitant to back down on the anchor.  Sometimes it seems that the swivel has been the cause as it gets stuck at an angle to the shank of the anchor and then the anchor is not pulled properly for setting.  Once set, we have never dragged, but considering that we have not anchored all that many times, it seemed that we should replace the anchor with something bigger.  The the 44 lb. delta fast set seems not up to the task of securely holding Owl Moon at anchor in stormy conditions.  We decided to go with the 25 kg (55 lb.) Rocna which seemed to be the biggest we could fit on our bow without modification.  We purchased the anchor from Bacon Sails and Marine Supply which had the best price.  We also decided to use the anchor without the swivel and only a high test anchor shackle.

Anchor in place on Owl Moon

...

Shackle pin held in place with seizing wire (learned this is called mouse the shackle)

Father's Day Sail

We had hoped to get out for a sail on Father's Day, and the weather turned out great for it.  We had 15 knots with gusts near 20 out of the south.  Our friends Joe, Eve-Marie and Tracy joined Sarah, Diane and me for the day.  With the board down, we tacked our way down to Thomas Point Light  With each tack, we crossed a litter further ahead of a Gemini Cat under motor heading in our direction.  We started with full main and eventually put a reef in to flatten out the boat.

John was at the helm (not really driving...the autopilot was)

While Joe, Diane, and Tracy enjoyed the ride from the cabin top...changing sides with each tack.

Eve-Marie and Sarah were back in the cockpit with me.

We decided to turn around after passing Thomas Point Light.  We didn't know it at the time but Owl Moon was photobombing another sailor taking photos of TPL.

Couldn't have had a better photo if it had been staged!

We eventually started overtaking the photo boat to windward and he took some more photos of Owl Moon.

It was Bob Bateman on s/v Nelson's Wake who took the photos of Owl Moon.  We didn't hear his hail on VHF 16 at TPL, but did when he called us again off of Annapolis.  We are so appreciative that he took those photos and then tracked us down to share them.

Fast Ride Home to Annapolis

John had made sure Owl Moon was ready to go on previous trips to Regent Point.  Sunday, Diane and John drove down to RP with two friends who were joining us on the sail north, Rick O'Donnel and Erin Harrington.  We arrived RP in plenty of time to make final preparations for departure...installing jack lines, confirming that water tanks were full, stowing provisions and personal gear.  We finished prep just in time to drive to the other side of the creek for dinner at Merroir.

Merroir provided blankets for customers to keep warm as the air chilled after sunset.

We departed RP in the dark at 5 am, using the spotlight to find the daymarkers as we made our way out Locklies Creek.  We also had the GPS track left on our way in to follow out.  We took it slow and easy since the channel is very narrow and not very deep, going forward at engine idle speed.

Once in the Rappahannock River we were able to hoist sail as there was a fresh breeze from the south. We were able to sail on a reach out of the Rappahannock with our speed ranging from 6.5 to 7 knots. We only put out the small jib, figuring it would be easier to roll in as we jibed at Windmill Point to head north.

Sailing out of the Rappahannock just before sunrise with the moon setting behind us.

Introducing the crew...Sunrise at the mouth of the Rappahannock.

Once we reached Windmill Point and turned north, our speed dropped considerably as the wind had gone light and we were now heading dead downwind...not what had been forecast. John reluctantly started the motor so that we could continue to make good time toward Annapolis.  After about an hour of motoring, we we tried sailing for a bit, but there just wasn't enough wind to keep our speed over 4 knots.  After about 30 minutes of slow progress north, we returned to motoring.

Still motoring at lunch time, Diane made us all tuna melts for lunch.  During lunch, the wind came up and once lunch was finished we briefly turned south to raise the mainsail.  This was just north of Point No Point...we had motored across the entire mouth of the Potomac.  Returning to our course to Annapolis once the mainsail was up, the wind was still dead downwind so we poled out the big jib to starboard and flew the little inside jib to port.

Sailing Again!

Happy to be sailing after a delicious lunch!

 The wind built and we started making great time towards Annapolis.

Wing and wing up the Bay!

Looking for land.

Photo op on the bow.

Enjoying the day on the Bay!

By late afternoon we were surfing waves at over 9 knots.

AIS reported top speed for the day of 9.5 knots.  We were making such good time up the Bay, we considered holding off on dinner and going to McGarvey's.  However, John was hungry and went below to help Erin prepare the Indian dinner we had planned, including papadums.  That involved heating up pouches of Indian food in boiling water, cooking the papadums in the microwave and warming already cooked rice in the microwave...not much work.  The meal was enjoyed by all as we sailed the last leg of the Bay, just south of Thomas Point Light to Tolly Point.

The sun was setting as we rounded Tolly Point and headed into the mouth of the Severn.

Removing jack lines and getting fenders and docklines on deck in preparation for arrival.

We arrived at our dock at 8 pm...15 hours to go the 96 miles from Regent Point.

Our track to Annapolis...a very straight course due to the south wind.

Upgraded to a new mainsheet that fits.

The 9/16" Sta-Set mainsheet that came with the boat is too big for the rope clutch...you have to pull it through and it leaves blue fuzzies (bits of polyester) behind.  We upgraded to 7/16" Samson Ropes MLX.  To save some money, we went down to 90' instead of the 100' that is the length of the original...the 90' is plenty.  This line, with a Dyneema core, has a similar load rating to the thicker polyester core Sta-Set.  A side benefit is that it won't twist so much between blocks and, when coiled, is a much smaller and lighter coil.

New mainsheet on top, old mainsheet on bottom.

Unshimming the Board

We've haven't been able to get much use out of the centerboard since purchasing Owl Moon.  The centerboard and slot has been cleaned and painted twice now.  The problem we have had is it gets jammed up and won't deploy, even when motionless at the dock.  The couple of times we were able to use it, we had to almost stop the boat head to wind to get it to lower.  Paul thinks we need to remove the starboard shim at the top corner of the board where the pennant connects to the board.  It is for stabilizing the board in the slot, but may be just a bit to thick.

The shim was removed by lowering the board all the way and then using a sawzall along the edge of the board to cut the fasteners which held the starboard to the centerboard.  Now there is a bit of wobble in the board, but it will stabilize once it is loaded with water pressure under load.

Here the centerboard is lowered and the shim is just inside the centerboard slot ready for the sawzall.

Shim successfully removed.

Starboard shim with the two screw heads showing which had attached it to the centerboard.

Mystery Solved!

We found that the hull had been cut into at some point to replace the lower part of the saildrive by lowering it through the hull, and that cutout had not been properly repaired.  The leak was water getting through the poor repair job.  The cutout would have been necessary to lower the saildrive because it would not have fit down through the opening in the hull as constructed by Tartan. BTW, the proper way to replace the saildrive is to bring it up through the hull into the interior of the boat...no cutout required as it would fit to bring it up through the hull opening.

The first clue to the hidden problem appeared once the saildrive was removed.  That disclosed a poorly done application of fiberglass.  The photos below show some of this.

Cleaning off the fiberglass patch, it was apparent that it was done with polyester resin...bad choice for an epoxy hull as polyester will not bond to epoxy.  Also, some of the resin had not fully hardened.  As the patch was removed, it became apparent that the cutout resulted in opening up a passage for water from the water side of the saildrive into the hull interior.  This had been patched very poorly and eventually the cause of the leak.

After removing some of the patch, the hole near the center of this photo showed up...the likely path of the water leaking into the bilge.

These two pieces had been cut off and then put back in place.  They came loose as the fiberglass was removed.

This photo shows how the pieces cut away covered the circular part of the saildrive where it mounted to the upper gear box.

The saw marks for the cutout and the openings into the hull are apparent in this photo taken after the fiberglass patch was removed.

Once the patch work was cleaned of the epoxy hull, work could begin on repairing it properly.

First step was to glass the opening.

Tartan sent us a template that they use for cutting the hole, but the template did not fit into the circular saildrive mount space.  They must have changed the design a bit since hull #2.  Paul and Ken took some measurements on the saildrive and mount to determine the hole location and drilled some pilot holes based on their findings before cutting the actual hole.

Here is the new hole as seen from the outside (compare to photo above)

and from the inside.

Saildrive with fresh coat of paint ready for install.

The saildrive installation went well.  The tricky part was getting the spline to line up with where it went into the back of the engine.  This involved leveraging the engine up and sliding it back to the spline and then turning the engine crank using the fan belt until the spline was able enter into the back of the engine.  Paul was on the lever, Ken on the engine and I had the easy job of checking the alignment.

The hole size and location was perfect with about a half inch of clearance front and back.