Spontanious sail and anchorage Grand Anse - PCYC

I biked to the club on Thursday for the Tactics and rules seminar by Peter Hall and Joe Jospe.  I stayed on board afterwards.  It was cold.

The next day I worked on tidying up the boat.  I tighened the stuffing box. At 4PM, the sun came out and there was a light east wind so I took off on a run to Grand Anse, anchored.  

Still got this hacking caugh.  

Saturday moring, I pulled anchor with the motor on at 8:15.  Winds were from the East.  I sailed close haul to the sandbars.  

Saw a stuffed bear floating on the water.  About 4 foot long.

I texted John at PCYC to see if he needed help.  He was not too sure of the timing but it was going to be soon so I docked at PCYC and helped John with his mast and Bruce docking.  It was crane day at PCYC.

Came back to the Royal under motor, washed the boat as it was supposed to rain Sunday.  Lingered around and then bike to the Queen Elizabeth to try to fix my caugh, but made appointment for Monday.

Motor run fine.  Some soot especiall on starting.

Clogged Primary fuel filter

Primary Filter

Chris drove me down to the club with boat stuff for his launch and to resolve my Yanmar problems.

We launched Flow Control with Norm and I cleaned the primary filter housing.  The filter was filthy.  I spent 15 minutes "polishing" the fuel tank using a pump and filter from Norm.  No sign of dirty.  I was going to change the secondary filter, but it looked spotless so I did not change it.  

I had a hard time bleeding on the high-pressure side. It may have been some kind of residual effect from the engine failure.  Eventually, it did start and ran fine for a while before I brought her back to the dock.

Shakedown sail with Maud and Chiheb - Yanmar failed

Chiheb, Maud and I went out for a shakedown sail on Saturday.  Winds were forecasted to be 12 knots 18-degrees C.

Winds were approximately 18 to 20 knots from the South.  The wind instrument and dept sounder were intermittent. 

I biked to the club.  We departed about 2 PM, had a nice sail to Beaconsfield and tacked and gybed around.

About 4ish, on the way back, we furled the sail, started the engine, and put away the main. As we were heading into the harbour, the engine started to lose power.  It was too windy to try to dock with sails.  I dropped the anchor and called the club for help.

Anchored outside the harbour

Jim and Jacque L were at the T-dock to help us stop the boat at the dock.  They suggested trying to sail it, but I felt the motor could get us in if they could stop us.  It was a pretty good docking but popped an old fender and a minor scuff of the hull.

Blown Fender on docking

I opened the primary fuel filter and it was somewhat dirty.  It started to rain and I decided to take the bus and train home and work on it another day.

Launch 2024

 Lots of work cleaning the hull, polishing and waxing.  I did not use the buffer on the starboard side and it looked fine and was much faster.

Major anti-fouling job using half a gallon of Fiberglass Bottomkote with xylene solvent to thin it.

Did a boat survey.  

Replaced the cutlass bearing, fixed the bottom of the rudder that was damaged from hitting the bottom the previous year and installed at thru-hull for overboard discharge.

It was a very busy week before launch.  Monday was freezing. Tuesday was Survey and anti-foul, and Wednesday was cold and wet. Thurday was the final antifouling with cutlass replacement and rudder work.

Launched on Friday morning, but on Thursday afternoon, I had an opportunity to leave Bellum on the slings, so I anti-fouled the cradle pads.  That let me sleep in a bit more for Friday's 7:30 launch.  The club was quiet, so I was able to backup the car to unload directly at the travelift well. - Quite a time saver.

Let the engine run.  Water from the exhaust seemed low at idle.  Ran the engine for 15 minutes while loading. Motored to my dock with ease in almost zero winds.

I spent the rest of the day tidying up, installed the speed transducer, and inspected the impeller, which was fine.

The depth sounder was not working at the dock. I thought it was shallow water at the dock.  But the water level was high.

It was getting cold and I biked home just missing the rain (and snow in Ile Perrot)

Prizegiving 2023

Prize giving photos 

Overnight at Sandbars - last trip

Last Sail

At 10:30, I winterized Tara II, I went with Sylvie to St. Lazare to borrow Patrick's Honda.  

I got back to the club at 7 PM, I motored the boat from the outside dock, out to the gut.  I was CS about trying to sail her to the gut.  It was almost a full moon, sometimes visible through the clouds

At the gut, I set sail in 12 knots of west winds, dying to 6 knots.  I could not make headway with 6 knots with just the 155.  The boat just did not handle well with just the jib and the winds were shifty.  So I started the motor, motoring to find a good shallow spot near the sandbars and anchored for the night.  Temperatures were down to 15.

Supper were the last ribs from St. Hubert with potatoes, onions and a roated garlic. 

Next moring, I sailed back close to the gut in a broad reach. Winds died and I motored through the gut and docked at my dock.

I picked up my remaining lines and started putting away stuff into boxes and bags I had. Norm and David helped me fold the main and 150.

Went downtown for my meeting by bus, but David gave me a lift to Montreal West, where I caught the 90 and 24 buses to my meeting.  Then off to see the presentation of PUSSY RIOT at the MAC.  I took the EXO back to the club, messed up with the 209  bus and ended up at the club 45 minutes later than expected.

I slept aboard and got up early for the haul out.

Went to the dock at 7:30, got a pump out, and unloaded a lot of stuff into the Honda and storage locker.  Winterized the boat, drove to Yoga, storage locker and home.

Haul Out early morning

Good to be out Friday, because Monday was snowing ... Redline haulout.

Saturday was nice and I installed the winter frame with help from Dine and Lucie.

The 155 had been installed since September 25.  Missed several opportunities to race due to difficulties in changing to a smaller sail in the last month.

October started out with 10 incredibly warm days.  Then we froze.

Summary of season

1241 nM

152 hours on motor

No Frostbite - too windy

 No race.

Too windy for Beaver.  Mink engine was not reliable. 

Some boats went out.

We did not. Race was not held.

And weather was cold.  Took the bus home.