Bristol Channel Cutter Elizabeth

It’s about time for me to take this fine vessel on her first little cruise… to Long Island to see Dream Theater. Their latest album is one of their best… Check out this video. Yeah, I like Prog Metal. I play drums… feels like another life… but I miss it.

So the plan is vague, but I need to be down and safely anchored the morning of August 8th to catch this show… 9th row center tickets! I have some options, and it’s only a 2 day trip if winds are favorable. Where I anchor will depend on the weather, tides and my whimsy. I have a friend in Watch Hill Id like to visit. Cuttyhunk is supposed to be a sweet spot, and there’s always Block Island… I’ve been there a few times already, but it’s convenient. I’m thinking of anchoring on the North Fork for the gig. It’ll be easier for Adam to pick me up there… the south shore/Hamptons area is a bitch with traffic on a summer weekend. So Cutchogue or Matituck, look like good options. After the show on Saturday, I want to go visit some friends in Sag Harbor and Montauk for a few days, then I’ll head back to the Vineyard to install the wind generator and prepare for the longer trip to Maine, a sort of second shake down… in preparation for the sail south this fall/winter.

The Monitor windvane is rebuilt, $500 later in new parts. I had to do a few things 2 or 3 times to get the spacing just right. It’s a tricky little bugger, and there’s lots of parts. I wonder how that Pardey style vane steers by comparison… sure seems simpler. I have one in a garage in NH waiting for me…. just need to drum up the courage to drill the holes in the rudder and mount it next time I haul out. Selling the Monitor would be easier than the Freehand — I think the Freehand can only be used on boats with a boomkin… perhaps only the BCC? The Monitor bearings were easy to install once I figured out you can use shaving cream to hold them in place. The folks at Scanmar have been great, I called them about 10 times to ask dumb questions during both tear down and rebuild. Sure is nice to deal with a small company, and get to know them on a first name basis. It’s a quality outfit for sure.

One more day-sail this coming weekend with the Monitor installed, it will be my 6th sail on the boat. I had a good sail (5th) last weekend with a cute Bulgarian girl (she’s hidden behind the mast in this pic). Managed to sail off and on the hook without using the d-sail at all. That felt nice. I did skip the stays’l, and it was much easier, yet she sailed just as well. She’s getting more comfortable, I love the way she sails.

I’m planning my first cruise to Long Island, NY in early August to go see my favorite band, Dream Theater with my friends Adam & Khrystine, fellow graphic designers and prog-metal lovers. I’m going solo. So the latest effort has been to get the boat ready for singlehanding. The two key elements to that end are the mechanical tiller pilot and wind driven self steering windvane.

I picked up the Simrad TP32, rated for boats up to 14,000 lbs… just about the weight of Elizabeth. I really only use the tiller pilot when motoring, which allows me to prep & set sails. The tiller pilot requires a pedestal mount to meet the height of the tiller. These mounts were on backorder indefintely. So I had one made locally by a metalworker. I brought him some SS parts I had laying around from my double anchor roller, that I had to hack off. A threaded rod and a SS tube to fit over it. Perfect for this pedestal mount. All I needed was a base, a nut welded to the tube and a few tapped holes for set screws. I wanted the 3″ tube to be removable, so it wasnt a toe stubber/line catcher when not in use. I think the build is robust, however I would have preferred a slightly wider base to distribute the horizontal load a little more. However, I think it will be fine.

The 80 watt solar panel I have will eventually end up on the wind generator pole, but for now, I have it on the port side lifeline. I replaced the lifeline with a 1″ OD SS tube, added some aluminum flat bar under the panel for extra support and as a place to attach some mounts. It’s not a bad set up, but the panel is too wide for this loaction. There is a 13″ wide panel you can get that would be more appropriate for this rail mounting set up. But this will get me going for now.

I’m currently in the middle of rebuilding the Monitor windvane. I have a few parts coming in the mail next week, so right now, I’m on hold with this. There are a million and one pieces to this thing, gears, bearings and bushings, set screws and ring snaps galore. One part had some significant crevice corrosion, so I opted for replacement… to the tune of $350… ouch.

I’m living aboard in Vineyard Haven Outer Harbor on the hook, running my inverter to keep this Mac Book Pro charged.  I lovingly call it my “Amp Eater”. I’ll need to fire up the Yanmar soon to keep my aging house bank alive… a cycle that repeats itself daily. The 80 watt panel I bought can keep up with my Isotherm on a sunny day, but the laptop is just too much. I’m researching wind generators, and hope to get one soon… who needs a website?

Despite the broken foot, I got out for a second sail last week when Rosie and Darrah came down for a visit. Rosie soldered my radar cable connector at the mast base for me - he’s good with that sort of thing.  We ordered  a beautiful Amphenol 14 pin connector, that was large enough to work with fairly easily. It’s a Military Spec connector, and looks like something straight out of M*A*S*H*. Four hands makes precision soldering a whole lot easier.

We got out for a glorious sail the next day, in 15 knots and sunny blue skies. Avacado, Havarti and mustard sandwiches, along with Darrah’s homemade pickles filled our bellies with delight. We sailed east past Edgartown and Cape Pogue, towards Nantucket. I decided we should sail until we could see Nantucket, then we’d tack round and head home. Once past Cape Poge, we were in unhindered open ocean, with no land to heat up the breeze. It got chilly and a little swell began to pick us up gently, then lower us down carefully between the small, yet long peaks. As I gazed forward wondering what Nantucket would look like, trying to recall its features, I noticed a patch of tan colored water, and thought — odd… Then suddenly I realized tan water = sandy = shallow! I grabbed the chart and took a look. “FOUR FEET - WHAT THE ?!” Indeed, out past the point in what should be deep ocean water between Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket there are shoals-a-plenty that are often in the single digit depths. Well that was close enough for me, “Ready About!”, and homeward bound we set our course. On the way home we sailed by Valora, a daysail schooner, which Teresa captains. We tacked round and took a few pics for their brochure and print ads I’ve been working on. One of their passengers snapped a quick phone-photo of Elizabeth.

Finally back to some sanding and varnishing this past week… boy did that feel good. I missed the old 80 grit, and paint brush routine. Glad to see the coamings begin their journey towards 10 coats. 2 down, 8 to go. I’m using Epifanes Rapid Clear, for quick build up. I might try a top coat or two of Bristol Finish over this…not sure still.

Another finally… the name! It’s official now. Still homeport-less, but that’s OK. It’s slightly crooked and off center, I really have a hard time when there’s no “command-Z”, but I figure it’s just perfect as is. BCC Mommy is alive! Elizabeth is my mom’s middle name. I’m looking forward to sailing down to Stony Brook Harbor soon to put some flowers on her memorial in the rose garden at Knox.

…my foot that is. I wasn’t dancing, but I got what’s known as a “dancer’s fracture”. It’s is basically an avulsion fracture at the base of the fifth metatarsal due to traction exerted from the tendon when the foot is forcefully inverted. In other words, I twisted my ankle when I slipped on some wet stone steps so hard, that the tendon of the muscle that attaches to the outside of my foot pulled hard enough to actually tear off a fragment the bone.

So, looks like my sailing plans are on hold for at least a month. It’s actually not the worst thing in the world, since I had been stretching myself a little too hard to get things done so I could make it to Boston and Maine. Funny how things manifest themselves this way. Mother nature’s way of saying, “Hold on kid, your overdoing it, take it easy for a bit.” So, those projects I was rushing through, will now get the time they deserve, and the long list of projects I’ve neglected might actually get shorter (doubtful).

Elizabeth finally  got out for a sail on Sunday. I made my goal of getting out sailing by June… June 28th. Perfect conditions for a shake down: 10-15kts, partly cloudy, 1-2′ seas. We bombed out for a few hours, took a few tacks, a few pics, ate some chips & salsa and sipped on some Vanilla Chai Tea. I was grinning from ear to ear as I finally saw these sails go up and start drawing. My friend Willy came out with me, he has been helping me with some of my recent projects, and was happy to take a break from working on his wooden boat.

Now, I work feverishly to prepare for the sail to Boston and Maine. I need to have the Monitor Windvane rebuilt and installed, the Simrad Tiller Pilot installed and the solar panel mounted securely to the railing so that I can store the dink on the cabin house. Plus a host of other odds and ends. The work never ends!