Journal Entries

April 2007

1 April - Peter Kerr called me on Friday and asked me if I wanted to go racing onboard his classic yacht Pagan. I'm not a fan of racing but I was most happy to go. I had to be out at Deagon Slipway by 8.30am so I got an early start and jumped on a train from the city.

The wind was forecast to blow 20 knots and ease. This however was not the case. It was the life members race of the QCYC today and only 5 boats entered. Pagan was the only classic. Below is a photo of the start boat.

We didn't get a great start and were in third position and the wind was blowing at least 20 knots from the S/E. Below is a photo of "Zephyr" a nice little modern racing yacht which was leading the race.

The old classic Pagan is no slouch and with Peter on the tiller she really moves. Before too long we had caught Zephyr and ready to take the lead.

Note the varnished timber boom on Pagan. Just beautiful.

I love watching peoples reaction when they are on modern flash racing boats with lots of crew and see a 40 year old full keel timber cruising boat, short crewed, passing them.

See you back at the yacht club fellas....

That's Peter Kerr on the helm looking very focused.

The wind really started to pick up and the sea was getting pretty lumpy. The photo below doesn't really show how bad the conditions were but 2 boats pulled out and there was only the 3 of us racing now. You can see from the photo below we had now established an easy lead.

The weather was really starting to pick up and we had 30-35 knots blasting across the bay with a swell rolling in. We had to change to a smaller headsail as we were very over canvassed. Trying to change a headsail in these conditions was like having a firehose blasting you. Lucky I thought to take my wet weather jacket.

From this point I would have loved to get some photos but the sailing was so demanding that I simply didn't get a chance. Peter is a lunatic and flies his spinnaker in anything up to 40 knots. We were hammering back across the bay and the big spinnaker blew out. Not content to slow down, Peter simply gets number 2 spinnaker out. What a legend.

We were flying across the bay under spinnaker at 10.5 knots (not bad for a 40 year old 35ft timber yacht) and crossed the finish line well ahead of the other 2 yachts despite having blown a spinnaker, which had to be fished from the sea.

It was a pretty extreme day with lots of pressure and adrenalin. I still don't like racing!!!

7 April - It's the Easter weekend and I'm trying to make the most of my time by getting some more work on the boat finished. Something has been on my mind since last weekend. A couple of sailors had mentioned that the big sailing maxi yachts with canting keels have 290hp engines running continuously to make constant adjustments to the canting keels. I sat there listening and thinking that these guys must have misunderstood something. How could a sailing yacht have a 290hp engine running all the time? It just seemed contrary to the whole point of sailing. So tonight I did a little research on the net and to my absolute disbelief they were correct. I have to say that I am just blown away. There is a yacht with a diesel engine capable of driving it at relative speed. Ok, so the forward propulsion is from the sails but there's still a big engine running continuously. I just don't get it. Doesn't that just make them motor sailors? If anyone can explain the logic to this then please send me an email because I'm having trouble getting my head around it.

19 April - It's been a hectic couple of weeks. I've been working on the boat as much as possible as I hope to go sailing on 5 May. Each day I sand and varnish something. It's not the most comfortable way to live at the moment but I'm getting by and when I see the results (and wipe the sawdust from my eyes, clothes ...everywhere) it's worth the trouble. I'm also sleeping much better since the fumes from the varnish make me pass out.

The photo below shows the main bulkhead unvarnished. You can see the dark patch to the bottom left of the timber. It looks like a shadow. In fact this was the original darker colour which was sitting behind the old cushion and has not bleached over the past 30 years. It was very difficult to make the colour consistent throughout the timber and I eventually managed to stain it by using different colours of timber stain.

below is the final job. It's hard to believe it's the same timber bulkhead. The work is really paying off and the interior is starting to look spectacular. That is one thing I love about these old boats, they can be restored to better than original.

Below is the new "U" shaped dinette. The teak trim has just been plugged. I'll varnish this in the coming days.

The base of the timber needs to have some timber trim to hide the joins and stabilize the base.

Now for the teak trim mitred and fitted.

another photo of the final job with the cushions back in place. Note the vintage brass fire extinguisher I restored recently to cover the big ugly cutout in the bulkhead. Although it's fully functional (filled with water and pumps strongly) I do have proper fire fighting equipment conveniently located onboard.

this radio cabinet at the Nav table has been bothering me for a while. The HF radio sits in here, looks messy and it's a lot of wasted space. I want to put a nice little shelf on top of the HF radio with a teak facia on it. Check back in a couple of days.

28 April - the new shelf is installed and HF radio back in position. A nice improvement I think (although it still looks a bit messy)

If all goes well next week I should be heading out for a run on the bay for the weekend. There is a vintage regatta on the 5th of May and I'm hoping to experiment with a few things. I have an idea for some photography and if it works then hopefully next month you will see some pretty interesting shots.

Oh... and I'm thinking about a dog. again!