Google Earth GPS Track Animation of Yesterday's sail.

Google Earth GPS Track Animation of Yesterday's sail.

Beautiful weather for a Father's Day sail!

Friday after work my friend from work and I moved the boat from the boat yard back to the marina.  The yard had finished the new shroud. 

My wife and I had planned to go sailing on Saturday with some friends, but the weather did not cooperate.  The forecast was for 40% chance of scattered thunder storms.  I decided that it would not be wise to chance sailing in thunderstorms.  I had gone to the boat in the morning and was planning on meeting them there at 1:00.  I was able to work for several hours taking care of some odds and ends.

Sunday was another story all together.  My wife, father-in-law, oldest daughter and son-in-law went for a wonderful 3.5 hour sail.

My iPhone has a nautical GPS app that records the trip and plots it on a chart.  We traveled a total of 11.8 nautical miles.  Here are a couple screen captures.

Detailed chart of the Waukegan area with our trip overlayed.
I started recording just outside the marina and finished after we returned to the slip

Bigger overview of the entire trip

It turns out that this group are great crew members.  I let them do all the work and I gave orders!

Short video clip of yesterday's first sail.

Launched and Sailing

On Friday the boat yard launched “Thanks Dad”, stepped and tuned the mast.  They asked me to come up because they had a couple questions. So I left work at 10:00 am and got there at 11:00am. It turns out that an important piece of hardware was missing from one of the “shrouds” (cable that support the mast at the sides).  The missing piece was a metric M10 left hand turnbuckle jaw.  They don’t have them and couldn’t find a supplier who had then either.  So they are going to make a new shroud using American standard fittings.  It will be a couple days until they get the parts, but I could still go sailing without that shroud.

Guy tuning the mast

Mast is up and the boom is on

On Saturday, my brother had to work, so I asked an experienced sailor friend from work to help me move the boat from the boat yard to its new home at the Waukegan marina (a short trip out of the Waukegan channel, into the lake and south to the marina. ) Everything went smoothly until the engine died once we got into the lake.  We restarted it, but it would die after about a minute or 2.  This occurred 6 or 7 times, then I decided to drop the anchor until we could figure out what the problem was.  I called my dad in Maryland using my cell phone and ask him if he had any ideas.  He suggested all the things we had already tried, then said we should bleed the fuel line.  We did and everything worked fine after that.

My friend bringing in the mooring lines

Me at the helm coming out of the Waukegan harbor channel

We got into the marina and tied up at “Thanks Dad’s” new address, Dock 6, slip 3.  My friend had to leave and I spent the rest of the day doing a few odds and ends, like wiring the mast lights to the boats electrical systems, priming and then painting the area in the cockpit where the cockpit seat backs would be mounted.

Thanks Dad's new home0

On Sunday, my brother and I spent most of the day mounting the cockpit seat backs (which I now know are call the cockpit’s coaming) and wiring the VHF marine radio.  I also rigged a temporary fix for the missing piece of hardware on the shroud.  We then put the mainsail on the mast and boom, and rigged the jib.  Finally at 4:45pm we set out for our first sail!  Yipee!!!

We motored out of the marina for about 15 minutes, then raised the sails and headed mostly east for 45 minutes. We came about and head back to Waukegan which took another 45 minutes and then motored 15 minutes back to the boat yard. (they will be installing the new shroud this coming week). So we sailed for an hour and a half….it was fun : )

Temp shroud fix.  You can see the normal hardware on the 2 shrouds just forward.

My brother took us out of the marina

and he was at the helm when we put up the sails heading east.

I took the helm when we started heading back.

Back at the boat yard to wait for the new shroud later next week.

You can see the newly varnished cockpit coamings installed

Long weekend of work but we’re ready for launch!

My brother and I took Friday off from work.  We really wanted to finish all the prep work this weekend and get this baby in the water.

On Friday we finished up all the thru hull fitting work.  We had to reconnect the cockpit drain tubes to the new thru hull fittings.  We also finished the cooling water intake for the engine and all its connections.  There is a water filter in the cooling water system for the engine.  We needed a new 0-ring for it and luckily, after some digging in their stockroom, the guy at the boat yard’s parts dept found what we needed.

Port side cockpit drain all done

My brother touched up the paint that had gotten under the tape when I painted the rub rail last weekend.

Rub rail looking sharp

I did the terminations and wiring of the anchor light and antenna at the top of the mast and the steaming light that is half way up the mast.

Anchor light and antenna wiring

Steaming light wiring

I also reinstalled the tabernacle that I had sandblasted several weeks ago.

Tabernacle installed

We installed new gate sections for the lower lifelines. 

Lower lifeline gates

I installed and painted new “plugs” on the cabin wall just outside the starboard side of the companionway. There are two 4” diameter holes there where long gone instruments had been mounted. Maybe at some point in the future we will put new instruments there.

I also put the newly modified, sanded and varnished companionway hatch boards on.  Looks pretty nice.

Companionway hatch boards installed
and cabin wall "plugs" installed and painted

Looking sharp!

Saturday was a short boat day.  I rewired and tested the bilge pump and cleaned the bilge area while I there.

Sunday was the long day.  Left the house at 9:00 am and got home at 10:00 pm.

My brother cleaned the area under the cockpit sole where the 2 boat batteries are located and installed new straps for them.

He also did some work on the deck drains that necessitated him climbing into the port side cockpit locker.  It is a pretty tight space.  Especially for an old guy.

Old guy in port locker.
Battery straps installed.

I installed the antenna and windex (aka wind vane) at the top of the mast and then tested the antenna and the lights.  Everything worked.

Antenna & Windex installed and anchor light working

Steaming light works too

We also installed new “spreader boots” on the mast.  These protect the forward sail to help prevent tearing or chaffing.

Spreader boots installed

We installed a new shore power system.  It charges the boat batteries and provides power to the boat’s 12volt system when docked and plugged into 115VAC.

My brother greased the ”stuffing box”.  The stuffing box is the box like device where the propeller shaft passes through the hull from the inboard engine to the propeller.  The grease helps to minimize water from leaking around this area.

I rewired and tested the navigations lights.

The last thing we did (as  the sun was setting in the west) was to put the name on the boat.  My oldest daughter got a thing call a “Silhouette”. It is like a computer printer, but instead of printing it cuts things.  Paper, fabric or in our case adhesive backed vinyl.  We picked a font, size and design and she cut a template out from the vinyl.   We put the template in place and painted the name on the back of the boat.

My brother pealing the last of the name template away.

So “Thanks Dad” is ready to be launched. I submitted the paperwork to the boat yard to schedule the launch.  They will also “step the mast” (meaning they will put the mast up) and “tune the mast” (meaning they will make the adjustments to insure the mast is straight and has all the proper tensions on the stays.)

Ready for launch!

 If all goes well we should be able to move the boat from  the boat yard to the marina on Saturday.