Stack Packs and Stays (Corsets)

Our readership has grown to three. Keep it up, spread the word etc etc. I can’t remember if I told you, dear reader(s), of the disappointment that I had with one part of Riff Raff’s equipment – the stack pack. I always thought they (it?) were called the lazy jacks and a sail bag but, I suppose, stack pack sounds so much more metro-sexual and therefore coool. Anyway, the one (ones?) supplied with Riff Raff was so tight that it squashed the sail when one tried to do it up. I suppose it should really be called a corset or a set of stays – but Riff Raff already has four of the latter (but, so far as I know, none of the former). But I digress. So I threw a wobbly with the builder: we added a few inches* here and there and, hey presto, designed a new version. It eventually arrived, in the right colour and is now fitted.

The sail can breathe in and out in comfort whilst at rest.

Here’s a photo of the two, with the older one on top. You can see the where the extra inches were added.

 

All I have o do now is persuade the lazy jacks to catch the sail.

Now we’re off somewhere and you can read about it in the next thrilling installment. Don’t change channel.**

 

Notes

* Just remember 1 inch = 2.54 cm – it’s a generational thingy  nothing to do with Brexit.

** Another generational thingy to do with broadcast rather than streamed TV stations

Repair and Maintenance

Gosh! Already? But Riff Raff has only been to sea for about 40 hours, so what’s gone on?

Well, to start with it’s the b****y “pre stretched” dyneema stays.

‘They’re fully stretched before we make them’ says the designer.

‘That’s as maybe’ I replied ‘but I want a steel wire forestay. Then at least I’ve a fixed point in the rig, just in case the dyneema does stretch.’

As we were drifting to a light wind back from Cowes the other day, the mast flopped from side to side and fore and aft to an alarming extent. After taking Riff Raff onto terra firma (or at least onto Terence), I went to investigate.

I had to take up about an inch * of slack on both the port and starboard main stays and a similar amount on the baby stays too. Assuming that the steel wire forestay hasn’t stretched, the rig might now be back to “factory set”. We’ll see on Thursday.

I had also to try out the cockpit cover. This had arrived at home just before I left for the trip to Cowes and Yarmouth and I hadn’t had time to play with it. 

Unpacked and fitted (held in place by oodles of lengths of bungee and a couple of car roof rack stretchy things with hooks), I was rather pleased with it. It covers the spray hood and the engine and there’s space under which all manner of stuff can be hidden from prying eyes. It might even stop the cockpit seats from getting covered in atmospheric fall out. All we need now is the tent….

Notes

* One inch = 25mm (at the moment – it might equal more (or less) after the UK has left the EU.)

The rest of the Weekend

Having enticed the readers to Cowes (yes, there are more than one of you!), they might be wondering what happened next. Well, after sampling the empty eateries in Cowes, the following morning (just) we caught the tide for Yarmouth. The wind, which promised to be fair and from the North, as usual had not read the forecast and disappeared completely by about three. (I suspect that some sort of sea breeze effect had vaguely materialised) so Freddy2* was called in to push us to Yarmouth. Passing the odd merchantman,  we arrived at the busy (even on Thursday) marina, missing the ferry on the way in.

There’s something about modern ships – shoe boxes with scalloped fronts and backs. The romance of the sea trade is, I fear, dead. I’m glad I never became a Naval Architect, after all!

After a quiet drink at the Yacht Club, I repaired to Riff Raff for an impromptu repast and so to bed, pondering where to go next. Poole? Bembridge (round the South of the Isle of Wight)? or retrace my steps.

Friday morning came and I woke quite late. That, and the tide times determined our fate we’ll catch the tide to retrace our steps. The wind was from the North again, so we lazily tacked up the Solent to Cowes and resumed our acquaintance with the East Cowes Marina.

On Saturday, I intended to go “home” to Northney, rent a pontoon space for a night, and take Riff Raff out of the water on Sunday. Of course, I hadn’t booked any space anywhere.

Up late again (I wonder why) – even at 10:00 the radio was alive with people trying to book a berth for the night (and it’s not school holidays yet). I set sail, more in hope than expectation, and arrived at the entrance to Chichester harbour just after low water. The wind was light from the South and we drifted in with a touch of help from Freddy 2. Suddenly, Freddy 2 seemed to lose power. I checked that I’d undone the petrol tank vent – I hadn’t so rapidly took corrective action – without much effect. There was a lot of weed about in the channel so it seemed possible that there was some round the propeller. This – in the centre of the narrowest bit of the entrance, surrounded by several wet suit clad “young people”. So, the tiller was lashed and off went the engine – the prop was complete wrapped in some stringy species of seaweed. It took a few minutes to clear it as Riff Raff drifted upstream (I suppose that I should have raised black balls to the masthead but there was nothing appropriate to hand….)

With that mess cleared, we continued sluggishly upstream. On arrival at Northney I discovered that a berth was available and we were soon back on the mainland. I then attempted to lift the centre board, only to find it was jammed down. Of came the cabin table and I peered into the centre board slot. Sure enough, it was full of weed which took some time to clear.

Next morning, Riff Raff was dragged from the briny and now sits on her trailer again, waiting the call of the sea. It might come this week.

 

• Readers of my previous blog (http://vagabond-round-britain.blogspot.com/) will be aware that Freddy was a Mercury outboard. Freddy 2 shares the same heritage.

 

Going abroad

At last, a few days without social commitments – such is the hectic life of the retired.  The owners agent is having a weekend “jolly” with the local horticultural society, so I can go to sea with a clear (ish) conscience.

To Northney on Tuesday (just as the new cockpit cover arrives – more of which anon).  Half way there I remember that I have left my important navigation tool (an elderly ipad) on charge in my office. Hey Ho. Riff Raff slides off the trailer with ease and is soon moored alongside a pontoon for the evening whilst I go off to the local chandlers (for a boat hook,  a chart of the Solent and the Admiralty Tidal currents book (the last two of which would have been on the ipad) and then to a supermarket for those essentials that have also been forgotten – cup a soups, cheese, bread and wine. Then to a pub for an evening meal and back to the cabin to study tide atlas and chart – just to make sure that my plan still appeared to work. And so to bed.

Up with the lark (but too late for the 05:30 forecast). The smart phone suggests a quiet day with a NE wind, F3-4 at first, dropping during the day to 2 – 3. So it’s going to be a downwind sail to Cowes – fortunately the tide will eventually be with us.

Cast off 11:00. Freddy 2 takes us out of the marina and into the channel towards the harbour mouth. Up go the sails and, after the mess of reefing lines has been untangled, the main fills and we’re sailing down wind and with the tide towards the entrance of Chichester Harbour, through calm waters (forecast smooth or slight). Out of the harbour into the approaches to the Solent. It’s misty and I fail to identify any land marks. The few way-points that I’set are on the iPad in my study so I set a course to the West. We gently burble along. A large fort drifts past to the South. Oer – it’s Horse Sands fort and we’ve crossed the “submerged barrier”, fortunately without damage.

The wind picks up a bit and we turn slightly to the South and cross he entrance to Portsmouth. Three light towers appear ‘they’re new’ I thought and realised they’d been put in place to help these big new toothless carriers that the RN now boasts. I could see a great block of Naval Grey alongside the RN dockyard wall, –  the main “island” of HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Now we’re in the land (sorry sea) of noisy hovercraft and boxlike ferries:

Not to mention AIS collision alerts:

The danger is soon passed (no boats were harmed in this situation, nor were words exchanged between skippers) and Cowes hove into view. The weather had read the forecast and decided to adopt it – the wind dropped to very little as Freddy 2 pushed us along the small boat channel. We avoided a large ferry and, rather than use the flash Cowes Yacht Haven, we snuck up river, crossed the path of the fearsome chain ferry and puttered* into East Cowes Marina. Riff Raff and I were now attached to the Isle of Wight – we’d gone abroad!

* well, not exactly puttered. Freddy 2 doesn’t seem to do puttering. More like a slightly muted roar.