May 14 Capital Yacht Club DC to Anchorage North of Bluff Point Colonial Beach VA 56 6 Miles

Two observations: 1. From the last bridge in the ICW in South Norfolk, to Maine -- no bridges that we have to worry about!  2. The Washington Channel is the flying lane for helicopters in the DC area, which has lots of them, apparently to keep them out of the way of the runways of Dulles Intl Airport that are parallel to the Chanel. If you stay at the Capital YC -- get used to their noise!

It was cold the past two nights and yesterday and today. So I was warmly bundled for todays 7:00 to 3:45 passage  -- a retracing of our path, back down the Potomac. The early start was dictated by the desire to capture a few hours of good tide.  We went further than Fairview Beach because we had the time and want to go further tomorrow too. Here is Fairview from the channel, above the gate in the lifelines. It shows that this river is w i d e!

Tide was favorable at the start, giving us, with engine, small jib and wind at our back, about 7.5 knots, gradually diminishing to 4.9 and then building back up to 5.9. Going downstream is faster than going upstream.
With the wind behind us the small jib self-jibes at will while the other two sails, though they would have given us more speed, would have been a bear to handle through all the jibes of the twisty river. In fact the Potomac is a pretty easy river to navigate, especially once you have been there. Our electronic chart plotter displays the water more than 20 feet deep, the channel, in light blue, with dark blue for the shallower water at the sides. Red and green buoys are shown and we generally respect them, but if you stay in the light blue, you cant go wrong.
Tonight the wind is predicted from the south at 5 to 10 knots so while we elected to stop in the Potomac, rather than in a harbor, we are on the north side of a bluff which should make the 5 to 10 knots of wind from the south easy to take tonight. We have 60 feet of snubbed chain in 11 feet of water and no other boats in sight. For those with Google Earth who want to know, we are at 38 degrees, 16.6 minutes North; 076 degrees, 59.4 minutes West. Here:

I have tried to show pictures of things you have not seen before, or new views of the old.  Like this style of buoy. Ive never seen such before. They are common on this river. This one has a guest, or squatter, who is hawking "Danger" as we got too close for his comfort. Check the current running past it-- the "bow wave"

Floridian gargantuan houses on the upper Potomac.

A better view, on a non-foggy day, of the huge power transmission towers with strobe lights.

The rivers banks are lined with such cliffs, as if the Potomac is trying to become the Grand Canyon. It still has a way to go.

Maryland Point Light, with rapids flowing past and many birds watching from the man made islands on both sides.

Tomorrows destination: St. Marys, Maryland.

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Melges 14 Vaporware

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Melges Performance replies to this post....

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A couple of months ago there was a flurry of sightings of a prototype Melges 14 on the water and at the Chicago Boat Show. Since then, not a peep about the Melges 14, at least not that I can tell sitting here on the East Coast. Anybody know if Melges is going forward with production of this singlehander?

No matter what the timeline is (or not) of the Melges 14 actually emerging to the market, they did put out a very nice promotional video, complete with drone footage:



Melges 14 Promo from Melges 14 on Vimeo.

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November 13 and 14 Charleston to Tom Point Creek to Beaufort SC 60 6 Miles

Charleston is like New York in at least one way: both were started at the confluence of two rivers, and the point of juncture is a park and called The Battery.

It is surrounded by lovely stately old homes.  But you cant sail by close because a sand spit extends out from the point.

A pretty easy day of it, 9:45 to 3 pm, motoring all the way in the ICW, which was wide and deep. Cold but not unpleasantly. We made a connection with the boat next to us in the Charleston Marina, "Kachina", a Hans Christian 33, with the most beautifully treated teak.

It is sailed by John and Joanna currently from Colorado but originally from Canada and Marthas Vineyard, respectively. We exchanged cell numbers and stayed close to them all day. We had originally selected Steamboat Creek for the midway anchorage to Beaufort, but Lene read about Tom Point Creek after it was recommended by Jim of "Goldie,"

a home made, steel, blue schooner. So the Admiral changed our destination. The two creeks are only about a mile apart.
The only obstacle today was one low bridge that opens every half hour from 9 to 3:30, only about 4.5 miles from the marina. We left when we were ready and the marina had sent a man to help a boat come in, so he stayed and helped us get off. But it was too late for the 10 am opening so we went very slow for the first 4.5 miles and got there in time for the 10:30 opening and still had time to get through Elliot Cut before its very swift tidal flow turned against us at 11:15.  After anchoring,  I lowered the dink and used it as a platform to get some rust stains out and polished some stainless, before being chased inside by the cold. A cold front with stronger winds passed during the period midnight to 2AM, but our anchor held.

Where is Tom Point Creek, you asked? Oh, it flows into the Wadmalaw River. It runs between Stann and Little Britton Islands. Still no help? Well you wont find Tom Point Creek in Google, except for information on the tides there, but it is about 20 feet deep and just wide enough for a single column of boats to anchor, and swing with the tidal change; a strong tidal current runs through it, For the curious, look in Google Earth at 32 degrees, 38.75 minutes North; 80 degrees, 16.86 minutes West.  It is bordered by salt marshes on both sides

and the book said -- and correctly so -- that dolphins swim up the creek, playful looking but looking for food.





In the morning all six of us had mango pancakes before setting off at about 9:30.

Joanne and Jim

Jim and Susan

Both John and Jim are very handy, the former a carpenter and boat builder, the latter a mechanic who built Goldie and who has lived aboard for 40 years. Both are professional delivery captains so they know something about sailing, in fact, a lot!
When we pulled the hook I did the math: with the Ladies Island Bridge, near Beaufort, closed from 4 to 6 and it being dark by six, we needed speed to get to that Bridge, from which is less than 1/4 mile more to the Downtown Marina of Beaufort. We supplemented the engines power with the small jib and trimmed it on every point of sail during the twisting ICW to gain an extra knot or two. We slowed down only in the three "Cuts" between different rivers. The cuts were short but reported to be shallow, though no problem for us today. A passing shrimp boat, its wings out, surrounded by its posse:

 We made the 3 pm opening, with the grace of the kindly bridge tender. The hundred cars and trucks lined up waiting until 3:06 when we passed, may not have thought of her so kindly, though. I think it was Lenes feminine voice that prevailed upon her to wait for us.

We plan to be on docks, here and in Hilton Head, for several days, using dock power to provide heat until the polar vortex goes away.

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Header Photo Classic International 14

The previous header photo was of a classic International 14, circa late 1960s. (One clue is the crew isnt using a trapeze which didnt get voted in until 1969.)  This is a Canadian 14 as it has the Canadian registration numbers on the bow. Design? Im guessing Proctor V or VII given the bow rocker profile. (Yes, you could say Im somewhat of a International 14 history geek, though, to be honest, I grew up with these boats.)

More classic International 14 material can be found on my companion blog.

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December 14 15 New Smyrna Beach to Titusville and First of Three Lay Days There With Car 35 Miles

Motoring in the ICW is not a peak experience. During this trip and while at Titusville, there was almost no wind. It was sunny and not as cold. I put up a head sail for about an hour but then the wind was gone again. Companions make it more interesting. These guys, from New England, said that they were in training for the spring racing season and wanted to be on our "wake". They kept up with us, motoring at 5.7 knots, for about half an hour before turning back. They said "Were your dolphins!"

We also saw more dolphins than ever before, in small and large pods, close to a hundred total, during the five hours we were underway.

In Titusville one simply takes an available mooring and then calls the Marina to tell them the number. The Indian River is as much as three miles wide but with a depth of only one to six feet, except for the ICW channel with twelve feet depth that is perhaps 50 yards wide. Near Titusville the river has a piece that is seven or eight feet deep and several hundred yards wide. This is the anchorage and mooring field. We took a mooring near the ICW and near the outer end of the private marked channel leading from the ICW to a large marina with many slips that was dredged in the western (mainland) side of the River. The chart showed three low bridges, one shortly before we arrived and two further south. The first is for a railroad and is apparently open unless a train comes. The second was replaced by a beautiful new high expensive bridge, shown here from ILENE at sunrise,

and so only the third requires us to request an opening. I think they made a mistake in deciding which of the two car bridges to replace: the high one leads to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and is little trafficked. The remaining low automobile bridge also leads to the Kennedy National Space Center at Cape Canaveral and has a lot of cars and buses to be detained. Id be interested in what local politics caused the decision to replace the wrong bridge.
We took both our dinghy lights (so others can see us) and our flashlight (so we could see the unlighted channel markers and find our way home after dark). We had some wine on Autumn Borne with Dean and Susan. They are planning to haul, do their bottom and visit relatives back in Buffalo and will catch up with us later on. Also aboard were the crew of Seeker, Earl and Kathy, and friends who sail but live in Florida and did not have their boat here: Eric, an engineering colleague of Dean, and Joyce, a biker and tennis player, from Holland. When Erik and Joyce had to leave, the rest of us had dinner at Crackerjack, by the foot of that new bridge.
Next day was the first of our three with a rental car. After breakfast out we went to the Kennedy Space Center. We took the bus ride out along the path that the mammoth mover travels carrying the rockets (at one mph), and saw about four videos, each in its own theater, walked through a lot of objects, large and small and heard a great talk by former astronaut Don Thomas, who made four shuttle flights, the highlight of the day, actually.

Each stripe in the flag is eight feet wide!

Lift off!

End of Stage Two, with me, below, to give a sense of scale

Lene by capsule, looking lovely, as usual
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The Rocket Garden

We were there from 10 to 4 and were quite tired by the end of it. We have access to a movie house here and Interstellar was playing but no, a quiet evening aboard.
The Space Center is operated entirely without government support, it brags: But taxpayers pay for it. Driving there for two seniors includes a $10 parking fee and $97.00 admission. it was not as expensive 25 years ago when I was here last.

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Yellow boat 4 FPV camera view Purau New Zealand 2 1 14

Yellow boat 4 mostly Hobby King bits balsa epoxy fiber glass hull 
http://kiwitricopter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/3-hour-yellow-boat.html



Twin Turnigy 450 Series 3800KV Brushless Outrunner Helicopter Motor
RPM: 3800kv
Max Current: 35A
Max Power: 365W

2 X HobbyKing 30A BlueSeries Brushless Speed Controller with shared enlarged air cooled heatsink with an 30mm fan
Cont. Current: 30A
Burst Current: 40A
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=13429&aff=652823


coupled to modified NQD jet drives with flex shafts and custom 3 blade impellers 

ZIPPY Compact 2700mAh 3S 25C Lipo Pack
Capacity: 2700mAh
Voltage: 3S1P / 3 Cell / 11.1V
Discharge: 25C Constant / 35C Burst
Weight: 203g (including wire, plug & case)
Dimensions: 137x15x44mm
Balance Plug: JST-XH

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=21349&aff=652823

Purau
https://www.google.co.nz/maps/preview#!q=Purau%2C+Canterbury&data=!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x6d322f14fc09c6a3%3A0x500ef868479e4b0!3m8!1m3!1d338144!2d175.3085223!3d-37.6203018!3m2!1i1366!2i642!4f13.1!4m2!3d-43.6390402!4d172.7489035

Yellow boat 4 FPV camera view Purau New Zealand 2-1-14 from nickatredbox on Vimeo.

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February 11 14 Key West to Marathon and Three Lay Days There 42 4 Miles

We took in our dock lines at 7:30 and were anchored in Marathon at 3:30, sailing all but the first five and last fifteen minutes of outing and ining. The winds were forecast from the north at ten knots which meant no big waves, because they have to build up from south of the Keys. The wind did come from there eventually, and nicely, with a steady fifteen knots; we were making near eight knots at the end.
We had full sails up throughout, but the early part of the passage was troubling. The wind had too much of an easterly component so we were close hauled on port tack and I was envisioning the point where we would have to tack to avoid the shoals at the south side of Hawk Channel. And relative wind varied frequently by 25 degrees and between eight and fifteen knots requiring very frequent trimming of sails and course changes to get what speed we could make out of the wind and avoid the tack if possible. But no tack was needed in the end.
We were passed by s/v Liberty, which had been docked near us in the Key West Bight Marina. I hailed her to thank her for passing us on the gentlemanly leeward side. We avoided motoring, though it meant some 2.5 knot stretches. I find that once I switch on the "iron genoa" to assist us, it stays on far too long, its noise degrading the pleasure.
We communicated with s/v Autumn Born and they were arriving in Marathon too, but from the east. We saw them anchored outside the harbor to the west of the island, where it was rolly, and AB weighs twice ILENE. AB is in the safest possible place: with lots of room around her to let out 100 feet of chain in ten feet of water, as compared to the small crowded but more protected anchorage area inside. We dropped three times before we found the right spot, and have 60 feet of snubbed chain out in 12 feet of water. Good holding, tested by winds over 20 knots the third night.
In the channel we passed s/v Liberty again, somewhat stuck in the sand south of the channel. I said I would come out by dink to help once we were anchored but she broke herself free less than a minute later and followed us in. We were hailed by the crew of s/v Saint Somewhere, who we had tried to help up in Titusville, and later by Dean and Susan of Autumn Born, who were dinking in to register and get on the waiting list for a mooring. The winds have been so constantly from the north that people waiting for a window to hop over to the Bahamas are still waiting and not leaving.
Dean and Susan stopped by for wine and cheese on their way back to their boat. I love talking with Dean and save up my questions for him because he is so knowledgeable. I was pleased to able to give back a bit by showing him our experiences in the Marquesas Keys and Boca Grande Key. They will be going to Key West soon to meet family, and plan to take a mooring up in rolly Garrison Bight.We did not go to shore to register until the next day because that first night we had no need for anything the shore had to offer, and we also saved one nights dinghy docking fee, almost $18. The waiting list for a mooring is now longer than when we were here last month so there was no need to go ashore to get ourselves on the list because we will be leaving before anything becomes available. We had the last of our paella, watched Downton Abbey and called it a night.
We had a dinner with Dean and Susan and two other couples at Burdines, a very casual restaurant above the fuel dock the next night. Ilene invited herself and me and they had a table for eight.
Next morning I cleared all the "stuff" from the aft cabin to our bed in the forward one to provide space for work. I topped up the seven batteries with distilled water and prepared for the arrival of Alex

The line above Alexs head is how we keep the door
of our aft head, the cats head, open and stable, so it does not
flail and break itself from its hinges as the boat moves.

who installed and tested the "combiner" which will charge the starting battery automatically, whenever we are making electricity, but disconnect it from the house bank whenever we are not.
During the 9:00 am net on Channel 68 we announced our arrival and so did Tex and Maria of m/v "Heaven Sent", their 46 foot Grand Banks trawler on which they live. They belong to the Harlem and the Huguenot YCs, Tex is a Past Commodore of the Harlem. I later asked if anyone could lend me a set of feeler gauges to check the alignment of the flexible coupling that I had to install and Justin, of s/v "Selkey", from Cork, Ireland, responded and brought the tool over later and explained to me how to use it. Lene went ashore and did some shopping in the supermarket, while I set to work on the flexible coupling.

It is an ingenious device, attached by four forward facing bolts to the flange at the aft end of the transmission, and attached by four more bolts facing aft to the flange at the forward end of the propeller shaft.

It has two metal bars, one visible in the photo, that will hold it together if it shatters, so the shaft wont slide out of the hole in the boat through which the shaft rotates if the coupling shatters. But its purpose is to shatter if you hit something hard. By shattering it is supposed to prevent your transmission from shattering.
The first thing I noticed was that the new bolts installed in the old coupling by Deatons Yard in North Carolina were smaller in diameter than those that came with the new sealed unit from the factory. This is not good.
Well at least the spacing of the holes from each other through the flanges matched the spacing of those holes in the new unit. Hooray! And the new larger diameter bolts fit through the holes in the flanges. Hooray!  But this means that since North Carolina, we have been motoring with smaller diameter bolts in larger diameter holes, which is never a good thing and may have been the cause of the vibration, or contributed to it. But the new bolts were fractionally longer than the old ones so that when I got them installed they rubbed against the transmission housing. This was very bad; its just not going to work. What to do? Washers on the bolt head aft end of those bolts would place them far enough away I thought, so I took the whole thing apart again. But the washers were larger in diameter than the nuts, preventing my wrench from gripping the nuts to tighten them. What to do? Alex was doing his thing for us and suggested that I could bring my 17mm wrench in to his shop next morning and grind down the sides of the wrench, and narrow them so it would fit. But during the night I thought of two alternative solutions: (1) use smaller diameter washers, or (2) grind down the ends of the four bolts. Time for another consultation with Dean. Grinding the bolts was selected and Alexs electric grindstone made quick work of it. I put it all together again for the third time (it does not permit the removal of parts without complete dis-assembly, because there is just not enough room to get the bolts out). Having tested with the feeler gauge, it looked right and we turned on the engine and put it in gear, briefly. Im hoping the problem is solved. Time will tell when we use the engine to propel us for real.

One evening, we dinked over to Heaven Sent, (sorry for the fuzzy piture of this beautiful roomy boat). It was

 a long 1.5 mile dinghy ride, to the far eastern end of the harbor where Heaven Sent is tied up to the seawall.


The adjacent boat was s/v Liberty, which, we learned, is being single handed by a lady from St. Augustine.

I have known Tex and Maria since 1990 when I joined the Harlem. We had some wine before walking to a local restaurant, Dockside Tropical Cafe, one of several here that has live music. But every table was filled except one picnic table outside -- close enough to hear but not see the music. We ordered but later cancelled the order because the wait would have been at least an hour and it was cold out. Back at Heaven Sent, Maria cooked up a very fine dinner and we did not get back to ILENE until after ten pm, late for us.
Next day was a Family Fun Fest at the adjacent City Park. Lene had volunteered us to help the kids make projects with materials and tools donated by Home Depot, but when we got there they had too many volunteers and we were released. A wide variety of things for kids to do.

Our final dinner was at Lazy Days, just past Burdines, the nicest restaurant we visited in Marathon. Valentines Day, hence a rose for every lady. We had the pleasure of introducing Tex and Maria from our Club to Dean and Susan and Earl and Cathy, of s/v Seeker, who we had been introduced to by Dean and Susan in St. Augustine. Maybe Dean and Susan were starting to think that we had no friends other than those they introduced us to.

Susan, Kathy, Earl, Lene, Me, Maria and Tex (Photo credit to Dean)

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Header Photo Australian NS 14 Down the Mine

The previous header photo was the Australian, two-man, NS 14 dinghy "going down the mine" off of Andersons Inlet, South Gippsland Yacht Club, Inverloch, Victoria.

The NS 14 is an indigenous Australian development class; a two person hiking, no spinnaker class. It is 4.27 meters (14) long and 1.8 meters (just under 6) wide. Those who have read Frank Bethwaites High Performance Sailing know that Franks first forays into dinghy design experimentation were in the NS 14 class and that his successful NS 14 designs were the basis for his one-design Tasar.

The 1960s NS 14 fleet.

Six older NS 14s were imported into the San Diego area around the new millennium and when that effort of fleet building stalled, one or two were brought east, specifically to the West River Sailing Club, with transplanted Aussie, Tony Arends owning one. Sadly I was never around the club when they showed up and missed the chance to take one out for a spin. West River SC already had a fleet of Jet 14s so the NS 14 was again a non-starter in the United States. Im not sure what happened to the boats.

Some more photos culled from the Internet:

The somewhat smallish 9.3 sq. meter sail plans features the now de rigueur square-top (or nearly a square-top) main. The fleet uses a very deep over-rotating mast for more power.

The NS 14 has the modern, double bottom, full draining interior.

To save weight the reverse sheer profile is very "humpy", aggressively turning down at the stern.

Our impressive duo from the header photo, après pitchpoling.

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Seen at the 2015 Annapolis Sailboat Show The Melges 14

Melges Performance Sailboats introduced their Melges 14 singlehander at this years Annapolis Sailboat Show. The 14 is one of the new generation hiking singlehanders; a racier, speedier alternative to the Laser and, at the Annapolis show, the Melges 14 was on display only six meters apart from one of the first entrants in this market segment, the RS Aero.

Visually the Melges 14 looks bigger than the RS Aero and the tale of the tape shows that it is bigger than the RS Aero. The Melges 14 is longer at 4 meters and wider at 1.57 meters. Given the American penchant for going bigger in everything, this may not be a bad marketing move for U.S. sales. The long, flat cockpit floor looks quite spacious compared to the narrow RS Aero cockpit and the tiny cockpit of the Laser. (If, in buying a faster singlehander with carbon rig and mylar sails, one of your odd requirements is also a design where you can daysail with your kids stuffed here and there - the Melges 14 is the one for you.)

A wider beam allows more hiking power so it is not surprising that in comparing sail areas between the Melges 14 and the RS Aero, the Melges 14 again comes out bigger. The Melges 14 big rig is 9.1 meters vs the RS Aero 8.9 meters and, in the mid-range rig, the Melges 14 is 7.8 vs the RS Aero 7.4. Usually more horsepower may give better light wind performance but I havent yet seen any side by side performance comparisons published.

The ultra-lightweight RS Aero hull comes in at whopping 25 kg less than the Melges 14 which, at 54 kg. is lighter than the Laser by about 5 kg. One of the benefits of the smaller hull of the RS Aero is less surface area which translates into a lighter hull. The Melges salesman countered as he made the pitch for the heavier Melges 14 hull. "How light can you go before sacrificing durabiltiy?"

The RS Aero came out early in this market (not quite two years ago), is being marketed agressively and the factory in England is pumping a goodly number out every month. In contrast, the Melges 14 appears a little late. I asked the Melges salesman about this and being a good salesman, he remained nonplussed. Admitting there is "quite a bit of competition" in the new singlehanders, he pointed out that Melges has already built 40 of the 14s and they expected that the existing customer base of Melges products (from the 20, 24, 32, the myriad Melges scows) would initially provide a steady stream of buyers for the 14.

There you have it. The Melges 14 is a bigger, heavier (though lighter than the Laser), more powerful (with a very roomy cockpit!) entry in the hiking singlehander marketplace. I have no idea how it compares on the water with the RS Aero or the D Zero (which has yet to put in an appearance in North America  - Correction, there are three in North America - see bottom of post.). Price for a Melges 14? It seems to be moving target but somewhere around 9K U.S.

Also check out the Tillerman blog post on the Melges 14.

The Melges 14 has a mylar sail on a carbon mast and boom. (This is different from the RS Aero which has remained with the tried and true dacron sailcloth.). The Melges 14 also is round-bilged but one thing you cant do very easily at a boat show is turn the dinghy over and inspect the hull - so I cant comment on the hull shape.

This photo taken from a more bow-on angle definitely shows the very distinctive straight gunwhale line (seen also on the RS Aero - this provides flare at the gunhwale and more hiking power) starting just forward of the daggerboard case.

The wide flat cockpit and more beam means there are two hiking straps instead of the usual center one. The Melges 14 uses the typical Laser split mainsheet rig with a transom bridle. I forgot to ask the salesman how you controlled athwartship boom placement as there doesnt seem to be any control lines for the aft bridle, just a stopper ball on each side. Boom vang control is at the mast, the other cleats are for the cunningham and outhaul.

The mainsheet turning block uses a a nifty hose to hold it upright (versus those metal springs). The Melges 14 has a small raised shelf just forward of the daggerboard trunk, ending some 100-200 mm aft of the mast - probably a tricky engineering tweak to provide structural support to both the front of the daggerboard trunk and the mast. (I can see an aftermarket storage turtle being designed to fit this shelf - perfect for water bottles, spray jackets, sandwiches.) The cockpit also has the comfy non-skid foam that the SUP crowd invented.

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My other Melges 14 posts:

• Melges 14 - Vaporware?
• Melges Performance Sailing Replies.
• Other big guy singlehanders.

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Over at the Sailing Anarchy thread on the Melges 14, user Woodman is of the opinion the Melges 14 is similar to the English Supernova singlehander, which is considered a big-guy singlehander.

Also on the Sailing Anarchy thread, user Jeffers corrects me when I say there are no D-Zeros in North America. There are three D-Zeros now in North America.

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Re the Melges 14 Melges Perfornance Replies

When you tweak a company just a little - like I did in the post Melges 14 Vaporware?, it is only fair to allow the company to reply. So I emailed Melges Performance and Andy Burdick replied that they are indeed producing the Melges 14:

"We were early on our showcasing of the Melges 14 at the Chicago Strictly Sail Show. We have had such a response on the boat though that we felt as though we need a boat on display for people to see. The response was fantastic. After over 2 years of testing, tuning we feel like the Melges 14 is a great boat for one-design sailors but also for people that just want to go out and enjoy the sport of sailing. The Melges 14 is fast, modern, well built and has the ability to take a child or friend with you for a sail. Exposing people to the sport we love. Melges is excited about the future of the Melges 14. Excited for singlehanded one-design sailors and excited for the aspiring sailors that want to just go out and have fun.

Since January we have been building and distributing new Melges 14s. We have a container of boats headed to Europe soon, we had our first boat go to California yesterday. Boats are being sprinkled around the county with anticipation of further excitement.

We have been pretty "nose down" here in our boat production due to the popularity of our other one-design classes. We build 10 one-design classes now. Thus, through the winter and spring we have been working hard at getting our boats built and complete for spring deliveries.

Once we free up the current build schedules we will be more mainstream with the pushing and marketing of the boat. This is coming soon, real soon!"

There you have it. You can order a Melges 14 at this very moment. Melges Performance will build it. For the present it looks like they are depending on those "early adopters" to market the Melges 14 with Melges putting their corporate clout into more concentrated advertising and class organization of the Melges 14 later in the year, after they get through the busy spring boat building season.

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On a slightly different note, but still involving Melges Performance, I realized two days after making this comment in my post about Retro Singlehanders:

"I must admit the North American market is an anomaly here with not a lot of singlehanded classes under the Laser - still king by a long-shot-, and the Sunfish - a solid runner-up, The other singlehanded classes in North America - like my Classic Moth - are mustering small numbers."

- that I had got it wrong. The retro MC Scow, has slowly but surely - mostly under the radar - become a national singlehander class in the U.S.. Mea Culpa. This seems as good a time as any to correct the error.

To most of the world, the MC Scow, at a length of 4.9 meters, a weight of 190 kg., and a sail area of 135 sq. ft. is a big hulking SUV of a singlehander (some may question whether we could correctly identify the MC Scow as a singlehander as you are allowed to take a hiking crew when the breeze is up). Nonetheless, it has become very popular in the U.S. with fleets springing up well outside the normal Midwest scow territory. My good friend, Bob Blomquist, is now racing one out of Sarasota, Florida. Following is another well done video promo for the Melges MC scow (looks to be done by the same guy who did the Melges 14 video).



The Melges MC from Nick Bowers on Vimeo.

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April 12 14 Fernandina to Jekyll Islands Harbor Marina 23 9 Miles

Amazing! This is the 365th post to this blog since it began in October, 2010.

We were underway from 8:15 to 2:30.  We went very slowly up the west side and north side of Cumberland Island, across St. Andrews Sound and up Jekyll Creek, on the west side of Jekyll Island. A new stretch of the ICW for us. We went slow because we wanted to arrive when the tide was an hour before high. We passed the huge Kings Bay submarine base, but without sighting any of those killing machines. We passed Cumberland Landing,

on the north side of that island, where the packet boat used to land. We also passed the abandoned lighthouse and saw a buoy that has apparently detached from its mooring and washed ashore. The NY Times had a nice article about the men and women of the Coast Guard vessel that services the buoys in the NY area. In the ICW most "aids to navigation" are not buoys, but numbered red triangular and green square signs posted on pilings -- cheaper to maintain.

But this passage, with a few quite shallow patches, was deep water, 40 to 50 feet, deep enough for nuclear subs, so buoys are necessary.

This Marina is a well loved one, essentially a long dock along the east side of the creek to which all the transient boats are tied, this from its free postcard.

Here is ILENE under the live oak tree from the shower house, laundry and restaurant. Her mast, with its distinctive double forestay is in the center.

My first chore was to change ILENEs engine oil and filter. The marina takes waste oil for $2 per gallon, and I paid $2.50. We have a good pump that sucks waste oil out of the engine through the dip stick hole. You have to run the engine to get the oil hot before sucking it out but this was not a problem in that we had been running since early in the morning. But I realized that when you think you have gotten all the old oil out you have to wait to let more of it drip down to the bottom so you can suck out more of it. This time I pumped one pump to many and some oil gushed out from the bottom of the canister onto the cardboard box that I had set under it to catch spills. Im hoping I did not ruin this tool and will be able to fix it. I was also able to twist off the old oil filter without dropping it and spilling its dirty contents under the engine. Patience, and resting and drying hands just before it came off was the key. Lene helped out at the stage when you pour the dirty oil from the canister of the pump into the recently emptied oil cans for disposal. She steadied the receptacle and the funnel while I poured. No mess! Then, using a tiny bit of laundry detergent and a stiff brush, I got rid of 99% of the remaining one percent of the pelican poop from the blue canvas.
 The Marina is extremely friendly and provides good, movie watching quality, wifi; Lene has watched a lot of TV shows. They also have bicycles and a golf cart, which we used for the limit of 90 minutes per usage, for shopping at the IGA.

It is a very small store with limited selection and high prices on the east (Atlantic) side of the island, which is being developed with homes and hotels. The one drawback is insects, which bite, especially Lene. Rain has been predicted for the last week, including very high probability several of the days, but it did not come. During this passage the grey lowering skies suggested rain but it did not come until about an hour after our arrival, and lasted for about eight hours.
Because we were spending three nights and two days here, I asked the marina staff for the names of people who wash bottoms, change oil of outboards and align propeller shafts. Leo Ross, 912-266-1323, looked at the alignment, first. "Well", he said, "with the problem being intermittent and only at certain speeds, it might not be an alignment problem at all. Lets take a look."  I had cleared out the aft compartment so everything was ready for him. "Whats this? A motor mount bolt!" he quickly noted, picking it up from the bilge. It seems that the engine was held on its shock absorbing mounts by only three of the four bolts and those three were loose too. And the flange at the forward end of the propeller shaft, which is held in place on the propeller by two set screws, was also loose! After everything was nice and tight, I ran the engine at pretty high speeds in forward and reverse while tied to the dock and so far it looks good, very good indeed. But the acid test will be trying this while underway.
As to the outboard, it needed both its engine oil, which I had, and its lube oil, which I did not have, to be replaced after its 20 hour break in period. And the latter requires a special tool to force the new oil in from the bottom hole until it flows out of the top hole. I will get that tool for next time. Leo went to Westmarine on his break and bought the lube oil. He let me help him and taught me how to do this, including whacking the screwdriver with a hammer to shake lose the tight seal.

Leo looks like a refugee from that Dynasty Duck program but he is a set man, a good teacher, knowledgeable and charges a very fair amount A diver came and scrubbed the bottom and reported that my zincs have 75 to 80 percent left but that the wheel that, when not clogged by seaweed tells us how fast the boat is moving through the water (as compared to over the ground), is broken.
With all of the repair activities we did get time to use the pool and hot club, or do the sightseeing I would have liked. They have a free museum which also offers a $16 guided tour train ride through the historic old town district on the islands western side, which the Macys and Goodyears and other people of wealth set up in the 1890s. A reason to come back! Our last evening we did have a pretty good meal at the annex of the historic dowager but quite busy Jekyll Island Club Hotel, where the rich hob nobbed -- and still do. The Club sent over a van to pick us up and bring us back to the Marina.

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April 15 16 Jekyll to Walburg Creek to Redbird Creek 60 6 and 14 Miles Respectively

We got underway from Jekyll late relative to the tide, at 8:30, due to the need to fuel up. But the first  time we went aground it was solely my fault: Green on the right northbound in the ICW,... I just wasnt thinking. But no biggie; we backed off easily and quickly. The second time it was the fault of the lack of dredging in the ICW: we were in the center of the channel and while we were not stopped, the alarm was ringing and the fathometer said we had only five feet of water so we were dragging the bottom six inches of our keel through eight inches of very soft sediment. But after the first two miles of the days passage, depth was no longer a problem.
St. Simons Sound, gateway to the commercial city of Brunswick, is quite deep. And the tide flowing out, southeast, was favorable, very favorable, so we were motoring at over nine knots. Once clear of the channel we motor sailed during the morning but once the wind came up (a broad starboard reach) we sailed without motor in the afternoon toward St. Catherines Sound. A very pleasant sail under warm and sunny skies. Other than two shrimpers who were working St. Simons Inlet, and a sailboat we were catching up to off St. Catherines Sound, we saw no other boats. We even enjoyed good tide after the jibe, going west into St. Catherines Sound, making eight knots with just the main.
We had started with the plan to go to Wahoo Creek in the Sapelo Inlet. (Most inlets around here are named after the rivers that flow out of them and most are named for Saints: John, Mary, Catherine, Simon -- maybe it was from the period when Spain was influential here?) But while out there, we found that St. Catherines was only ten miles further and we had lots of time to get there before dark, so plan B went into effect.  Nearing arrival, we saw rain clouds gathering to the west, ahead. When we set our anchor in Walburg Creek a light rain had begun and while I was attaching the snubber and securing things it got torrential. Nothing to do when the boat was finally secure but take off all clothing -- everything was saturated -- towel off and put on fresh clothing before dinner.
Walburg Creek is bound by marshes on both sides and sparsely inhabited on land or by boat. We had a scare in the middle of the night when the tide had gone out and we showed only eight feet of water, rather than fourteen, and were dangerously close to the south shore. The wind had come up and the tide was flowing. I got Lene up and she started the engine. I pulled up the anchor, Lene moved us maybe 50 yards to a better spot (there was lots of room) we dropped and set it and, after watching, we went back to sleep. Lene, who edits these posts, criticized me for failing to express our sense of terror while picking up and re-anchoring in inky blackness with current flowing fast and wind howling. She is correct.
In the morning the plan had been to sail to Bull Creek, up in Tybee Roads, which is the entrance to the Savannah River, near Hilton Head. The outside route would have been 43.2 miles as compared to 48.9 via the hairpin turns of the ICW. But the wind was from the north at up to 20 knots and especially for the 20 mile plus outside part of the passage Lene was not enamored of beating into that stuff on a cold grey day with rain forecast. And I was not looking forward to it either. There is a saying to the effect that "Gentlemen do not beat." Beating into strong wind in the ocean beats up the boat and the boaters. So Plan B: inside. But blocking the way was Hell Gate. It is a portion of the ICW, a canal, only .6 miles long, connecting the Ogeechee and Vernon Rivers. But with our draft, we cannot get through except at very near high tide. And the tide was already flowing out and we had a couple more hours to go, so: Plan C: Redbird Creek is a totally uninhabited creek through the marshes and only 4 miles from Hell Gate. It was tricky in Redbird when the strong wind was blowing from the north while the tidal current ran the other way. ILENE did not know how to lie on her anchor. The good news is that the anchor held. No one came through by day or night; it was just us and the kitties. And very dark at night, being for from civilization. We arrived in the late morning with plans to leave in mid afternoon, but stayed the night. The views: N, S, E and W; are impressive for their blandness. At low tide one is six feet lower and sees less other than the banks which are closer.

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October 27 November 14 ILENE Is Ready for the Winter

White, unpainted bottom.  Six work days took place during this period, (totaling 30.75 hours - so Im not working too hard) and two fun days as well.
Why not start with the fun. There was an emergency meeting at the Club because of a failure of a quorum at an earlier meeting. This one took only five minutes and we accomplished two ministerial tasks so they can be acted upon at the next meeting. And then a delicious Moroccan style buffet was served. So this not being a food blog, I will refrain from telling you about the menu -- except for the apple cake, which, based on the flavor and moistness and icing I would have called a carrot cake, except the moistness came from chopped apple instead of grated carrot. And I ended up sitting at the table with the Clubs book group, twelve women and three men, and enjoyed their discussion of "A Man Called Ove" even though I had not read the book.
The other fun event was the 20th Annual Gow Dinner, sponsored by Tex and Maria, who we dined with in Marathon Florida last winter. Tex pays for the whole meal so the full price of the tickets, $50/capita, goes to the Dow School to sponsor a scholarship in memory of their son, who was a student there, until he tragically died in a motorcycle accident. Tex and Maria flew up from where they had left their boat on their way south. I have contributed the cost of two tickets every year for the last twenty, including those when we were south and could not attend in person. Tex is a PC at the Harlem and also a member of the Huguenot, and this year the event took place at the Huguenot. Tex and Maria have a large circle of friends at both clubs and elsewhere, so attendance was good. Somehow, I had forgotten to send in the check so they had no reservation for us, but another PC, who did have reservations could not come at the last minute so we were seated at a table of Harlemites. Tex made a speech, and in his tradition, cried.

Basically the work involved winterization of the water systems and installation of the blue canvas cover with a few other chores started or completed. I had a big problem with the winterization, having sort of forgotten one important ingredient: It is a two man job, one to pour in the pink propelyne glycol and the other turning on and off swtches and faucets and waiting till the discharge appears pink. I got stuck and called upon Ed Spallina, who came in from Connecticut to help me. I used four of his very inexpensive hours and had the pleasure of taking him to lunch at the New Rochelle diner, sort of hidden in plain sight near the Home Depot. Ed is not "certified" as a technician, but he is magically able to figure out how things work. I had drained the raw water strainer, of its sea water through a screw at the

bottom, but had never been able to remove its stainless steel filter basket, because I did not know how to get it open. Well now I know that the top screws off and it is a good thing we looked inside because the basket was substantially corroded away. With this picture and a few measurements, I expect to be able to get a replacement basket that fits. Without its straining, particles are likely to be sucked through the engine causing major problems. Ed also bypassed the hot water heater after draining it, by detaching the two hoses that (1) feed cold water to the heater and (2) take hot water from it and connecting them to each other with a black plastic piece with hose barbs at both ends. I had the piece but had not figured out how to use it. Also, we detached the hose that takes fresh water from the tanks to the fresh water pump, and inserted a three foot long piece of hosing cut from the spare hose left over from the water maker installation job of 2010, and inserted a funnel at the top end. So now I do not need to pour so much of the pink stuff into the tanks, but can pour it directly into the pump. This year I used 14 gallons of the stuff. Next year, half that amount!
The cover comes in two pieces and installing it is a bear. On the day before, I scrubbed the topsides, and removed most of the stains in the fiberglass deck caused by the decay of fallen maple leaves -- they put ILENE under a big maple. Im on deck, about 14 feet above ground with the life lines removed and have a lot of lugging and heaving to do to do to get the cover into place and zip the two halves together. It took me four hours. And the problems involved the zippers. In the spring of 2014 when I took the cover off, I noticed that the aft most zipper on the port side was broken. I meant to take the big piece in to Doyle Sailmakers to get it fixed but I forgot. So at the end of the day, the cover was on, but with one inoperative zipper, about ten feet long. I was too tired to take it that half off, fold it up, put it in the car and take it to Doyle. Plan B was to sew across the gap and that took several hours the next day, with a tough job of pushing the needle into the fabric, using the palm to get it most of the way through and then pliers to pull the end through. Good exercise for the core muscles, doing this while balancing on the top of the step ladder. And at the end of the day I noticed another bad zipper, the one that closes the cover up above the swim platform, through which we enter, though it will hold this season.
I could not remove the sensor that measures speed through the water from the through hull where it had been painted in over the years. But Ed had a pliers with a large enough jaws to grab it and that is done. And I bought butt connectors and shrink wrap tubes and spiced the five wires from it to the five that lead from there to the power source and display. Final test: I asked a man working on a nearby boat to spin the wheel that protrudes from the bottom of the boat after I turned on the instruments and got to the cockpit where I could observe the display for boat speed. When he spun the wheel with his finger the instrument changed from zero to showing speed. Hooray! Then I took the tube with the wheel out and replaced it with the attached plug. The reason that the wheel kept breaking until now was the pressure of the heavy lifting strap against it. And the boat has a little plastic sign saying "Strap" telling the yard guys where to place the straps, so that the boat will be balanced in the two straps. Yep! -- right where the speed instrument is. So next spring, after the boat is back in the water, I will pull out the plug and then quickly insert the instrument into the hole through which the water will then be spurting.
The last part of the work involved the anchor and chain. The anchor was where the gap is in the cover at the bow.

I lowered anchor and chain to the ground using the windlass. Then I used (1) rust penetrating oil, (2) heat and (3) a hammer to break the seal and detached the anchor and its shackle and took them to the locker. The surprise was at the bitter end of the 300 feet of stainless chain, the end where it it attached to a "D" clamp it the locker. It was tied on with a square knot in 3/16 inch line, and not that strong Spectra stuff either! When I put it back, this attachment will be made fast with a stainless steel shackle. I have sawed off a large part of the horizontal 3/4 inch thick plywood platform on which the former Lectrasan was seated. This gives me better access to the chain locker and, I hope, will reduce the problem of the chain piling up and jamming the windlass while we raise the anchor. By sawing this off I got the vacuum cleaner hose and my arm into the locker to remove accumulated sand and rust particles and then scrub the rust stains of its interior walls. The half of the chain that goes into the water with each anchoring, is heavily rusted but otherwise still in good condition. The other 150 feet that have lain in the locker is white in this photo.

First I tied loops of it up behind the car and dragged it several blocks through the streets to grind off the exterior rust particles. The remaining work, in addition to installing the new brackets in the spring, is to scrape off 90 percent of the rust on the interior surfaces of each link.





Below is part of the boat, with its cover. At the top is the bottom of the blue canvas. below that, to the right is the aft portion of the bottom with its several coats of grey barrier coat, partially covered with what is left of the blue anti-barnacle paint. To the left, going forward, is the white gelcoat, after the paint was removed. After I touch up this surface it will put on several coats of barrier coat and then several coats of bottom paint. But that will take place in the spring.

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