Flares, remove unused fittings and bimini deck lugs - Teria

Bought some new hand-held distress flares. RFD "crewsaver" brand. The old ones were nearly out of date so the boats legal again. The water resistant plastic box contains 4 flares - 2 daytime smoke flares  and 2  night flares. They fit nicely into the shelf.

Day smoke (left) night flare (right)

Flare box - Just the right width

In Australia hand held stick flares like these are the only ones for the general public. (We can't buy flare guns) Hand held stick parachute flares are also used on offshore boats, but one of these costs about the same as a coastal/inshore 4 pack.

Removed some unused deck and cabin fittings. An old radio antennae base o the quarter deck, quite a few lone or ex-fitting screws. A few pad eyes. On the cabin top-  a swivel pulley, and a deck fair-lead. It reduces clutter, a simpler deck and cabin make for fewer things to go wrong.

Some old fasteners to remove.

Aerial mount removed

Bimini deck pad-eyes - these were fitted to the top of the cockpit coamings. Checked old photos of the bimini raised to get an estimated position, hope its correct. This should improve walking access from cockpit to side deck.

Bimini pad eye on coaming

Then there's small jobs like fasten a loose bunk fiddle, by adding a couple of washers to let the screw hold onto the wood.

It's amazing how many small jobs there are on even a small yacht. I made a list in my design book it filled a page, mostly things that will improve operation, comfort of safety.

A few more things to make 

Solo to Cape Cleveland (trip 8, day2)

The Red Baron biplane was a good alarm clock, they take off at the Western breakwall and it's amazing how they can land in a short space.

At anchor

Once the sun was well up and the wind was right, Teria was sailed off the anchor and out into a 15-20 knot Easterly on Cleveland Bay. Barely a cloud in the sky and thousands of scintilla shinning ahead. The new Bimini top worked as hoped and the cockpit is now a cool shady place to be.

The wind strengthened further offshore and the boat felt over-pressed, the lee rail was a few inches above water level,, it's a hard thing to push an investigators lee decks underwater. There's just enough space to get out from under the bimini over the hatch to reach the mast and reduce sail with a single reef in the main. There was allot of force and the small reefing line pully on the boom let go at one end, a 30 year old pop-rivet had finally died, so simply wrapped the reefing line around the boom at the gooseneck to take the load and sailed on about 4-5 knots.

Self steering to windward was good, a long starboard tack with a lashed helm gave us allowed for about about 10 nautical miles hands free sail to windward of Magnetic Island. Slowly clawed upwind of the Platypus shipping channel. Hardly any other craft out there except the regular ferries and a port survey vessell. Set the mackerel lure but didn't get any strikes.

Helm lashed, self steer to windward

Trolling

Coffee break

Orchid rocks point

Tacked to port and close hauled past a lone shipping navigation beacon painted bright yellow and black, not on my old chart but the harzard probably deep below.

Chart of Cleveland Bay

A few hours and 8-10 nm later open waters and stronger wind came up, still a few miles to leeward of the Cape and it's light house. Wasn't going to make it there today so held course for the lee side of the Capes mountain. Bullets of wind began to hit a few miles off, so dropped the number one jib and raised to smaller number 2 jib for the first time. Discovered that the shackles that fitted the number 1 jib cringles were too small for the heavier cloth and thicker cringled No2 jib, not the best spot to remedy that with a few trips aft to the spare bits box to find larger shackles. The bimini was till up and my bulky conventional life jacket was just a tad too big to allow easy movement under the bimini on a 20-30 degree heeled deck.

With the reduced sail Teria could still claw to windward for the remaining few miles and close on the coastline of Cape Cleveland. The bimini was dropped as it's windage was getting too much.

Sailed over shoal waters extending well off shore, the centerboard kicked up and i spun the boat around and sailed clear before becoming stuck there in that remote place. The tide was on the rise which was good.  The waves were small in the lee but the wind channeled through the hills and seemed to increase as bullets of wind came hurtling down almost knocking Teria way over at times. So furled the jib and dropped the mainsail a lay a hull for a rest, the boat still heeled about 10-20 degrees under bare poles in the strong conditions.  Hauled the kayak out onto the foredeck and lashed it down for the downwind leg. Plenty of excitement for an old fella for one day. A large Army Chinook helicopter flew by at low altitude on their way out to the lighthouse area on the tip of the exposed Cape.

It was time to run for it, and head for port. Tried Jib only at first which was comfortable in the 30 kn gusts near land.



As Teria got further away from the hills influence the wind setled down again so rounded up and raised the reefed mainsail for the 4-5 knot broad reach 8 nm back to Ross River.  Here's a  U-tube video  Sailing downwind

The bimini went back up under these more comfortable conditions, but was dropped again approaching the river. The quick stowing abiilty of the bimini is a must, usually the boom needs to be let way out to allow the biminis bow to rise up and over on dropping it..other way is to release the boom vang and lift the boom during the bimini drop.

The Sun was setting on arrival and the danger of the entrance breakwall was cleared before it got too dark. I did overshoot the de-rigging anchorage and grounded on a mud bank but turned ok and got away to anchor and phone call in with the Volunteer Coast guard to let them know the trip went well and sign off the trip sheet. (The radio base closes about 5 pm on Mondays, they hand over the radio listening watch to port authorities at night) It was a moonless time of night so slowly motored up river with spot light. Tried my first night haul out and it went ok under big floodlights at the ramp.

twilight sail 2 and Bimini test (Trip #8, Day1)

Around 2pm the Teria was launched at the old Barnicle street boat ramp ("national Park" ramp - it is the second ramp described in Fishing Townsville's post,  newer ramp has a steeper gradient.  The old gentler gradient ramp is the first ramp as you drive in,) It went well, thanks to the new sliding plastic on timber aft bilge crutches (aka "bunks"). A few shoves on the bow dislodged the hull from it's grip and she slid away smoothly after that, with a big long haul/hang on the painter line to stop 1 ton of boat and gear which generated a fair bit of inertia. Pulled Teria back in to hop aboard and start the engine ok, but the throttle was stuck at idle speed!! This was enough to reach the pontoon to tie up so the trailer could be parked. Then idled away along the estuary towards the river mouth. Once clear of things like moored boats, took the outboard cowl off to try and free the throttle,,quickest best i could do was to push the throttle linkage and gain a few revs which allowed a respectable 3 knots hull speed. Tho this was tiring and had to rest and idle away frequently. The thought of cancelling the entire trip crossed my mind, but Teria is primarily a sailboat and there was wind so kept going.

Once rigged up, motor-sailing was used to clear Ross river. Tacking in a confined channel about 50-60m wide as the wind was coming almost straight down the channel. The bimini top was also raised and quickly proved itself in the confined waters, no hindrance to working the boat while providing excellent shade. Once clear a 10 knot Easterly was enough to starboard tack to windward and clear the sugar loading terminals wharf which just out to seaward of the main breakwalls of the port.

Dropped the bimini then main-sail in the ship swing basin and made it to the  pontoon to pick up the family  on time. Rex, our terrier, needed a bit of a carry to get past the expanded mesh walkway and aboard, 9 kg's is a good size for a sea dog, easy to get them on or off a boat. For the next upwind motor the boat hook was employed to push the throttle linkage which was far easier to maintain, it probably didn't look too good to the casual observer but minutes later we were away,  minutes later we were reaching clear of the entrance under full sail.

The western break-wall was rounded ,  a few tacks on the smooth "Duckpond" (haven't seen any ducks yet!) were made before anchoring in the SE corner. Dusk was falling and a cool breeze swept the cockpit area, so half raised the bimini so it acted as a windshield (or dodger), so the cockpit became a fair bit more comfy for dinner with almost no windchill factor.

Townsville western break-wall harbor

Twilight western break-wall harbor

Sunday ended all too soon and time to get ashore. Instead of the pontoon landing we tried our first night-time beach landing as it wasn't far from where we were plus the outboard throttle problem remained. The nearest beach is "tiny beach" in the SE and windward corner of the duckpond.

A bright torch - spot light was very handy, also the tide had risen and covered tiny beach up so only rocks remained. With lookout on the bow and we navigated to the right spot, i swung under the bow rail and stood on the sand of tiny beach which was about 1 foot below the seas surface and held the bow. The wind was from the E-SE which blew the hull downwind away from the rocks. Everyone got ashore ok.

Port lights

Bimini top

With the prospect of being able to do longer trips thanks to the extra range allowed by the EPIRB, a Bimini shade would be a useful addition to keep the suns rays off the crew while sailing. Some Investigators have fitted 2 or 3 bow biminis, the 3 bow needed some shortening of the canvas though. A Bimini is almost essential for enjoyable boating in Queensland.

Economical mass produced off-the-shelf biminis are designed to fit small open power boats of 3-6 m LOA, nearly every small fishing boat i saw on the water in Townsville has one fitted, and the boaties looked very cool in the shade too.!  Not many small trailer-sailers have biminis maybe because of the difficulty to get them to fit among all the complex ropes, rigging, sails, hatches and deck hardware. A bimini must also have a snug and out-of-the-way lowered position for rigging up and trailering.

At home the mast and mainsail were raised and measurements taken of the available free space for the Bimini.  There was 1.2 m available space from deck to boom and 1.7m available between the boom vang and the mainsheet. The coaming width was 1.7m.

Had a look at the Bias boating catalogue and it looked like a 2 bow bimini (size C) by "Ocean South" would fit the space without modifications. Soon had one back at the boat for fitting. They are premium quality - nice yacht blue canvas, anodized 22 mm diameter aluminium tube bows and all-stainless fittings. This one cost $210.

Put it together (spring loaded push pins) and tried different base positions. It  had to go outside the coamings on deck, not on the coaming top. The deck mounts can spread out to the needed 1.83 m from their 1.7 m width to achieve this. Checked it in the raised and dropped forward positions with the bases outside the cockpit coaming. The boom was about 10 cm above the bimini top.

Shade for the forward end of cockpit and main hatch area.

The boom vang sits just ahead of the bimini. Crew can exit cockpit through the V formed by the 2 bows.

Narrow bimini allows for side deck walking access

Room for the main sheets and boom to run freely (may move the aft strap from the pulpit to the cockpit coaming)

In the lowered forward position the folded bimini frame sits in the notch between the pop-top and the mast tabernacle. This allows the mast to be dropped to horizontal in the tabernacle. It also allows the pop-top to be raised when the bimini is stowed.  This size bimini can't safely fold back without risk of breaking the base pivots. (could be possible with a wider base 3 bow bimini?)

Bimini lowered

Bimini lowered - frames lay alongside cabin, side decks clear.

Mast lowered, bimini sits in notch between hatch and mast step.

The 2 bow bimini's top canvas is only 1.4 m (4'7") wide, but the narrow top makes it easy to walk along the side decks to enter the cockpit from forward (at the expense of losing a little shade area). It also looks ok, the frames slope inwards the same as the cabin sides. There is 1.6 m (5'3") standing headroom under it. The Bimini is only 1.57 m (5'2") long so the skipper can stand up behind it and lookout over it's top.

Selleys epoxy putty was used to fill the gap between the mounts and the sloping decks. It's in tube form with epoxy and hardener as layers. Just cut a bit off and knead it awhile, then it goes on like Plasticine and sets hard in 10 minutes. (It's staying aboard incase a hole or crack appears, it can make a quick acting patch job too)

Pivot base with epoxy putty to level it securely

Deck fitting for bimini strap

The guy strap eyelets and pivot bases are screwed down to the deck.

It was cool under there already! The bimini will definitely make the decision to set sail an easy one, especially on a scorching sunny day.  It's ready to test out on the next trip..(There is one thing i may have to modify yet - the aft straps hold down position from the pulpit to the cockpit coaming,,this may increase crew access to the side deck)

Mast and bimini stowed ready for the road.