A brief summary of 2013

2013 Has been a very fun and eventful year for Valmik and me.

The Highlight is most definitely winning the Swale Barge match this year with my lovely girlfriend. I met her on the evening after last years race. She, her father, and a friend saved Valmik from drifting off into the dover straight when my anchor dragged.

I Had a nine day holiday cruising up the river Thames with my lovely girl friend on her Dutch Barge. We had a really lovely and relaxing time. I was amazed at how beautiful the river Thames is in the lower reaches of the non tidal part.

I crewed on a tall ship for seven days from Essex to Oban through the New Caledonian canal. I spent almost all of everyday up in the rigging tying the Ratlines. I managed to get an amazing picture of me planking on the top of the mast as we sailed through Loch Ness.

And lastly I got a job crewing on a big tug boat, towing a boat from Holland to England. The weather was perfect and I had a really nice trip. The boat we towed really wanted to stay pointing sideways the whole trip. We really should of had a big sea anchor/drogue deployed to keep her straight. Fighting chafe was the biggest problem, I learnt alot.

 

And that is the most exciting things that I did this year on the water.

 
Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a great new year. 

BACK AFLOAT

Well I will start by saying that I am very happy with my full survey:-) and Valmik is now back in the water where she belongs. I have corrected all of the problems found.

The Keel bolt washers were a very quick and easy fix. The nuts were starting to get rusty anyway and I had planed to paint them properly, whilst out of the water getting this survey. Cutting up some steel plate and drilling out the holes, then fitting and painting took up one full day and two evenings.

The planking issue which was found took me about two weeks to sort out. I had to remove some planking and replace with three planks. This was because there was some short planking, and the butt joints where these planks met where all too close, creating a weak point in the hull. A bad repair was done in the past and it was not recognised by me. It is very skilled work to replace planks on a clinker boat, and I managed to make one silly mistake. The first plank went in very smoothly and I scarfed the joint this time. It is much harder to do a scarfed joint than a butt joint, but it is much stronger. I wanted to test myself and enhance my skills, and it is quite challenging to avoid gluing the two planks together when gluing the scarf joints. I ruined the second plank and two days work because I assumed the angle of the land, where the plank touches the one above it, would be the same as the first. I had only a small discussion with a shipwright about it all before I started the planking, so was mostly teaching myself. It is a good lesson to learn, as the angle of these lands gives the boat its lovely shape in a way. The second attempt on the second plank went very well as I had the failed attempt to use as a template. I unfortunately destroyed the third plank removing it, and couldn't use it as a template for the replacement plank like the first two. But made a separate template up for it which worked well. I need to thank my three helpers for their assistance with the fastening of these planks. Thanks Olly, Ewan and Chris for your help with the copper clenching, much appreciated!

Also during Valmik's short time ashore I managed to get some other jobs done.

Antifoul, Which is much easier out of the water than in. Thanks Kate for helping.

Painting of the bilge, Which is always wet when afloat, being a wooden boat :-)

Rudder steps, Two steps on my rudder for climbing aboard easier.

 I also have a new paraffin heater which my mate sold to me. It is really neat and runs off the same pressurized tank for my stove. Got the cabin up to 25deg C in an hour from 6deg C. I had to turn it off at this point, as some things need insulating to prevent them from over heating.

It was also just really good to see all of the work I have done is holding up under the water.

1st race, 1st place

Well I will start by saying that last years Swale barge match did not go to plan, as you might know if you have read some of this blog. This year was completely different. I kept a very close eye on our position, I had charts and we did not go aground.  Here is the full story..

 There was a vicious storm the night before the race and I was worried our buoy would drag. As I looked out the window I saw one unfortunate boat dragging their anchor. The morning was quite windy as well, about 20 knots gusting 25 knots would be my guess. I was blessed with a very lovely and experienced crew this year, my girlfriend Kate(who has sailed across the Atlantic) and one of her friends Sophie (who races quite a lot). We were running a little late for the start, lashing and stashing everything. I put the second reef in the main and reefed the jib. We sailed of the mooring buoy and practiced our first few tacks as a team, which went fine. Then headed for the start line, running down wind with the tide under us, we started 5 mins late.

     We were goosewinging the whole first leg with the jib poled out with a broom stick:-) We spotted another bermudan rigged boat well ahead but could not pick out any others. I am very happy, with the dead down wind sailing in Valmik with second reef and reefed jib. We were making 7 knots at the most but averaging about 6 knots.

  We rounded the first mark and onto a starboard beam reach. Heeling right over Valmik started leaking quite a lot. I switched off the automatic bilge pump as it was draining the battery. It was manual pumping from their on in, and I have two big manual pumps for this. I realized on this leg that my topping lift was still on, and my outboard engine was dragging. Must of been very excited to of missed these. Although dead down wind the topping lift did not look that bad or affect boat speed.

 After rounding the next mark all boats had to sail into the wind and tide which were both quite strong. Some couldn't and dropped sails to motor. Valmik really leaked  a lot during this leg, as we were close hauled and really pushing it into wind and waves. I had to tell Sophie, who was helming, to take it easy on the old girl. HAHA. At times I was struggling to keep up with the water ingress. If I left it too long whilst do some Navigation or check on our sailing, I had to call in a favor from my massive electric bilge pump. Which quite quickly pumped the water out with me helping on the manual pump. My wind generator and solar panel were doing quite well at keeping the battery topped up, after turning my automatic pump off.

  We eventually got around the next mark near Whitstable and started heading back in. The tide must of slackened off a bit and we started really catching the other boats. The last leg was really good fun for my crew and I as it was all short tacks to windward. We were pointing higher and sailing faster than the other boats and must of overtaken at least 7 gaff rigged boats. But most importantly the other we had spotted Burmudan. Every time he tacked it took him 20 seconds to get his jib in, which slowed him down too much. With three of us on Valmik our tacks were very quick and we made no mistakes. I was very impressed with the Folkboats ability during this final leg, and would of loved the race to go on for another 2hrs in the same direction to see how many we could overtake????

We crossed the finish line and sailed down past our mooring buoy, dropped the main, sailed uptide on the jib and nice and slowly easying the jib to control  our speed, picked it up. Perfect finish to the day of sailing. The boat stopped leaking straight away as we were no longer heeling over. This was a good indication that the leaking was only due to the topsides having not taken up. It was also only because we were pressing the boat so hard as well. The planks have had a lot of sun and heat  this summer, and not much moisture to help them swell, which would most probably solve this problem.

  We went in for the prize givings and I was over the moon when they called out "1st place Burmudan rigged challenge,  Valmik"    WOW, I got a trophy and a six pack of beer.

What a day.      This is the most challenging sailing Valmik has done for quite some time. I have owned the boat for 5 years. And it was out of the water for about 4 years before I got her. To win this trophy really signifies my success with the restoration of this lovely little boat! It does not matter that there were only three boats all up in my division...     :-)

I have just put a short video of the race on my public face book page. Follow this LINK to watch it, and like my page while you are there :-)  Once again for those of you who are not signed up to face book, do not worry, you do not need to sign up to view this!!

1st proper solo sail! First for 2013

Two weekends ago I went down to the Solent to race on a folkboat for the Nordic Nationals. It was the best conditions that the English weather could produce for sailing, sunny and warm with a good stiff breeze. It was good to see Folkboats in action racing against each other. After the last race on Saturday I helmed the boat under main alone, back up through and into Lymington yacht haven where we dropped the main then moored. This was all a really good experience for me, and loads of fun Sailing up the very busy river.

A very lovely newly built wooden Folkboat.

I have been very busy over the winter and working very very hard!!! As usual!! I am Very slowly gathering all the kit I need and getting all the jobs finished. Yes everything is finally all coming together.

I now have an old seagull two stroke which is proving to be a reliable bit of kit! (all fingers crossed it stays that way). It is of the same sort of vintage as Valmik so it suits her well.

One of my mates came down to say hi last Wednesday evening, and we decided to take Valmik out and give the engine a run. Everything went really well and we rafted up with a mates 28ft Sabre on a mooring buoy for the night.I rowed my mate ashore and had a few rums to celebrate Valmiks first outing for the year. In the morning it was blowing about 13-15knots. I was a bit hesitant about testing out my rig by myself, as I had made so many changes and I was not sure how smoothly all of the things would run!

Now If you have read my July 2012 post you might remember that my first solo sail on valmik did not go to plan. Wind too strong for me to row against and with an outboard engine that was playing up, I almost went up on the mud for a whole tide!  I failed to get out of the small creek. I also only managed to get the jib up.

So being a little unsure on my own, I cast off from my mates boat under a reefed jib alone with fenders deployed, intending to sail straight down wind into the creek and start up the seagull engine to get back to my mooring. Shortly after and not much distance gained I realized I needed more sail, my mate overtook me and  I pulled out the reef in the jib. Looking around from the foredeck I wondered why was I so worried?? It was not really that windy. Up went the main and I quickly caught up with him. We had a really lovely sail following each other and tacking across in front of each other, playing chicken, me not giving way when I should of, testing out our handheld VHF's. We both sailed back up the creek as far as possible. I then decided to test out my rowing and sculling. I rowed most of the way back in straight against the wind and tide, neither of which was very strong, and sculled her home to her mooring very smoothly in the rain to a very slow near perfect touch down which wouldn't of broken an egg!  I am super impressed with my rudder being able to hold course in light winds. It free's me up so much. I had my hand off the tiller for about three to five minutes close hauled in 10 to 13 knots and she held her course.

 This was really my first proper solo sail on Valmik. And I am very happy with everything so far.

Every week I am knocking things off  Valmik's  " job's to do " list and the list is getting smaller and smaller, but of course I am finding more things to do, and such is boating. But the good news is that these things are not really essential to me getting out there and sailing. I will tell you about only three of the most important jobs left and a bit of equipment that I still need.
1. cabin floor and supports finished off, needing to be properly bedded down and painted, and  most importantly ready for a knockdown or 360 roll, which means not spilling contents into cabin!
2. I need to sort out my gallery area, which means finding permanent spot for things, and ready for simular sort of treatment as above.
3. Need to replace the wire inside my mast for my nav lights. I will mouse the old cable then switch it and must go up the mast to do most of this and rewire!

Stuff and things still needed...
A couple of solar panels to fit £400, Epirb£300, Offshore flares £200, Protective clothing£££ Life raft£££ A back up Battery£100 to £300 for a really good one! And that is actually just about it, so very nearly all the kit I need  :-)

Will be updating my  public facebook page soon with new photo albums detailing some work. follow the link on this blog or click HERE. You do not need to sign up to face book to view these pics, but if you are a member be sure to like my page whilst there!-)

Is Spring, Finally Here I Wonder

Well to start off with it has been a really long winter! Not the coldest but long. Valmik is really comfy for me and I have been warm and busy. Just this weekend gone we had the nicest weather of the year so far. Lots of sunshine and warm as well (Well warmer than winter:). And considerate enough to grace us on a weekend. So I decide to start the day by checking on my rigging. Now I have had my mast down for over a month. I had curled the whole gang up inside a old/clean tire to give it a "flushing"(I shall call it) in paraffin and linseed oil. It is so hard to spill out of a tire! Then made a decision to "slush" it all anyway to do it properly and protect it!  I don't know how long it usually takes to dry, but I was starting to get annoyed at it taking so long, and the weather certainly was not lending any assistance. I had it all bundled up under cover away from where the rain could get to it. Nope, still sticky, and still dripping :( yes I was a little frustrated! over a month!
I decided to put it out of my mind and crack on with some more work

What's next? Ah my boom. Now I have just had a mate weld me up a new goose neck. The goose neck attaches the boom to the mast. Valmik was set up for boom reefing when I got her. And I have decided to go with slab reefing. Just quickly, Boom reefing rolls the main sail around the boom, Slab reefing pulls points of the sail down to be fixed, And there are more. I have chosen slab because it has by far the best reputation, and for a few reasons. Basically my boom would twist when I didn't want it too. My main sail out haul and kicking strap were also the only things holding the boom against the mast. I had some snap shackles doing the job of the reefing horns, and poorly at that. So I cut out the parts of the old one that I needed, cut up some extra steel, designed a new one, and got my mate to do the welding! all for £25.

     
So I went to look at my boom and think about attaching the goose neck when I noticed a crack running along a glue line of an old repair of mine. So I had to repair this as well, Great. Nothing was going well  at all. And I got a bit fed up with it all! Was I ever going to get out of here? For just over five years now I have been struggling away trying to get this all started. How many more before I could do some proper sailing!
Yes I sort of felt like giving up!
No I didn't!  I am so close now.
Actually I can count on half of one hand the amount of time I have thought about giving up. And these thoughts are not really serious or last that long.
So I thought "Stuff it, put the mast up with a sticky dripping rig" the weather was perfect for mast raising. Now the day had a goal and I went at it. Re rigged half of the mast, attached new VHF and pulled cable though mast, Inspected navigation lights. I inspected every shackle and smeared a little lanolin one everyone before attaching and seizing. Now my mast was alongside on the pontoon. Lifting a ten metre long wooden mast half rigged, is similar to lifting a medium build rugby forward which wants to wobble around everywhere and hit everything. Much like playing the game and tackling a real one. A fully rigged mast, well, charging props can be tackled but you could get hurt too. Best to go round the legs! So I took it in steps. I did have a mate to call on but thought it more challenging to do it all myself!

As you might be able to see. I had to lash a pole out horizontally to support the mast near my wind generator, also keeping the mast central. I like to use the spanish windlass Knot I think it is called? It is so good and strong I have actually used it to lash most of the poles, holding my wind generator up, together!! love that knot! I should bother to find out it's proper name,,, someday:)




Moving the mast into position was very difficult!!!
I took it very slow.Then rigged the rest of it.

I took a line from my mast to a mates boat. Attached a block to his halyard and raised it all up high. This gave me a very good angle. His halyard winch made my life a lot easier and the mast came slowly up. I had to rig another line to stop my mast going side to side, and had to juggle both these lines as up she went!



And I would now, like to talk about the therapeutic value of raising your mast on your own.

"Raising your mast alone is Therapeutic"!

test fit

Oh I repaired my boom on sunday:)

 hack boom and cut wood.

wait a day and hack again

glue it in

hack till pretty

hide repair

magic

Also my VHF is now playing up!
And my anchor light is not working!      It's all fun and games.

new videos

Have some new vidoes on my face book page!

The link face book albums should take you there!

or this link

This little boat

 I have decide to make a new water resistant, bigger, more practical electrical panel!

New panel being glued on left!.......Old panel against hull on right!

I was not happy with the old one for a few reasons. Not enough room to add instruments,  it was very exposed to water and I didn't like it's position. As a friend said "If you were knocked down water would be all through it".


                                                                   VALMIK
                                                          Costs and time spent

I have recently been through all of my costs and time spent on the restoration. I will not list each individually here as I sure you would be bored, and it is enough to fill a Book!

Total time spent, (this is days worked only!!! and does not account for hours!!! which the average of would be something like 10 hours a day thanks to the long daylight of the English summers!
2 years and 2 months!!

Total £££ spent, (This does not include my sails, which I made, and value very highly. And most things I have bartered for or received at trade price. Also we could not forget all of the freebies which have been given or taken:) HE he. People have been extremely nice to me and I have had lots of Freebies, including dinners!!!)
£12,000 Roughly...
listing a few,
£700.  Paraffin cooker,
£770. whole rig, Bronze bottle screws and wire
£500. Skin fittings and sea-cocks for self draining cockpit.
£3000. 5 sails not included.

£15,000 sails included. £48,000 sails and time priced (priced at something like the minimum wage £15,000)
I am yet to have Valmik Valued. But I would hope for it to be over £10,000.

Wait a second your saying??? You spent over two years and £12,000 on something that's only worth about £10,000 you must be mad! Maybe??    
                                                       But,,
"This Little Boat" Has been my home for nearly five years. I also hope to get lots of enjoyment from it, it will hopefully take me safely across many a high sea travelling to many countries. Sailing is not just a very popular sport and pastime, it's also a life style!  And not to mention everything that I have learnt since Late 2007 when I started working on boats. Some have called it a labour of love! There has been many times which I have thought that If I had worked for a few years and saved  I could have bought a bigger boat sooner, and After spending five years AT IT, this is almost certainly true...
But, where would "this little Boat" be now???     

 New  electrical panel composing, two fuse panel's, battery monitor and navtex. Yet to be varnished