WOW

Wow, is all I keep saying every time we hoist the new sails.  We are in Lake Worth and heading for Miami tomorrow for a few days.

Sailing from Fort Pierce to Lake Worth, we actually tacked down the coastline.  The winds were 10-15 knots from the SE.  We didn't make it all the way, but sailed more than half the distance before we fired up to make it in before dark.

LIFT:  You may remember a previous post talking about the under body and the lift required to avoid excessive leeway when heading to windward.  Kris, at Haarstick, said he was hoping the news sails would help eliminate some of that leeway, and it did.  It is one of those things when you are sailing to windward in the 7 knot range, you think your sails are performing well.  Therefore, I forgot about the lift in sails and how that can help with leeway.

When you think of an old Dacron sail and how the draft has moved aft, you realize that you have created lift at a 90 degree angle to the boat.  This forces the under body to do all the work to try and force your boat forward, instead of sideways.  When your draft is located forward of mid-sail, than you are creating lift that helps to pull your boat in a more forward direction. With the new sails, I can actually see the draft and adjust it to the position required for the point of sail and wind strength.  With our old sails being so stretched, I could not do anything to adjust the sail.

In similar conditions, with our old sails, we were seeing 10-15 degrees of leeway.  This was giving us 65 degree tacking angles.  This will take longer, or as we found out last spring, even never make it to your destination.  With our new sails, we are seeing 3-6 degrees of leeway now.  Still not perfect, but such a great improvement that we felt comfortable tacking down the coastline.  Never thought that would happen with a fully loaded cruising catamaran.  Many monohulls passed us motor-sailing in a straight line and we saw them later in the same anchorage.
                 

 Kent and Jane took some pictures as they PASSED us in their new Cat-Trawler.  You can't see it, but I am wearing my Turtle Towing Service shirt since every time we come across Kent, he passes us.  Towing a turtle is a good excuse for going slow.

 I thought this was a cool picture.  We are sailing in only 3 knots of wind on the Indian River.  It is one of our favorite parts of the trip down because you get flat water sailing and anchorages every 10 miles. So, I refuse to motor.

 Kent and Jane aboard Serenity (soon to be Rising Tide), their PDQ34 trawler.  Twin 100 Hp turbo charged Yanmar's.  I think I still don't have a prayer to beat them.

 The happy couple enjoying the great views from their flybridge.

 Rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.  We didn't know it was going to happen, and it took place right in front of us as we were heading down the ICW.  Couldn't get the camera out fast enough to get a better picture.  Found out later it was a satellite going up.    

All wooden sailboat with high gloss varnish everywhere.  I may like the smell of varnish, but that would be a little extreme.

Racing the Cold!

Looks like we left SC just in time.  They received snow this week along with many places along the East Coast.  Even as far down as GA.

We are in Velcro Beach for a week.  Just got past the 2 sub 50 degree nights, now we are warming up again.

             New Colors for our Home

 The beautiful Yasmine showing you the expanse of the beach at Cumberland Island.  We walked it every day.

Great shot of Georgia's state tree, the live Oak.

 One of Cumberland's wild horses walking on the trail in front of us.  No that is not me taking a picture in the mirror!

 Jacob will attest that someone is a better sand sculpture than I am.

 Two of the sea sisters enjoying a sunset on Fiu.

 Plane took off and landed right next to us.  There is a nice Inn, at Cumberland Island, that people can get there by ferry or plane.

Migration

Yes, the snowbirds have flown the coup and we're heading south to Florida.

We left about a week ago and are sitting at Cumberland Island right in the state line between GA and FL.  This will be our third day here. It has been 3 years since we stayed to enjoy the island and walk the massive beach each day.

Similarly, we spent 2 days at Charleston to enjoy the city for the first time in 3 years.  We stayed across the river at Patriot's Point.  Enjoyed the Market on Saturday and took an historic tour of the city and Fort Sumter on Sunday.  

After that it was starting to get cold at night, the weather was right, so we did an overnight sail and traveled 145 miles from Charleston to Cumberland Island.  The weather didn't turn out as predicted (what's new), but we were able to sail with the new sails for the first time and test them in all types of wind.

All I can say about the new sails is WOW.  We were doing our usual thing and sailing dead downwind with our Code 0.  Then as the 8 knots of wind speed turned onto our bow, we rolled up the Code 0 and raised the main planning on motor sailing.  That was when we noticed that we were already sailing  a couple knots just under mainsail.  We unfurled the head sail and starting making 5 knots.  This is closehauled in 8 knots of true wind speed!!  Never thought this boat would ever be a light air boat upwind.  Thank you Haarstick!

 Picture from Charleston across the Cooper River to our marina at Patriot's Point.  We were adjacent to the USS Yorktown and a submarine, the USS Clamagore (behind Carrier).

 The Citadel at the military college in town.

 They have a giant class ring at the entrance.

                                    Fort Sumter

Part of the original structure.  The start of the civil war was right here on 4/12/1861.

 The stiffness of the sails help to generate lift without spilling air over every wave.

Our sunset on our first overnight sail of the season.
     

Lagoon 410 Catamaran Mainsail and Headsail for Sale

We are replacing the sails on our 2003 Lagoon 410 S2 catamaran.  If anyone is interested in buying my current sails for spares or to replace a torn sail, please comment through blog.

The mainsail and jib are original.  Previous owner did sail our Lagoon 410 to Caribbean, but the boat was never chartered.  Sails are intact, but well used.  Mainsail comes with fiberglass battens (if wanted).  Jib needs a new UV cover.

Sails are currently in Myrtle Beach, SC, but I will be traveling south starting in October.

Lagoon 410 Mainsail 570 sq. ft.

Lagoon 410 headsail 388 sq. ft.

These specs were taken from the 2003 Lagoon 410 catamaran brochure.

2003 Lagoon 410 S2 Catamaran sails for sale.  Picture taken February 2013.

Summer is Flying By!

Spent another week on the road and then Tara, Mike and the grand kids came for a week.  We also had the pleasure of Sid and Bonnie staying with us for a couple of nights.  Having fun, but realize I better get the projects done before it is time to leave.

Have been busy with bright work.  Toe rails had to be taken down and refinished.  Extra storage and spice rack for the galley.  Kris, from Haarstick came down and measured for a new main and head sail.  Plan is to have them completed by Labor Day.  New sail cover should be done by then, and once all is fitted, we are excited to go try them out.  We hope to go up to Bald Head Island and Cape Lookout for a few weeks.  Then it will be Annapolis Boat Show time.  After the show, we will wander our way south again. 

I am going to post another entry in an effort to sell the old sails.  Our blog tends to hit first page of search engines, so bear with us.  

 Kris, from Haarstick.  Flew down from Rochester, NY to make sure the new sails would fit perfectly.  Can't beat the service from Haarstick Sailmakers.

 Talk about a Motley Crew.  We gave Tara and Mike a date night and brought the kids to the Pirate Voyage dinner and show.

                                  AAAAAAAARGH!!!!

Summer in Myrtle Beach

Yes, we are stuck like glue again.  Grandkids, business travel and boat projects have us here until Labor Day.  Better than the 6 months we spent last year.  If you can't be aboard, you can't beat living on the beach.

New Sails.  In the last blog, you will see a picture of Nati.  This is a 38' cat and the owners are from NY.  We sailed out of St. Augustine together and saw them again at Osprey.  In the picture, we are close reaching at 8 knots and Nati is passing us.  You can see she has nice new laminate sails.  Since Yammy and I do not like being passed, we decided to go for the new sails a few years earlier than planned.  The UV cover on our headsail was shredding anyway.  At least that is my excuse.

We decided to go with the Carbon Fiber laminate with a Taffeta layer, on each side, to protect against chafe. Working with Haarstick, we went through many new sail cloths and decided this would be the best for our coastal cruising and desire to make our cat perform upwind.  They will be coming here to measure the boat and plan to deliver around Labor Day.  In the meantime, we need to get a new mainsail cover and possibly a rigid vang installed.

There are many other projects underway as well.  The pictures, below, are of my first gelcoat work.  The aluminum latches have been a problem since we bought the boat.  Don't know why anyone would use aluminum latches in area where saltwater sprays constantly.  To accommodate the smaller round latches, I had to fill the old hole.  The gelcoat matched perfectly.  We now have the option to lock the hatches as well.  

We went with compression latches from GEM.  They had the best reviews on line.  Calling them netted me nearly a $100 in savings from their online pricing.  So far, we are very pleased.

Last year, folding props gave us 2.5 knots of sailing speed.  Hoping for at least a knot with new sails.  As always, we are working to continually lighten the ship as well.  Looking forward to sailing again this fall.

Enjoy the summer!

Never saw a dredging rig like this before.  It was about 2 miles south of the Charleston Inlet.  From a distance, we thought they were filming for the next alien movie :)





    

Back "Home"

We arrived back in Myrtle Beach, and Osprey Marina, on Friday 5/30.  We had some great sailing from St. Augustine up.

We plan to stay here for a month to do some projects and for me to travel.  Yammy will be repainting one of the condos as well.

On the way up, we saw something we have never seen before. A school of Sea Rays.  Many times you will see a single one jumping out of the water and once we saw two together.  This was a school of at least a dozen swimming just under the surface.  They were right next to the boat, but the camera only saw the reflection from the water.  The beauty of silently sailing our oceans.

Battery Update:

It has been nearly 6 months now and we have not seen any degradation of the the battery yet.  In a single summer season, on Lake Ontario, we saw degradation of our new AGM bank from Lifeline.

Out biggest load is the coffee maker.  It draws 90 amps while heating the water.  At a 90 amp draw, our battery voltage only drops to 12.5.  This is always done in the morning when we are at least 40 AH down.    We still have a steady state voltage of 13.2 with up to a 10 amp draw.  The deepest we have pulled is 80 AH, with an average of about 45 AH.  Remember, this is only a 138 AH battery.  Our solar and wind has us re-powered by noon at the latest.

One thing I forgot to mention is, when the old house bank died, the one mounted in the engine compartment was the first to go.  The heat accelerated its demise.  Since the Valence battery is so light and only a Group 27 size, you can easily find a space anywhere to mount.

          French Built Catamaran

        South African Built Catamaran

        Florida Redneck Built Catamaran.  Yes, that is a pontoon boat with sails added.  The engine is still on the back acting as his rudder.  If you look close, you can see his arm hanging out the "window".  Guess he wanted to tan the other arm when sailing.  Have to give him points for ingenuity.