Thayer's Landing

Now that I have my ASA 101 course behind me, I want to get some sailing in for 2014. I planned on getting a mooring at Wessagusset Yacht Club. I had taken a tour of the facility the year before. Now that I had the work done and could get Reel Fun in the water, I called them to see what they could do. They close early and pull the slips in mid-October, so that wasn't going to work.

I was on Craigslist when I spotted an ad for Thayer's Landing. I had never heard of this place and couldn't find much information about it online. Jeff Thayer, owner of Thayer's Landing, was offering use of the slip for the rest of 2014 (until Nov 1) with the payment for 2015. I took a tour and knew this was a better option than a mooring. It's only 10 minutes from my house and offers onsite parking and a nice grilling/picnic area.

Jeff has a beautiful old house. According to Jeff  - "I am the fifth generation of my family to own this wonderful home. It was built in the late 1600's by Captain Thomas White and was purchased by Dr. Cotton Tufts for his son Cotton Tufts Jr. in the late 1700's. Dr. Cotton Tufts was Abigail Adams Uncle, he delivered John Quincy Adams and was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Medical Society and Tufts University. Dr. Tufts also helped manage the Adams farm and property while John and Abigail were away during John Adams presidency."

I signed up and put my boat in the water on Oct 17th. This was my first time putting a boat in the water. Being nervous around boat ramps, I arrived very early in the morning, set her up, and backed her down the ramp as the sun came up. It went easier than I thought it would and then I had an uneventful motor over to my slip. I had purchased a folding bike, so I put that in the cabin and used it to get back over to my car. It's about 4 miles from my marina to the boat ramp, so it's pretty convenient.

Two weeks in the water is better than nothing!

I can use this big slip for this year, but will have to move to the inside next year.

Thayer's Landing - what a nice quite spot!

I had considered Braintree Yacht club, which is right down the river, but thought it would take too long to get to under the 3A bridge and set sail. I have found that I can motor 5 minutes down the river and set sail before the bridge, so it's perfect. A friend tried talking me into a slip at Quincy Bay Marina, but that's at least 10 more minutes from my house and the Boston traffic can make it longer than that.

ASA 101

Realizing I needed a serious sailing refresher, it was time to get look at sailing schools and hopefully complete this before the 2013 sailing season came to an end.

After some searching online, I found Black Rock Sailing School in Boston. After checking out their site and a call to the owner, Brenton Lochridge, I was signed up for their ASA 101 3 day sailing course on September 19-21.

Nice Colgate 26

Where the poop goes

USS Constitution. This is the boat that was the basis for the story "Master and Commander"

Nice location! 

Under the bridge that connects to Long Island

Captain Paul checking out the weather

We were able to use a new J80 for the last day of sailing. With strong winds and a fast boat, it was an exciting day on the water

Nice view of Boston

I would HIGHLY recommend this class to anyone need sailing instruction. Brenton runs a top notch school and Paul was an awesome, patient instructor.

Finally got the work done on Reel Fun, plus some upgrades

Having absolutely no idea what I was doing when I purchased my first sail boat, it became apparent that there were many things I was going to have to do to get her back up and running.

Issues that needed to be addressed before I put her back in the water:

• Running lights don't work
• Interior light doesn't work
• Electrical panel has seen better days
• Port windows leak and have cracks and broken frames
• Forward port hatch is in rough shape and plexiglass is about to fall out
• Bulkheads were rotted from leaking chainplates
• All deck hardware needs to be re-bedded

I can do most of this myself with my 1 good arm as my left shoulder is still healing. I tried to bribe a few people with beer, but schedules didn't work out so I had to get creative in keeping the topside hardware in place while I unscrewed the nuts from below.

I traced the old window on to some craft paper to make a template. I then expanded it by 3/4" all around to create room for the 3M tape. These windows will be held on by this tape with no screws.

Cutting the new portlights with a jigsaw

New vs old. You can see the 3M tape on the inside of the new portlight

Old portlight

New portlights look much nicer and more modern

This was a major pain to get the topside screws to stay stationary while i unscrewed the nut from inside the boat. Here I have a ratchet tied to the bow pulpit. All through hull bolts were re-bedded using butyl tape. I countersunk all holes to give a better sealing effect.

The boat was still getting some water leaks after I re-sealed all the deck hardware. I found that the water would collect around the rub rail of the boat and then found its way through the deck. The old sealant was rotted out and missing in many places.

Old caulking. I removed all of this and then put in 3M 4200 sealant

Rat's next behind the old circuit panel

Getting the new panel ready

All circuits work again!

Replaced the old, broken interior light with a new LED set

Added a small block for the outhaul

New teak bulkheads with sanded/scraped and painted chainplate mount

New gooseneck, the old one was half way

The old boom vang was in rough shape

New Harken blocks = more better

Precision 18 upgrades

I added a few things to make it easier to handle Reel Fun. I believe the year after my model, they added the blocks to lead the halyard to the cockpit. I copied this so I could raise the main without leaving the cockpit. I also added a "Tiller Tamer" to keep the tiller from flopping over if I let go of it or needed to go to the mast for any reasons.

The Porta Potti was added in case I had anyone on board who couldn't pee over the side :) Hopefully it won't see much use.

Single handed mast raising system

Realizing that I will be raising and lowering the mast by myself, I had to find an easy way to do this. I did some searching online and saw some ideas at the Trailer Sailor forum, which I have put into this handy creation.

The winch is from Harbor Freight and has a wireless key fob control which makes it easy to control while standing at the mast. I fabricated a wooden mount for it and the power wires run back to the battery.

I wish I had taken more pictures of it in action.

To raise the mast:

1. Main halyard shackle is secured to a cleat on the side of the mast
2. Mast is placed into tabernacle
3. Winch is released to place winch hook around the tabernacle area
4. Halyard is pulled tight and a bowline knot is tied and attached to the hook
5. I stand at the mast and start bringing the winch in little by little. 
6. Inspect that the turnbuckles aren't twisted and shrouds and backstay aren't kinked
7. Slowly raise the mast all the way, guiding it by had until the shroud tension takes over
8. Step forward and bolt the roller furling to its attachment point at the bow

To lower the mast:

1. Main halyard shackle is secured to a cleat on the side of the mast
2. Winch hook is released by about a foot
3. Bowline is tied in the other end of halyard and placed on winch hook. Tension should be high because this will add as a forestay.
4. Roller furling is unbolted.
5. Mast is slowly lowered by letting out the winch. Stand by the mast to make sure it doesn't fall to either side once enough tension is off the shrouds

Finishing up construction. The remote key fob is to the right of the hook roller mount

This bolts to the bow pulpit

One of the motor mounting bolts prevents this from sliding off the bow pulpit

A major blow to my 2014 sailing season

I knew I had work to do on Reel Fun before getting her in the water. I had to rebed the deck hardware as there were leaks at the chainplate which rotted out the bulkheads.

As I was getting prepared to do all the work, I was out for a bike ride during lunch at my office. A driver coming in the opposite direction turned in front of me as I just finished crossing a side street, taking out my front wheel and sending me flying. I suffered a separated shoulder, cracked ribs and knee lacerations.

This bike is 2 weeks old!

Looks like the storm on Saturn

My shoulders are now mis-shapen

The most painful thing was my cracked ribs. If I laid down in bed, I couldn't sit back up without excruciating pain.

This has left me unable to do the work to get Reel Fun back in the water. Maybe next year?

Time to start doing some work started

I moved Reel Fun from my backyard and into my driveway so I can get the needed work done and look for a place to keep her in the water.

The kids want to help get her ready