Kaimusailing

. The news was that a crewman on one of the schooners in the Great Schooner Race had fallen overboard and drowned. He wasn't wearing a personal floatation device of any type. A life jacket or flotation jacket or ski vest might get in the way of line handling, but if you watch the big time sailors on the America's Cup catamarans, they are all wearing PFD's under their sailing outerwear, and they are extremely active handling lines and scurrying all over the deck. Sometimes one of them falls in. If the PFD is too much bother, the ones that instantly self inflate when they hit the water are very comfortable and you may die of hypothermia, but you won't drown.
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. I am trying to format the blog, that's what the extra periods are at the margin.
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. The lower flange of the dinette table hatch was clamped into position after taping it off and globbing it with a fairing mixture. The experts like a mixture of 1 part colloidal silica to 3 parts microballons mixed to a consistency of peanut butter. The epoxy resin is mixed first, then the mixture of additives is mixed in. Microballons make a mixture that looks like chocolate icing, but it will sag. If it has the correct consistency when mixed, it will warm up as the epoxy reacts, then it gets runny. Colloidal silica doesn't do that, but it is difficult to sand afterwards, unlike the microballons, which sand easily. So the ratio of 1:3 is an attempt to prevent sagging, but retain ease of sanding. I depleted the epoxy, so new stock was ordered, along with a pile of colloidal silica.
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. The sliding hatch over the chartroom was probed to see the extent of the rot. It was bad. A small crack on the top edge of the hatch allowed moisture to seep into the ply substrate. It began to rot and that allowed the moisture to migrate down to the front edge of the hatch. Most of the front part of the hatch was mush, but the epoxy glass surface was hard, so it appeared and felt like the hatch was OK. A dark stain and then some prodding to look at it revealed the extent of the deterioration. I cut it all out and found the hatch was composite with a thin plywood skin on top and bottom, and the meat of the sandwitch was 1 inch foam. The front edge which was gone, was 3/4 inch wood. I will replace it with pressure treated.
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. The topside helm seat had a bad spot at one end. A quick pass with the circular saw and some trimming with the multi-tool prepared it for new wood. It would all have to wait for the new batch of epoxy, enroute.
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. One of the forward beam covers on the port side had an end that was delaminating. The bad stuff was trimmed off, and it would be just a 10X12X3/8 piece.
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. I had had a bad dream and it drew my concern to a spot at the back of the boat. The sternpost had a soft spot, which I tore into with a pry bar. I checked the other side and both sides had some soft wood. The problem was a welded mount for the aluminum crosstube. It was a beautiful weldment, but its mounting bolts went into the sternpost at an angle, and the head of the mounting bolt sat in a recess in the mount which could collect water. The water would migrate down the bolt into the sternpost. I would have to remove the crosstube and its mounts, repair the sternposts, and modify the mounts so that they would drain off any rain water.
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. The stem and sternpost, as well as the keel, of a classic Wharram catamaran are massive laminations of wood. Their cross section is more like a triangle and at the thickest part, can be 10 to 12 inches in width. The thickness of the laminations is likewise, around 10 inches. The designer wanted to have a thick keel and thick stem and stern in case of the boat grounding or colliding with reefs, submerged containers, rocks, etc. As strong as these mighty balks of wood are, if moisture gets into them, they can rot and turn to mush. The epoxy/glass protective surface, which is meant to keep out moisture, just as well keeps it in, once it gets in.
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. There had been a new skipper down at the dock, who purchased a small sailboat that had been sitting idle. He was sociable, but didn't know a thing about sailboats. We helped him get his bilge pump working, and I showed him how to roll out the jib and hoist the main. A few days later I noticed a fishing punt with a small motor tucked up near the head of the dock. The next day the skipper was wrestling with the motor and got it to start. Another fellow was in the sailboat holding the tiller. They proceeded to untie the sailboat from its slip and tie up the punt to tow the sailboat. After ramming the pilings, the dock, and nearby boats, they paraded around in circles, back and forth, with little control. They said they were moving the boat to a different marina on the north side of the Patapsco.
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. A couple of days later he returned to get his vehicle. It was peculiar that he was barefoot. He said he lost his shoes when he fell overboard. They had run aground twice and crushed the punt between the sailboat and a piling. They had to sleep on the boat two nights in between their ordeal. When they arrived at their new marina, both ended up on the pier with neither the sailboat or the punt tied up. Both drifted off. Hard to believe. That's when the skipper ended up in the water the second time. He was back to get his vehicle barefoot, and what was probably a broken little toe.
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. The picture is of the little sailboat that the skipper took away.