Finally re-launched

It took us a bit of time to re-assemble everything.

We also sanded the canopy and laid a new layer of fiber glass with epoxy resin. Some paint and varnish later, Lady C looks good enough again.

No time to wait, we wanted to launch and sail a bit!

We had to put together the jib pole again, remembering how it was set up. After some time it was ready to lift the mast again.

Lifting the mast is always a scary operation. It is not heavy, but it is long and tall!

Finally, the mast was in place.

Then we tried again every sails, running all lines properly.

And it was time to head out to the ramp. We had some great help from our parents!

There is no overhead electric lines between the parking and the ramp, so we move with the mast up. That is a great thing!

Launching was not easy, it requires to submerge the trailer.

Once launched, the mechanism to lower the quill works well. The soft shackle I had prepared failed and the quill dropped to the sea bed. We could recover it and lift it back in place with the help of the halyard.

Ready to sail! Maracuja and Lady C at the mooring buoy finally.

Our first sail was too quite, not much wind. We stayed in front of the port and motored a bit.

Our second sail was more lively. We had to use the spinnaker to fight the strong tidal current in the Four channel.

And the crew was very happy.

Lady C revival

In February 2013, I left Houston for an assignment in Angola. Bringing Lady C with us was not an option. She stayed under the care of a friend at the HYC.
In February 2016, while I was transferring to a new assignment in Athens Greece, I received a message from my friend in Houston. We needed to bring back Lady C, as he was leaving Houston.
The dimensions of a 40ft container are:

Dimensions:	Length	Width
Overall	40' = 12192 mm	8' = 2438 mm
Internal	39' 5.25"= 12022 mm	7' 5.625" = 2352 mm
Door Opening		7' 8.25" = 2343 mm

Lady C width is 8ft, 2.44 m...! She is too wide to enter a container.

We found a shipper who accepted to take Lady C in a 40ft container. Here is how she looks departing Houston:

I thought of importing Lady C in Greece. But it proved to be a great challenge and it was impossible to bring in US flagged home made sail boat in Greece! While the container was transiting through the ocean, I decided to re-route her to France. She would stay in our house there. And we bought another boat for our stay in Greece anyway!

Here is what Lady C looks like when arriving in Le Havre.

Yes, she seats on the trailer and the trailer seats against the wall! I would never thought that she would be fitted like that! But she was fine! Off course, it took some skills to take her out of the container.

Then she was trucked to our house where she stayed in the shade for three years. Having another boat in Greece, we took all our time off there and sailed the Cyclades. No real need to spend time in France and sail around Molene!

Meet our amazing 1999 Catana 401 "Vite & Reves". What a dream boat! 

This year, I was assigning to Rio, Brazil and had to leave Greece. Vite & Reves was sold quickly...

And now, I will have a bit more time to look after Lady C and get her back on the water!

My first goal this year is to remove the ballast and the daggerboard and install the keel. I had planned to do this, but could never find the time. The trunk was closed and sealed and the keel fin opening shaped for duty. For that, we had to pull Lady C on her side again!

With the keel in place, the trailer support had to be extended to leave enough room for the bulb. I also moved forward the trailer wheel axis to better balance the load. The buld is much forward than the ballast and daggerboard weight, especially when this one is up on the trailer!

And then, I build a lifting jig to pull the keel fin up and down. I used the same kind of winch than the daggerboard one. It is quite efficient and works perfectly.

Lady C has been neglected for a few years and needs a refit. The high quality Joubert plywood has perfectly resisted to the weather. However, I used basic pine wood for the hardwood (not for the keel though!) and this one are showing some signs of damage.

The chain plates had some play and water had dripped and the pine wood inside was rotten. needed to be rebuilt. I reinforced both sides with additional epoxy inside and stainless steel backing plates. This looks super strong now!

Next, the canopy needs a big sanding and new fiber and epoxy protection layer.

And I need to register Lady C in France! I look forward to see her sail in the Molene archipel!

Quite sail across the bay

Once upon a time in Texas...

Bulb

Need crew

In April, we had planned to participate to the mixed double regata. The weather was not with us, so the regata was cancelled and re-scheduled. I am now single, familly gone in vacation, and desparately looking for a crew. If you are interested, leave me a message here.

https://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/regatta_uploads/5139/2012MixedDoublesRevisedNOR.pdf

PHRF-GB

So we did the first race with 245 "estimated" rating. Now the official rating has arrived: 150!

Now, we need to look for sailing excellence to beat the competition!

Boom

This side of the boom, with the new cuningham, with cleat on the cannopy...!

The other side of the boom, with the fine tack...

Side note: The manufacturer of the motor does not offer yet the option to charge back the battery, with the properler free wheeling while under way with the sails. But, they are apparently looking at that option. This would be really great.

Barber hauler

Added this week-end the barber hauler... Works perfectly!

At the dock



So, last Friday, we went with the familly for a little tour. Passing by the race boat slips, someone asks me if I am the one who requested a PHRFGB rating for LadyC. Yes, I am the proud owner. OK, the rating offered is 150... far from the 245 that was originally given to me... It will be much more challenging now and we will have to play with the big boys, instead of being the one driving the show! To bad, next weekend is the duo mixt race, the advertising also call that race the divorce race, I won't be able to participate, since we are going diving to Flower Garden in the middle of the Gulf.



Outriggers

Near the Seabrook Marina, almost under Seabrook-Kemah bridge, there is a place that I need to check out one day. It is right on the water, on the pass from Clearlake to the bay. There is a boardwalk around and customers either comes from the shore, usually with large pick-up trucks or gorgeous Harleys, or from the water side. There is noise from the above bridge, good music and probably great cold beers for afternoon after sail. Usually, there are several huge offshore motor boat moored in front, the one that flourish around here with super loud twin V8 or so. When these guys maneuver in front of the bar to dock, you probably have to plug your ears. All in all, I like that place, looks like plenty of fun! With LadyC we do not play in the same backyard, but I am sure we could have a god time there one of these days...

Inside

Here is how things are made inside Lady C, the spin pole and the centerboard winch...

Main sail - Less efforts

Today installed the fine tack differently. The previsou installation did not have anough course on the fine portion of it.

Electric Motor

 I have tried the gas engine, but honestly, the e-motor convinced me more... For smaller power need, the Travel is definitely an option.

Fine tunning

Following the race last week-end, today was a good day to implement the lesson learned.
1- The main sail tackle has got only four strands, so in strong was not providing enough demultiplication. I also needed a stronger version for the car with travel adjusting pulleys. The original car I purchased did not have adjusting pulley and was only rated 850 lbs. The top shakle got bent...! So I installed the 1250 lbs car with a fine tackle going to sheaves installed on either side of the main car.

I am not sure yet if I will have enough travel for the fine tackle, once the boom is in place on the main. We shall see! I hope it will be OK, because I am very satified with this setup. It is very clean and will not affect the sail position like the ones in the cockpit. If it does not work, I can repalce the fidle pulleys with standard blocks to gain height..

2- I pulled the fore stay 10 turns on the turn buckle and released both sides sides two turns. The mast looks much straighter now and slightly more forward than it was.

3- Pulley and cleat for the spin pole tack point are in place.

4- For the jib "barber hauler", I still need to put some thoughts around this. I would like to install the jib tracks on the deck, but is will be too wide... Still some thought needed here!

Icicle Race

So we got to our first race with Lady C on saturday March 10th 2012: the last of the 2012 Icicle series...
I was given a first PHRF estimate rating of 245.
With that rating, we finished 6th (4th in our spin category: http://www.gbca.org/Resources/Documents/2012%20Icicle%20Series%20Results.pdf), with much larger race boats behind us... We should have won, but I must have the halyards mixed inside the mast and we could not launch the spin like we wanted and lost quite some time. We where first at all the marks except the finish line. Wind was about 20 knots and we had all sails up, going up wind at 6 knots and surfing down wind at more than 8 knots... My two partners were excellent (much better than I am in this kind of wind) and I have to practice more with them to learn how to handle this great small boat better in stronger winds. Also, I was not very comfortable, knowing what happened to me last time we tried the spin...

I have a few things to improve on the boat:
1- I need a sheave and a line on the spin pole to launch the spin from the cokpit.
2- I need some sort of side hauler for the jib, as it was not optimized with only the jib tracks installed originally.
3- I need a fine tune set of blocks for the main sheet, as I have the 4 lines from origin and it is not enough in strong wind to work the main properly when sailing up wind.
4- And I need to address the halyards issue in the mast...
We could not make much better than 95 deg from tack to tack when going up wind. Lady C is the centerboard version for the SB18. I have prepared the fin for the keel version, I still need the bulb. Once I got that it will probably do a greater job!
All in all, we had great fun. This small boat is so pleasant to sail and so fast for the size, a real pleasure to sail...

Yves

Back to shipyard

So, I have the Lady C back in the garage. I had to work on few things. First, while on the road with the centerboard up, it ripped out the strap winch from it's support. So I reinforced the support with 3 layers of fiber glass an re-installed the winch. Then, the canopy continues to deformed itself. I originally covered the outside wood strips with one layer of fiber glass and painted the inside. Obviously, the internal side of the wood strip continue to see humidity level changes and this make it move. So decided to sand inside as well an laid one layer of fiber glass inside. The port side mid ship cleat had a airline crack, caused by the tow boat when pulling on it to turn around the Lady C. So I repaired that as well. I noticed when sailing up wind, that I had water coming on deck and some of it always flowed along the canopy/deck seam and on to the bench where wetted our buts. So installed a deflector to keep bench dry. I sent the motor for repair and got it back. It had water ingress through one plug and they replaced the complete motor, as warranty. The main sail was repaired. I had the rope removed and replaced with slides. The jib is intact and the spin is trashed. The new mast is on it's way to Houston... The insurance reimbursed everything, towing, sails, new mast... I just need to repair the few things above and put things back together.

Last week-end

Center board up, down wind, under spinnaker, one reef in the main, 8 knots, 3 crew. A stronger wind gust capsize Lady C. After a few seconds, water start entering the cockpit and the mast touches the bottom.
Thanks to all the foam I have put in the hull aft and the forward void spaces, Lady C. stays afloat, but never comes back up. We have to call help and get the Lady C. salvaged by BoatUS.
The mast comes back in 3 pieces, the sails are all damaged and the motor no longer works, but the hull is intact... We have to stay onshore for a few weeks, until we find a new mast and a new set of sails.
Lessons learned:
- Lady C. is well build
- Void space forward and foam in the aft of the hull prevented Lady C from sinking.
Improvement:
- See if I can put foam in the next mast head.
- Buy a wind meter.
- Keep the VHF handy at all times.
- Keep the cell phone, car keys and wallet in handy closed bags.
Thanks to:
- The Oceanis 39 who was the first on the scene and rescue us
- BoatUS who brought Lady C back up
- Pete who had a handy VHF
- Pol who will remember what the big red sail looks like!

On board details

Rigging up the mast

So, here is a question that everyone has: How do you rig up a 30ft mast onto a 18ft boat.
It took me a while before having a good answer.
I made a smaller mast with a jib. The mast and the gib are each 2" aluminum pipe, 4 m long. The mast rests on the centerboard trunk, where I have attached a round piece of wood that fits inside the mast pipe end. There are 3 stays to hold the mast in position.

The jib is attached to the mast, about mid height with a pivot.

The hook is made of a longer rope around the main mast and that can slide long it up to the spreader bars.

Once all is in place, one just need to lift and another one old the main mast step, since this one is ligther than the main mast head.