A Jolly up the Tamar

Friday may well be one of the last few trips I do in Arwen this year. It has been dismal. I've barely sailed her in 2012. I'm thinking of sailing up under the Saltash Bridges up to Weir Quay. It is a round trip of about 20 nm or so depending on how much tacking up the river I have to do.

Possible options for Friday

The tides are favourable; big springs rising during the day. Against it is a variable wind situation with winds looking as if they will be blowing from the north west so it will be a hard beat up that channel! We have also had huge rainfall so there will be huge volumes of water coming off the upland moors as well flowing downwards. Should make for a speedy return trip though!

the various weather report sites

An alternative is to go left and up to Dandy Hole on The Lynher. I still haven't reached it yet!!

Another alternative is to stay in the sound and do some drills. there is a floating pontoon on the north side of Drake's island at the moment providing an opportunity for doing some 'coming alongside' work; similarly some large unused buoys are also available in the vicinity. time spent doing such drills is time well spent in my opinion.

the tidal info for the next few days: remember 1 hr has to be added for BST

I dunno! I'll make a decision tomorrow night. In the meantime if you are interested in either rivers, here are some previous posts to inform you

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/little-bit-more-about-sailing-up-tamar.html
http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/beating-up-wind.html
http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/some-video-clips.html
http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/remaining-film-clips-of-tuesdays-sail.html
http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/creek-crawling-up-lynheranother-summer.html

Steve

tiller tamer for navigator

Robert has been sharing his tiller tamer on the JW forum. He has used it very successfully on a 20+ mile journey in 15 - 20 knot winds. He says it could be locked off to give him up to 15 minutes free hands in which he could get a snack; move about his boat etc. Having browsed the website http://www.daysailer.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1659 it certainly looks a good idea.
I have a tiller tamer on Arwen, a sightly different configuration but it works equally well. I adapted it from http://www.petersmall.co.uk/site/RIG%20TILLER%20LINES.htm#method 8
and at http://intheboatshed.net/2006/12/18/the-dinghy-cruising-association/

I've found it just as useful. Well worth installing.

Steve

'Stacey' spanish motovespa 125 super' update: thank heavens for Granddad's

There are considerable advantages to having a Granddad who is an engineer. He thinks like a an engineer; solves complex problems like an engineer. It is a thinking process to behold.
Last Tuesday Granddad managed to advance the work done on 'Stacey' our 1971 motovespa 125 super restoration project after a stall of a few months!

pre-restoration 'Stacey'

So for the one or two who are interested in 'Stacey': where have we actually got to?

Well Granddad solved the problem of the wonky headset. There was far too much play in it after we had tightened it up and we couldn't work out why. Turning a square nut in the headset through 90 degrees cured the problem! Yeah I know, don't say anything. It was a humbling moment for Granddad's son as grandson turned to his Dad with a look of derision on his face!

We also managed to get the gear cables installed and threaded correctly but then the real fun started and that Granddad was unable to resolve, as much as he wanted to! But he had to leave that afternoon and had already stayed 2 hrs beyong his initial departure time and we all knew a late home Granddad might get into trouble with a lovely 'Granny'! So he had to leave us with the gear cable fiasco to sort out....and we failed miserably! We have had to send out a plea for physical assistance i.e 'please come to our garage and help us' kind of assistance to Vespa forum members who live in south west England!

So here is a summary of our plea for help sent down the fibre optic cables and out in to the ether early this morning:

 

"The end is so near ‘in sight’ yet feels so far away!

Basically everything has been restored but we are stuck on three or four BIG things

1.       The gear cables are proving a nightmare beyond our capabilities and very basic knowledge. We have installed three sets and each time run into the same problem. When you twist the gear change on the handle bar it will drop into first from neutral but when you try to twist the grip back to select neutral or other higher gears – nothing – the tube will not budge one iota; Nada!; if you disconnect the cables and use pliers to turn the gear selector at base of engine – there is no problem – spin the wheel and the gears select easily.

 

We will recheck whether we have the gear selector arm in correwctly on the right hand side of this picture

 

 

The clutch works fine as well (although see final point below). We are not sure whether we have the gear selector head correctly positioned within the headset unit or not but it seems to have sufficient rotation room to move through all the gears 1 to 4. Basically we are stumped and have no idea what to do next. People gave us very detailed instructions in response to a previous plea for help and we followed them to the letter. Hence the success with sorting the clutch cable. We have also swapped the gear cables around just in case we inserted them and connected them the wrong way as well; so we have done that!

 

the gear selector arm is at the base of the engine unit behind the flywheel and so is difficult to get at!

 

2.       There is a problem with the speedo and we have fitted a new cable as well and stripped out the speedo drive twice. If you don’t put the speedo in and just have the cable poking out the top of the fork then when you rotate the wheel the cable rotates too. Put on the speedo and rotate the wheel and nothing – not a flicker of the needle and we don’t know why and don’t have sufficient knowledge to work it out either. Very frustrating!

 

I'm really beginning to HATE this speedo unit!

 

3.       Having restored the engine we have yet to a) start it up or b) test the electrics and so we need someone around to help us do those things so we don’t blow up the engine or ourselves

4.       A minor point but when we bought the bike up from being on its side during cable installation to upright we noticed that the little black bung that sits at the top of the tube on the clutch plate (where I think the clutch spring and brass plunger are located) had popped out; oil had leaked out. What does this mean? Have we got the clutch cable too tight?

Why did the bung pop out of the top of this tube?

 

We are so close to getting ‘Stacey’ (my son’s name for the scooter – I have no idea why and neither does he!!) on the road but despite months of playing about we have been beaten by these issues and know it

So……rather than get people travelling long ways to come and help us, as deeply appreciative as we are of these generous offers, is there anyone you know of locally within say 70 miles of Plymouth who is either a great scooter fan and mechanic or who owns a scooter repair/restoration business who might be able to help us out. We approached a couple of businesses in Plymouth but they just don’t seem interested and they are general scooter and motorcycle repair places and we sense we need people who know and understand older scoots

Any suggestions would be deeply welcome because right now we are stalled!

Steve and Sam

1971 Spanish motovespa 125 super restoration

PS below are the blog pages posting on 'Stacey's rebuild progress....for masochists, the bored, the insomniacs...these pages will cure your woes!"

 

 

Well, lets hope that some kind souls out there can be our 'knights on shining armoured scooters' because right now we are pretty desperate! We'll let you know how it goes!

Steve and a crestfallen number one son.

 

here are the previous blog entries for those who are remotely interested:

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/we-are-nearing-end-with-stacey-our-1971.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/i-wish-i-had-come-across-this-lot-when.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/stacey-is-stalledwhere-do-we-go-next.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/restoring-spanish-1971-motovespa-125.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/missing-bearings.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/we-have-been-working-little-more-on.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/stacey-update.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/quick-stacey-update.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/help-us-figure-out-staceys-wiringplease.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/progress-on-stacey.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/stacey-update.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/stacey-motovespa-update.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/progress-on-stacey.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/inside-stacey.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/stacey-disaster.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/renovating-vespa-engine-wasnt-in-grand.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/stacey-update.html

http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/not-arwenbut-stacey.html

what food should dinghy cruisers take with them?

I was thinking about this only the other day. Steve Earley of Spartina fame always does good blogs on food but then I came across this one. Well worth the read as always. Pearls of insight and wisdom from creeksailor at http://creeksailor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/small-boat-domestics.html

Steve

a tribute to one of my heroes

Neil Armstrong August 5^th 1930 to August 25^th 2012

We all have personal heroes; people who inspire us through their deeds, manners and relationships with others. I have a few. Some are local people I know; others are family members both past and present. Then there are famous people. For me there were Scott and Oates; Shackleton; Hillary and Norgay. You can see I’m from an expedition background!

However, another set of my heroes were members of the Apollo missions in the late 60’s and early 70’s; and the astronauts of the later shuttle missions. Although I am a geographer, I suspect that if I were able to rerun my life, and I had been better at maths and physics in school, astrophysics and astronomy could have become real passions and a career option.

Space exploration like terrestrial exploration has always fascinated me and so it was with great sadness that I like everyone else heard of the death this week of Neil Armstrong.

 

There will be many extraordinary testaments to this man in the next week or so. I cannot do him justice but here are a few reasons why this man was a personal hero.

 I was one of the 600 million who saw him land on the moon and take those steps down to the lunar surface. I was seven. The whole of my primary school had been assembled in the hall. My class were late in. As a seven year old I wasn’t really tuned into the events that were unfolding but I was astute enough to know that all the school assembled outside of normal assembly time was something special; as was the one black and white TV mounted on a stand on the stage. Being at the back I knew I had to get to the front to make sense of the flickering images. I wriggled snake like on my stomach through the maze of students to end up in the front row and I was captivated. They say catch a child early and they can develop passions from those first encounters. I was mesmerised. Since then I’ve been a space geek! Funny the childhood memories we carry.

 

There can be no one who can deny that Neil Armstrong was an exceptionally courageous man. Acknowledged by Buzz Aldrin, another brave soul, as ‘the best pilot I know’. Neil survived 78 combat missions in Korea and managed to land the lunar module with only 10 seconds worth of fuel remaining. Such courage is to be respected and saluted.

The leader in today’s ‘Times’ was entitled ‘The Right Stuff’ and went on to note how Armstrong’s ‘personal modesty contrasted with the immensity of his achievement. He exemplified courage and the human quest for understanding’.

As one of three astronauts, Armstrong set off with only a 50-50 chance of success; the lunar module actually used less computing power than my cheap smart phone. He was part of an era of human achievement and endeavour which has yet to be equalled. I still marvel at the fact that Armstrong was the first man to step onto another body within space other than our own planet.

I admired his innate modesty and reticence. His loathing of the spotlight and the trappings of fame was something I admired. He became an educator, teaching engineering in Cincinnati (American friends I hope I spelt that right). It is clear he was loved by family, friends, colleagues and students. He was the only civilian in the Apollo 11 team and described as modest, diligent, highly intelligent and not given to excesses. He did not rush to an opinion before having spent much thought on the issue.

I have followed his career over the years; I’ve read the accounts of his landing of the module and the coolness he exhibited under pressure; his accomplishments on the Gemini programme. He was an extraordinary man.

I believe that we have lost something with the move away from developing our exploration in space. The Curiosity project on Mars is truly awe inspiring but NASA not pursuing manned space flight is a great sadness. I know we have so many problems on our planet to put right but somehow I think we need to continue the amazing achievements of this man and his Apollo programme contemporaries. The greatest tribute and memorial we could pay him and his colleagues is to go back to the moon; to use it as a ‘stepping stone (in the words of our space scientist Colin Pillinger) to the rest of the solar system’.

The legacies of that first moonwalk have been immense…satellite TV, GPS tracking systems, the ‘look-back-in-wonder pictures of Planet Earth which spawned the modern environmental movement of which my own daughter is becoming a part.

I was deeply moved by the words of Neil Armstrong’s family this week and I finish this blog post with those words. Perhaps tomorrow I might briefly share the astonishing story of Neil’s piloting of the lunar module on that day in 1969. If you don't know the actual details, its well worth a read!

 

“For those who may ask what can they do to honour Neil, we have a simple request: Honour his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink”

I read somewhere that John recommended 14 stone as temporary ballast in a navigator for inexperienced sailors to dampen the liveliness of the boat in ‘gusty’ weather. I commented on the JW forum that having used sand bags I’d swapped to 4 x 25 Lt water jerry cans strapped alongside the centreboard casing. My problem was that these took up some of the for’ard cockpit room and so I was wondering if I could use some lead flashing attached to the floor instead and then cover it with a new plywood floor.

I provide plenty of ballast with my ample girth!!

 

One forum member was surprised about talk of ballast in a navigator as he found his navigator had plenty of stability and even when sailing in 20 knots with only one reef there is no stability problem. He accepts that two reefs may be more appropriate and that the tiller does provide some weather helm resistance and deep attention paid to easing the mainsheet and keeping an eye out for gusts. He felt that as long as an appropriate sail area was chosen for the prevailing conditions then there should be no stability problem encountered.  Additional ballast makes the boat heavy, less nimble in light winds and difficult to retrieve onto the trailer. He finished by acknowledging that at the end of the day it was down to whatever people felt comfortable with.

I've never had a problem winching Arwen on even with 4 sandbag's of  ballast

on the floor alongside the centre case

 

Another member noted that reefing appropriately and at the right time was the key to stability and that if people wanted to use ballast that was fair enough. He felt water ballast was the way to go and seemed to be used quite a lot by RAID boats. Water ballast had the advantage of being easily dumped.

Someone who is building a pathfinder felt that putting slightly additional weight in the centreboard would be sufficient and would keep the extra weight really low down in the boat. This prompted an analysis of the value of an additionally weighted centreboard. A steel centreboard would be required and two navigator owners have installed 100Kg steel centreboards which made a noticeable difference in heavy weather. On the downside a really big purchase would be required to raise these boards; if it dropped accidently damage and injury could be severe; and they’d cost significantly more.

I was never happy with sandbags even when they were strapped in

They were a pain to stand on, took up room etc etc

Joel of ‘Ellie’ fame noted that too much weight in the centreboard would mean that the board wouldn’t lift if you actually accidentally touched bottom (yeah good point like that’s never happened to me before…….!!!!!!!)

An interesting point was raised about the fact that extra ballast alongside the centre case would do little to prevent a capsize but when a boat is on its side that is when it would help making it easier to right. This gentleman put lead pigs along the case in his boat and also some buoyancy bags. The ballast has had no effect on performance and did stabilise his boats by damping its movement. He did make this nice observation

 ‘When sailing alone I don't have to hop up onto the gunwale so often in gusts either. As John W wrote: "but for someone who is new the ballast will just settle the boat and slow its reactions a little in heavy winds." This is not only for someone new but also for someone who doesn't want to hop up and down a lot’.

Finally one or two people noted that the use of sandbags as ballast shouldn’t be dismissed. They fall out when capsized; and they are great to use as temporary mooring points for mooring warps to be tied to. On the other hand someone did wrly observe that is fine so long as they clear the side coaming deck when the boat is on its side. If they get caught there that could make righting the boat VERY difficult!

So there you have it. Ballast in boats, a matter of personal preference. Someone calculated that my 4 jerry cans were the equivalent to around 14 stone or so. That’s an extra person in the boat!  I think it is probably time to go out without extra ballast and start developing teh confidence to handle Arwen in slightly livelier conditions.

Steve

problem replying to comments

Bob, Joel thanks for  your comments. I will reply but at the moment bogger is preventing me from posting comment replies. I have no idea why but bear with me please

Steve

an empty slapton beach

Number one daughter was doing conservation work this morning and it gave me an opportunity to drop her off early at her volunteering placement and head on down to Slapton Beach.

the only time I'll get to be a giant and 'larger than life'!

With such an early start I almost had the whole beach to myself. Sadly no mackerel and during four hours of spinning I only saw four landed in my stretch between 10 anglers.

I remember times on Slapton when the mackerel were in you could almost catch them by just throwing in a bucket and pulling it back to the beach!

 

It was nice however to listen to the hiss of retreating backwash as bubbles and froth dissolved; to watch dried out seaweed be picked up and dropped by the gentle breeze and to watch the waves break along a beach.

 



 

For much of the early morning I was kept company by oystercatchers and four cormorants who dived and bobbed along my stretch of the beach. pebbles were picked up and carried up the beach at an angle by breaking waves only to be rolled back down by the backwash. I wonder if pebbles ever get frustrated at being constantly translocated along a beach?

It was nice to get out again and soak up what will be the last of the sunshine before I start the new year. Not catching any fish was immaterial!

Steve

For dad........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a good read about another navigator

can be found at http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/12/projects/annalisa/index.html

Stephen Thorpe describes the building of his fabulous navigator. Enjoy.
Steve