First sail and bonus damage!
Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2020 8:18 pm
Yesterday my registration stickers finally came in for Spark, only took the DMV two months to get them to me. It was a nice day, but with fickle winds out of the southwest. I thought I would go down to Somers Point (name for Commodore Somers of Tripoli Fame, his house still towers over the Point on the highest point of land in the area) and see how the launching ramps were.
One mistake was mine, I will admit to getting the ropes twisted on the new jib furler, but no worries, I sailed on main alone. It was my first time out in 9 months, a relaxing sail to get back into the feel of it would be good. So I launched, headed out and discovered my error when I went to roll the jib out. Also discovered a missed a leak in the stern. Oops.
Sailed south across old familiar waters, I grew up on these waters, that I never thought I would actually sail with my own boat and had a good time aside from the pesky leak and an over abundance of biting flies that somehow managed to find me half a mile from land. Made it down to the bridge I grew up in the shadow of and turned back.
Hightide was at 3, I launched at 2 so I could scoot over the mudflats with plenty of water under my centreboard and it worked! Made it back to the ramp by 5:30. At this point the tide was beginning to run and Somers Point is on the receiving end of three rivers worth of water flowing out of the Pine Barrens up stream. I quite literally sailed into the ramp area sideways as I fought this current. As soon as I cleared the breakwater that surrounded the ramps, it all came to naught.
The two ramps share a floating dock between them. It's a nice ramp made of recycled plastic that interlocks together. The only parts that are not plastic are the galvanized hoops that hold the docks to the double set of pilings. As I cleared the breakwaters, I was suddenly out of the current and went from sailing sideways to straight ahead. If I had hit the dock, I would have scuffed the paint some. Instead my boat accelerated straight into one of the galvanized hoops and came to a ringing stop.
I did not see any damage, so breathing a sigh of relief, I retrieved my landrover and trailer and set about loading Spark back onto it. This is where I discovered the damage. I hooked up the winch and pulled the bow eye right out of the bow with no effort. The collision had snapped the mounting bolt right off.
Other than that, it was a great sail. I will not go back to Somers Point though. I do not want to deal with the current and the ramps are very shallow. I had to back in till the rear wheels on my Discovery were halfway to the hubs to even attempt to float the boat onto the trailer.
I ordered a new bow eye, it should be here by the end of the week, then I get to squeeze myself under the deck to install it. Next time I go sailing will be the town just north of me, Pleasantville. They have a very nice launching area with docks to tie off to (something Somers Point lacks) and "Lakes Bay", while no deeper than where I sailed, is not subject to the current Pecks Bay is.
Still, even the worst day sailing is better than the worst day at work. I still have another month of Furlough, so we shall see how that works out.
One mistake was mine, I will admit to getting the ropes twisted on the new jib furler, but no worries, I sailed on main alone. It was my first time out in 9 months, a relaxing sail to get back into the feel of it would be good. So I launched, headed out and discovered my error when I went to roll the jib out. Also discovered a missed a leak in the stern. Oops.
Sailed south across old familiar waters, I grew up on these waters, that I never thought I would actually sail with my own boat and had a good time aside from the pesky leak and an over abundance of biting flies that somehow managed to find me half a mile from land. Made it down to the bridge I grew up in the shadow of and turned back.
Hightide was at 3, I launched at 2 so I could scoot over the mudflats with plenty of water under my centreboard and it worked! Made it back to the ramp by 5:30. At this point the tide was beginning to run and Somers Point is on the receiving end of three rivers worth of water flowing out of the Pine Barrens up stream. I quite literally sailed into the ramp area sideways as I fought this current. As soon as I cleared the breakwater that surrounded the ramps, it all came to naught.
The two ramps share a floating dock between them. It's a nice ramp made of recycled plastic that interlocks together. The only parts that are not plastic are the galvanized hoops that hold the docks to the double set of pilings. As I cleared the breakwaters, I was suddenly out of the current and went from sailing sideways to straight ahead. If I had hit the dock, I would have scuffed the paint some. Instead my boat accelerated straight into one of the galvanized hoops and came to a ringing stop.
I did not see any damage, so breathing a sigh of relief, I retrieved my landrover and trailer and set about loading Spark back onto it. This is where I discovered the damage. I hooked up the winch and pulled the bow eye right out of the bow with no effort. The collision had snapped the mounting bolt right off.
Other than that, it was a great sail. I will not go back to Somers Point though. I do not want to deal with the current and the ramps are very shallow. I had to back in till the rear wheels on my Discovery were halfway to the hubs to even attempt to float the boat onto the trailer.
I ordered a new bow eye, it should be here by the end of the week, then I get to squeeze myself under the deck to install it. Next time I go sailing will be the town just north of me, Pleasantville. They have a very nice launching area with docks to tie off to (something Somers Point lacks) and "Lakes Bay", while no deeper than where I sailed, is not subject to the current Pecks Bay is.
Still, even the worst day sailing is better than the worst day at work. I still have another month of Furlough, so we shall see how that works out.
