You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2010.
Jan and a few chums are undertaking a Race For Life 10km run in aid of Cancer Research. They have all been training very hard and are hoping to raise as much cash as possible for this worthy cause. If you have some spare cash then do please support them by clicking the link below.
All words of encouragement and support are warmly welcomed, just add a comment below.
Last Saturday Jan and I met up with John and Chris of Quantum sails onboard Ninjod to test out some of our new sails.
We started out with our new headsail and went up wind to see what it was capable of.
The sail set perfectly and generated lots of lift.
When far enough up wind we got out the new furling downwind sails, all of which are set from the bowsprit. With the furled asym hoisted we tugged the leeward sheet and watched as it unfurled. Conditions were light and we gybed a few times as we drifted down the river. The sail filled well and only required a minor adjustment to the length of the static line that allows us to furl it.
Next up was the Code Zero. We wound on the 2:1 halyard as much as we dare and then unfurled the sail. As we came up onto the wind Ninjod took off. At 50 degrees in 11 knots true we were making in excess of 7.5 knots through the water and we took the sail as high as 38 degrees.
All in all we had a very successful day.
Many thanks to John for the pictures.
Ninjod was launched on Thursday and her topsides were polished today.
Tomorrow the gear gets put back on and then in the afternoon we go and play with the bowsprit and the sails that attach to it.
One of the key jobs to be done this year was the relocation of all water ballast controls into the cockpit. It used to be the case that I would wait until I was clear of other yachts and obstacles and then go down below, climb into the back of the boat and play with the leavers. What a bonkers carry on I hear you say and you’d be right.
Now, thanks to the skills of my father Phil and Jan (with moral support and banging tunes from me) our water ballast craziness of the past is no more.
Working from left to right, the big blue leaver controls the transfer valve that lets water move from tank to tank. The middle orange leaver allows us to specify the tank we wish to fill and the last orange leaver allows us to dump the water from the tank/tanks.
Each leaver is connected to a solid plastic rod. The rod passes through a waterproof connection mounted into the cockpit sole and then connects to its respective valve.
Ian and Olly of SpeedMarine got started on the hull preparation yesterday and this morning I checked my inbox to find these pictures.
I bumped into Rod Tinsley recently. Turns out he had taken some snaps of Jan and I sailing Ninjod 2 up in EAORA’s Houghton Cup last year. At the point in time these were taken it was all going very well and we were leading class 2 out of the Crouch. It all went down hill after that.
Uwe of FanFan very kindly sent me these pictures yesterday. The head torch is an indication that I had been down below messing with water ballast levers.
Jan, my father Phil and I spent last Saturday and Sunday ticking jobs off of the list ahead of Ninjod’s launch at the end of the month.
It was nice to climb on board and see the new Harken radial winches and bowsprit installed. The secondaries have been upgraded from 2 speed 42’s to 2 speed 46‘s and all winches are now self tailing.
Between us we set about replacing the main compasses, relocating the water ballast pump to avoid the air locks I kept getting last year, installing a new sound system and speakers, re-securing batteries, upgrading bilge pumps, removing the toilet (ahead of installation of the new one), re-routing the heater output and racking out the new Tow-A-Van race trailer (required to reclaim much needed space in our house and shed).
The sound system, a Fusion MSIP-600, will hopefully resolve the issues I had when ipods and iphones went flying across the cabin on lumpy days. With this product the waterproof control panel opens and the ipod/iphone sits inside a secure housing; it’s very cool.
