Knockabout Sloops Blog, The End

With my dwindling blog posts, it will come as no surprise that I am ending my KnockaboutSloops blog. All along this blog has been a personal resource that I have used to journal and organize my thoughts during the design and construction of Bolero, our custom engineless Knockabout Sloop.

I typically live a quiet private life that rarely draws attention to myself. On rare occasions one of my passions will draw me out a bit into the limelight. Such has been the case with long skinny sailboats and engineless sailing.

But in the end my real passion is sailing, not writing about sailing. And no amount of rants, or examples of engineless sailing will alter the conventional wisdom that sailboats need engines to be safe.

And no matter how many photos of gorgeous sailboats I post, and I have posted many, modern sailboats get beamier, the freeboard higher and the cabin taller and boxier. We are more and more a culture of convenience and luxury where beauty isn't valued.

So rather that try to convince others that sailboats sail just fine without engines, I will just go sailing.

And rather than post photos of long, sleek, gorgeous boats sailing, I will take ours out sailing.

For me it has always been about the sailing. Which is why we I envisioned this crazy project in the first place.

This blog has been a labor of love and I have enjoy the feedback and comments that I have received from the 90,000 or so visitors who have meandered in. I will leave this content up to provide whatever resource it may contain and I will also continue to moderate comments. Perhaps there are other "crazies" out there who will look at all this and see opportunity and not a bunch of sacrifices.

Cheers and Happy Sailing,
Bill

A Little Something for the Light Stuff

Since we sail Bolero engineless the most import feature of our modified Shields is her sail plan and our ability to alter the amount of sail that we have up as the conditions warrant. In fact one of the main reasons we selected the Shields as our conversion candidate was her fractional rig and her abundant sail area.

Even though the standard sail plan for the Shields class sailboats has a exceptional SA/D ratio of 21, I have been on the lookout for a way to add additional sail area for really light air. So when I stumbled on a new free flying drifter/Code 0 headsail on eBay last winter for less than $300 I took a chance and snapped it up.

Prior to purchasing it, I quickly drew it up to make sure it would fit and to check the location of the sheet leads.

For this sail it looked like the proper lead location would intersect our oar lock sockets and my hope was to find a way to use these hard points as an attach point for the turning blocks. In addition, with an area of 210 sq ft and an overlap of 180%, this looks to be a very nice increase in sail area for Bolero bring her SA/D ratio to 25.
Unfortunately, I decided to over think the installation. I figured that it would be sweet if the drifter was on a furler in front of the headstay. So I picked up all the necessary hardware only to figure out after stepping the mast that there just wasn't enough room between the spinnaker halyard the forestay for the drifter to furl. At least I didn't drill any holes

As it turns out this mis-step was a blessing. I ended up flying the drifter on the jib halyard with a small pennant so it would clear the jib. This allowed us to tack which we ended up doing quite often and made this sail much versatile.

This free flying drifter quickly became my favorite sail. It was quick and easy to launch and stow from its turtle bag without any need of a furler or spinnaker sock and it made sailing in really light air very delightful. And even though we are quite spoiled short tacking into our channel with our non-overlapping working jib, It was still pretty easy to short tack with this 180% drifter.

To my way of thinking sail area is safety and piece of mind for the engineless sailor. Often the engineless sailor is presented with all the things that they can't safely do without an engine. But I feel that each boats "safe" sailing envelope is dependent on how much speed and maneuverability they can generate from their sail plan in a given wind. Obviously if you don't have enough sail area with respect to your boat's displacement then you have transition to a motorboat. And in that event your motor is your only form of propulsion and is required for safety.

My goal has always been to outfit my boats so they sail in the widest possible wind range. And with the addition of this drifter the term "no wind" has a whole new meaning.

That Quiet Still in the Air

It has been a very quiet summer here at Knockabout Sloops and a number of folks, okay maybe three, have wondered where I got off to. I am still here, still sailing and still loving long, skinny boat with graceful overhangs.

First off, it is never really a bad thing when I go quiet. Just ask the friends and family. But the quiet here has been a result of a number of occurrences.

First it has been a pretty ordinary summer season of sailing for us here on Lopez Island. Summer was sort of a yawner. When the weather was good the wind wasn't, or other things were pressing, or it was a supper low tide, or it was a busy boats coming into the bay day. And there didn't seem like a lot of great days this year compared to last. And last year was so good that I have gotten a bit picky on when I choose to go out.

We hauled last week so Bolero is neat and tidy and stored snuggly in her Clearspan shelter. I have a few posts, with pictures, in me summarizing my experiences with our new electrical system, a pretty good failure, and our new light air drifter, which was a roaring success, although I did take the long way to get there.

In addition to a average summer sailing season this summer brought about a complete upheaval in my computer hardware. I transitioned from a Tablet PC, which I have used in one form or another since their inception, to an iPad and an old Apple Power Mac G5. I have used many, many computer systems in my life, including Apple and find them pretty much interchangeable. But I am working toward replacing my old tablet PC with the iPad and using it for most everything I do and only falling back on the "boat anchor" G5 for the really heavy lifting. Blogging on the iPad has not yet overwhelmed me and this is my first iPad blog post. But I expect it to get better and better and with the winter dark time approaching I will keep at it.

In the end, Knockabout Sloops was always my way of organizing my thoughts on Bolero's conversion and in that capacity this blog has served me well. I am sure that there will always be an occasional post of some gorgeous slinky boat that I will need to pass along, a rant or two about sailing without an engine and of course every photo of Bolero sailing that kind folks send my way.

Bolero Sailing into Fisherman's Bay, Lopez Island Washington

Turns out Skip, the brother of one of our mooring neighbors, took a sweet little video of Bolero sailing back into Fisherman's Bay last season, 17 September 2009.

Fun to see the ole girl under sail. It was blowing pretty nice outside so we took our customary second reef prior to reentering the bay.

A Successful Launch

The morning was rainy and overcast so no pictures of the actual launch, but Bolero is safe and sound on her mooring.

The whole fix the keel plan was a total dud, however. What with the wet keel and very short time limit. I have been promised another chance during the fall haul out.

I guess I will just have to sail in a manner that keep the nasty bottom of our keel hidden from view.

Even though launching in the rain and drizzle isn't much fun, I do love how the Northwest looks during the sun breaks that manage to break through.

I won't get much time to enjoy the serenity as this rain was the precursor of a nasty unseasonable 991 mb low that is headed our way (the full story is over at Cliff Mass's site).





The storm is forecast to roll in Wednesday late afternoon and hit us with sustained winds in the 40 to 50 kt range with higher gust.

5:00 pm Wednesday Forecast

8:00 pm Wednesday Forecast

Why do all these high wind storms have to roll in at night? I feel much better when I can either check the webcam to see that Bolero is safe or go check her out in person.

I will definitely go out tomorrow to double up the mooring pennant and tighten everything down.

This is suppose to be a fall thing.

Bolero's Fall Haul Out - 24 October 2009

It has been a pretty quite fall sailing season. We seemed to be paying the piper for the the absolutely stunning weather that we had in May and June. September and October seemed to be a cycle of light and variable winds with interludes of strong stormy winds. After a nice 40 kt storm blew through the anchorage it became readily apparent that the fall haul out was well past due.

With a Saturday afternoon haul out appointment the weather was, of course, gorgeous. But since we were between storms I elected to get out to the boat around 8 am and we had a quite, gentle row to the haul out dock.

But it was very tempting to go sailing on such a great fall day.

But today was a preview of what, hopefully, all fall haul out days will look like in the future. We arrived at the haul out dock 4 hours before our appointment. This left plenty of time to take everything off the boat and clean and prep it for haul out. Which I think saves us money in the long run since we use less of the lift operators time.

The haul out went flawlessly as usual. Mitch, our lift guy, was his usual professional self and made quick work of our small, light boat. He did however elect to drop our mast in the water which we hadn't done before. Still quick and easy.

There were two thing that I was anxious to see as we were lifted from the water. The condition of the ePaint EP-ZO bottom paint after a full season. And a clearer view (you can read about my underwater inspection here) of the keel damage from my encounter with the Yellow Island reef.

 Here are the photos of the bottom paint as we were lifted clear of the water.

I won't go into great detail on the bottom paint since already posted a bit about it on Tim's Plastic Classic forum here, but I was hoping for a bit cleaner bottom than this after a full season of sailing.

The very good news was getting to see the keel damage (or incredible lack of) after Mitch pressure washed the slime away.

I know that I have said it before, but we were very, very lucky to get off this easy after hitting a nasty reef at 4 kts. Tough old boat.

And one last picture with Bolero ready to strap down and drive home.

All in all it was a great season of sailing with Bolero. Unfortunately it was also a bit hard on the ole girl. But she is tucked into her boat shed for the winter and come March or April I plan to go at it hard to repair and refresh as needed.

Now I just need to finish cleaning and storing the piles of gear.

A Little Slow Around Here

My rampant sailing has slowed quite a bit recently, just a few short daysails. A combination of a number of things. First the weather has sort of gone into a funk with the beginning of the fall storm season. We either have rain and high winds or nice high pressure and still air.

And I have been knocking off some projects at home, new decks, workshop projects etc.

In additional something has come up that has caused me to shift my priorities a bit. So the end of the season is getting very close. I figure haul out is maybe a few weeks away.

Bolero Under Sail

Doug, a visitor from Canada, was spending a few nights in Fisherman bay and took these photos. He was nice enough to send them to us.

August 25 - A Short Day Sail with Uncle Dave (9 NM)

We had been trying to get Laura's Uncle Dave out on the boat for a while so we picked what looked like a good day. It turned out nice enough, we have been incredibly spoiled, but seem quite fallish with cold damp variable winds and clouds.

Getting out of the bay was a bit slow in the light winds but we were rewarded with the site of a friends L.F. Herreshoff Prudence returning. She is quite a beauty, although I wish I could have got a picture with her sails up and pulling.

The wind went from light and frustrating to plenty pretty quick. Dave has sailed extensively and quickly got the feel of our boat and seemed to be enjoying himself. Soon after this photo we tucked in a reef as the wind and wave were continuing to build.

The weather dictated that this was to be a rather short daysail. The wind and waves were continuing to build and what little sun we had was quickly disappearing and it was getting cold. So we decided to head home.

The end of the season is in the air. We still have three or four weeks left, but I want to repair the keel damage from my early summer reef exploration. So I am already starting to think about haul-out oppointments and epoxy

Boy the summers just fly by.

Aug 25 Tides - Friday Harbor

Aug 25 GPS Track

2009 Sailing Summary
Sailing Days-34 / 112 (30%)
Blissful Hours of Hand Steering - 2:19 hours & 105:38 hours for the season
Total Miles Under Sailed this Season - 389 NM

August 23 - Philip Rhodes Evergreen Class (16 NM)

Today was just another ho hum day on the water. The plan was to sail northwest towards Jones Island but the wind lightened as we went north and with the northbound flood kicking in we decided not to chance it. So we chased down nice looking boats under sail and ended up behind Brown Island.

All in all a nice day sail and we decided to start meandering our way home. The wind had picked up a bit so we tucked in a reef to ease the crossing of San Juan channel and our entrance into Fisherman Bay. But off in the distance was a stunning set of sails barely held up by a wisp of a boat so I had to sail over and take a look.

It was the Philip Rhodes designed Evergreen that we had been told lived in Friday Harbor.

She was a thing of beauty and quite fast. As we approached and matched her beam reach she luffed her main to let us catch up, but with a reef in our main we were unable (frustration building). So after a while we decided to tack around and head home.

And they decided to follow us. Now that we were on a starboard tack that was all the incentive that I needed to shake out our reef and put Bolero's best foot forward (although I still had too much jib halyard and backstay tension). A little game of cat and mouse ensued with us being much more competitive but alas their larger size, 36' loa & 24' lwl, and 150% genoa won out. Although I think we pointed a bit higher and as the wind lighted we seemed a bit more competitive. And I think we could wind a tacking dual.

Unfortunately, for the very first time, I had forgoten my camera so I will have to chase down this beauty another time.

Aug 23 Tides - Friday Harbor

Aug 23 GPS Track

2009 Sailing Summary
Sailing Days-33 / 110 (30%)
Blissful Hours of Hand Steering - 3:42 hours & 103:19 hours for the season
Total Miles Under Sailed this Season - 380 NM

August 20 - Small Craft Advisory (11 NM)

We have been blessed, or cursed, with a series of high pressure systems in the Northwest. So sailing has been a bit light. But today's forecast was for 10 to 20 kt winds from the S rising to 15 to 25 kts and a small craft advisory. In other words, sailing weather.

We decided to head out about 3 pm and as usual stopped by the Bay Cafe to check the channel entrance current and wind. The flood current was screaming, but the flags at the mouth of the channel were dead still. Odd considering the forecast but we headed out to the boat just the same.

At the dock the wind had that menacing, shifty and gusty feel that has always caused me some concern. I thought about packing it in but we wanted to get more comfortable handling Bolero in higher winds so we rowed out and prepped the boat for high wind (tight backstay, halyards, cunningham and outhaul).

On of the interesting aspects of sailing out of Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island is that the wind at the mooring and in San Juan Channel can be quite fresh but at the mouth of the channel it can be very light. That combined with the traffic and the downwind exit means that I always carry full sail going out and often immediately wish I had a reef once outside the bay.

Today was actually a little different. We had strong wind in the channel and pesky traffic. I say pesky because we had a power boat who was too impatient to follow us when we were doing 4 kts so he passed us and then immediately slowed down as our speed quickly climbed to 5+ kts. This happens often and I just don't get it. If a power boat is in such hurry and they have all that power why not just speed off. But time and time again we get passed only to struggle to keep from running over the top of the impatient skipper. Fortunately today we had great wind and plenty of water so this was only moderately annoying.

As soon as we started heading up outside of the channel entrance we had way more wind than we needed or wanted carrying full sail with the wind forward of the beam. But the wind eased a little as we sailed towards the center of San Juan Channel so we tacked over onto a starboard tack and tucked in a reef. Now it was just fun sailing.

Of course since there was a small craft advisory Dick was out in his Flicka.

But pretty much no one else.

So we happily sailed around and Laura practiced her sailing skills. A couple of sails ago Laura sailed in and out of the bay for the first time. Everything went fine except for her return when she mistakenly pushed the helm the wrong direction during a tack at the smallest part of the mouth of the bay. Fortunately we had plenty of water but there were some anxious moments waiting for Bolero to come back up and into the wind. The problem for Laura was that she always sits on the high side so tacking had come to mean that you always push the tiller away from you. But sailing back into the channel it is often better to sit on the low side since the visibility is better and that is where she found out that you don't always push the tiller away from you.

So today I threw everything at her; high side, low side, jibes and quick tacks and she did great. In a challenging small craft advisory I might add.

(Hopefully this is the last season with the terrible above deck backstay tension blocks. Back to the old below deck version that I can tension from the cockpit)

But little by little the clouds rolled in and the sun disappeared. It got darker and just generally snotty so we decided to head in.

Off course the wind in the bay was rocking. We sailed smartly through the crowded moorage and up to our mooring at 5 to 6 kts and suck the landing with a perfect mooring pickup. Funny how when I have more time to think and plan the mooring pickup my failure rate goes up.

Go figure.

Aug 20 Tides - Friday Harbor

Aug 20 GPS Track

2009 Sailing Summary
Sailing Days-32 / 107 (30%)
Blissful Hours of Hand Steering - 2:14 hours & 99:37 hours for the season
Total Miles Under Sailed this Season - 364 NM

August 17th - A Very Light Air Day Sail with Uncle Earl (5 NM)

Laura's aunt and uncle were up from Phoenix and Uncle Earl was jonesing for a sail. So I picked the best weather day and made plans.

The weather called for 10 to 15 kt winds from the NW and with a bit of a flood at the channel entrance. With guests on board of course the wind didn't fill in. At the mooring the wind was SW and out in San Juan channel it was NW with a perfect convergance zone of zero wind at the Fisherman Bay channel exit. It took us four to five tries to get out of the bay which included using the oar at times.

Once out the wind picked up a little but was still quite light and we rowed a bit to get home.

But we still managed to eek out a little fun.

Aug 16 Tides - Friday Harbor

Aug 16 GPS Track

2009 Sailing Summary
Sailing Days-31 / 103 (30%)
Blissful Hours of Hand Steering - 3:06 hours & 97:23 hours for the season
Total Miles Under Sailed this Season - 353 NM