First adventures on the Chesapeake

[TheLandlady]

Around Father’s Day Seaweed was bottom painted, mast raised, hull detailed and launched at Herrington Harbour North in Deale MD. We hadn’t been on board in quite a while, and had a small window of free parking to move off the transient dock to our slip 3 miles away at Herrington South. So I rigged the furler and boom, wife and kid left her car at the destination, and we went back north for our maiden voyage in the Chesapeake Bay.

Standing rig was nowhere near tight, so the first trip was just to motor on down, getting practice on our rusty skills exiting and entering a slip and unfamiliar harbors. It was a beautiful afternoon in Herring Bay, all systems go. I filled the ballast and plan to just leave it that way. Wife on bow with the hook to keep us clear from any lawsuits, but she never really had to use it. Slow and steady, The X can really turn on a dime with the keel down and some well timed throttle bursts.

The 3 mile cruise took about an hour of zigzagging around. We were all still getting our sea legs so I never got up from the helm and left the fenders out the whole time. Big whoop. I made radio contact with the harbor on arrival to our marina and asked if someone could come catch us at the slip, but we must have taken way too long because we were on our own when we got there.

The slip is 30’ from main dock to fairway piles and a small finger pier on port side if I park stern-to. Wind was calm so it was pretty easy to approach bow first, drive past the slip about 1.5 boat lengths and then reverse in. Port cockpit lifeline was open, I jumped out and held the boat with a looped line from starboard stern cleat and tied it to a dock cleat aft port side then ran the port stern cleat to a starboard side dock cleat, crossing an X over the motor. Put it in idle forward while admiral kept the bow centered between the pilings. I came up on deck and with the boat hook looped a lasso thru a splice on each of the pilings and tied them to the bow and we were secure. Success!

Cleaned up and went home. Deck and topsides detail came later that week. Not exactly cheap for the hull topsides and deck, but well worth the professional quick job they did and it gives me a baseline that I can maintain myself. The hull really shines now!

[TheLandlady]

The next weekend my wife’s mom came to visit from NY along with her sister and nephew from Norway for a long weekend on their first trip to the USA since my sister-in-law’s wedding in 2017. After dinner on the first night we woke up early and got geared up to spend a day on the bay.

The Norwegian cousin and I went over first to get the boat ready, which consisted of installing the dodger (which has been in rolled up in storage since before I bought the boat), tying the boom to the starboard lifeline (still not ready to sail with loose rigging), wheeling the fuel tank over to the gas dock, and hitting the marina deli.

We grabbed sandwiches and snacks and ice, the ladies showed up, we got everyone on board, and my wife’s cousin took the boat hook up on the bow to keep us clear of lawsuits as I piloted off the slip and out of our Harbour for the first time. It was extremely warm as it has been in Maryland recently, so the breeze we felt upon leaving the entrance channel into open water was a godsend.

The plan was to motor over and drop anchor off the cliffs at Fairhaven for a picnic and swim. We have never anchored before, and the Norwegian cousin took the helm while I went up and let out what I figured would be an adequate scope to hold. I tied it off to a single cleat, I have no idea if that’s right or not but had him back it down a little in reverse and it held! There were 5 or 6 other boats anchored nearby, and the spot is marked on Navionics as good holding. Wind was from the east, so stern was facing the cliffs, and it was absolutely idyllic. They said it reminded them of their favorite lake in Finland.

The deli is really top notch, and the cooler under the aft dinette seat it perfect for a group of 6. We had music going, opened up the transom and dropped the ladder. Everyone had a blast jumping off the boat and swimming on a hot day.

When time came to head home, the cousin wanted to weigh the anchor so I gave him as good a lesson as I could in coiling the rode in a locker. It came up caked in dark heavy sand and he splashed it a few times to clean it off. Success. Re-entry to the Harbour was a little tricky with a nice crosswind and lots of exiting traffic but we made it without a hitch. This time, securing in the slip was a bit easier with the bow lines already hanging from hooks on the pilings.

As everyone packed up I put my new OEM merc earmuffs on and flushed the motor, and I have to say that setup with the rod thru the intake is way more slick than the generic universal grill tong type earmuffs. I hosed her down and we went home exhausted.

[TheLandlady]

I had to come to work on the 4th this year, such is life as a junior First Officer. But can’t complain about the holiday pay! Lucky for us, the marina held a slipholders-only fireworks party on the 3rd. The weather looked to be perfect for sailing with 5-8kts from the west, so on the 2nd I went to west marine and picked myself up a Loos PT1. After lots of research I decided to just get the shrouds to about 300-400lbs with a 17” rake on a weighted topping lift plumb bob from the mast step.

It took a lot of trial and error, but eventually I found the sweet spot. The uppers are at about 33 on the PT1 and the lowers at about 30, putting them at about 400 and 340 respectively. Maybe this is right maybe this is wrong idk it seems about middle of the road compared to opinions I’ve found here and elsewhere. I am seriously considering swapping out the verniers for turnbuckles, I have always removed all hardware from the deck and mast every time I have trailered Seaweed and the only argument I’ve seen for the adjusters is that they are better for trailering, but I also respect the original design concept from Roger and am leery of altering anything important.

I can’t believe how much force is needed to crank on the MRS to pin the forestay with this tension! I was so afraid of blowing out the chainplates or the strap where the gin pole block attaches or snapping the mast but it worked out! And with the rig properly tight I was confident in hoisting the sails for the first time.

I was also able to drop the mast all the way and reattach the lazy jack system while standing on the dock. This system is the Sail Cradle from SailCare, and the elastic cords that came with the boat look like they’ve been chewed by rats. The company was extremely helpful over email in figuring out which model I have and which length of bungee I needed, and I had the replacement in hand. Along with a new longer main halyard, new longer Genoa sheets and a new longer furler line, the lazy jacks have essentially made Seaweed a single hand boat again. The halyard aft tackle was already installed on the deck, but the halyard line I had was too short to reach much below the mast cleat until the sail was halfway up. My theory is the PO took his nice lines with him when he sold it to me and replaced them with the original equipment.

I am planning now on using the original lines to create some sort of parallel cheater line between the pilings at my slip that I can use to enter and exit single handed, but that’s for another post. I also need to move the jib halyard block up the mast to its own bracket, because the CDI furler cap keeps catching on it when I was trying to rotate it to pin the forestay and the jib halyard was under so much tension. I think this will also help to raise the asym, which I have never done.

Anyway, we got on the boat around 5pm, danced thru the harbor a little more confident than last time, and got out on the bay. Pointed her into the wind, unfurled the Genoa to about 100% and thru the deck cars, then raised the main. We were sailing! It was a beam reach all the way up to Herrington north, where we tacked back around for the same all the way back. The wind was constant, and we all had a turn in the helm.

I did not disconnect the motor, I don’t understand how to pin it to the starboard pivot. I know it needs a nut, but I can’t seem to find the right angle for it to fit. I have the BWY quick pin kit so I will be installing that this winter. We never had an issue with the motor causing the wheel to turn on its own, so who knows?

The speedometer wheel is probably fouled up with gunk because it read 0.0 the whole time, so I probably need to hit it with a toothbrush because it was working the last two times out. But we were moving right along sailed about 6 miles over two hours. Also, sailing much closer to the wind than I ever have before, and no problem tacking thru, so I think the tension really makes a difference.

Fireworks began around 9:30, and the youngest of our trio desperately wanted to hit the pool, so we fired up the motor and tested WOT beating a few other boats back to the entrance channel.

She fell asleep halfway thru the fantastic fireworks. What a great day!

Oh also forgot to mention I wrapped the helm in the leftover cord I had from the furler messenger line. What an upgrade!! Will finish it off with a Turk’s Head soon but the direct sunlight in the heat was too much to continue.

[Russ]

Nice work. Looks like you are getting things sorted out well. I think you are taking the standing rigging too seriously. If it's working, then that's good. Leave it. However, most of us set it to "tight" but not piano string tight.

I NEVER remove the rigging from the deck. My fear is that it would take a long time to figure out how to reinstall it all. I only remove the forestay. Everything else just gets bungied as best as possible for trailering.

"boat hook up on the bow to keep us clear of lawsuits"
This is awesome. Soon this won't be necessary.
Your idea of running a line between piling is good.
Another trick I learned from Ray at Blue Water Yachts was to run a line from the bow of my boat to the stern so people on the dock can grab it to pull the boat in. It worked well until I mastered docking the Mac and removed it.

I don't have any bumpers on my boat. They are all on the dock. I also have attached dock guards along the dock so if the boat hit, no damage will occur.
Something like this:
https://www.overtons.com/dock-edge-24-p ... _WHIT.html

The motor disconnect is so you can Tilt the motor out of the water and reduce drag. Mine, when tilted and attached to the steering pulls the wheel over. The disconnect solves this. I only need the motor connected to steering when in close quarters, like docking. The rest of the time it's fixed in the center position and can easily be tilted out of the water.