Flipping a Dinghy and Taking a Hike

Monday 18 August 2014 ~ Echo Bay, Sucia

The day started with I.'s commenting in the Log:

I woke up with everything else as the sun rose. I had slept outside in the cockpit well. It's like camping out, except a little ... worse, with a cat jumping on you all night. But it was fun anyway. 

The wind was gusting this morning (15 knots?). In reality it wasn't that much, but the gusts seemed stronger after all the calms we've been having lately. 

About 1300, we went to shore for a picnic lunch. We cut through the outlying rocks into Ewing Cove. Here we wanted to practice what to do if a dinghy got knocked down or capsized. J. also wanted to know if there was enough floatation. 

First, the picnic lunch (complete with melted chocolate bar). Besides there were some folks around, and frankly it is nice to have some privacy when you are unsure how something is going to go. J., for one, didn't want to hear comments like, "You'd put your kids in boats that don't even float?!" So we ate our lunch and waited for things to clear out. 

In the meantime a mom and daughter came to the beach and called out to one of the boats on a mooring ball. No response. The mom tried again. No response. After a bit of time, and a few more tries, the mom approached us asking if she and her daughter, "who is a helluva rower" could borrow one of our dinghies to row out to their boat? "Sure" we said, and enjoyed watching the daughter who is used to rowing crew shells row our dinghy out to their boat. E. and M. decided to sail out and sail the other back, and save the mom and daughter a trip. About the time they got almost there the mom was coming back, towing LONGSTOCKING behind their power dinghy. She stopped the kids and E. got into LONGSTOCKING.  The mom continued to tow LONGSTOCKING behind her, giving E. the ride of his life as she treated LONGSTOCKING like an inner tube. Turned out that the dad and their son had gone to shore with their friends in their friends' dinghy. There was no one home to greet the mom and daughter when they returned from their walk, nor bring them back to the boat. Mom was not pleased, but very grateful for the use of the dinghy. We think she was alternatively mad and humored by the adventure. When the friends and dad and son returned we pretended to not hear the conversation. 

After this it was time for the capsize testing. The girls bravely volunteered. They climbed in PIPPI and J. pushed them out into water deep enough for the test. Thinking that Ewing Cove is generally warm, he was surprised to find it slightly warmer than freezing. Thinking icebergs were shortly to flow into the Cove, J. tried to flip the girls out and PIPPI over without getting his knees wet. It took two tries, slightly deeper water and he still surprised the girls. L. commented that her heart stopped momentarily. At any rate, the girls swam around to the bottom side, checked in on each other, and then righted PIPPI by adding their weight on the lee-board. She popped right up. Then it was time to practice bailing and entering PIPPI from the water over the stern. Both went well. At this point, J. helped them by bringing PIPPI into the beach to complete the bailing process. 

So far success. She even floated high. 

The girls were then curious if they could tip PIPPI over by standing on her gunnel. Back into the deeper water she went. Both I. and M. stepped up on her gunnel. Water started to pour in a little (the gunnel being at water level), but she would not go any further. At this point, the girls lost their balance and in they went, and back up to normal went PIPPI. 

The end result of all this is, as E. summed up, "We now have lots of confidence in these boats. They are really stable and float well." This is just as J. was hoping when he designed them. 

For the next hour or more, J. and L. read, E. sailed around the Cove, and I. and M. explored the rocks, jumping into the water, etc. What a great day! 

After air drying (we didn't bring towels), we all decided to walk down towards the neck between Echo and Shallow Bays to see what we could see. We'd already seen two old friends, who else might be there? 

We had a nice hike there and back, but didn't see any one we knew. If fact we've never seen Shallow Bay so empty of boats. There were even moorings available. It was a nice hike there and back. 

As we rowed back out to MERGANSER through the rocks, we passed a group playing instruments (complete with portable amp) and singing on the beach. One guy was even videotaping the party with his iPhone. (Later we watched as they headed out to a 150 foot motor yacht and wondered if they were the crew.) 

So ended a wonderful day. 

A Sailboat Race, Echo Bay

Sunday 17 August 2014 ~ Echo Bay,  Sucia.

M. awoke from her night of cockpit sleeping to note in the Log:

"M. woke up after sleeping successfully in the cockpit well with a sleeping bag and two blankets. The Coast Guard is making lots of all-call, radio, megaphone, and bee-woop noises. LOUDLY."

As it is the ship cat's birthday, L. made coffee cake to celebrate. The crew descended upon it. The cat, however, got catnip sprinkled all over her scratching pad. She promptly rolled about and purred. 

Later on, while E. worked on making a card game,  the girls went for a sail. Before long, J. challenged them to a race from MERGANSER around the anchored CARRAWONG. 

But before they could really get going a motor boat we didn't recognize stopped by.

It was a couple we knew who used to keep their sailboat in our marina. As the wife has some mobility issues they've bought the motorboat to continue spending time on the water.







Off the two dinghies went. J. helped the girls from time to time, giving them pointers and even turning around and going back after them if necessary.

In the end, the girls got back to MERGANSER before J. and won the race. 

After dinner the girls went out again in PIPPI and E. in LONGSTOCKING for a fun evening sail. The wind turned from light to non-existent so both boats ended up rowing back.

And how does the night end? With I. deciding to sleep out in the cockpit by herself, of course. 

Dinghy Sailing in Echo Bay

Friday 15 August 2014 ~ Echo Bay

This morning we awoke to feelings of bliss, "Ah, to be at anchor and out cruising!"

J. worked with the kids on cutting some hose we brought along to form bumpers for the gunnels. Once PIPPI was done, they launched her, flipped LONGSTOCKING over, the kids went sailing while J. worked on LONGSTOCKING's gunnels.

Then J. and L. enjoyed just relaxing.

Later, after the kids returned and were spending time relaxing, J. and L. rowed over to Carrawong and visited awhile. Our friends had wondered if it was us. It was great to catch up. 

Project: Dinghy Test Sail

Then we have the test sail.

Otherwise known as "The Moment of Truth."

First, J. with E.

Then J. with the girls.

The dinghies worked quite well, except for the pintles and gudgeons. We used eye bolts with bolts sticking down. This is something similar to what we've used before, however, the eye bolts kept twisting.

J. remembered that in the past, he used a piece of threaded rod through all four eye bolts (two on the rudder, two on the transom). This kept the eye bolts from twisting. Another trip to the hardware store, some cutting, bending and filing later, and problem solved.

Good thing we did a test run. The other method would have worked, but been a pain to use. The current method is as simple as can be. 

Sunset & the Two Dinghies

Towards sunset yesterday, we have the two dinghies lined up back to back. You can see how the rudder boards are adjustable. Also, note the mast partners. These are attached in thefollowing manner: the partners have a bolt with nut (keeps the bolt from falling through). Each gunnel has a corresponding hole in it. By sliding a bolt into a hole in the gunnel on each side (one to Port and one to Starboard) the mast partner is now in place. Afterward, lines are snugged down to the seats, holding the mast partners in the boat. The sail halyard is attached to one of the dowel pins, the sail down haul/back haul to the other pin. 

Projects: Dinghy Lee-Board & Rudder Final Product

Here's the final product of both the lee-board and rudder/tiller. 

The lee-board, with a line through the top,  is bolted to a spacer block (the size of the gunnel) and another piece of plywood that fits on the inside of the boat.

The rudder/tiller is in four pieces. There is the rudder head with attached tiller (glued and bolted). There are eye-bolts through the front for a pin piece that slides through these eye-bolts and corresponding eye bolts on the transom. The bungy cord (wrapped around three times and tied) stays with the rudder head. The rest of the rudder works like a dagger-board. It is able to slide up and down (held in place by the bungy cord) and can't fall through due to the rope handle. If we were to hit anything it can also "kick" backwards and shouldn't cause any damage. 

This is quite a creative solution that we borrowed from someone who says he borrowed the idea from some racing dinghies. Another claim is that one can continue sailing in quite shallow water.  In practice we've found the rudder system to work great. 

Projects: Dinghy - Continued Rudder and Rope Work

We continued working:

gluing up the rudder/tiller head,

and whipping lines.

Project: Dinghy Sail Placement

Using PIPPI as a test-bed, one of the next steps was figuring out the mast placement. J. decided to fit the mast step upon the seat to give just a little more head-room under the sail. With lug rigged boats there tends to be more side to side and fore to aft loads than compression loads (as in downward pressure). Having I. and M. test this out was a good idea. And it proved that sitting on the floor was a necessity, as was the seat level mast step.