Summer cruise, 17-22 July, Harwich

At anchor, opposite Cob Island, Aldeburgh

Saturday 17th July

The school term ended pleasingly early on 16th July.  The next day, with the intention of using the late afternoon tide, I set off for the coast.  Initially intending to launch at Bradwell, long delays by road forced a last minute change to Woolverstone Marina.  This is more expensive, but closer.

Initial manœuvres below the Orwell Bridge

Evening victuals at anchor off 'The Cliff', near Pin Mill

The wildlife impressed!

Sunsets always a special treat!

Day 1: 6.0nm

Sunday 18th July

Winds for the week were disappointingly easterly, although the promise was for a steady, gentle breeze.  Easterlies cause loppy seas so discourage long coastal hops.  Whereas I'd like to have ventured further afield, on this cruise I decided to say within the Harwich area.  Today, it made sense to use the morning ebb to sail up the coast.  Motor sailing helped negotiate the tricky entrance at Orford Haven.  Then, the flood tide provided a welcome beat up the River Ore into the River Alde at Aldeburgh.

I've used the anchorage opposite Cob Island before but found the walk into Aldeburgh tricky to find.  Recent housing developments have now made this landing point (the Old Brick Dock Jetty - the jetty for which is now a load of rotting wooden stumps) much easier to use, with a couple of clear options for walking into town.  (photo at the top of this blog post)

Day 2: 27.4nm

Monday 19th July

Having successfully accessed a supermarket in the morning, the tide was now ebbing, so I reached down the Ore, back along the coast and decided to make passage up the River Stour to a favourite anchorage between Harkstead Point and the village of Harkstead.

View from the hatch.

Day 3: 25.7nm

Tuesday 20th July

The remaining flood tide of the morning, along with very gentle easterly winds made for a very pleasant run up the Stour.  Opposite Mistley, the tide had turned and, with the easterly now moving through the gears, I had a pleasant beat back down towards Harwich Harbour, and then across Dovercourt Bay into the Walton Backwaters.  

The forecast gave warnings of thunderstorms, and I needed to restock with fresh food, so I booked a berth in Titchmarsh Marina - it seemed a sensible option, and the calm and security of the marina was more than welcoming.  

I'm sure I've been in this berth before...

More victuals.  There is a new Aldi supermarket about 1.5 miles walk from the marina.

Day 4: 20.4nm

Wednesday 21st July

Thunderstorms didn't really get going, although there was some rain.  I wasn't ready to end the cruise, but had an option of a second night at Titchmarsh, so enjoyed a day sail from this location, initially with the remaining flood up Landemere Creek, and then out into Dovercourt Bay.

Day 5: 24.1nm

Thursday 22nd July

It was time to end the cruise so, departing the marina at 0530, I motored against the flood out of the Backwaters.  I had a go at sailing, but the wind was not really strong enough, so I opted to motor all the way back to Woolverstone.  The engine behaved well - just as well, for the money it cost...

Day 6: 12.3nm

Overall trip: 115.9nm

Orwell Meet-up

 

Daisy III in Harwich Harbour

Things came to a hiatus over the end of May half term holiday when the outboard refused to start, after having launched at Bradwell Marina.  To cut a long story short, the outboard had somehow allowed fuel past the pistons and mixing with the oil.  The engine was poorly, and inexplicably so.  The only thing to do was to invest in a new outboard, so Daisy III now has a new Mercury 6 installed, at vast expense.

So, last weekend was the first opportunity to try out the new toy, and the outboard naturally behaved well. Hopefully, problem solved!

Some Drascombe friends, owners of luggers Rita May and Jimbo, joined me for a second year on the Orwell.  We launched at Suffolk Yacht Harbour on Saturday morning, and sailed all day, incorporating a very pleasant stop at Halfpenny Pier, Harwich.

Due to a less promising Saturday evening forecast, it was decided, for the sake of the open boats, to return to SYH for them to stop aboard their vans rather than camping in boats.  Whilst the sailing was cut down to a single day, nonetheless it was good fun.

The video below gives a little flavour of the weekend; this includes the usual google image of our track, which was 17.9nm.

Back to tidal waters

 

Daisy III pictured off Pin Mill on the River Orwell

Following last weekend's Broads trip, the forecast for the early part of the Bank Holiday weekend promised light winds, mainly from the east - sufficiently benign for a trip within the shelter of Harwich estuary.

Launching at Woolverstone, I sailed round to Erwarton on the Stour for the evening.

Water ballast tanks filling at Woolverstone

Slow progress against the ebb, up the Stour - Erwarton ahead

The next morning, gentle NW winds persisted.  I sailed out of Harwich Harbour, made a loop around the Pye End navigation buoy, and then had a pleasant beat back into the harbour and up the Orwell, ready for retrieving onto the trailer with the mid-afternoon tide.

A bright morning on the Stour

Pye End Buoy

Presumably a sister ship to the one which was recently wedged in the Suez Canal

Off Pin Mill, a Drascombing friend who owns a coaster spotted me, and took these great snaps!  It is so good to see pictures of Daisy III in sailing action.

Back on the trailer - this time skewed on the port side - more on this in another post...

25.9nm.  Red track - Saturday 1st May.  Yellow track, Sunday 2nd May

Shakedown sail

 

Saturday evening mooring on the River Waveney

For a first sail, given a predominance of easterly winds recently, the decision was made to make the season's shakedown sail a Broads affair.  Launching at the public slip into Oulton Broad, some time was spent filling in the Broad with the GPS, before sauntering along the Waveney to find a suitably quiet, countryside mooring - just me, the boat and the natural beauty of this location.

Sailing along the Waveney

Extensive modifications to the trailer were put to the test.  Launching went well enough, but recovery onto the trailer needs some more work since the changes have exacerbated a previous tendency towards skewed recovery.  The large mudguard on the starboard side is now sitting within a centimetre of the hull, which doesn't leave much room for lateral movement on the road.  However, the boat has survived the trip.  More of this in another post...

10.7nm

Mast crutch and winter wrapping

 After several weeks of wet weekends, there was finally a reasonably dry weekend which gave an opportunity to put the winter covers on Daisy III.  It's always important not to winterise the boat whilst it is still wet - the prospect of the damp turning to some sort of rot is not enticing!

The first job has been to create a forward mast crutch, making use of the Samson Post.

This solution will enable the storage of the mast much further forward than previously, particularly beneficial in avoiding such a big overhang to the rear.  Since the trailer modifications have increased the length between the winch post and the hitch, there is now greater scope for the effectiveness of this modification.

The solution will do for the winter, but in the spring judicious use of leather should avoid chafe from the slight lateral play in this arrangement, both between samson post and crutch, and between crutch and mast.

Daisy III is now under its winter cover.  The other advantage of the above modification is that there can be free flow of air under the cover fore and aft which, again, should help avoid a build up of dampness.

Water ballast inspection hatch opening tool

 

The BC20, in common I think with the BC23, has forward and aft water ballast chambers, connected by a piece of tubing which runs along the bilge next to the centre plate.  Day to day access is to the rear chamber via an easily-opened hatch in the cockpit floor.  The forward chamber is actually in two halves, port and starboard, each serviced by a much less easily-opened inspection hatch below a small storage area just below the V-berth.

Mostly, one would leave these as they are, the chief concern during the season being to ensure they are sufficiently watertight to prevent ingress of water to the cabin from the water ballast.  However, during the winter, it's rather concerning to think of this chamber remaining damp and enclosed so I rather prefer to open up the hatches, dry out any remaining water and leave the covers off to allow air to circulate.  However, despite applying ample Vaseline around the covers when closing, they become incredibly difficult to remove - particularly painful on the fingers which have little purchase on the two indented areas.  So, following a quick search on YouTube, I happened upon a short video of an easily made tool.  This has now been crafted using a couple of bolts, some electrical masking tape and an old piece of driftwood I picked up years ago and decided to keep thinking it might come in useful one day!

The great thing is that the tool works an absolute treat, and both hatches opened with relative ease.

Trailer modifications and other end of season work

Daisy III now sitting on its modified trailer - new axle with braked wheels.  The widest point of the hull is quite close to the new mudguards, but this should hopefully not present a problem.

It has been a strange summer in an even stranger year.  Following the last cruise in August, it became apparent that there were serious issues with the boat trailer, principally due to the overall towing load being too heavy for the un-braked trailer.  

The original BC20 was sold as being 451kg when 'empty', sitting on an un-braked trailer of 200kg, thus allowing just under 100kg for additional loads prior to reaching the towing limit of 750kg for such a trailer.  This seemed a flawed approach for all sorts of reasons:

• Despite polite enquiries, it was not possible to achieve a straight answer to the important question of what precisely constituted an 'empty' boat.  Does it mean the finished hull alone, or does it include mast, spars, sails, cabin bunk cushions, rigging?  These items would easily make up the 100kg difference.  Moreover, this particular boat is a modified version, currently with a Lavac sea loo installed on the starboard side.  How much additional weight is this?
• Anyone who owns a boat will appreciate the necessity of carrying all sorts of additional kit and clobber.  Must this be carried separately, loaded onto the boat before each launch, and correspondingly removed at the end of a sail?  For one, an outboard motor adds a considerable weight and is the sort of item so awkward to load that the single handed sailor would be excused for wanting to fit it just once, at the start of the boating year, and then leave in place throughout the season.  Then, one must consider anchor, chain, second anchor, ropes, paddle, boat hook, electronics, safety gear, fenders, tools, charts.  And that's before the day-to-day essentials such as cooking/eating essentials, ingredients, water, clothing, boots, wet weather clothing etc.
• This is a cabined boat which is all the more reason why one would want to fit out the cabin with all sorts of additional equipment.
• Even if it were possible to keep the weight of the boat below the 750kg limit, it is an undeniable fact that the overall weight will at least be pushing up against that limit.  Travelling, safe in the knowledge that the towing weight was well below any such limits, is much the preferable option.

Having done some summer arithmetic (illustrated below), using A-level mechanics 'moments of forces' calculations alongside the somewhat crude use of a set of bathroom scales, the conclusion was that, even with most kit removed, but spars, sails, cabin cushions, ropes and fenders included, the weight of the boat and trailer was at least right on the towing limit and, quite possibly well over.  Summer anecdotes from other boat owners being pulled over by the police, and then directed to the nearest weighbridge were a considerable cause for concern.  Then, it was the case that much of August was unseasonably windy (conditions this skipper doesn't particularly enjoy) with the brief windows of more settled weather coinciding with other commitments.  

This is somewhat crude, and subject to a considerable margin for error, not least since it wasn't easy to roll the boat back on its trailer without fear of the whole thing tipping up.  But the principle is that the downward force exerted by the jockey wheel is measured twice, once with the boat in its usual position, and then again with the boat rolled backwards, whereby the centre of mass of the boat also goes backwards by the same amount.  The outcome of this mini-experiment is that the boat and trailer weighed in at 900kg!!  However, let's assume, for example, that there had been an ever so slight misreading of measurements, and that the boat went backwards by 7cm as opposed to 6.5cm - this would have knocked something like 66kg off the mass of the boat. 
So, to repeat, crude measurements, and subject to a large margin of error...

Hence, it seemed to be the right time to take drastic action, in the form of having the trailer modified to incorporate brakes.  Amongst other things, this involves a new axle with larger wheels, raising the height of the trailer frame (see further modification below).  There is nothing innovative about this action; a number of other BC20 owners have previously done the same, either swapping their trailer for a braked version, or having the existing trailer modified to a braked version.  In so doing, the upper towing limit becomes much more dependent on the type of vehicle rather than the trailer.  Currently, this is a Skoda Superb estate 4x4, with a braked towing limit of two tonnes and, whilst there is no intention of pushing anywhere near this limit, the boat can now be loaded with the kit needed and this can remain aboard throughout the season.

New hitch and jockey wheel

CLH trailers, who built the original and who had already carried out similar conversions, were engaged to do the work.  This was not without its difficulties due to the various covid lockdowns, and delays in them taking delivery of the requisite parts.  To cut a long story short, a hastily arranged swap of the completed trailer at the Welsh border the day before the second lockdown commenced in England has ensured Daisy III is now back at home and awaiting a period of relatively dry conditions prior to putting on the winter covers.

Whilst doing this work, it was timely to carry out a few other modifications.  For one, the raised height of the trailer will cause further bother in trying to winch the boat over the rear swinging cradle on launch and recovery, so a couple of rollers have been installed at the lowest central part of this.  This is yet to be tested, and it will at least be spring in 2021 before this happens.  Hopefully, the process will be similar to this launch and recovery video from Swallowyachts.  

View from the rear, also showing the first of two new, wider central keel rollers

It remains to be seen as to how the bow, with winch strap, will roll over these.  Fingers crossed for Spring 2021...

Two of the keel rollers further forward have also been replaced with wider rollers which hopefully are better suited to the relatively wide keelband for this boat.