Sunday 30 December 2012

Toilet blockage breakthrough

It's been a while since I clambered aboard Ciao Bella for anything other than a quick check. To be honest I'd come up against a mental block while fitting the loo... I've just broken through that block :-)
When I fitted the seacocks I had planned to have the tails pointing straight up, as this is how I'd seen others fitted.
When I realised how much radius I'd need on the sanitation pipe I decided that I wanted the tails to come of at 90 degrees. I picked up a pair of elbows but the outlet one was too close to the side of the compartment for it to thread on.
I didn't want to rush this and get it wrong again so I've been dickering about trying to come up with a plan. The easy out was to loosen the skin fitting, assemble the tail and elbow onto the ball valve and the re bed the skin fitting. This would have meant being able to put it together without attacking the woodwork in the boat but had the downside of not being able to disassemble while afloat.
Tonight I have taken the bull by the horns and hacked, ground, filled & chiseled the woodwork to allow the elbow to spin on. The outlet hose will now route over the top of the inlet hose and the action of the handles is not impeded. I feel like a weight has been lifted, I plan to get up early tomorrow and spend the whole day working on her.

The picture show the modifications to the cupboard sides to accommodate the elbow and with the seacocks loosely assembled to show how the pipe will fit and clearance for the handles.



Sunday 9 December 2012

More holes.

After a period of inactivity, I thought I'd better get on with something.
I am mid way through fitting the seacocks for the head. First I made a couple of backing pads out of marine ply offcuts. Then bit the bullet and drilled through the hull. I have positioned the intake forward of the outlet.. Not sure if the is any hard and fast rules here but I didn't fancy sucking up what had just been discharged.
I shortened the thread on the skin fittings to give the hose as much room to bend as possible.
Assembly was straight forward. I glooped the joints in sikaflex and assembled. I shall leave the final tightening until tomorrow to let the sikaflex go off and then trim off the excess.




Monday 3 December 2012

Buying frenzy

The last few weeks have seen some purchases for Ciao Bella... the pot of money is disappearing quicker than the Liberal party's principles.  There has been a lot of eBay activity and not all of it successful.
First were the seacocks,  Bought off Preloved, an absolute bargain at £50 for the pair with skin fitting and tails.  Seller had bought new to fit loo but decided against it.
My new cooker in it's old home.
Next was the Loo itself... I followed and bid on several Jabsco compacts, however they all seemed to go for far too much money, considering a new one was only £98... So a new one is what I got.
Then came the cooker.. That was a stroke of luck.  I was speaking to Rog and he mentioned he'd bought a new cooker for his Hurley 24/70.. I knew he had an Origo 3000 so we came to an agreement over that... Sweet :o) The only down side with the Origo is that it doesn't fit in the Galley... which is a tad annoying.

Now the big one, the Main Sail. There is lots of choice here, in the end I decided to buy from Swift Sails, a combination of price and recommendation. I nearly bought locally, more expensive but sometimes it's more convenient. Anyway, that would have involved me raising the mast to take measurements... I couldn't be doing with it. Roger, Nick Vass and Swift had already done the measuring up side on Big Easy so I know their plan fits. As soon as Jamie from Swift gets back from Thailand I'll get the order placed.


My final spend has been on a spinnaker.   I've chased a few of these on eBay, some go cheap, some not so. I finally got one off eBay from a Vivacity for £67.  Hopefully it will fit without having to take to Jan's for a trim :)
The one thing I've found with all these purchases is that the spend doesn't stop there... The Toilet and seacocks needed another £60 worth of pipe and fittings, the cooker with need gimbals and pan  holders.. another £120; the main sail will deserve a nice cover and the spinnaker will need miles of Guys, sheets, halyard, uphaul, downhaul, pulleys, cleats, shackles and even a turtle.. apparently.
What I could really do with, and I don't seem to be able to find it on eBay, is time, lots of it.. oh, and some reasonable weather.


Wednesday 28 November 2012

Fish finder for sale

I don't normally use the blog for selling stuff, but I thought this might be relevant to some readers.
I'm selling my Garmin Fishfinder 140 to help fund some of this years work on Ciao Bella.
I bought this two years ago for Jelly Bean, click for blog link.  When I bought Ciao Bella I decided I wanted a Nasa Duet.. to be honest the Garmin is a better tool, It shows depth more accurately and gives a pictorially view of the bottom to help avoid rocks and to give some clue to anchor holding.  The Nasa just gives me depth... and that's not always accurate.  The Nasa is now filling a big hole in the bulkhead so it will have to stay there.  Time to move the Fishfinder on. The full manual can be found here and I'm looking for £55 for it.
If anyone is interested email me here and we can talk. It's all there, just not in the box.  If no interest then it'll go on the eBay lottery next week :o)
Cheers Phil

Monday 26 November 2012

A throne for my palace

Things are never easy... I have bought a Jabsco compact for Ciao Bella, as they are reported to fit in the locker without too much modification. Ciao Bella has a different layout to all other Hurley 20,s that I have seen, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that this wasn't going to go to plan.
Roger had been through this exercise last year and posted the process on the Hurley Owners Assc website here.
I will follow the same method, i.e. mount the loo on a plinth to make it easy to remove from the boat for servicing, emergencies and cleaning. The plinth will be two thicknesses of 9mm marine ply, mainly because I have some and also so I can overdrill the lower sheet to accept the bolt heads.
After shaving as much as I could off the pump end of the base, to follow the curve of the hull, I could see that there was going to be no way I'd get my throne to sit any lower in the locker; meaning I couldn't put the lid on. hmmm, time to think.
My plan now is to fit the loo and all the pipework then raise the lids of all the front v berth lockers by 1" with battens. I can only assume this will bring the v berth up to the height of other Hurleys. There should still be enough room to get to the chain locker... Even for me :-)
The following series of pictures show how I am contructing this plinth.

I cut a piece of 9mm Marine ply fit flat in the bottom of the  locker. Not sure if you can see but the  sides of the hull start to rise here making it impossible to site the loo with out adding a platform.  This bottm sheet will allow the bolt heads to sit through it to maintain a flat base.

Thw upper piece of ply was then cut and champhered to fit over  the lower sheet. The loo was then dropped into position so I could mark where it would fit.

A trial fit - The locker sides will need to be raised about 1" .  I have also had to shape the side of the locker to  take the curve of the bowl.

A view into the locker showing how little room there is.  The base of the pump had to be shaped to follow the curve of the hull.  This is the only modification to the loo that I will have to do.

Showing how the two pieces will fit together.
PVA'd together with as many clamps as I could find.  Once happy with the shape and fit I will encapsulate the whole lot in epoxy a paint with bilge paint..  I guess the only thing more corrosive than the sea is a toilet on the sea! 

Saturday 17 November 2012

What a waste.

In order to encourage the current Mrs Ciao Bella to join me more often aboard, I realised I would have to improve the facilities. The major improvement would be a sea toilet. The current bucket... Even with the addition of a seat was not cutting the mustard.
I know a Jabsco compact will fit in nicely so I started looking around, gealforce have the loo at a good price but when I looked at the bits needed to fit it I nearly choked. Time to scour the free-ads. Patience paid off and today I managed to pick up a pair of DZR sea cocks complete with skin fittings and tails for £50... Excellent.
All I need now is a loo and some wappingly expensive hygienic tube.
Oh yeah, and work up the enthusiasm and courage to drill some big holes in my boat.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

New Identity

3199


Since buying Ciao Bella, just over a year ago, I have tried to find the hull or sail no for her.  The usual inquiries came up with zilch.. Club register, forums, trying to track down previous owners.. even looking back though the SSR number didn't help.  I have had to come to the conclusion that I will never be able  find the numbers that she was issued with.
As I am on the brink of ordering a new main sail I wanted to have one last try or, at least see if a new number could be issued.
Nick Vass and Bruce Carter from the Hurley Owners Assoc were a great help here.  Nick set the wheels in motion to see if a No could be assigned and also suggested that there is a growing number of yachts that use their SSR number as a sail number.
Nick sent me a list of currently unassigned numbers and suggested that I could pick one of those,  Bruce then had a closer look and eliminated most as, although not on the register, they  had been assigned to export boats or may have been sold on after the receiver took control.  That left No 199 which had never been built and was from late 1968, about the right period. As this boat had never been built, it mean't I could use the number without fear of conflict with any other Hurley 20. As Hurley 20's have their sail number prefixed by a 3, the number on the sail will be 3199
The records have been amended to show that Ciao Bella has this number assigned from 14th Nov 12 so her rebirth is complete.  From numberless 'Comme Ci Comme Ca' to 199 'Ciao Bella'
I feel I should smash a bottle of bubbly stuff :o))

Regarding a new sail, I have had lots of quotes ranging from £452 to £533 for the same spec sail. As I like to try to keep the pounds close to home, I was going to go for Kemp Sails; a local supplier who was about midway through this range , however I did eventually go for the offer from Swift sails.  This is mainly through recommendation.  I have recently seen the quality of their sails on another Hurley 20 and I was impressed.  The only reason I didn't chose Kemp sails in the end was that I would of had to raise the mast again and take measurements.  Swift already have this information and as Rogers rig was identical to mine, I know it works. Swift also had the added benefit of being the cheapest.
Big Easy sporting her Swift sails main sail.  Picture from Sailing Today magazine.

Saturday 10 November 2012

Hull cleaning

The sides of Ciao Bella have become very grubby looking this year. A brown stain has spread along the hull, rust stains from a previously repaired stanchion add to the overall rundown effect with a good helping of weed just above the antifoul line just for good measure.
A friend of mine provided me with some cleaning products that his company manufactures and supplies.   Before rushing in with the Oxalic Acid, I decided to try a few other suggestions so that I had something to compare it to.  My first effort was with some traffic film remover that I had in the garage.
This didn't touch it at all. I then tried some soda crystals, no joy there either.
Time for the Oxalic acid.. I mixed up a small amount in a bowl of warm water and went out to brush it on.  I was amazed, the first contact cut straight through the stain but only for a short distance.  I brushed over a good area and let it soak.  While that was soaking I stippled the brush on the bits that were covered in weed. Slightly optimistic I suppose, it didn't shift the weed but eventually turned it pink.. like an old lady's hair do. I brushed over the first area again and the stain just melted away.  I was really happy with this. The weed would need a bit more persuasion.  To my surprise it didn't need that much help.  An good scrape with a plastic card (Like a credit card) shifted it easily.  Another brush over and it was clean.  A good swill off with clean water and it's sorted.   It just needs a polish over now. More on that later.



The base of this stanchion had left a streak of rust down the side of the hull.  The oxalic acid just wiped this away.  The extra effort is needed to clear the growth which is between the antifoul and line.
I was really happy with the result here. Even the weedy bits have come up alright.

Another quick fix was the life threatening open topped stanchions.  I spend most of the summer worrying about impaling myself on these.  I have seen Stainless steel end caps which look good but the cost made me balk. In the end I bought some plastic tube caps from RS Components, a bag of 5 came to less than £3 delivered to my door.

As was, sharp top ready to gouge into me.



As is,  a cheap professional looking finish... shame about the rusty guard wire :)


Silky cleaners - http://www.silkyproducts.co.uk/catalogue/products.aspx?pid=0&mid=4&smid=

End caps - http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/tube-stops-plugs/4181535/

Monday 5 November 2012

What's the buzz

The absolute end of the season is signaled with  taking the tender out for the winter..  I took the opportunity to give the Ole Seagull an outing and a bit of a trial.  My tender is 12 foot and fairly heavy... especially with 4 inches of water in it so I wanted to see if the Seagull had enough guts to push it along.
The first thing I noticed was how light it is compared to my 4 horse mariner.  I can easily manage this engine around the pier ladders and hooking it on the back of the tender is a doddle.
The second improvement is that because it is light it doesn't sink the back of the tender, helping it track better through the water.

The seagull seems to take several pulls to get it going from cold but once warm it starts before the cord has had time to leave the flywheel.  As there is no neutral it took me by surprise and pulled on the painter, spinning the boat on the out-haul.  I reduced the revs and pull along the out-haul to point her nose out into clear water.
The last thing I noticed was the noise and vibration :)  What a rasper!    This was the only downside, it performed beautifully and really the noise is ok.. it's only to get me out to Ciao Bella or get the Mirror home if I run out of wind or tide.

I pulled her up the slipway as far as I could but the clubs trolley is a bit too small making it hard for one person to get this lot up the ramp.

The great thing with  the sailing club is that, even out of season, someone will turn up eventually, and when they did they got roped into helping me drag her out and stash her in a corner until I can get back and pick her up. :o))

Friday 2 November 2012

New 'Old' toys

I had one of those eBay moments the other day.   I was strangely drawn to an auction for a Mirror Dinghy.  The paint looked poor but the other pictures showing the inside look remarkably good. It had the added bonus of coming with an outboard engine.. I have a Laser dinghy that I keep at the sailing club, I bought it for James but he has since discovered cars and has no interest in sailing, this would give me the drive to sell the Laser on as I am a bit too sedate to be balancing on a those kind of boats, a Mirror is more my style.. Older, creaky, leaky and slow :)   it had to be worth a punt, no pun intended.



UP FOR GRABS IS THIS GREAT LITTLE
MIRROR DINGHY








comes with all rigging
anchor
gaff rig
2 hp motor
all the original paperwork 
(from when it was first built)
the only thing that it hasnt got are sails
she needs a little TLC i.e. rub down and repaint apart from that she is sound .
No reserve
 she must go owing to other commitments
no spare time to use her
This is cash on collection only and winning bidder to make contact within 48hrs of end of auction and collection within 7 days of end of auction.

LOW STARTING PRICE

so grab a bargain.
HAPPY BIDDING


The lack of sails is not a problem as I have two spare sets from previous boats plus mast, boom, gaff, rudder etc. I put in a late bid of upto £200 and I won at £125.. Happy days. All I needed to do now was pick it up from Northampton (£130 miles away), find time to tidy it up, sail it and sell my Laser to pay for it :(
I hadn't asked any questions before winning so I was a little disappointed when I found out the outboard was a British Seagull of unknown condition.  
The next day we set off up country to collect my new toys. When we arrived the couple that were selling the outfit were absolutely fantastic. The chap had bought it as a project but poor health had got in the way. A real shame.  Before going to the hull he led me to the shed where he stored all the accessories.  He pulled the seagull out and I was pleasantly surprised. It looked in good condition and had the nicer looking brass fuel tank.
We loaded all the bits onto my makeshift mirror trailer and headed home.  I was slightly gutted when the mast dropped onto the road and shaved a good chunk of the top in a very short space of time, good job I have a spare. That made me think back to my motorbiking days, how quick would your knees and elbows disappear if you fell off at 60 -70 mph?

Anyway, back home and really happy with my purchase.  There are some mad websites around Cruising in Mirrors and racing with Seagulls. Click on the links below if interested.


Weblinks





Thursday 25 October 2012

Post haul out inspection

A chance to assess how Ciao Bella has weathered during the so called summer and start making that never ending list of jobs to do.

Sunday 21 October 2012

Haul out



Today was supposed to be a nice easy day chilling at home, It started off well enough. I was slobbing about in my dressing gown, watching rubbish TV and surfing the net.   I started to plan the end of season haul out for next weekend.   I put some requests for help out on various forums then checked windguru to see what tomorrow would be like for a sail... Hells bells, next weekend was forecast to be F7 & F8.. a change of plan was needed.   Fortunately John was available to help so we grabbed a few essentials and by 2pm we were on our way  to Baiter park with the trailer.


Arjen kindly rowed us out.

We left my car and trailer at Baiter, John then drove us to the club.  Arjen was able to row us out to Ciao Bella which was great, it mean't I didn't need to retrive the tender later in the day.   After a pleasent motor across the harbour we set about dropping the mast and preparing the boat.   
Mast down

 We had to wait for the tide so after paddling ashore we headed for the tea wagon.  In alll the excitement I realised that we hadn't eaten all day so breakfast rolls went down a treat,

Waiting for the tide

I set the trailer up with the docking arms to help position the keels on the runners.  I measure up the docking arms and marked with yellow insulation tape so that I would know how far down the ramp I needed to push it to allow Ciao Bella to float onto.

Coming up the slipway
Then came the part I wasn't looking forward to.  I waded out into the harbour, pushing the trailer infront of me.  I could only tip toe for so long before the inevitable.  Not quite as cold as I thought it would be but cold enough.  When the trailer was in position  I paddled back to the boat and gently motored between the poles onto the snubber.  I swung of the front of the boat onto the drawbar and secured the boat to the trailer. This was shping up to be an absolute doddle.  With a bit of huffing and puffing we got the ropes as far as the waters edge so John, who was mostly dry, could drag her out with the car.
She's out - Yellow tape on dock arms guages depth.
 It was good to have her out while still daylight,  I climbed aboard, got dry and changed into some warm clothes.  I then drove John back to the club to pick up his car... It's a logistical nightmare hauling out. 
Nice sunset
Eventually we had her strapped down and ready to roll.  I took the easiest route back at a very leisurely pace.  No dramas on the way home.  
 Once home I positioned her roughly on the front garden so that we could remove the mast, the mast overhangs along way and won't fit on the garden.  That done I set about manouvering her onto her wheel pads but no joy. The ground was wet and the wheels were starting to spin.    We unhooked her , moved the car forward and attached a turfer to pull he out but even that didn't work.  From behind you could see that she had dug in...
Jaunty angle.

Closer inspection shows how far she has sunk into the lawn.   We conceeded defeat for tonight and pushed the draw bar off the pavement.  I shall enlist the help of someone with a bigger vehcle tomorrow to position her properly.  At least she is out and I can set about the next stage of restoration.
Sunk


Tuesday 16 October 2012

Tacking my way back to Wareham

Saturday was a great day, the weather was perfect, F4 occasionally gusting F5. John and I left the mooring at about 11am with a half cocked plan to sail to Wareham for a pint.  The only fly in the ointment was the direction of the wind and tide :o))   The smart thing to do would have been to go to Studland, go out with the tide and back in when it turned, but as I went there last week I didn't want to go there again.
The tacking practise was welcome, we were quite rusty to start with but before long we were working as a team and the tacks became smoooth :)  It took along time but we made it up to Hamworthy before the strength of the tide made it impossible to continue sailing.  We started the outboard and motored around the headland past Rockley park.  The sailing school were bombing about in their Wayfarers shaming us into getting the sails out again.
As the channel got too narrow to sail in we put the sails away again and motored up the river towards Wareham. The keels touched down a couple of times on our approach to the town but as the tide was rising it was only a short delay before we were on our way again.
Eventually tied up on the Quay we went to... The Quay :~)  We now had another decision to make.  Should we stay on the Quay for the night or have a night sail back down the river.  After consulting the tide table we decided to have some food then get back down the river while there was still a tinsy bit of light to see by.

Well feed and watered we hopped back aboard and set our sights for Poole.  There was much more water now so no fear of running aground.  However the light was fading fast, no time to loiter.
While in the river proper, it was easy to keep in the channel, but once out of the reeds we had to try and pick out the stakes.  John went to the bow with the torch and picked out the stakes, not as hard as we thought it would be as they had reflective tape on them. Communication is key, with the torch in the cockpit I was often blinded, with John at the bow the torch was not an issue but hearing his instruction over the engine was, concentration clear instruction was all we needed.  We had one moment on the mud when I aimed straight for the next post when the channel actually curved.  Lots of reverse got us free again. We now had the luxury of lit buoys to guide us.
Always worth giving the Condor ferry plenty of room, even in daylight, at night I decided to keep well clear. Finding the mooring was a little harder than normal as many of the boats around me have been taken out for the winter.  Another successful day, it took us about six hours to get to Wareham, mostly under sail, and only two hours to return on the motor I'm starting to get used to being able to sail every weekend... lets see what next weekend brings.

Saturday 13 October 2012

Autohelm

At last... I have my autohelm. I picked it up last night and I'm well chuffed. It's in great condition with all the bits n pieces. It's even got the wind vane so it can have a course set against the wind direction, this is however still attached to previous boat.
Mike was a star.. Instead of grabbing my measly few pounds and throwing me out of the door again, he spent 20 mins showing me how to take it apart and restring it, apparently the main cause of failure on these. Cheers Mike. I won't gaff about with it until the boat is home as I need to get an extension piece for the arm and set up the electrics.
Today is looking pretty darned good, if not a little chilly, so John and myself will be heading off shortly for a daysail in the harbour.
Cheers for now ;-)

Monday 8 October 2012

Cleaning the paddle wheel

The speed log on my Nasa duet stopped reading some time ago.  I took the opportunity to give it a well deserved clean the other day.  It didn't do any good as I think the whole area around it is covered in weed and slime, but the video should give you some idea of what's involved and allay some of the fears of doing this job while afloat.

It's shame that I couldn't get it to work as it was useful to compare speed through the water against speed over ground.   Mind you with windex stuck pointing forward, one more thing won't make any difference.  

Slipped out to Studland



As the season end rushes towards me I have to take every opportunity to use the boat.   This weekend turned out to be much better than predicted so I decided to take a trip out to Studland.   I met Paul   at the club around 11am, and took him out to his Corribee before boarding Ciao Bella.
We raised the sails but it was fairly pointless, there was barely enough breeze to fill the sails let along make the boat move.  We motor  sailed nearly all the way to Studland as we wanted to get there for lunch. We just hoped there would be a bit more wind on the way back.
Dinghies inflated we paddled to the beach and traipsed up to the Bankes Arms.  We spent a nice couple of hours in the beer garden overlooking the bay with a pint of 'Force 4' and a Chicken Chassuer.  
Another club member and his daughter also joined us along with Paul's family who came around by car.
It was soon time to make a move and as hoped the wind had filled in.  We paddled back to the boats and set off back. The conditions seemed ideal for full sail and both boats set off well, they were both well matched, including the amount of weed on both hulls :o)). The Corribee seemed to be just  slightly faster than the Hurley on a broad reach but on a run the Hurley managed to hold station. 
Back at the club and there was a small gathering. We hung around for a chin wag, the subject of channel crossings came up and I came under serious pressure to organise a trip across next year.  I resisted valiantly but I fear this may not be the end of it. :~)
Paul delivering essential sustainance






Monday 1 October 2012

Yarmouth or bust

After the recent lack of sailing it was going to take some pretty miserable weather to stop me going to Yarmouth this weekend. The forecast was pretty good for Saturday, F4 NW all day.  Absolutely perfect for getting to the island from Poole. The return was going to be a bit more uncomfortable, F5 gusting F6 from the SW making it hard beats all the way home.


I left Poole about 1130 under sail, with the engine leg firmly in place and ready to fire up  until well clear of the harbour entrance.  Traffic wise it was really quite quiet, I must have been feeling quite magnanimous as even the power boats that went past got a nod and a wave :o))


The journey over was fairly uneventful,  the wind on the rear quarter was a bit of a pain as I couldn't balance the boat to be able to leave the tiller at all. Fortunately I'd made a flask of tea and one of Mediterranean tomato and red pepper soup to keep me going. 


Past Hengisbury head and I could hear some hooligans in power boats buzzing along at great speed,  there seemed to be more than just one or two and before long I realised that I was in the middle of power boat race.  I couldn't help but be impressed with the speed of these floating engines.   From seeing a plume on the horizon to flying by took no more than a couple of minutes.  The picture above serves as a reminder to check for hazards,  this yacht was firmly stuck on the shingles bank.. ooops!


No reason for this one.. I just liked it.



Safely moored up in Yarmouth




After a tidy up I changed the mainsail for my old one. It's a bit knackered but at least it has reefing points and I was going to need them for the trip home.  Then I gave myself a clean up before heading of to the pub.  I met up with a fellow Hurley 20 owner and we chewed the cud over pie and mash and a couple of pints.


Nicely lit to guide me home
I had a great nights sleep having got off early and not being in a rush to be up in the morning.  I wouldn't be able to get through Hurst until about 1230 so I had a nice leisurely morning.   There were some great boats in the harbour, these two were just stunning.






I decided to cook out in the cockpit as it was quite a nice morning.  I'd bought a pack of bacon and a pack of pork and herb sausages.  I had the bacon in rolls for breakie and stashed the sausages in my food flask for the trip home... I wasn't going to go hungry ;o)  While washing my pots I noticed the rudder was decidedly hairy looking, I got the broom out and gave every thing I could see a good scrub but it didn't do a lot of good.  I know she coming out in a few weeks but I'll try and beach her and give her a good clean. 

Hairy rudder :~(
It was eventually time to clear off so I got everything ready and spent a bit of time planning how to leave the pontoon.  Sounds odd but arriving at and leaving pontoons in a dignified manner is one thing that  I really struggle with.  This time both my arrival and departure were perfect.
Out in the open water I find some space and concentrated on getting the mainsail up.  I had a little play with full sail and reefed genoa but it was uncontrollable so I put a reef in and things were much better.  As I had left quite early there was no way I could make ground towards Hurst but I didn't mind. It gave me the opportunity to just play with the boat to get her sailing as well as I could get her to go.


Even though the wind had really picked up, Ciao Bella never felt unsafe.  The thing that I couldn't get my head round was that after a tack I would winch in the Genoa, if I then trimmed the main the genoa would start to collapse; I would then winch that in a bit more and could eventually get the sails looking spot on. This would however nearly stop the boat.  It seemed to sail faster with the main collapsed at the luff, I don't know why, maybe one of you kind souls could shed some light?
Coming out through the narrows was a particularly tame affair,  I'd come out quite a way to the south though so tacked back towards the main land. I had prepared a clearing bearing off Hurst point to ensure that I'd miss the shingles bank.


Windguru tells the story of the day, it was a long hard slog back to Poole but I kept my self entertained.  Unlike on the way over I was able to balance the boat and just put a light line on the tiller to keep her course while I sheltered behind the bulkhead. It was fully dark by the time I sailed into Poole harbour, a good seven hours after coming through Hurst channel.   One of the few benefits of a spring tide is the light from the full moon, not on this night; the cloud cover was so thick you could hardly see you hand in front of your face.  I instinctively found my mooring, tidied up and headed for home.  Considering it been a lousy summer, I have managed to clock up over 400NM this year.  Bring on next year with my new sails, wall  to wall sunshine and a constant F4 on the beam... no matter which way I'm going ;~P
The video below is a collection of snippets from the journey home, the quality is quite poor as it's all iPhone but it made me smile putting it together.  Hope you enjoy it.