Breakin the Chain!!!

Spinnaker Photo- Alberg 30 Flying her Asy Spinnaker

Our Sal under sail in 2011, making good headway with cruising spinnaker.

Update on the "tick"

In my last post I told you about an exhaust leak I had in my engine compartment. I am happy to report back that the JB Weld held for our day sail on the 4th of July. No more exhaust leak! Our good old Atomic 4 is back to her quiet self. We motored a bit more than usual and all seemed well. Now I know its not a permanent fix but I am going to leave it alone for now while I look for another exhaust manifold. Other than that pretty much the same ole grind. Looking forward to a day sail today with the first mate and possibly doing a little sailboat racing on someone else's boat this afternoon. A dockmate of mine invited me to go out on his racer. He said just show up at the dock at 5:30 and hop on....Hopefully I will report back with good news of my racing experience
 



 Sal's trusty Atomic 4

Americas Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July to everyone and especially our service members past and present. Without your service we may never have been able to celebrate this fine holiday.

 

Been busy doing a little work on Sal's "Iron Sail", the engine. Over the past few months I had been hearing a ticking noise from down below and figured I should go investigate. I found an exhaust leak where the exhaust bolts to the manifold. Seemed like an easy fix so I went to the boat earlier this week, took it all apart, cleaned and reassembled. I waited a day to start to let the sealant dry completely. When I did start it a few days later, the "tick" was much more faint but still there...back to the inspection process. What I found this time was a small hole in the exhaust manifold itself. So last night I went down to the boat and did what any sailor desperate and broke sailor would do.........gooped up the hole with JB Weld!!! We are headed out sailing this afternoon so we will see if she will hold. Either way, I will need a replacement manifold. I have a used one here at the house that I will begin to clean and see if I can salvage, if not I will need a new one. Good thing is that it is not a show stopper as far as going day sailing.

After I finished filling in the hole last night I enjoyed a nice evening alone on the boat. The weather had finally cleared and I had a few hours to kill, so I did just that...wasted 2 hours doing nothing but enjoying the sights and relaxing from the cockpit. Here are a few shots I sent to the first mate while she was working.

 

 

We will be headed out for a sail today, hopefully exhaust leak will be fixed. Either way I am going to go out and enjoy the day with first mate and friends! Happy 4th everyone!

San Francisco Bay-type wind on the Chesapeake!

Finally we had a good wind with solid breeze on the Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay type wind! A steady 20 kts, gusting to 25kts all day. We took a few family members out with us for their first sail ever. It was a great time. Our old Alberg 30 really shines in this wind; supposedly her designer Carl Alberg had typical San Francisco Bay conditions in mind when forming her lines. The way she is shaped (narrow beam, hourglass figure, full keel) causes her to handle and ride more comfortably than many other sailboats. She's not the fastest by any means, but a sturdy, smooth ride is worth the loss of some speed. We fitted Sal with the large 140 genoa and deep reefed main sail and she maintained 6-7kts the whole day. Great Sail!
 

 Second reef in the main

 

 Jen and Christina enjoying their first sail!

 

First Mate getting her feet wet and enjoying the great conditions

 



Pirates and Special Forces on the Chesapeake!

Getting out on the water this year has been difficult for us. We have both been busy with work and school. When we did have time the weather was less than cooperative. But last week we had a day where all the stars aligned and we got out on the boat together. It was quite an interesting trip.

 

We arrived at the marina and quickly got Sal away from the dock. The weather was near perfect, 75degrees, no humidity and wind from east at 10-15kts..... it was perfect!

 

 

As we were leaving the inlet I noticed a pirate ship, and pointed it out to my crew. We have always heard about the dangers of pirates but never in own backyard. Yikes! As the captain of my vessel I was preparing for a fierce battle. I was just about to fire shots across her bow as a warning to let them know they would not be boarding without a fight, when first mate informed me it was the just the tall ship Godspeed out of Jamestown and that I could stand down. As any good captain would do I listened to the first mate's input and waited...Sure enough she was right again and it was just Godspeed  preparing for Norfolk's Harborfest. Here is a video of the tense situation:

 

 

So we after that was cleared up we went for a nice sail out on the bay. It was great. Air was cool and crisp and breeze was steady. We sailed along making almost 4 kts with just the genoa out. We sailed for about 3 hrs. On our return back into the harbor I could see a bunch of small boats. As we got closer and they approached, I could see that they were Navy special forces in Zodiac-type craft.....There were a lot of them. Looked like they were headed out for some routine training on the Bay . Here is our video:

 

 

Overall a very good and well deserved day out on Sal. Looking forward to getting back into the swing of summer....it seems as though the good weather has finally arrived.

 

 

Crap! Alberg 30 Holding Tank

To recap since my last post: Finished up the spring semester at school, started my new job and finished some much needed yard work around the house.  I have been trying to get some sailing in but have been out only once. The weather this season has been anything but good for sailing.

I had started a v-berth project a while back and have been making progress to getting that completed. One of the major hurdles has been a building a new holding tank. When we purchased Sal she had only a 6 gallon holding tank. We quickly found out how inadequate that was for two people. Not only did it reek something awful....but it was a plastic tank that had seen better days.

I searched all the options for a new tank. I looked at many pre-fabbed tanks but didn't find any that fit into the area where Sal's holding tank was designed to be, which is quite an oddly shaped space. I finally decided to make one myself. I've always enjoyed fabricating items I've needed when I couldn't find them anywhere else. Given my budget, I decided to give an epoxy/plywood tank a try. From all the reports and reading I did, it seemed

 like a very easy build and if done right would work quite well. Since I had just about all the materials, this option seemed like the best.

Oddly shaped holding tank area, it follows the curve of her keel and creates a sharp angle

 Started by cutting rough shapes of the area and laying them in place

 Next, I taped the pieces to hold in place while I laid some epoxy. I lined the space with wax paper in case of any spills or leaks

Brought basic form home to make a box, used thickened epoxy on all seams

Test fit, so far so good

Here is the finished inside, fiberglass tape and thickened West System on all seams and 5 coats of epoxy

Using tension straps to secure and glue the lid on, I covered the outside of the tank with 2 layers of fiberglass cloth

All the access holes cut, made a few boo boos but epoxy mistakes are very easy to fix

 Finished tank waiting to go in. I bought 1 1/2 pool fittings and then bought marlon 90 from west marine...yeah I know....those fittings cost nearly as much as the rest of the tank. Know when not to skimp on expenses! : ) 

There is the new tank in place, it holds 14 gallons. The two smaller fittings are for the vent lines. I decided to run to vents as I have been told it helps promote less odor by allowing airflow through the tank.

So in summary a very good project, not very hard and quite fun. Best of all I have just over $100 in the whole thing including the marlon fittings. 

We'll let you know how its first sea-trials turn out...