Love Sailing

 

This was the highlight of our day out getting in close for a photo of this classic.

There has been lots of nice sailing weather in May so far but not a lot of wind, another weekend just the same but we were going out anyway. The forecast was var1-3 and when we got out into the bay we found it to be a south-east 2-3 and hard on the wind we were making around 4kts SOG which was nice until we turned down wind and the speed dropped of to 2kts.

We tried out the cruising chute again but it was just folding up in the very light air, in the end I snuffled the sail and motored in and up the Precuil River to anchor for the night having logged 12.5nm in 3.75hrs

The forecast over the weekend had been wet but the weather had turned out to be great. My wife Vicki and I had lots of homework to do and with the wet forecast had stayed home, now kicking ourselves having let a good weekend go, we decided to go sailing on Monday.

The plan had been to sail to Coverack for lunch but motoring out into the bay there was no wind, so I suggested the cruising chute (this we had bought last season with a snuffler) but we didn’t have the weather to fly that season. Our last yacht had a cruising chute but this was the first time I had used a snuffler! It took a bit of working out before I got the sail set well. But once I was happy Elektra was logging 3kts SOG against the tide not towards Coverack.

After logging 9nm in 3hrs I snuffled the chute and we anchored off Portscatho for lunch, after a stop of 2hrs we picked up the anchor again and headed for home, we shot out the bay at 5kts only to get becalmed about 1/2 mile off Portscatho, so we started motoring, then the wind picked up again so we could sail. We sailed for another 5 miles until we were halfway across Falmouth Bay and the wind died again, so we motored back to our mooring in Gillan Harbour. We picked up our punt from the mooring and motored up Carne Creek to anchor (east wind forecasted for next week).

We had logged 18nm over 4.5hrs, it was great to try the cruising chute out for the first time, it had been a lovely day to be out on the water.

I had blown up the roll-up dinghy and tried the engine, which started 2nd pull but the gear selector would not engage so we stayed aboard all the weekend. After a weekend just lounging around and sleeping, we motored Elektra back to her mooring in Gillan Harbour.

This was a hot and sunny weekend when everyone seems to go sailing but there was no wind. So we motored “Elektra” over to the Precuil River and dropped anchor.

We bought “Elektra” our Sadler 29 after searching the internet looking for the best on the market we could find at the time, she came with loads of gear which we had never had before with other yachts. After a year of use I thought I would share what we have found out about the gear.

Elektra came with Bukh 20hp engine, Eberspacher diesel cabin heater, Shore power, 12/240v fridge, 240v battery charger, H&C pressurised water, Tiller pilot, Radar, Chart plotter on chart table, Stripper rope cutter, Manual windless, DSC Radio,

The Bukh 20hp diesel engine has proved to be very reliable after a few problems during our delivery passage, the engine is now 34 years old so is on the list for replacement (the plan is to do in the next 7 years)

The Eberspasher cabin heater proved to be broken and not worth repair (it seems when yachts are for sale these heaters are tried during viewings and not cooled down properly before shutting off batteries, this fries the unit) so we replace with a new D2 unit which has proved to be very good.

Shore power is great if you can connect to it but being that Elektra in on a swing mooring we don’t have it so she has not been connected to shore power since March 2017 (but I bought a petrol power gen so have kept the batteries topped though the summer of 2017 and the winter via the shore power connection, (also good for running power tools in the winter). The new solar panel and charger has taken over this role.

12/240v fridge works great on shore power or engine power but we were not able to run just on battery power in 2017 for fear of running them down. The new solar now allows us to keep the fridge running during daylight hours though hot weather.

240v battery charger works great when connected to shore power or petrol gen.

H&C Pressurised water, the cold water work very well only the water pump had to be replaced after the winter as it wouldn’t prime anymore. The hot water has been more of a problem, what we know is the hot water pump off the engine works and the 240v heater draws power but as yet we haven’t been able to get any hot water. There is a inline water filter which I have replaced and the water is ok for drinking. The lack of hot water hasn’t been a problem as we just put the kettle on (its all we did with our last yacht). Its on my to do list to sort out this season.

Tiller Pilot, both Vicki and I love to helm when sailing so we thought we would never use this, by June last year it hadn’t been even looked at it. We sailed to the Yealm River for a SSOA Bar-B-Q, then had to motor home over two days due to lack of wind on a sea like glass, not long into the passage from the Yealm River to Fowey I got the Tiller Pilot out for a play. What I found out was once set up it could keep a better course than I could and could be trusted to leave in control for a long while without checking, I found it very useful at the end of last season when sailing on my own. Saying that we haven’t used it again yet this season.

Radar needs loads of power to operate so we have only used when motoring, it was useful when motoring out to Scilly last season. I haven’t yet tried to use off solar power.

Garmin 750 chart plotter, on the chart table, not the best place for a plotter when you need to see it from the helm. Its a nice bit of kit for keeping track of things, I use the info from it when keeping the passage log. I had my old Garmin 550 chart plotter fitted in the bridge deck so I could see the info from the helm, it also had all my old waypoints.

Stripper rope cutter, not had the need for this yet! But I am glad to know its there if needed. One day in 2018 we motored over a floating 20mm line which stopped the engine, we were towing a dinghy at the time and I was able to pull quite a bit of line off, then running the engine in reverse the stripper made mincemeat out the rest of the line, so I think I can safely say it works!

Manual Windless, when we viewed “Elektra” I never saw the windless as the bath tub (under cockpit locker) was covering it because of work being done on the engine at the time. I had always pulled anchor up hand over hand without any problems on our last yacht, I thought I could do the same again, what I didn’t reckon was just how heavy our Sadler 29 was, it soon became clear I would need to use the windless most of the time. That said I have no plans to fit an electric windless as the manual work very well.

DSC/VHF Radio, I come from a generation who didn’t need to be in contact all the time, the radio goes on ch16 but I don’t use very much myself.

The forecast was north-westerly force 5 gusting 6, but I think it was a little more!

The forecast today was north then northwest force 5 gusting 6 which was a downwind sail, Vicki and I had sailed our last yacht quite a few times in the same sort or conditions but this would be the first time in our Sadler 29. Just how fast could Elektra go and still stay safe was the thing I did not know, so I used my smart phone to contact other S29 owners on the facebook SSOA page and got three answers before we started our passage home. The advise was 6-7kts in good conditions, my feeling was to keep her speed under that on our first strong downwind sail.

The wind seemed very strong as I winched up the cable and got ready to get underway. At 1450 the anchor was up and stowed and Vicki motored Elektra out of Channels Creek and past Turnaware Buoy as I set just the genoa with one reef. Stopping the engine we soon picked up speed, we had to follow the channel down the Carrick Roads to St Just in Roseland, now logging 5kts SOG against the in coming spring tide. There were not many sailing yachts out today and those which were out had very little sail up, two yachts came out of St Mawes heading for Falmouth a 45ft ketch with just her genoa out and a “Cornish Cruising” yacht with three reefs in the main and a little genoa, both of which had to tack twice into wind to get into Falmouth.

 

 

As we headed out past Pendennis Point, there were no sails in Falmouth Bay where we were heading, I had turned another reef into the genoa then we lost the wind off the point but it was soon back again and we set off across the bay logging between 5.5-6.3kts SOG. We sailed into a little sheltered waters before getting into Gillan which was handy as we slowed down to about 4kts. I picked up the mooring at 1620hrs having logged 8.5nm, the max speed on the GPS was 7.2kts. Elektra was jumping around a bit on the mooring so we quickly packed up and went ashore.

This weekend we were going to stay home and do some jobs but it looked like we would have to move “Elektra” to the shelter of Carne Creek due to the forecast of northeast wind on Sunday, so I suggested having another weekend away instead.

I had some work which needed doing on Saturday first so it was after 1400hrs before the tide was high enough for us to get out and aboard. The forecast was for a northerly 1-3 but with the white horses out in the bay, it seemed there was a bit more. I raised the main before dropping the mooring and heading out under engine power at 1510hrs, once clear of Gillan we set sail and Elektra was soon logging 5-6kts and we were able to almost make in to St Mawes on the first tack. Then for some reason we did not seem to be making much headway north up the Carrick Roads and after 4 more tacks we had only just got north of St Just in Roseland. At this point we started the engine and motor north into Channels Creek, dropping anchor at 1730 having logged 10nm.

The next day I had jobs aboard which needed doing, so one by one I worked though them. In the afternoon we sat in the cockpit sheltered from the wind trying to enjoy the sunshine, still cold on the water, there we were wrapped up in our fleeces trying to stay warm until the sun came out from behind the next cloud! This was still early in the season, there had been two other boats in the anchorage on Saturday night but we had the place to ourselves by lunch time on Sunday.

 

After a quite night at anchor we sailed Elektra the 2.5nm back to her mooring in Gillan Harbour just on her genoa logging over 5kts on this down wind sail.

The plan had been to stay anchored the Fal River and sail home on Sunday forecast for had changed and it looked like we would have to beat home as will, so we decided to sail back and anchor in Helford River today.

We lifted our anchor at 1250hrs and motored down the Fal River to Turnaware Pt before setting sail, I left the reef in the main to start with but soon shook it out, in a easterly 3 gusting 4 at times we had a great sail south down the Carrick Roads and out into Falmouth Bay where the wind died away. A mile south of Pendennis Pt I started the engine and we motored across the bay on a mill pond, there was a bit of wind in the Helford River but not enough to sail, so we motored on up the river.

We had decided to anchor in Penarven Cove west of Helford Pt, I knew it would be shallow but I didn’t expect us to go aground! This was 1hr before LW, so we were stuck for the next 2hrs, the joy of bilge keels meant we didn’t have to worry about falling over. I dropped the anchor for when we float again and Vicki put on the kettle and we had a hot choc drink before going to sleep in the sun. 3hrs later after floating again we motored Elektra deeper into the cove and dropped anchor for the night.

The weather men were forecasting hot weather and Vicki and I were keen to get out and enjoy it. Elektra had been anchored up in Carne Creek all the week due to a forecast from last week of east wind on Wednesday this ended up being a south-easterly and Elektra could have stayed on her mooring. We went down to her on Thursday night HW to put Elektra back on her mooring for a easier get away on Friday.

At 1300hrs on Friday we cast off for a beat to the Fal River, the forecasters had given a N3-4 but with the white horses out in Falmouth Bay I had reefed the main and the genoa and we shot off at over 6kts SOG knowing full well it was more like N4-5 but the wind did ease a bit as we closed on the entrance to the Carrick Roads. In the end I unrolled all the genoa making for an exciting sail up the Roads on Elektra’s ear, lots of tacking. In the end Vicki was beginning to get tired of all this tacking and asked could we motor, we had to go up the channel because it was LW, so I suggested sailing across to St Just in Roseland and motor from there. That we did and as we motored up the channel I packed the sails away.

We decided to motor north of the King Harry Ferry and anchor on the next bend in the Fal River, this is a lovely spot and well sheltered, to our delight there are no ships to spoil the view this year, I hadn’t seen it so empty before! We dropped anchor between another sailing yacht and a motor boat in an area just like a mill pond, both the other boats left before nightfall so we had the place to ourselves. We had logged 16nm in 3hrs with the max speed on the GPS saying 7.1kts.