|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
Our plans have had to be adapted. We're still in Annapolis. We stopped here for a few days of touring, and would have gone further down the Chesapeake Bay if it weren't for some minor mechanical difficulties.
The engine-driven refrigeration hadn't been run in a while due to all the motoring we've been doing. When we fired it up it didn't cool down the holding plates properly. And with the weather turning cold we want to get our heater working again. The refrigeration problem was traced to a minor leak of refrigerant and quickly repaired. But the heater is something else.
The primary reason for choosing Annapolis for having the work done is that it's the location for one of the manufacture's few authorized repair sites. Just about a week ago we moved Volant to a marina right across the street from the repair facility to expedite the work. The technician has been out several times. Each time he has replaced a piece that was supposed to have resolved the problem. It's still not working. According to the technicians the symptoms we're seeing could only be caused by a malfunction in one of only a handful of components. We've now replaced all of those and the problem persists. Bummers.
Unfortunately we're running out of time. Kit has signed up for a week-long class in North Carolina in a couple of weeks. We've got to be heading south. And with a front passing through this weekend the nights are supposed to be just above freezing for the next several days. What are we going to do? Stay tuned...
The week hasn't been all about repairs. This is the week of the Annapolis Sailboat Show, certainly one of the largest all-sail shows on the planet, and we've hooked up with some friends.
In the friends category last week we connected with Ron and Colette, friends we knew from our sailing club in Florida who moved up here several years ago. This week we found Joe and Pat, more friends from our sailing club who are exhibiting at the show. Colette, an acupuncturist, has been working on my shoulder discomfort with some success, and Ron has been nice enough to provide transportation from time to time. Joe and Pat have been fully occupied with the show but did manage to come out to the boat with one of their business partners one evening for one of Chef Katherine's delightful gourmet dinners.
In the Sailboat Show category we've spent a few days wandering the booths. To some Volant is just about as fully equipped as a cruising sailboat can be. But to her owners there are still some features that they would love to add. It's only money... But since they're restricted on that front, for now they only dream.
A significant part of that dream is to add some sort of backup self-steering system, whether autopilot or self-steering wind vane system. We have an autopilot, named Otto von Steerer, that has been mostly reliable, so we know how those work. Kit didn't know how the self-steering vanes work, and we both were at a loss as to how we might fit one on board. There are a handful of manufacturers represented at this show so we had a good chance to talk to them and educate ourselves as to how they work, their relative pros and cons and how each might be installed.
Due to the particular transom arrangement of Volant fitting a wind vane presents a number of problems. First, Volant has a center-mounted boarding ladder that drops down into the water. Having a center-mounted vane would interfere with that. Then there's the mast gallows, an arch of stainless steel tubing over the transom designed to support the mast when we lower it. The mast gallows doubles as an antenna platform. There's limited space between the top of the transom and the mast gallows.
Wind vane self-steerers require control lines. The control lines are generally led to the cockpit and connected to the steering wheel or tiller. One vane connects directly to the rudder post via the steering quadrant, eliminating control lines from the cockpit. All can be mounted off-center, eliminating the conflict with our boarding ladder while presenting other trade-offs. One is touted as being virtually the only vane used in the single-handed around-the-world sailing races. No one vane is perfect for Volant. The vane that eliminates external control lines would use the swim platform for support, likely eliminating the usefulness of that part of the platform. The simplist to install is far from the least expensive and requires control lines leading from the vane to the steering wheel. Well, you get the idea.
Two representatives came out to the boat on two different evenings. They each spent some time with us designing what they felt would be the best installation of their particular vane system on our boat. Both Kit and I are very appreciative of their time and now have a very good idea as to how we could put vane steering on Volant. Now it's down to making the choice and, should we decide on purchasing vane steering, planning the appropriate funding.
With Kit's birthday coming up at the end of this month we've entered her "birthday season." She's been complaining about the boat's music system. The radio's LED has died, making the console cumbersome to use. And she didn't really like its features anyway. For example, when you push the button to change the volume it would sometimes change the station instead. So I took advantage of the boat show specials and picked up a pretty nice system. I installed it for her just this evening. You can bet she's a very happy camper.
We've also been talking about getting a remote microphone in the cockpit for the VHF radio. One is made for ours, but didn't have all the features we felt we needed. After talking with the manufacture's representative we decided to bite the bullet and purchased one. I'll be installing it later this week.
There must be a hundred sailboats in the water at this show. We did walk around the docks, checking out the newest and neatest on the market. We didn't go aboard, but it was a lot of fun to just look and appreciate.
Pure sailboat shows are not just serious tire kicking. Part of the fun is encountering so many like-minded people. Kit wanted to get a photograph and picked a nice spot. Standing there was Daniel and Suzanne, a couple from Quebec. They were trying to figure out how they could get a similar shot. Giving them our camera, we went aboard one of the sailboats and posed. Then we did the same for them. We had a fun conversation with them, sharing our respective dreams and goals.
A rigger is scheduled to tune the rig on Tuesday. Then we'll be heading southward. This week at the dock has meant that we'll not be able to see some of the "must see" spots of the Chesapeake Bay. We'll be heading southward as soon as the rigger is done, and taking a more direct than we had planned.
|
|
|
|