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Easter trip to visit our new boat

by Kathleen

This past weekend was our first time aboard Kinship I  (her official Canadian registered name) as the proud new owners!

The long drive to Solomons MD was well worth it. Daffodils and t-shirts weather awaited us.

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We were able to spend three days getting to know the boat and her myriad of systems.

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Any guesses what this is?

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If you guessed the AIS you are right.

We had some fun changing the starter battery. You have to be a strong contortionist who isn’t the least bit claustrophobic to do this job – the two of us squeezed into this snake-pit below decks!

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With a little help from the riggers at Zahniser’s Yachting Center, a new hydraulic back-stay adjuster was added. Then we rigged the sails (all three of them) and were ready to go.

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Unfortunately, we ran out of time to actually take her out sailing! Next time…

One of the last jobs was to get Kinship ready to be repatriated. She was built in St Catharines Ontario, and she will be coming home to Lake Ontario soon. In preparation for that, I peeled off the port of Annapolis letters and applied the port of Ottawa. Matthew climbed up and attached a new Canadian flag, so she is now dressed and ready to come home.

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Can’t wait for the delivery trip, which is planned for mid-May…

Slicing Limes

by Matthew

slicing limes

 

Lisa and Paul, sailing friends and co-conspirators in living the dream wanted to learn to splice lines.  We spent a lovely evening over a bottle of wine splicing and chatting.  When told about this, Lisa’s friend misheard this as “slicing limes”, so that is what we do now.  Nepean Sailing Club  has a series of winter talks to keep the fires burning over the long winter.  I volunteered to do a talk on splicing for fun thinking we would get 10-15 sailors out and we could learn some splices together.  I chose to show an eye splice and a soft shackle.  This covered double braid and amsteel 12 strand.  The evening was successful, about 40 people turned up and with help from Lisa and Hugh McGugan everyone got to do a splice.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the experience with lots of comments about attacking real projects.  One person mentioned that he was now much happier with the rigging charges at The Chandlery.  We are lucky to have one of the best marine stores in Canada on our doorstep.  The Chandlery generously provided all the line for the participants.

More information can be found on the Spicing and Rigging page.

Finishing the Series Drogue

by Matthew

Our Christmas jigsaw puzzle sometimes drags into January, this year, the drogue project did likewise.  The task of tying the cones to the line was a long one, 744 knots later we are done.

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Since our last post I have reinforced the splices with whipping and I have whipped the thimbles to the line.  Nylon is stretchy and the line I used also has a bit of construction stretch so I wanted to protect the thimbles from the eye opening up under high loads.

 

Kathleen has sewn the drogue bag.  The bag is designed to allow the drogue to deploy without tangles.  We test loaded the drogue into the bag to see how it works and to clean up the living room.

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Fully packed, the drogue is big but manageable for one person to move.  We need to add 20lbs of chain as an anchor, but it will all fit in the bag.

 

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Detail of the finished splice with a thimble.

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Update – it looks like Sailrite is no longer making the kits, but here are the instructions so you can make your own