Newest owner of a 26X

[TheLandlady]

Next trip was today.
My brother got in to town yesterday, he is staying with us for a week. I picked him up at the airport while my mom babysat the nap, and he and I drove right from the arrival lane to the boat. Plan was to drop the mast and tow the boat down to the new house. However, while we discussed logistics in the marina lot, the manager came over on a golf cart and ended up allowing it to stay another night until my wife came back. This would free us up to drop it in the water, cruise down the bay to stickney point and dock it at our new rental, and then return to get the truck.

This morning we stopped at West Obscene to pickup a handheld VHF. They were all out of the cheap ones, and I wasn’t sure if my station mounted radio worked, and we had to cross two drawbridges, so I had to get something. Proud new owner of a $200 standard with gps. Oh well I guess it can’t hurt anything except the wallet to have a nice piece of equipment.

My wife made it home at 330pm while the baby was still sleeping. Brother and I left the house around 4. We got about 20 minutes into a 40 minute drive with near-gridlock Sarasota traffic before I realized the new radio was still charging in the cradle on the kitchen counter. Facepalm. I had my baofeng in the glovebox (yep I’m a HAM) and figured I could at least program to listen on a VHF for a marine channel and do a radio check of my own before we launched.

That worked! Found the spectrum chart online, dialed it in, turned on the battery and fired one out from the boat. 5/5/5 reception on the ham, so I know it can transmit at least a few feet. So we go to launch. Not sure if the geometry or something was wrong but the stem rubbed on some metal on the trailer as I launched and scraped the gel coat clean off. Then at the dock I drop the motor and go to turn it but it is clearly not starting. As my brother was connecting the shore power cable, my buddy from the first time I launched a week ago pulled up on the golf cart and said “check your terminals, I’ll go get my jump pack.”
So I check the terminals, and sure enough the ground was loose. Got out the ratchet, cranked it down, and the motor fired right up. Crises averted. Well at least I thought it was a crises… I thought that “bridge operates 7am-6pm daily on the hour and then every 20 minutes” meant the beige didn’t open after 6pm and we were going to be pushing it with time. I have come to learn that openings are on-demand after 6 pm and the metering is just during daylight traffic house to keep peace with the land lubbers. I didn’t learn this until we were on the water, racing to make it before 6pm and the north bridge tower had a hint of “these guys are idiots” when telling us how things work.

Oh well! Got my first and second drawbridges today!
It was a downwind blast all the way under the Sarasota bridge, siesta bridge, and stickney point bridge with my brother. We had to do a few turns in the holding pattern before siesta bridge, we got there about 8 minutes past the last opening and 12 minutes before the 6pm. Then it was through vague speed zones so
I just idled through enjoying the scenery. We saw a few dolphins, one close enough to see the color of its eye as it took a breath and dove under the bow.

Approaching stickney point bridge, which is every 30
Min, i really wanted to make the 6:30 and not do circles again, so I tried to got as fast as possible with no wake. The bridge operator told us we could make it if we could be there in 3 minutes, but it was more like 6 minutes out. But right as we got close she called us back and said she had some pedestrians on the bridge so it was going to be a few more minutes, and we would probably just make it.

So we went for it, the bridge went up, I pushed the throttle forward, and all of a sudden the engine just quits. I try a few pumps on the line bulb, nothing. Out of gas. Quick, swap the lines! Tearing off the new locker covers and fumbling around disconnecting reconnecting and pumping the bulb again, I hear of the radio “um, sailing vessel seaweed… what seems to be the problem here?”
I look up and see a sign saying “$25000 maximum fine for a vessel causing an unnecessary bridge opening” right as I get the engine restarted and push the throttle forward.

My brother grabbed the radio and says “SV Seaweed, no problem ma’am just had to swap gas tanks. Terrible timing, my apologies and thank you”
“Haha ok, have a good night guys” with a wave from the tower as we passed under and the bridge started lowering.
Phew

My parents and a friend of theirs were at the beach just south of the bridge and across ICW from the Boatyard restaurant, waving and yelling to us as we cruised past. I yelled back “hey meet us at the house we need some help!” And got a thumbs up as they went to get in their car.

They beat us to our dock, and my dad and his buddy were ready to catch lines as we came in. A neighbor saw our boat with a mast coming out of the channel towards the Seawall, and started yelling “stay in the channel! It’s too shallow!”
My mom heard him, and joined in yelling the same.
O ye of little faith…
We floated right up to the dock and tossed the lines and got it in the slip between the dock and Seawall, in about 18” of water at low tide. I had tunnel vision/hearing the whole time, but my brother told me afterward that he heard the same concerned neighbor after we got tied up saying to his wife “they did it… I don’t know how they got through but they did it. I can’t believe it”
Must have never seen a swing keel water ballasted trailer sailer before.

We hitched a ride from my parents back up to my truck, ordered Mexican food for pickup, filled a spare gas tank, and made our way back to the rental for a nice relaxing meal looking at the boat through the window.
Anyway aside from the chipped paint on the stem, motor not starting, having to switch gas tanks at the worst possible time, and the trailer lights falling off the trailer less than a mile from home, I’d say it went off without a hitch.

[Jimmyt]

Great write up and pics! Thanks for sharing. Glad you got the Admiral and kid out for a sunset cruise.

Cross wind docking is always a treat, but your skill will improve with practice. Don't be afraid to use tactics like docking where it's easy and safe, then pulling the boat into position with bow and stern lines. Leaving keel and rudders down can help, but won't work in shallow water. Shallow water, no boards down, tight maneuvering is better in reverse. Let the motor pull the boat where you want it to go. You can even stand forward of the helm and drive the boat without having to think in reverse.

As my buddies like to say, "if your boat doesn't have any scratches, you aren't using it enough". I like to repair mine when I ding it, but I'd rather be using it than polishing it.

All in all, sounds like you're doing great. Keep it up. And keep those great posts coming!

[NiceAft]

Glad everything worked out. An A1 story. When do you publish

[dlandersson]

Nice write -up

[Be Free]

Great write-up. Congratulations on a successful trip! You got to learn the tank-switch lesson early. Bridges, narrow channels, docking... do it on your full tank unless you want to validate Mr. Murphy's Law.

[TheLandlady]

Sarasota Adventures Continued

Yesterday I woke up early and cleaned out the interior for a planned trip that afternoon, to cruise from our dock near stickney point down for dinner at the new Deep Lagoon restaurant on the north side of Blackburn bridge.

My daughter wakes up from her nap at 4pm, plan was to be on the water with her, my wife, my dog, and my brother by 4:30 and slow troll the channel all the way. My parents planned to meet us at the restaurant at 5:30 in their car. We brought the baby car seat just in case, some adult beverages, and my new redundant $200 handheld radio along with 2 pounds of fresh marinated shrimp to whip up as an appetizer on a first run of the old round Magma I was given by my landlord on cape cod when I first got the Mac.

We got on the water and the weather was great! High tide, so I was able to drop rudders to help steering around the docks out to the channel. What a difference!

In the channel we mostly drove slow with great music playing and the sun leaning toward setting over or starboard quarter aft. Saw some dolphins, a ton of scull and sweep crews with their launches, and plenty of rental bow riders. One couple on a wave runner did a few laps around us which really blew my daughter’s mind.

A Boston whaler with a 70 hp approached from the rear and passed on my left, and as we were waving to each other I pushed full throttle and got back ahead of him for a second. They did not expect that, found it quite amusing. We could almost get up on plane despite lots of meat on board.

I think from now on though I’m going to motor with the ballast full when my daughter is onboard. It was smooth all the way, occasionally heading into a wake from opposing traffic, aside from one real idiot in a giant yacht. He approached from behind and passed on the left as most everyone did, but was pushing about a 4’ wake which really gave us a ride. The motor cavitator and we got tossed around hard enough that my brother and I both instinctually jumped to the high side thinking it would tip. My wife and daughter were in the cabin watching muppet treasure island at that point, so everyone stayed on board but man it was a little too intense.

Otherwise, we made it to the marina right at 5:30, my dad was on the dock watching me spin it like a ballerina (along with a hundred other restaurant spectators) into the empty dock. He caught a loop that my brother hung on the hook, and we were officially there.

Dinner was fantastic, I got a whole 2lb snapper and it was way too much. Wifey, dog and the baby went home in the car with my mom, and dad jumped on the bow to hold the spotlight forward for our night cruise back home. The masthead light wasn’t working, but I’ll discuss that in my next post. Dad made for a good temporary fix.

The ride back was surreal in its stark contrast from the busy day we had going to dinner. We were the only boat on the water, aside from a guy fishing a dock light, and the wind and sea were both dead calm. The moon rose right as we got home. The tide was a bit lower; I may have kissed a mud flat with the skeg but it was already on its way up and no harm was done. Docking was a breeze, and I drove my dad back to his place. Absolutely beautiful.

[TheLandlady]

As for the masthead light

As much as my dad said he loved the night cruise sitting on the bow holding a pistol grip torch, nobody wants to be an appliance the whole ride. We need a functioning steamer. This is where having an aviation mechanic as a brother comes in real handy. He knows his way around a multimeter, and today we set out to fix the problem, starting with dropping the mast.

Dropping a mast requires some planning and care when on the trailer, but it’s a different animal when tied to a dock with a crosswind blowing 15 on the leeward side of a bay with active traffic. To say the boat was rocking would be an understatement, but he’s going home tomorrow so we went for it.

Every single step had to be carefully planned to not lose tools or hardware, or sometimes life or limb when it was really bucking. I took off the boom, despite finding some archive posts claiming you don’t need to. It was too crazy out there. But we got it down and into the cradle. Then out came the “Harbor Freight Aerospace” multimeter, and he went to town.

First the bulb, which surprisingly enough seemed to be working. Next the deck plate, which thank God showed some voltage when I turned on the battery and flipped the switch. So the problem is somewhere between the bulb and the deck plate. I drilled out the rivets on the mounting plate and exposed the wires.

I connected them together, and he tested the plug down at the mast step and there was no continuity, so off came the plug. It basically fell apart in his hands, so he stripped it off the wires down there and tried again, but again no continuity, so the decision was made to get some new wire and a new plug, so off we go to West Obscene to fudd around the electrical aisle until we figured something out.

All the bulbs are now pointy I guess, instead of flat on the ends, and wouldn’t fit my light without major modification to the connectors, so fingers crossed on that one still being good. We decided on 16GA tinned copper red and black covered in a white sheath and picked up more than we needed. Now for the plug, you can’t really buy just a plug. I’m sure I could search online but BWY says the 2 pin is no longer in production, so I picked up a new set with a metal screw on plug and a plate that is no longer flush but rather proud about 1” from the deck. We opened the box to see if my the plug would fit, and then spent about 15 minutes on our hands and knees looking for a micro set screw that ended up about 30’ away from where it dropped. Some white heat shrink, electrical tape, and dialectic grease rounded it out.

Back to the boat, it was still rocking like crazy so I filled the ballast. That helped a little bit. Not much. I added some half hitches to the clove hitches tying us to the piles because they kept slipping, and that seemed to keep us centered at least.

Anyway, we ran the new wire, made the connections, the screws didn’t quite line up so I just made a huge mess with fast cure 5200, and used a bunch of acetone to clean it up. End result: I now have a functioning masthead light! We jacked the mast back up and set it, and went out for dinner. Wish I had some pics.

[Be Free]

Congratulations on a successful outing. Sorry to hear about the inconsiderate yacht captain. Having ballast in will help a little but you nothing is going to do much good if you have to take a wake like that beam-on. Other traffic permitting, turning into it and taking it at an angle will help a lot.

Those bulbs are called Festoon bulbs. They are not cheap but it is a good idea to have at least one spare on board. My anchor light uses the same bulb as well. Start your search online looking for an Aqua Signal 90200-7. You will find the original incandescent bulb and LED versions that purport to replace them. I have no experience with the replacement LED versions but the price for them is in line with the incandescent versions so they are probably worth taking a chance on. The last time I bought spares the LED version was 2-3X more expensive.

For future reference a better testing process for lights in the mast is to start with the deck connector. Look for voltage on the deck side. If you have 12V or so you are good. Check continuity for the wires going up the mast. You will be able to get a reading through the bulbs. If you don't have continuity it's time to drop the mast and see if it is a wire or a bulb (after making sure that the connector itself is not falling apart )

After a couple of times finding out that one or both of the lights were not working after the mast was already up I've made it part of my (pre) mast raising process to check for continuity before the bulbs are out of reach. The anchor light in particular has been prone to shaking itself into a position where it does not make good contact after a long road trip. I rebuilt the fixture about five years ago and have had fewer problems but in hindsight I wish I had just replaced it with a LED fixture.

[TheLandlady]

So I am back in St Louis, starting work tomorrow.
Boat and truck are in storage in Sarasota until I get down there next weekend to start the drive back.

Two days ago took the wife and baby out for our last voyage of the vacation, 2.5 hours motoring the ICW from south of stickney point bridge up thru siesta bridge, a little spin around the Sarasota harbor and then back. The weather again was perfect, and I went full ballast to see how much better it held stability. Maybe I’m getting better at handling, or maybe it just worked but I felt much better anyhow. My wife did some radio work, and my daughter really seemed to enjoy the adventure. Saw a bunch of dolphins and plenty of other boats. Feels so wonderful to be building a tradition! Coming back to the dock just as the sun was going down, my dad texted offering his help catching us to tie up. I told my wife he was going to be there to assist, and she got offended and said she wanted to do it herself! So she did, and we made it without a scratch. My dad took a few really cool pics and videos of our approach. Mast light works great! I did manage to kick the new deck plate off the 5200 when I was fooling around on the bow, the screws from the old one were just a hair too big to fit the new one, and I thought some 3M would be enough. Looks like I need to go shopping.












Yesterday was our last night in Florida together, so I had to get to a boat ramp and tear it all down. I found storage near the airport, a really top-notch place I can send a PM to recommend, and chose the 10th street ramp for pulling her out. By the way, I think we are going to stick with the name Seaweed. It has grown on us, and the boat came with four beautifully embroidered beer coozies with the name on them around an anchor, one for Captain, one for First Mate, and two for Crew, that we would hate to have to burn. Also my grandpa is ex navy and he said it’s a great name, and I shouldn’t even consider changing it, so that makes it pretty official. Anyway, for the final trip my dad, mom, and her sister my aunt, came along with the dog. Again motor only, still working up the courage to hoist the main but want to replace that centerboard line first. I did have everything rigged with the mast gate and all. Jacklines are also in horrible condition in the elastics, and nobody else has a clue about sailing anyway so I just decided to ease the mainsheet and lift the boom with the topper. Will post some pics from that trip soon. We left in time to make the 12:30 bridge at stickney, 1:30 at siesta, and were at the ramp moving the truck at around 3. Many dolphins, tons of other boats, and even a pair of flamingos graced us with their presence. Passing under the big ringling bridge into the bay, there were so many sailboats in good wind that I felt bad just putt-putting around but we had a really great time. Earlier before launch we ran up and parked my truck and their car at the ramp, so my mom and aunt didn’t have to wait around for the derigging. I pulled the boat with a full ballast to check for leaks, and found none. Holy cow that thing is a firehose when you pull it on the hard! We towed it over to one of the few shady spots and got to work. Total derig, all cables coiled, all lines blocks and halyards removed, jib tightly wrapped in sheets and disconnected from the mast, lashed to it with a million elastics and the same five star suspension of the drum that I had on the way down. All in all took us about two hours. The storage is about 15 minutes away and they have a fresh water station where I hosed everything off and flushed the motor for about 15 minutes. I was surprised at how long it ran after I disconnected the fuel line. But I let it all burn off and stuck it in its spot for the next week until I can return for the uphill odyssey back to Missouri. My wife was very happy to have me fly home with her instead of sending her solo with a toddler and dog, and because I wore my uniform we got to go to the front of the security and boarding lines as well.

One more thing for now, I took a few pics of some visitors I spotted while Seaweed was in the slip.












A kingfisher on the spreader, a crow in the crows nest, an osprey on the chicken head for a split second, and some sort of hawk, possibly a coopers or sharp shinned, that bent my port side windicator. Was able to bend it back just fine. I’m not sure on the hawk, anyone out there able to tell??
Thanks again everyone for all the feedback, i don’t respond to you all but I definitely read it all, often several times, and take it to heart. I learned so much about the boat on this trip and cannot wait to get her wet again!

[OverEasy]

WOW!
Great Trip!

Really glad you had such a wonderful trip!

Best Regards
Over Easy

[Jimmyt]

Great trip! Beautiful pics! Proud of the Admiral for wanting to handle the docking!

Wait for a day when the winds are fairly light (under 10 kts). With the ballast full, keel and rudders down, head into the wind. Unfurl about half of the jib. Secure the furling line so the sail can’t unfurl further. Make sure the windward sheet is slack, but not in the water. Leeward sheet should be secured such that the sail makes a 10-20 degree angle off the centerline. Let the boat gradually fall off the windward heading until the sail begins to fill. Keep the motor down and idling while you’re doing this. If it gets weird, head back into the wind and furl the sail. On a light day, you shouldn’t have a problem.

Gradually change your heading from a close reach to a broad reach, experimenting with sheet trim to get the tell-tails flying. Stay away from a run (directly downwind). If you need to tack, use the motor to power through the tack if necessary. Tacking is an upwind turn, where the bow passes through a heading directly into the wind. Don’t try gybing on your first outing (downwind turn).

You can sail on the head sail alone, gradually increasing sail area while staying in your comfort zone, getting used to heel, finding out what you didn’t stow well as it crashes to the cabin floor, etc. After you are comfortable, you can shut off the motor and just sail.

You can add the main sail after you’ve gotten used to what to do with the head sail. Again, do it on a light day at first.

If you have a buddy that sails, get them to go with you and give you a pointer or two. Let them sail the boat while you watch, then have them direct you on trimming.

Just start on light days unless you have a skilled sailing buddy on board. You’ll get the hang of it without scaring yourself or your crew. You will need some wind (5-7 kts), but not over 10.

Thanks for posting, and including the beautiful pics!

[Russ]

Thanks for sharing. Really enjoyed reading it.

Snow is slowly melting here, so living vicariously is all we got for now.

[pitchpolehobie]

I've had my 26x 3+ years but now have an 11week old new deck hand. She will be 6mos in June and I suppose that's when Docs say she can wear lifejacket. If you have tips for kiddos please share! Trip looks great my kinda time.

[Be Free]

When I was growing up life jackets were more of a suggestion than a requirement. When my kids were growing up they were required but seldom enforced. None of my grandchildren have ever been on a boat without wearing a life jacket. There are life jackets available for every size and age child. If she grows up using them it will be second nature to her. My grandchildren ask for their life jackets when we head for a boat; the older ones get them themselves and put them on.

A very nice fringe benefit, particularly for the younger ones, is that handle right between the shoulders. It's a very convenient spot to snag a wayward crew member if they are heading for danger.

[TheLandlady]

I've had my 26x 3+ years but now have an 11week old new deck hand. She will be 6mos in June and I suppose that's when Docs say she can wear lifejacket. If you have tips for kiddos please share! Trip looks great my kinda time.

So we got a life jacket online, I think it’s Oceans7 infant life jacket or something but it has a crotch strap, a grab handle on top on the neck flap and is USCG approved

I thought about putting on a jackline but reality set in and there was no way my 18mo old was going up on the foredeck alone… so for the first outing, into the open bay, I grabbed a 6-foot NRS webbing cam strap and looped it through the binnacle guard and thru the crotch strap on her back. She didn’t love it really, and it was probably overkill, but it would prevent her from falling down the companionway and my wife really needed it set up for her own peace of mind.

Subsequent outings no cam strap, but life jacket on. 2hours is about the max for our 18mo old. I wish I started her younger last summer!