Splash Day & Shake Down Cruise - How to Know You're Ready?

[gardeningal]

We did the trip a few times from Anacortes to Seattle/Tacoma. Always took the Swinomish Channel through La Conner, avoids the whole deception pass and beautiful ride, but if you are hiring a captain they wiil probably have a plan. We made if from Anacortes to Edmonds in one day,
in a 32 ft. Pacific Seacraft, but had a good following sea. Good luck and fair winds.

[ProteusRising]

Originally Posted by zeehag

you are ready to leave when the butterflies in your guts let you.
yes it is scary out here..especially if you have boat issues.
once your boat floats and propels and keeps bilges somewhat empty, it is time to go .
take with ye sail repair kits and sail ripair tape. yes spelling.... look for it on the packaging.... and toilet wax seal rings...hahaha very important.
be able to bleed your engine and speak whatever language is most prevalent in the area into which you will be sailing.
get personal with weather. i was advised when i was very young "a good sailor knows his weather." is not difficult to learn.
learn to know how to recognize important changes in your wet environment.
take spares for fuel delivery system and engine.
and, to answer your question-- you will never be ready . none of us out here is actually truly ready.
stuff happens.

Thank you so much for the kind words and clear advice.

[ProteusRising]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

How do you know you are ready? Short answer is, you don't.

In some ways, it is a bit like having children. No one ever really knows if they are ready to be parents. And every first-time parent has had those moments when you are certain that you were NOT ready! Still, every year people all over the world make the leap.

Of course, unlike with children, you can always abandon your plans, sell the boat, and head back to land. Good luck.

Thanks for making us realize (again) after five kids, we can totally do this.

[ProteusRising]

Originally Posted by gardeningal

We did the trip a few times from Anacortes to Seattle/Tacoma. Always took the Swinomish Channel through La Conner, avoids the whole deception pass and beautiful ride, but if you are hiring a captain they wiil probably have a plan. We made if from Anacortes to Edmonds in one day,
in a 32 ft. Pacific Seacraft, but had a good following sea. Good luck and fair winds.

Thanks! Appreciate your response.

[ProteusRising]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Quote: 'As of today we have 13 days until when we have tentatively hired a captain to help us sail the 70 nm from yard to slip, for which we've budgeted two days;"

So what's the problem? Stick two days' worth of sandwiches in the cooler. You won't need ice. The temperature is 7 -10 degrees above that of the interior of a fridge, so your sandwiches will keep. Put your soup and coffee in a thermos bottle. Stick an air mattress in the boat to crash on. Put your oilies on and go.

If I were doing it, I'd skip the paid skipper since all you have to do is stay in mid-channel all the way from Anacortes to Shilshole. I'd pop west-around Fidalgo Island, duck in through Deception Pass on the slack water - so time your departure from Anacortes accordingly - go twixt Whidby Island and Hope Island, thence twixt Whidby Island and Camano Island. You have only 12 hours of daylight at the moment, so take an overnight break at Oak Harbour Marina or City of Oak Marina, or, if you can get that far on the first day, at Everett.

If you have the experience for a night-time passage, just do that. Anacortes - Shilshole is about 15 hours at your boat's speed under power. Once through Deception, try to time yourself for a rising tide. Winds are going to be gentle with some local variation, but because the fetch on this route is very little, even in fairly high winds the seas are going to be low, and your boat is intrinsically well able to handle seas far greater than anything you will find inside Whidbey Island. So just stay in mid-channel and mind the shallows on the eastern side :-)!

TP

TP

Thanks so much. Everyone here is so great and supportive. Yes, plan is to stop in Everett the first night.

Mid Channel! Gotcha.

[ProteusRising]

I am the wife.

But thanks for all this. I appreciate all the good tips and support.

[ProteusRising]

Yes, we have to keep driving from not just Seattle, but North Bend to Anacortes to work on the boat, so getting it closer to where we'll be come fall (Seattle) is important and we've focused on all seaworthiness projects first. Hence, why the "camping" comment. Comfort stuff has come second to all the seaworthiness stuff. Where you find a boat is always a crap shoot, it seems. I'm happy we didn't have to truck her up from Mexico or something.

[SuW]

As for the loss of the pattern of the old canvas, sometimes that's a blessing! Pulling apart the old stuff takes ages and is often disgusting...and usually the fasteners are pretty crap...if you're making the new ones yourself, which I recommend, you'll be far quicker to make new patterns.

Sailrite has a lot of useful videos...you can use masking tape and double sided tape on the frames and then lay plastic over it. Pretty quick. Some people use Tyvec, some people use clear plastic (like the Duraskrim sold by Sailrite). And a Sharpie-type pen...

Patterning a new bimini.

Project search on Sailrite for "bimini".

[TrentePieds]

Proteus:

Quote: " Also, the*dodger*and*Bimini*are not functional yet, as half the pieces the old owner threw away because they were "done" (their language not ours...oh, how I'd like to have them to do a pattern by...). We don't have a*dinghy*either."
*

Dodger/Bimini: IMO Biminis belong in Bimini waters :-) They really aren't required in the Salish Sea and are, again IMO, far more bother than they are worth. Even at the height of summer under a blazing August sun I, and my bald pate covered by my skipper's cap, get along just fine without a bimini, The one that came with TrentePieds has, in fact, been dismantled because it was an unmitigated nuisance. The component parts are awaiting transformation into a dodger, which the previous owner apparently didn't have the nous to know is essential here on the Wet Coast :-)!

In anticipation of that transformation I picked up an old Ppaff commercial sewing machine for a hunnert bux. Straight stirch, but it will do. I'm sure that in Seattle you can do just as well. A domestic machine really won't do the job, and ideally you should have either a walking foot or a roller feed to handle this weight of material. The SailRite machine seems too light to me, tho some people swear by it. If you are keeping one foot ashore in North Bend so you will have a place to put it, I recommend that you do get a secondhand machine for these sorts of jobs.

For pattern material, I propose to use good old denim. It seems just about the right weight for a job such as a dodger, and it's cheap enuff that if you mess up there isn't a great deal lost. Build a dodger out of denim, just for the practice. Then move on to proper marine canvas.

Dinghy: Doing a “stitch'n'glue” version of an Optimist dinghy seems to be the quickest way to get a serviceable little tender, unless you go to e-bay. If you do do that, be aware that most of the little dinks that come up on e-bay neither row nor sail well. But for a coupla hunnert bux, what can you expect :-)? There will be times when you will want to carry your tender on deck. I think that on your boat (ketch, I presume?), an Optimist will fit twixt mast and forestay. You also need to consider that even a lightweight dink like an Optimist is still 85 lbs or so, naked, and can be a struggle to get up and over the lifelines. You might like to rig a “whisker pole” for the specific purpose of working in conjunction with your spinnaker halyard as a cargo boom to get the dink up and over the life lines.

TP

[SuW]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

...In anticipation of that transformation I picked up an old Ppaff commercial sewing machine for a hunnert bux. Straight stirch, but it will do. I'm sure that in Seattle you can do just as well. A domestic machine really won't do the job, and ideally you should have either a walking foot or a roller feed to handle this weight of material. The SailRite machine seems too light to me, tho some people swear by it. If you are keeping one foot ashore in North Bend so you will have a place to put it, I recommend that you do get a secondhand machine for these sorts of jobs.
TP

I bought a second hand Sailrite machine and it's excellent for canvas. LSZ1. However, you're right, I rarely use zig-zag unless sewing sails. For canvas work it's all straight stitch. Sunbrella, even many layers is fairly compact and with an open weave it sews easily. The machine sews vinyl windows well. The Sailrite will do up to 6mm stitches. You do have to become somewhat of your own sewing machine tech though. They have good support and parts.

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

For pattern material, I propose to use good old denim. It seems just about the right weight for a job such as a dodger, and it's cheap enuff that if you mess up there isn't a great deal lost. Build a dodger out of denim, just for the practice. Then move on to proper marine canvas.
TP

I don't think denim is that good for a canvas substitute, it's sort of stretchy and a bit bulky compared to Sunbrella - you can buy other cheaper material (even polytarp) if you need to make a prototype.

For actual patterning (which I highly recommend following something like the Sailrite video) I use a non-stretch fairly heavy plastic of some kind...it helps for it to be transparent because you can see though it to mark the pattern pieces.

[Emouchet]

If you can keep the water out, the mast up, and the rudder good to steer the boat you are ready to go. The rest is comfort.
Go small, go now.