Hi All, As I mentioned last spring as part of a question about life rafts, I had planned to sail my C&C33-1 solo to Bermuda and back (double handed) in the Bermuda1-2 race. I did, It was fun, it was terrifying, it was expensive to prepare for, and it was frustrating as I did not do well (dfl) in my class in part because of the high winds and seas near the gulf stream probably favored the HR49 and other heavyweights in my class but mostly because I was climbing a steep learning curve. Of course, a C&C35-1 won the return and did well on the way there so (in my case) it's the sailor not the boat. In preparation for the next one, I need to resolve a few issues with the boat and a lot with the skipper. I was putting together a list that I thought I would share.
(1) The autopilot has to be more than bullet proof. I thought my below deck pilot was, but I was wrong, and as a result I found myself upside down in the cockpit locker and crawling deep underneath the cockpit floor in horrible conditions to tighten bolts that allowed the tiller arm to slip (no woodruff key or slot to put it in). I lost a lot of time bobbing around with the sails down repairing the autopilot or sleeping. The fix for this one is obvious but will require dismantling the quadrant and figuring out how to bolt the tiller arm to it. Other issues with the autopilot were completely my own fault as I made changes to the electronics but did not have time to proof test the changes. (2) When a wave fills the cockpit and it gets flooded (and it did repeatedly) the engine instruments are going to get wet. This is not good as the switches will (and did) fail, I am considering relocation or creating a waterproof cover. (3) Following seas WILL drive water up the tailpipe and into the engine. As a result, I sailed into St Georges harbor and up to the customs dock then I spent a day in Bermuda sucking water out of the engine and drying it out enough to get it started. For the return trip, I put a plug in the exhaust pipe but the plug was washed out in the "washing machine like conditions" and ... we got to sail the boat into the Newport Yacht Club dock at 3:00 am on no sleep. Then spend another day pumping oily water out of the engine. Yeah, slow learner. (4) The fuel tank vent on my boat is high up on the starboard side but by the time I got to Bermuda, the tank had a quart of water in it (which I siphoned out). Good filters (a racor) helped but I need to relocate the vent -- the question is where? It may not be wise but on the return trip I wrapped the vent with tape (which, if I had run the engine I would have removed) A better solution is needed. (5) Reefing has to be quick and easy -- I spent far too much time screwing up enough courage to go to the mast to reef and shake-out. My current reefing system (probably original to the boat) has a winch on the boom which makes the first reef fine but I used all three reef points and releasing the last reef before pulling in the next in 35-40 kn of breeze is a nightmare. I need to work on leading the lines to the cockpit. (6) A removable inner forestay and a blade foresail might be nice. My new furling 130 spent a lot of time furled 50% and that really has screwed up the shape of my formerly new and now blown out 130. (7) The boat was reasonably dry inside (a result of hours of rebedding hardware) but somehow the mast collar leaked like a sieve. The boot looks perfect so it has to be the where the Al collar (mast partners) meets the deck -- who would have thought that the one place I didn't rebed would be a problem! (8) Hoisting a radar reflect on a flag halyard to the spreaders seems like a good idea until the line breaks and you lose both. (9) The one turnbuckle that I did not wire was the port diamond stay. Turns out the mast will stay up without this - whew! It is extremely unnerving to see a piece of wire swinging around at night in a blow. Wire everything. And use lock tight on critical bolts -- my solar panel broke loose as a result of a bolt getting unscrewed. (10) Fighting with a 10 foot long spinnaker pole to fly the spin gets really old. Luckily the wind only died down enough to fly the spinnaker at the end of the race but if the conditions had been more benign, I would have had to fly the spinnaker much more. An assymetrical with a short prod would be nice (but probably outside my ability to rationalize the spending). (11) Getting a decent weather (GRIB) file occasionally would have been really helpful. I suppose I need to figure out how to do a SSB or Sat phone modem. Tons more lessons learned but that's enough for now. Best, David
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