Frank

The Yucatan Tango

colin bastable 2 Comments

I’ve been looking for these files for 6-7 years!
Just a quick view of my route to Texas, passing between the Yucatan Straight between Mexico and Cuba. I’d been going 5-8 knots from St Croix, north of Jamaica/South of Dominica/Haita, since leaving St Croix on Christmas Eve, 2015. On Jan 2, 2016, around 10 am, the engine would not start (to charge the batteries). Then the wind died. I had some solar panels but was cautious about draining the batteries.

So I was becalmed, in a busy ship lane, slowly drifting North. Later, the wind picked up, so I started doing 4-5 knots North West- and then it turned into a storm. I dropped the sails and was sort of spat out of the wind, doing a 360º turn right on the line between Mexico and Cuba.

Then I ambled West for a while. By now I’d figured “it’s a sailboat – I don’t need the engine”. Next came the wind and the waves. It was awesome – just like skiing moguls into the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately I have no video – I was too busy sailing.

Here’s a quick animation.

Frank’s route in the Yucatan Channel, January 2-5 2016.

Motoring back to Corpus , 2022. New Prop Makes a Big Difference.

colin bastable 2 Comments

My refit took way longer than I expected it to – should have been a 4-6 week stay and was around 9 months, at ~$800 boatyard ground rent a month (Hooking Bull). That’s on top of the nearly $400/month I pay for the marina berth. Ouch.
One holdup was the weather – pretty crappy for Texas. Another was work – it was incredibly busy. The other was waiting for a new propellor and cv joint from Bruntons. The original MaxProp that came with Frank was not up to the job. So I bought a new folding prop, an Autoprop, which has the same power going forwards as well as in reverse.

This extra power can be very useful when in close-quarters combat in a marina with little turning space, when the lag, prop-walk and drag effects of shifting direction can make accurate parking difficult. Those boats that turn on a dime usually have bow thrusters. I have an offset prop, so Frank turns easier to starboard than to port.

Anyway – the “drive” to the boatyard had been a 1 kt crawl into headwinds, even after I’d paid to have my prop cleaned if all the accumulated growth from a couple of years sat in the berth. My return journey was totally different. 5-7 kts of joy! And here’s the thing – that was in reverse! I’d re-worked the controls to accommodate the ever-flipping prop and they were now the wrong way for the (correctly installed) prop!
I screwed up the install, because I mixed the threadlock up from the Bruntons’ cv joint – the Sigmadrive, which compensates for the difference in angle of the gearbox mounting and the propellor shaft, to reduce vibration, wear and noise. So I put red threadlock from the sigma drive into the grubscrew hold for locking the prop to the shaft! EEEEK! I lost a few weeks getting the grubscrew out, the hole re-tapped, new grubscrews ordered.. But both are on.
One surprise about the Sigmadrive fittings – the mounting bolts are not 316 stainless. My bilge pump failed in a series of storms in Corpus and sea water (which seeps in through the prop shaft gland) backed up, covering the brand new Sigmadrive. The bolts corroded. I cleaned them up as best I could and coated them with WD40 Grease, but that was a major disappointment in an otherwise happy buying experience.

Motoring down the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) from Rockport to Corpus, October 21 2022.
Approaching Corpus at sundown, October 21 2022.

Copper Bottom Antifoul

colin bastable 2 Comments

I thought I had posted this.
Rather than do the ablative paint antifoul, I had Coppercoat put on. Basically powdered copper suspended in epoxy resin and painted onto the stripped hull.

At some time in her history, Frank (as Rainbow) was owned by the RAF Sailing Club. They had painted red and blue (RAF colors) boot stripes at the waterline. Rather than remove these, someone had just painted antifoul over them. For 30 years… Being at and above the waterline, the paint didn’t “ablate”, so it just built up and was a bitch to remove. Below is a video from January 18th, 2014 when I had her on the hard at Gosport Premier Marina for a refit. This was (I think) my first look at her out of the water – you can see the thick band of blue which was slapped on to cover up the Red White Blue paint. Until I had to remove it, I’d never paid any attention to it.

Frank as Rainbow, January 18th 2014, Gosport Marina, Hants. England. Ready for her name change and refit.

Anyway, in Texas copper coating is rare as hen’s teeth, so I had all sorts of odd looks. I bought the kits from the Florida dealer – it’s a UK product. 😉 Great support from the dealer.

I like it! Now she’s in the water it has turned blue/green. Should last 10 or more years.

Frank with new Coppercoat antifoul paint job.

Sunset at Corpus Christi 9.23.23

colin bastable 2 Comments

Today is my Mum Joan’s Birthday. She would be 91, but didn’t make it to 70.

Having completed the purchase of her on Dad’s Birthday, Sept 11th, I took possession of and boarded Frank (then called Rainbow of Strangford) 10 years ago today, Sept 23rd 2013. She was moored in Strangford Lough, Ulster.Next day I set sail for my first port of call, across the Irish Sea to Mum’s birthplace, The Isle of Man, spending the night in Port St Mary. Must have been a 15 foot tide – good job I set long lines. I came in on a low tide, and in the morning I was halfway out in the harbour!

So today I came to check on Frank and pay homage to Mum and Dad – Joan and Frank Bastable. RIP.

Long Time!

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So I’ve not been here for a year, but I’ve been doing “stuff”.
Last year (2022) Frank spent February-October on the hard at Hooking Bull.
I was expecting it to be 6 weeks, but with work, bad weather and delays waiting for a new propellor, and then getting things “remediated” after I screwed up, it dragged on.

Copperbottomed the bottom • New Prop and cv joint from Bruntons • New Radar installed • New Mainsail • Engine Serviced • Autopilot Tiller Arm replaced • Teak replaced on sole

ETC. Pics to follow.

Rod End!!

colin bastable 1 Comment

This means little to all y’all, but the lovely Nicole at Raymarine sent me a replacement Rod End for my Autohelm. The original is stuck in a lump of old tiller arm:

Manky old tiller arm and its hostage rod end.

I should have ignored the surveyor report and just left the tiller arm well alone: crappy it was, but in a million years it was never going to fail. But… I meddled.

So now I have my new (totally different) tiller arm, which means a lot of hard work to retro fit it:

New Edson Tiller Arm. Totally different size and shape.

But – at least I have a new Rod End!

New Raymarine Autohelm Rod End with ball-joint.

Autohelm Tiller Arm (update).

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(Updated Sept 29th 2023 with pics at bottom of fitted tiller arm, fitted May 14th 2023)

If my Hydrovane is a 1st mate, then the Autohelm is 2nd Mate – or at least a talented Cabin Boy!
I have no idea if my old version can be upgraded to work with the as-yet-uninstalled new Raymarine radar system. I’m assuming not.

Back in November 2015 the control head was deluged by a freak wave halfway across the Bay of Biscay (I know..what else happens on a sailboat? But there we have it!) and burned out, leaving me to handhold Frank to Camariñas in a (what else in November?) storm. Parking up in the aforesaid fishing port for Christmas, I returned to Texas and found a new unit on ebay.

But at the other end of the Autopilot, attached to the Type 1 hydraulic ram, is an arm. This connects the ram to the tiller shaft. It was still working, but badly corroded. Here is is after I managed to get it off:

And here is the new one!

The hole for the tiller shaft has been machined to 1.25″, but the key is not uniform to 3 decimal places (it has had a hard life..) so I took the arm without a keyway cut. I’ll have to find a shop to get it machined.

This tiller arm is bronze and weighs maybe 10-15 pounds. Slow progre$$, but progre$$.

The Key to success is a key that fits!

I was convinced that installing the new tiller arm was going to be a brutal job, and that I’d probably have to buy a different one. So I kept finding easier jobs to do. Back in May, I stiffened my sinews, plucked up courage and squeezed myself into the transom.
Fitting it took me all… all of 30 minutes. Gobsmacked.