Nano on the Mission Guano

June 10, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

My neighbors know that if there is a need for a tiny boat then they should come to me.

Summer season is starting so we needed to clean birds shit from our floating pontoon, in the middle of small lake behind our house. Perfect mission for Nano!

Transporting her through the woods is always an adventure… but I managed. Cleaning guano is a hard and nasty job but after 2 hours I was done, sweating like a pig. Jumping “full Monty” into water was a blessing and great pleasure.

Summer!

Vätö Runt 2022

May 26, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

The whole sailing world was there, looking curiously onto participants of this year’s Vätö Runt. One of the most prestigious races there are, elite sailors, the best sail yachts.

Weather forecast warned for possible rain showers and strong gales. Skippers were prepared for that.

In my crew there was only me and Ray. Meritaten got her deck prepared within 15 minutes and at 1300 we left the pontoon. Wind was behind us so we run only on genua sail, to keep it simpler in narrow Vätö Sund.

Dark clouds were lurking at a distance but we were hoping that they stay above the land.

We passed the start line as first, there was no other competitor in front of us.
None behind us, either.
Ah, well, fuck it - let’s round the Vätö anyway, just for the fun of it (to paraphrase Eric Tabarly when his yacht was disqualified due to detected depleted uranium in her ballast keel) !

Ray took the helm so I could clean up the deck and fold mooring ropes.

Ray at the helm. Reliable and confident crew member on Meritaten.

It was blowing quite freshly, on just the genua we were clocking above 5 knots.

Upon reaching the end of Vätö Sund I could see that water in Björköfjärden was dark due to wind and waves. It’s gonna be fun! Shortened the genua to jib-size we entered in style, close hauled.

Ray had no problem keeping Meritaten close to the wind so I went to the mast to rise the main. To keep us from being too exited I put a reef in the main sail.

Even with reefed sails we were going around 4 knots, sharp to the wind. Dark skies were constantly lurking behind us.

Quick-release cleat for jib/genua roller prove to be very handy. After balancing the boat I cleated the rope anyway on a proper cleat. It would be embarrassing if the sail unrolled by accident in these conditions.

I took over the helm and put Ray into rest-standby position. I think I’ll make a proper rest for him next week.

We kept close eye on clouds constellation - they were carrying rain and wind but may also become a thunderstorm.

Still the sky in front of us was calm and blue.

Just for fun I trained putting Meritaten adrift.

We quickly realized that we cannot play too long here as the sky behind us was getting darker all the time.

Flanking from the West came another formation.

These clouds brought a lot of wind but we were reefed for that so sailing was not overly dramatic.

Beating against the wind we glided through Björköfjärden within a few hours. The clouds started to disperse and went to Norrtälje with their load. They took a bit of wind, too, so I shook the reef and unfurled the genua. Under full sails again!

My contraption for regulating main sail shape was working good: in these normal wind conditions I increased the sail profile to get more drogue and increase speed. Having loose-foot sail makes it all easier to control.

Closing to Flaten, an island on entrance to Norrtälje Viken, the wind changed direction a few times and finally stabilized right in front of us. So no lazy half-wind sailing, my dear - we had to continue beating against it.
But after a while it died altogether. We entered calm waters.

I dropped sails and started Yanmar-san. Ray took over the helm.

There was no more wind for today, apparently, so we continued the journey on engine.

Back at the starting point - Rosättra Varv is in front of us.

Entering on engine, in calm conditions, went without adventures. Around 19:30 we docked at our place.

Map below shows our approximate path. Blue zig-zag line is on sails, mostly against the wind. The rest - green - was motoring.

Klar onboard took 20 minutes so around 20:00 I left the deck.

Before heading home I admired Meritaten’s shapes in the evening Sun.

Boiling glycol

May 23, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Even though temperature reaches 15-20 degrees during the day it can drop to -1 C at night. The boat is rigged and ready for sailing and long weekend is coming so I need to secure some heat source for creature comfort at night. Kerosane storm lantern is perfect for the evening but it would be pleasant to wake up in a warm boat.

All POD GeHå bits are in place so tonight I connected the circulation pump and filled the system with glycol. The stove, radiators and hoses took almost 4 liters to fill.

I was pretty sure that all the air was gone from the installation so I fired the stove.
A few minutes to adjust the wick and we have a nice, blue flame.

Chimney is sitting close to the mast, out of harm’s way so the system can be used even during sailing.

Circulation pump is not 100% silent… I will need to sound-isolate it if we gonna use it extensively, otherwise the “buzzing” is a bit annoying.

I left the system to heat up and went to the cockpit to install additional blocks at the end of the boom. This is to adjust sail shape depending on wind conditions. On Safir “Motoko” I had a fancy set of blocks running inside the boom so I could trim the sail from the cockpit. Meritaten is not a racing boat (at least by today’s standards) but I lack this functionality so I added simple block with quick-catch cleat.

The leverage should be enough to control the shape while sailing. This will be used mostly while beating against the wind so the boom will be close to me, within hand reach.

Back in the cabin the heater got warm but radiators were still ice-cold. Something was not working - I checked that the pump is connected correctly but just to check I reversed it for a while. Still no effect on radiators.
After a while the glycol started to boil and the oven spat all the excess into expansion bottle.

Shit!
Scary experience!

I shut down the heat and waited till all settled down, not daring to come too close to the expansion system. There must still be air trapped inside, preventing the fluid from circulation.
Well, I’ll look into it tomorrow - it got late and dark so I packed tools and went home.

Radio mast. Tufnol fittings

May 21, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

When I bought Meritaten I got VHF radio with her. I had my own radio so the spare one was sitting in the box since then. I happen to also have several meters coax cable and spare VHF antenna so how about building the radio mast, shall we?

Behind my house, on a pile of junk (my wife’s terminology) or rather “material storage rack” as I call it, I had several aluminum pipes. With a bit of creativity they can be joined all together to form a radio mast.

Not to provoke inquisitive neighbors I rose it close to a tree. That prove to be a mistake as all stabilization lines were constantly getting tangled with tree branches. After several hours of constant cursing, climbing the ladder and more cursing I finally anchored the structure.

Coax cable runs inside the mast and into my workshop. I’ll need to move some typewriters to build radio rack.

I hope that Albert, my radio guru, will approve the setup!

I found a piece of Tufnol to finish a few fittings for Meritaten.

First went winch handles. Two years back, while sailing with Jim I lost one of my Tufnol-winch handles. I made a replacement from brass but I was not sure how to finish it. Jim pointed that this plastic sphere on a handle does not match Meritaten’s style and that I may do something about it.
Well, so I did.

Tufnol pieces cut to match both the new handle and old one. I drilled and tapped M6 holes in it to mount it on brass handles. A few minutes on circular grinder and some finish on desk polishing machine and new handles are ready for service.

Tufnol is a wonderful material - it can be formed with woodworkers tools but it is extremely resistant to weather and time. I have original Tufnol blocks and winches on Meritaten and after 60+ years they look the same as if they were new. This is the only man-made material I keep on my boat - fifties wonder-stuff!

I had a bit left so I made engine steering handle from it. Original Yanmar handle was polyurethane rubber which broke apart before I got the boat. Christer, the previous owner, used electrical tape to hold it in place. For many years it was an eye-sore till this year when I took it away - keeping just bare steel rod. Tufol handle will bring it back to shape.

I connected two rectangular pieces with double-sided tape and put them into lathe to form a cylinder.

In one of them I routed a trace matching engine steering rod.

The rod will be held with friction-fit in place while both halves will be lashed together. To keep it tidy I added two tracks for hiding the string.

As a last thing for today I made a tiller mount for the autopilot. It is a modified aluminum arm which I saved from garbage bin long time ago, at work. Cut to size, with threaded hole to accommodate the landing pin, it will be screwed to the tiller close to the rudder.

Calm evening: mainsail rigging, autopilot mount

May 16, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Calm evening, no wind.

I went to the harbor to rig the main sail - so much easier to work in these conditions, no drama with sail being blown around the deck.

That went rather quickly.
I’m still not perfectly happy with how the sail carts glide on the mast. Ideally they should glide with ease and require no force to rise or lower the sail. It is not the case yet. My Teflon carts are gliding fine, I suspect that original, nylon carts are causing too much friction.

I’m thinking of rebuilding them to accommodate ball bearings, like in Selden system. What I would like to accomplish is that when the halyard is released the sail falls down on deck , rapidly. This way, especially as I mostly sail alone, I would have more time to maneuver in tight spaces - instead of spending time dragging the sail down by hand. That forces me to leave or enter the harbor on engine as the sail needs to be taken down long before we go in.

I fabricated final version of autopilot mount.
A few minutes on the lathe and stainless steel rod becomes a proper, stiff mount.

Rather minimalistic and unobtrusive design - and it sits firmly in place.

Dry-fitting the device for measurements of the second mount, on the other end.

It got chilly at night, I had to wear winter jacket.

Job done for tonight so I packed my tools and went home to crack a beer.