tophatyachts.com

With all the little bits of sailing taking place, thought we should have a topic for those quick 2 plus day sails.

So to kick this topic off, I'm joining Shaun, on that shoal draft Mk3, Hansel II, at Karuah midday Thursday for an over-nighter to the Camden Haven.
Weather looks good for that departure but if Shaun doesn't make it I suppose I've blown my $15 bus fare!
We should be in around late morning Friday. So will post the story here Friday night.

I believe Shaun and Mike have made it to Pittwater today on Hansel II.

Shaun & Mike.
Coffee pot is on in Elvina bay. My mooring at the mouth of the bay is vacant while my t.h is on the beach.
Call me on 99796837. I can get you in my tinnie.
Cheers.
Larry.

Have just heard from Shaun and Mike,

They motored off the mooring in Pittwater at 0500 and shut the motor down after 5 minutes.

With wind from the W, WNW they were able to sail all the way to Newcastle arriving about 1530 this afternoon.

Only used the motor for a few minutes in the Hunter River to get around a bend in the river.

All's well, Shaun will solo sail to Port Stephens tomorrow.

The two days on Hansell II were really quite uneventful, but a lot of fun for us both. She's a little less stiff than a full length keel boat, but handled being overpowered preally quite well.

Monday we motored most of the way out of Botany Bay, cleared the La Perouse entrance and headed North. the wind was a little light, and very on the nose, so we motor sailed a lot. The Suzuki 6 is a four strike single, so vibrates a lot more than the twins and makes a bit of a racket, we arrived a little later than expected in Pittwater, but still in time for a hot meal of corned beef, mash and beans. Stayed in the Basin which was almost empty.

Left the Basin Tuesday morning and stayed on the one tack from the time e left the moorings, to the time we dropped sail at the Newcastle breakwater. We had the big No 1 Genoa up, but it became evident that we were a little overpowered as the wind picked up to 25+ knots after lunch. We chose to ride it out, believing it wouldn't get any stronger. The tiller got a little too heavy on a few occasions, but we did the Pittwater to Newcastle leg in just over 10 hours, averinging about 5.5 knots by my reckoning.....

I would have loved to have continued on, but had some home duties that needed attending to, so disembarked at the maritime wharf in Civic, one or two stops out from Newcastle on the rail line. It was a three minute walk to the station and a five minute wait for the train, which left and 4.20pm and had me home in Dee Why after a bus ride at 8.00pm.

Great fun two days, and will be trying to get on a few other legs later in the journey.

Shaun is in Port Stephens after a great sail.

Picking me up at Karauh tomorrow at 1300 and we will sail straight to the Camden Haven before this little bit of rough weather gets here over the weekend.

Thanks Larry for the kind offer.
Michael & I got into Pittwater in the dark & left again the following morning in the dark.

Big thanks to Michael & Phillip who are great blokes to have onboard & are welcome back anytime.
After dropping Michael off at Newcastle I motored up the "North Channel" , next to the chemical factory, near the bridge is the mooring area where there was a few vacant moorings so I picked up one of them.

Had a good run from Newcastle to Port Stephans with a 15kt NW, with the smaller jib (maybe its a No3) & full main, made Morna Pt quickly, 6+kts most of the way for that section.
The shoal draft really excels with the wind behind her, no noticeable leeway, like there is when going into the wind. I went right over the entrance shoals in PS they were gently rolling in & it was a bit of fun sailsurfing them.
I'll post a write up with some photos when I get a chance.
cheers

Does one day count?

A bloke from the Seabreeze forum has been sailing, or should I say motoring, from Port Albert in Victoria to QLD. He arrived in Sydney in his lovely S&S 36 on Wednesday last week with a broken Raymarine auto helm and his dog spud.

After a few discussions and phone calls, I offered to do a leg with hm, because he apparently was a complete novice when it came to actually making a boat move under sail. He didn't even understand the basic principle. He could maneuver the boat really well, because he had owned cray boats, but sailing was very foreign to him.

We met Tuesday morning at 6.30 am. I had to wake him up, because he didn't appear to have an alarm. I walked around the boat and it has a very comprehensive rig. Triple spreaders, twin running back stays, Fleming wind vane and a Raymarine plotter/pilot etc. so we set up the main in the still air on the jetty, and after being used to a top hat, hauling this up was not something you can do easily on your own. We ghosted down the channel on Careel Bay, and headed towards Barrenjoey, and picked up a glorious 20 knot south westerly wind. "ping" what was that? It was one of the two port running back stays letting go at the mast. Not to worry, we rolled it up and disconnected the loose pulley and kept going, agreeing to double reef to take some of the load off.

I will never own a boat with running back stays! What a pain! Adding another job to perform each time you tack.

Once that was done, we set course for Cape Three points with me at the wheel, after three hours I handed over to Steve who promptly started the autopilot? We had a go at the Fleming, but couldn't seem to tweak it right and it kept rounding us up. Bothe being novices, we decided to wait until we'd had time to read the troubleshooting guide. In his defense, he'd just had it fitted and hadn't really worked it out yet.

Plenty of whales, a pod came as close as 10 metres, and we're making pace with us at 6.5 knots.

The rest of the day was uneventful made Lake Mac by 1400 and I jumped off at the Civic Wharf in Newcastle at 1645.

Today made me think that our wee 25 footers are so easy to sail and don't give away that much speed to the bigger boats, the only reason to have a bigger boat is for space and additional comforts.

Sounds like you had a good sail Mike, been following him over on seabreeze also.

Oh, you forgot... A DEEPER pocket as well!

Phillip wrote:Sounds like you had a good sail Mike, been following him over on seabreeze also.

Oh, you forgot... A DEEPER pocket as well!

Yes Phil, the repair of the running back stays, and the repair of the auto pilot woul dbe in the vicinity of $3k so far. Both of which don't exist on a Top Hat, and there have been Top Hats available for not very much more than that. Still, the additional creature comforts may be worth the money in the future.