Redwing #19

Here's a pic from the C&C regatta this summer in Toronto.


Redwing #19 belongs to Eric and lives on Lake Ontario. Eric bought his Redwing in March of 2007.

He says, "I was surfing Kijiji one day, and there she was. I've always liked the Redwing, and old Hinterhoellers in general. I was fairly close to getting a Hinterhoeller HR25 once, basically a 25' 'Wing."

I think one of the most interesting things about Eric's Redwing history is that his dad worked for the boat-builder George Hinterhoeller and later worked at C&C, Redwing's manufacturer.

Eric says, "My Redwing has been a live aboard boat for several years, as near as I can tell. I can't imagine living aboard her, let alone during our winters, but that's not my business. As I said, she's pretty much all original, except a couple of mods to the galley, namely the last owner cut out the ice box, and installed a little 120V fridge.

"At one time she had a furler, but it disappeared somewhere along the way. The deck gelcoat is all cracked in a lot of places, well, all over! The PO painted the deck and did a couple of soft spots. Maybe it looked good the day he did it, but all the cracks still show.

"The hull is the same. I've never seen a bottom like it. The surveyor checked it out with the mallet and the moisture indicator, and she checked out OK, 10% or less moisture. And, when I hauled her out, it was the first time in 2 years. No osmosis. Surveyor was impressed. Fiberglass was built heavy in those days! The cracks are just the gelcoat, so a sandblasting will likely be in order, followed by many coats of epoxy."

And as far as future upgrades and restoration plans, Eric's list looks to be about as long as mine. "The sails are old and pooched. I still rely on the roller boom for main reefing. The A4 runs starts and runs good, but I need to get at the idle adjustment. The electrics are a mess and are in need of a complete overhaul. Funny thing, I turned on the blower one day, and then turned on the engine room light, and the blower went off!"


Just prior to launch. Looks good eh! The blue hull was "as ordered" and hasn't been painted.

Cold? What cold?

Over here we're having ourselves a cold snap. I mean, it's not that cold, but despite that, there is a whole lot of whining going on. (And if one person says, "so much for global warming" they're going to get a locked box upside the head, if you know what I mean (and I think you do).)

I went down to the boat today just to check things out, expecting the creek to be iced over again because the nights are still on the long side here, and the temps have been near or below 20 (not 20 below, below 20) between the sunshines.

Not even an ice cube! I was especially hoping the bilge had frozen so I could remove some of the water (there's always a remainder after pumping), but no luck. My secret mission there is that when the bilge is all iced up, it is actually a popsicle of sand, muck, and grime and I can just chuck the whole thing overboard in one piece instead of slopping it up with rags. Easier on the manicure.

I grabbed the S'Mores maker from the boat in hopes we can use it Friday night (we're BBQing at the new apt on the new Christmas BBQ) and took a picture.

Here below is today's weather on Redwing and then, following, us in the summer making the melty concoction that helps us hang on. Ahem.

4. All summer in one day

Well, as I post this we are awaiting "snow, heavy at times," though I find it hard to believe it will actually materialize.

This weekend was another beautiful one here in New York, so Alli and I decided to grab the bikes and go for a ride.




And here in this one, if you look just to the left of the stick bowing out of the water you can see a turtle catching some beautiful sunshine.



And then, after grabbing some sushi, we went for a sail. Jack was already out there, so we snapped some pics of him...







And he snapped some pics of us...





Alli was a little cold, but she was a real trooper!



(note the non-functioning depth and knot meters.)

3. I felt like I was breaking a law...

I left work the instant the 9th period bell rang and hustled to the boat. My intention was to run the engine a bit, recoil some lines, and be "at the boat." But once the engine was warm and the lines were all uncoiled I figured, you know, I could just jump out for a minute.


So I did.


















The weather was much like yesterday, just a bit warmer. But the water was absolutely flat, and there was just a whisper of a wind. Instead of putting up the main I just rolled out the jib.


It was just me and the clammers. And so, I picked up a passenger.


Sail #3 of 2008 in the books.

2. beauty day

Went sailing today with Pete of Sugar Magnolia, Larry of Loon, and Joe of Wild Blue. The wind was so light it was barely making an impression on the water, yet the boat ghosted along nicely. We went to "almost the bridge," turned around and sailed up the creek, just past Jack's place, and back out to the bay. After we made it to "almost (buoy) 9" we turned around and came home. Could I have had a saltier crew than those guys?

It was nice to be out on flat water with light wind and no power boat chop.

Engine ran like a champ, too.

work day

I went down to the boat last weekend to drop off some stuff (new wet/dry vac, some racing gear, and some more cleaning supplies) and while I was taking a quick inspection lap, and mom sister and girlfriend waited in the car, I discovered that I had left the gas cap off the tank. Now, in my car the gas cap is perpendicular to the sky, and tucked away behind my license plate, and leaving it off is not such a big deal. For the sailboat though, the gas cap is parallel to the sky: when the cap is off, anything can drop into the tank.

Well, I had left it off for about six days. During those six days it rained for about six of them, hard enough one night to wake me up. So when I saw this I figured I had a crap-load of water in my gas tank. This prevented me from racing on New Year's Day (because it was blowing absolute stink and sailing without an engine would have demonstrated some pretty poor seamanship).

So, I had no engine until I fixed this problem. I had about a half a tank of gas and when I turned the boat on the gauge indicated I had just over a half - but I couldn't be sure of how much water was in the tank, so I hesitated to turn the engine on, making a bad problem worse. So I bought a pump and two five-gallon buckets, intending to pump the gas out of the tank and start over.

The pump I got came with instructions that said, "Do not use for gasoline. Could cause explosion."

There are three openings on the gas tank: one for the gas gauge sending unit; one for the fill tube; and one to go to the fuel filter and the engine. The only one of these that provided access to the tank was the fill tube. I managed to pump out about a gallon of gas before I was overwhelmed by the fear of explosion, spillage and explosion, pumping and explosion, or innocent-bystander walking by smoking a cigarette and explosion.

So, I stopped and had a think. What I came up with was to fill the gas tank to the brim and hope to dilute the water enough that the engine would run.

It worked! I had to charge the battery a bit, but it finally started.

So I let it run for a bit and then Jack and I decided to take a motor. Doesn't count as a sailing day, but we wanted to break up the ice a bit so we could go sailing tomorrow.

Here is a view from the road of the boats in ice: Jack's is the white sailboat on the left, a Tartan 3000 Ceol na Mara; then in the middle is some other boat, an Endeavor named Cu Mara; and then finally Redwing. And check out the salty clam boat in the foreground.

The creek was iced over pretty good after two days and three nights of very cold (below 25F) weather.

And this view is looking back toward the road where I took the picture of the three boats.






And this is down the creek, toward the bay.







When I got down there the boat had an ice mustache from the tide. You can see it on the poles, too.








So we took a motor. Our bow wake was throwing up chunks of ice, so we'd cut through and chips of ice would bounce out from the bow and slide along the surface. Pretty cool.


The sound of the ice against the hull was pretty cool. Loud, too, it occasionally drowned out the sound of the engine.









And I add this picture of some dudes building in Superman's backyard. I looked over more than a few times because I wanted to make sure I was really seeing a phone booth.

Winter projects

I have a few ideas in mind for the Redwing for the winter, as the boat sits snug in its slip, caressed by extremely crazy North winds blowing down from Montreal.

Some of these are Things I'd Like To Have, some are Serious Concerns, and the remainder are Safety Issues. In no particular order:

1. Completely rewire the boat
2. Change the oil in the engine (not anywhere near as easy as a car)
3. Clean, scrape, prime, and repaint the engine
4. Another acid wash of the inside of the engine (again, with white vinegar)
5. Permanently install valves, hoses, and connection to make high pressure flushes and acid washes easy
6. CLEAN the bilge (I got a wet/dry vac!)
7. and then all the obvious spring stuff: wash, wax, varnish, and more wax
8. haul the boat for a barnacle check, new zinc, and power wash of the slime-covered bottom
9. new hoses for the blower motor and bilge pump
10. fix the sink so it pumps water

And for next off-season: an early haul (around Halloween) and a rebuild of the mast step).

1. New Year's Race

Well, first day of the sailing season is off to a rough start.



I planned to do the race on Redwing, and fixed the stanchion in time to do so (the one broken on the Turkey Race). Unfortunately, I discovered that I left the gas fill cap off of the fill tube for the past week, letting a lot of rain water into the gas tank. Stupid ass.



So, at the pre-race bagels and coffee nosh hosted by the outgoing commodore, my crew divided up. I went with Uncle Jack on Ceol na Mara, and the others went with Dave H on Filibuster, and then when he dropped out they went with Jim on the catboat.



After a hair-raising start, the wind began to calm down as we approached the first mark so we shook out the reef. As we rounded the first mark we tried to put up the 'chute and messed it up (halyard came off and went up the mast). As the race ended the wind disappeared and the sun came out. But not before a little thunder and lightning. Bizarre.

Here's Ailanthus, a New Year's regular, with a reef and a Number 3:



Enjoy a slide show of the race set up by the SBCC here. I'm on the white boat. I'm the one in yellow, haha.