Curse of the gremlins

 I realise, dear reader, that I'm still not keeping the blog properly up to date. I shall try harder, promise.

We had a week on board at the end of July with my cousin Mo joining us. Delayed arrivals for various reasons meant we didn't get going until the Monday. Not really a problem, just one of those things.

We were hoping to get out of the river and as a first step we headed down to Burnham Yacht Harbour for the night. Anchoring had been vetoed by the sailing committee who didn't fancy the chore of raising anchor using the slow manual windlass.

All went well until the approaches to Burnham when the engine revs suddenly dropped. With my heart in my mouth, we made it in and alongside without further ado but something was clearly wrong. Further investigation over the next couple of days revealed the dreadful truth - we had diesel bug.

That was not good news!

I rigged a supply from a jerry can of clean diesel, ran the engine for half an hour and she was sweet as a nut.

Back we went to Fambridge putting Pagan alongside on the pontoon for a couple of days whilst I stripped out and cleaned the entire fuel system.

Even the tank came out for a thorough cleaning and then everything went back together and we put clean diesel plus treatement in and happy days.

We really thought we'd solved the problem and perhaps we had but as we'll see the saga wasn't over by a long chalk.

That was one holiday brought to an abrupt end, we were looking forward to our next excursion ...

Towards the end of that week, I got the exciting news that our new sails were ready. However, we decided it really wasn't worth the trouble and expense of a special trip down to get them fitted when we were going to be back on board in three weeks time anyway.

So arrangements were duly made for the sailmaker to turn up on Tuesday giving us a few days to get sorted. The old sails had to come off, of course, and I did a bit of sorting out of a couple of other odds and ends. The sails bent on nicely and looked great. The new covers will follow now measurements have been taken, meanwhile the old covers suffice.

Now to try them, or so we hoped. A bit of a snap decision to head down to BYH again in company with another North Fambridge Yacht Club boat was taken.

All was going perfectly until, as we entered the moorings at Burnham with about two knots of ebb tide running under us, the engine suddenly cut out with no warning. To say it was hairy is an understatement! We were in fairly serious trouble with no good options other than to chuck the anchor out and hope we could avoid clattering into other boats. 

However, "Grace" came to our rescue! Now we might have done things better, maybe, and I'd probably do things differently in hindsight but "Grace" got alongside, we got lines attached and Martin was able to get things under some sort of control. We tried to pick up a buoy but missed. It had no tails on it and lassooing it failed miserably. As we were shaping up for another go, power boats kept coming past at a rate of knots and we were struggling to keep "Pagan" and "Grace" from suffering damage. So in the end, we got both boats into BYH where several people off moored boats helped to grab lines and get us stationary and safe.

The harbour master and crew came out in their dory and towed us round to a berth and we made fast with considerable relief. We took the crew of "Grace" out for a meal and drinks that evening which was the least we could do.

Two days of investigations followed. We had plenty of fuel in the tank, relieving me of my first worry (that I'd done something really dumb and run us out of fuel). However, we weren't getting as much fuel as I'd expect at the business end of things. Then I found we weren't getting any. I rigged the fuel transfer hand pump to the tank pickup and the fuel line and discovered I couldn't pump fuel through the system at all. 

That issue was solved by changing the CAV filter element again. I fear that I inadvertently fitted the wrong type of filter when I changed it out post-bug. Thinking that would sort things, I fired her up and she ran. For ten minutes. Then stopped again. To cut a long story short, I found that I could pump fuel through the system to the engine mounted fuel filter and pressure relief valve but that the engine driven fuel pump isn't pumping any fuel and neither is the manual priming pump.

To make matters worse, in the process of trying to bleed air out of the system, the top injector manifold bleed screw sheared off leaving the thread in the hole.

So we found ourselves stuck in Burnham Yacht harbour, five miles downriver from home base, with no engine and no hope of fixing said engine in the time available. To get it repaired away from base simply wasn't an option, we simply could not afford it.

The one bit of good news is that, just for once, the wind wasn't due wrong. In fact, it was very nearly due right. An Easterly breeze and the flood tide made sailing her back to Fambridge feasible, all we needed was a tow out of the marina and assistance, if required, getting her safely moored up at Fambridge.

Fellow member and good friend Patrick had offered his help -either bringing his boat downriver to escort us or joining us on board to assist as required. The latter was the preferred option as having a second pair of competent hands was more of a comfort than a boat following.

So in due course, the harbour master towed us out into the river and once we were happy, cast us off to make our way under sail.

And sail she did under her lovely new genoa and mizzen. It wasn't necessary to hoist the main so we didn't. Tempting though it was, just to have all plain sail set, we'd just have to fight the thing back down onto the boom again (new sails look great but they're an absolute beast to stow!)

The breeze, such as it was, was just about enough and, although I hesistate to say it for fear of a certain gale next time out (whenever that will be), we could have done with a bit more.

It was fitful and shifting around but it got the job done. With a bit more oomph and a bit less shiftiness, I'd have attempted to sail onto one of the more accessible vacant moorings (our own mooring is in amongst other boats) but as we approached Fambridge the breeze died to next to nothing.

Discretion being the better part of valour, we teamed up with the trot boat and Nigel, the helm for the day, ably assisted us through the moorings and onto our own buoy.

And breath!

A further tale of engines, neither of our outboards will start. The Mariner 4hp 4 stroke won't start and the Tohatsu 2.5hp 2 stroke appears to be siezed solid. The Mariner didn't entirely surprise me, it hasn't been touched for five years, but the Tohatsu was used only a few weeks ago. I shall investigate over the winter.

Our final act on this trip was to get the new genoa back off. We need to come out of the water now to sort the engine and we can't be lifted with a genoa bent on. We got it down on deck OK but trying to fold it up neatly on deck proved damn near impossible. So we bundled it up and called up the ever reliable trot boat (what a boon that service is), dumped the sail in the trot boat and then carried it up to the clubhouse.

Our friend Kerry off "Floozie" happened to be passing by and probably regretted offering to help but I'm glad he did. I was having a brain fart and Kerry gently reminded me of the right way to flake and fold a sail to stow it away. 

All that remained to be done was to put our feet up, have a beer and sleep. Today we packed up and offloaded what needed to be packed up and offloaded, shut everything down and headed home.

So what now?

Well for sure it's a bit of a disaster and I can't deny it was nearly the last straw. However, we will not be beaten! The dream may be on life support right now but it ain't dead yet.

Step 1 is to arrange to have Pagan lifted out and back into the yard cradle asap. Although I can't test the engine with her ashore, I can't work on it out on a swinging mooring. So that's to be done on the morrow. Jane and I are back down in three weeks for a long weekend and the main focus of that has to be stripping the boat of everything that needs to be off for the winter, including the new main and mizzen sails, and putting her to bed.

Which brings me to fixing the engine.

One thing is certain, we cannot afford a new engine. Not this year, not next year. So that's a non-starter however much I'd like to do it.

The second certainty is that neither I nor anyone else can do anything about the known problem of the sheared bleed screw and the almost certain problem of the failed fuel lift pump in situ. There simply isn't the access space to get at the area involved and do what needs to be done.

So one way or another, the engine has got to be shifted. The question is where it's got to be shifted to. And there I think I have a cunning plan. I need to look at things on board but I think I can avoid having to actually lift the engine out of the engine bay by sliding it back about a foot. It might have to be jacked up first to clear the prop shaft (or the prop shaft will have to be withdrawn) but with it moved aft about a foot or so, I can cut an access panel out of the dividing bulkhead between the engine bay and the starboard cockpit locker.

Failing that, another option is to slide the engine forward into the saloon. I'm not wild about that notion but it may yet be the plan we have to go with. Option 3 is to lift the engine into the cockpit. I'm fairly certain it would have to be moved aft first anyway and I'm not sure it will go through the hatch in the cockpit sole without a fair bit of ancillary removal but that remains to be seen.

Option 4 is to crane the engine right out of the boat and either work on it at Fambridge or bring it home, begging, stealing, borrowing or, if necessary, buying an engine crane to get it out of the back of my van at home.

I'm pretty confident that I can sort the problems out myself if I can just get at it! Replacement fuel pumps are about £100 which isn't going to break the piggy bank so if I can fix the problems without splashing the cash about happy days.

I forgot to mention that we had all but decided to part-ex the engine for a reconditioned unit from Westfield 4x4. Unfortunately, Manfred, the OM636 guru, has stopped doing recons and just supplies parts and technical advice now. That decided me on brushing off my engineering skills and getting stuck in myself. If push comes to shove, I shall have to pay for the services of a marine engine expert but not if I can help it as it will inevitably put us further behind the finance curve.

One other racing certainty is that before we can work on the engine, the calorifier that I fitted in the aft end of the engine bay has got to some out. I realised fairly rapidly after fitting it in what was just a dead unused space that it was a mistake. It makes access to the engine and ancillaries much more difficult and I've long intended to move it into the bottom of the starboard cockpit locker so that job has just moved right up the agenda.

Oh well, these things are sent to try us. And by 'eck is it trying at the moment!

A plan ... a sail plan!

Our regular reader (you know who you are) will know that I do like a plan.

And the big plan right now is the new sails we have on order from Dolphin Sails.

Having finalised the dimensions &c., after full and extremely useful discussions with Ben at Dolphin, I've now been able to tackle something I've been meaning to do ever since we bought Pagan.

And that is to start working up a clear understanding of the reefing options and getting properly set up to put the right reef(s) in at the right time without all the guesswork that's been the way of it so far.

Now I must emphasise from the top that the following drawings and calculations are MY drawings and calculations, not the drawings of the new sails supplied by Dolphin. And to further clarify, these are the initial starting scenarios based on the theoretical calculations on sail balance that I've carried out. In practice, it won't be quite like this - the genoa reefs, especially, will probably not be as deep as I've indicated as the more of the genoa is rolled away the less efficient it becomes.

A further factor is that the centres of effort of the sails are (as is the traditional way) calculated on the flat two dimensional plan of the sail (and are equivalent to the centre of mass). In the real world, a sail is not two dimensional, it is an aerofoil, and the centre of effort (the axis along which the lift generated by the sail operates) will not be the centre of mass.

This axis of effort is affected by various factors and whilst it could, with sophisticated software and very accurate modelling of the sail, be calculated, that is well beyond the tools I have available and not actually necessary for my purposes.

Anyway, enough of that! The first and most critical step in producing new sails for a yacht is to measure the critical dimensions on the boat in question. The old sails are never measured, there's no guarantee that they were spot on in the first place and in any case they'll be worn and distorted otherwise there'd be no need for new sails! Dolphin duly came out and measured up and a couple of days later I received the first draught plan of the new sails.

That led to some further discussions about reefing points, the size of the genoa &c. and Glen and I made a flying visit to Pagan to check up on a couple of things we weren't 100% sure about. Following a further exchange of ideas with Dolphin, the design was finalised and the new sails will hopefully arrive in about 8 to 10 weeks.

So what's the crack then?

Well let's have a look at the original Westerly sail plan ...

One notable feature of the Laurent Giles designed Westerly ketches is the absence of a rigging wire (a stay) between the top of the main mast and the top of the mizzen mast. This stay, called a Triatic (don't ask me why) serves the function of a back stay for the main mast. Laurent Giles did not, apparently, like triatic stays and preferred to fit a conventional backstay on the main, albeit split into two about a third of the way up in order to clear the mizzen mast.

That's an aside of no real relevance other than that the existence of the back stay limits the amount of "roach" - the amount by which the leech, the trailing edge, of the sail extends beyond a straight line from the clew ... ugh, for the uninitiated ...

The basics of sail nomenclature (an image I half inched from somewhere ages ago and I can't remember where it was from so apologies to the owner!)

Roach is useful to some extent as it's "free" sail area but remember that a sail is an aerofoil and increasing the area is only useful if the aerofoil shape isn't compromised. Too much roach, whilst useful downwind (the only time that the driving force is generated by the wind hitting the sail) can compromise the efficiency of the sail on a reach and close hauled ...

Oh heck, this begs some better explanation too doesn't it?

There's a pretty good article on the subject - Forces on sails - Wikipedia which covers all you need to know.

The diagram on the right illustrates the essentials of how a sail works. It also illustrates something I'll be coming to a bit later.

As you can see, the lift is generated at an angle of 90 degrees (roughly) to the sail which is not the direction we want to be going in! However, the underwater profile of a yacht (the hull and keel) resists going sideways like anybody's business and really really wants to go forwards. So most of the lift from the sails is translated into forward movement. However, there is always a certain amount of sideways movement, which is called leeway. How much depends on the design of the boat, the set of the sails and the conditions. It can be as little as two or three degrees off the way the boat is heading up to as much as ten or more degrees.

Right, where was I ... this is not going to be a short article!

So what we discovered, which was critical, is that the rig on Pagan has the standard ketch masts however the main boom is slightly shorter and the mizzen boom is both slightly longer and set slightly higher up the mizzen mast. Why? Who knows! This is the very reason that sailmakers do not rely on manufacturers sail plans, even better quality original drawings by the designer.

In practice, that means that both our main and our mizzen sails have to be slightly smaller than the original drawing suggests. However, they end up being a little bit bigger than the original specification! You pays your money and takes your choice! As long as they fit, who cares?

So here, in all it's confusing glory, is Pagan's new sail plan. The eagle eyed sailory types might notice the high cut of the foot of the genoa (the bottom edge for the landlubbers). That's a deliberate decision on our part after discussions with Dolphin. 

The most efficient design, especially for sailing to windward with the sail sheeted hard in, would be to have the foot as close to the deck as possible. However, there are problems with that for the coastal cruising sailor. First of all, we generally try to avoid sailing to windward! The old saw has it that "gentlemen do not sail to windward" and whilst I'm not a gentleman I concur with that notion.

With that traditional low cut foot, as soon as the genoa sheet is eased onto a close reach, the foot of the sail hooks over the pulpit rail (the solid stainless steel bars at the bows) thus compromising it's shape. So decision number one was to optimise the cut of the sail for reaching rather than for sailing close hauled to windward. The next decision, at the cost of about half a square metre of sail area, was to raise the foot of the sail another few inches above that. This is in order to give us a reasonable view under the sail. Once again, it is a compromise - we're sacrificing performance (a little) for convenience. This is motivated by the fact that we mostly sail in confined coastal waters often with a lot of other boats around and about. Being able to see the enemy is, we feel, more important than an extra tenth of a knot of boat speed (or whatever the difference would be, it matters not).

Also factored into that decision is the cruising chute which, from a reach to a run, is of considerably more use than an extra half a square metre of genoa. Of all the decisions relating to the new sails, this is the one we've agonised over the most but we've made the call and if we live to regret it hey ho (I suppose, if we've really cocked up on this one, we would have to raid the piggy bank for a bigger genoa. It wouldn't be the absolute end of the world).

So let's start breaking this down into the various reefing options ...

All Plain Sail

Yay! It's a good day with 10 to 12 knots of steady breeze on the beam (coming roughly from the side) and we're trotting along at 5 or 6 knots under All Plain Sail.

The sun is shining, the sea is shimmering with just the ripples made by the wind and we're on course, on time and "in the groove". 

Yeah, right. Happens once in a while but nowhere near as often as we'd like!

Being a 1970s classic British design, the Westerly W33 will carry all plain sail well up to the top end of F4 (16 knots) and even, if you're feeling enthusiastic, a bit more. But by the time the average wind speed hits 16 to 18 knots, it's time to reef. And we tend to reef early to keep things comfortable anyway.

So in goes the first reef.

This is achieved by reducing the size of the mainsail by pulling it down onto the boom to the first reefing point. There are eyes in the sail along this line, big ones at either end for the tack and the clew (see above) and smaller ones along the sail for the reefing cringles (lengths of, ahem, "string" used to tie the surplus sail neatly (ahem #2) to the boom.

The genoa is then reefed, by rolling some of it away on the roller reefing gear, to re-balance the boat. 

Ah, I haven't mentioned balance yet have I? Basically, the combined centre of effort of all three (in this case) sails operates on the Centre of Lateral Pressure of the hull to drive the boat forward, and (as I mentioned above) a bit sideways.

If that centre of effort is too far foward, the boat will try to turn away from the wind. This is the dreaded lee helm and it's not nice. If, however, it's too far aft the boat will try to turn up into the wind. This is weather helm. A touch of weather helm is a good thing as it helps keep the boat on track. Too much, however, is inefficient as the application of rudder to counter it creates drag and robs the boat of speed.

Far too much lee helm results in a crash gybe, where the boat turns uncontrollably and the boom crashes across from one side to the other. Crash gybes are to be avoided at all costs as they can damage the rig, even dismast the boat, and if that boom catches a member of the crew out and hits them it can easily be fatal. A gybe preventer can be rigged (and it's on my to do list) but that's not a solition to pernicious lee helm.

Far too much weather helm results in the boat insisting on luffing up into the wind. It's not as dramatic or dangerous but it isn't the way to get to your desination before the bar closes.

So having tucked away about 15% of the mainsail, if we leave the genoa alone the centre of effort will move forward potentially creating lee helm. Ugh. So we need to roll away enough genoa to re-balance the boat. Exactly how much is not an exact science and it will almost certainly be less than the theoretical amount of genoa show on my drawings. The more genoa is rolled away, the less efficient the sail gets as the shape is inevitable compromised despite the best efforts of modern sailmakers to compensate. This effect will become more pronoucned as the reefs deepen. We will only find the correct reefing points by experimentation and even then they will vary somewhat dependant upon conditions.

Right, anyway, so that first reef will likely go in as the wind gets up to 15 or 16 knots or, in other words, around the top end of F4. It might even go in earlier if we're in no particular rush especially if there's a chance of the wind picking up. Given the option, I'll go for lazy sailing every damn time!

But now the wind has picked up to a fresh breeze, otherwise known as F5 or 17 to 21 knots ...

Now it's time for the second reef to go in on the mainsail reducing it's size to about two thirds of it's full area.

And, of course, more genoa has to be rolled away to compensate although not, in theory at least, as much as you might expect due to the combination of the reduction in sail area and the movement of the centres of effort tending to cancel each other out a bit.

Under most circumstances, this is as far as we go. Being unashamedly fair weather sailors, if F6 (known as a yachtsman's gale) or above is forecast, we usually stay right where we are.

However, there are circumstances where this isn't the case. In sheltered waters such as the Solent we have been known to make a short passage in an F6 and, of course, there's always the possibility of getting caught out. Indeed, the long serving reader may remember such an occasion years ago.

Way back when, we set out on Erbas to sail round from the Crouch to Bradwell in a forecast F5 gusting F6. A bit enthusiastic for our tastes but we had a "do" to go to and it is a fairly short hop. By the time we got across the Spitway and headed into the Blackwater, we had a solid F8 on the nose! It actually turned out to be an exhilerating and very satisfying beat into the river but we had quite a few bruises to show for it and it isn't something I'd want to repeat on a regular basis.

Our next option, the one we used sailing across the Solent in a strong breeze (F6, 22-27 knots) is to dispense with the mainsail altogether and sail on mizzen and reefed genoa alone. This is our third reef.

In reality, due to the aforementioned loss of efficiency as it is rolled away, we'd almost certainly be carrying rather more genoa than the drawing depicts. We'll work that out during sea trials.

This setup is one of the sheer delights of sailing a ketch. As well as being a good option for sailing in a stiff breeze, or even a near gale (F7), it's also a handy sail plan for bimbling about when you're in no rush. Hoisting, lowering and stowing the mainsail takes a fair bit of effort so why bother if you don't need to?

Now we move into unknown territory. Our current mizzen sail doesn't have any reefing points. It's either up or it's down. The new mizzen has one reef.

Now the truth is that I don't know just how useful or otherwise that reef is going to be. It's not a cost option, it's part of the standard package, and I can forsee it being useful as there have been times when I've felt that, as we've reefed down the main and the genoa, the mizzen has been overpowered.

Once the mizzen is reefed and (probably) some genoa rolled away to re-balance the boat, we simply repeat the above options - full main, 1st reef in the main + roll away some more genoa, 2nd reef in the main and roll away even more genoa and finally no main and not a lot of genoa at all!

Just how useful these options will be remains to be seen but it's worth bearing in mind that the reefed mizzen, full main and reefed genoa equates roughly to the first reef with a full mizzen. It may be that this is a better option - keeping the full main and reefing down the ends. We shall see at sea (d'ya sea what I did there ... twice?!)

Mind you, we don't have any arrangements for reefing the mizzen at the moment. We'll have to add a cheek block, and cleat onto the mizzen boom and sort out some arrangement for the clew but that won't take a lot of doing.

One final subject I haven't touched on and I've just remembered ... and it was another critical decision.

Our current sails, as was usually the way back in the day, have a bolt rope along the foot of the sail that fits into a channel on the top of the boom. This is convenient, as the sail can't fall off the boom when being stowed, but it has little else to commend it.

A far better arrangment is to make the sail "loose footed". This means it is only attached to the boom at the clew (the outward end of the boom) and by adjusting the clew outhaul, the shape of the sail can be modified. By easing the outhaul, the "belly" of the sail is increased and moves forward. This increases lift, amongst other things, and is optimum for reaching in lighter wind conditions. Conversely, by tensioning the foot of the sail up with the outhaul, the sail is flattened (and the centre of effort moved aft a bit) which is better for sailing to windward in a stiffer breeze.

Sounds good and we decided to opt for loose footed sails. The only snag is that we don't have any arrangements for a clew outhaul on either the main or the mizzen, the clew is simply lashed to the end of the boom and whatever tension is put on when that lashing is done is what you're stuck with. I need to work out a clew outhaul arrangement for both sails, preferable one that, on the main at least, brings the adjustment back in-board. I have some ideas on that front but they're not firmed up yet.

So there you (eventually) have it - Pagan's new sail plan

Another year, another long and expensive "to do" list!

So 2023 gets underway at last.

I had a reasonably sucessful solo trip down to the boat in early March, the main focus of which was to progress the ongoing forecabin refit which, at last, has reached the stage of trimming out. It's still a very long way from being finished but it's getting there.

To my delight, the boat was entirely dry and everything was in good order. To my further delight, when I reconnected the radar, which hasn't been powered up since 2018, it worked perfectly. I fully expected it to fail after being unused for so long so happy days on that one.

As we'd only been in the water for three weeks last autumn, I decided to just patch up any iffy spots on the antifoul and not completely recoat it. I suspect I'll regret that decision before the end of the summer but hey ho!

By the time I left, although a long way short of being ready to sail, Pagan was at least ready to be launched which was fairly crucial as we arrived the evening before the launch was booked a week last Friday.

We overslept more than somewhat and had to dash around madly to get ready but in we went bang on time. With malice aforthought, we spent the next five days on the river pontoon with shore access and power available whilst we worked through the boat getting things ship-shape again

One of the primary tasks over the weekend was to set the running rigging back up. When I removed it all I fully expected to be re-rigging the following spring and my memory would doubtless have sufficed as to how to put it all back. That was five years ago!

After much head scratching and only one mistake, plus a trip up the mizzen mast to re-reeve the mizzen topping lift, I had everything bar the spinnaker halyard and spinny pole topping lift re-rigged (I think) correctly.

Another issue was that once again we had fuel feed problems to the engine. This turned out to be an air lock in the main engine fuel filter and once that was bled she seemed to run fine. I can only assume that there was still air in the system after the problems last autumn and that over the winter it had settled out to that location.

On Monday, Gareth from Dolphin Sails rocked up to measure up for our new genoa, mainsail and mizzen sail. The piggy bank is gonna squeal about the cost but I'm really looking forward to getting Pagan sailing properly again. The old sails had life in them when we bought her but by the time we were on our way back from the Channel Islands in 2018 they were blown out and falling apart.

We've got nigh on a fortnight aboard next month which we anticipate spending at least half of on more boat fettling. I've still got to fix the depth sounder (I forgot to order the parts!) and reconnect the VHF and AIS antennas and there's an enormous amount of sorting out to do, mainly associated with the cockpit lockers which are empty and shouldn't be and the aft cabin is full of stuff which should be in the aforementioned cockpit lockers!

Then maybe, just maybe, we'll get out and about for a few days. We probably won't go beyond the river but a night or two at anchor in the Roach and a night in Burnham would be a start.

We might have the new sails for our week aboard in late July but it's more likely we'll have them for a 10 days or so we're aboard in late August. I haven't made up my mind whether to bend on the old sails in the meantime or not. I guess it wouldn't hurt to make sure everything is properly set up before the new sails arrive.

With the standing rigging replaced and the new sails, the headline high cost items on the "to do" list are looking slightly less scary. There's still the anchoring gear to completely replace (new anchor, chain and an electric windlass), the saloon upholstery is frankly knackered (we've got some thoughts on that) and as I've previously discussed we desperately need solar panels and a battery capacity upgrade. Disappointingly, we're probably going to have to replace the cockpit tent and spray hood both of which, despite not being all that old, are starting to fall apart.

That lot should eat up another year or two's savings after which we're hopefully down to less costly albeit time consuming jobs like repainting the decks, revarnishing woodwork, repainting the topsides and such like jobs.

One day, maybe, we'll have Pagan up to scratch the way we want her! 

And maybe we'll get to potter around the Estuary as the summer wears on. Nothing ambitious for a year or two but some revisting of old haunts and basically getting back into the habit of getting down to the boat and using her whenever we can grab the chance.

Because that's become something of a problem. The long term consequences of the Covid lockdowns are not just financial. We find ourselves in a rut, to put it bluntly, of not doing anything. Not going out, not socialising, not having the energy, drive or inclination to do more than exist. And we're not having that! We don't yet know just how we're going to get our plans back on track but we're not giving up.

Gas Cylinder Woes and other things

 Well I can't say as it comes as a great surprise, the writing has been on the wall for getting on for two years if not longer. Now it's official, Calor are discontinuing the 4.5kg Butane and 3.9Kg Propane gas cylinders.

That's a bloody nuisance because our gas locker, like most on older (and many newer) yachts is not large enough to carry the next size up. So Calors magnaimous offer of a free exchange to a larger cylinder is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

The 6Kg cylinder has a diameter of 256mm compared to the 240mm of the 3.9kg cylinder so it's just possible that our gas locker is wide and long enough to accomodate the larger cylinders in the horizontal plane but ...

The bigger cylinder is 495mm high compared to the 340mm height of the smaller cylinder. That's just over 6 inches in old money and that ain't gonna fit by a good 3 inches at least.

So what are the options?

Well right away we can rule out one of the options being bandied about on Social Meeja - refilling the smaller cylinders from larger ones. Apart from being illegal, it's bloody dangerous. And that is the end of that. Period.

So, the first option is to simply switch to Campinggaz. However, there are serious drawbacks. Not the least of them by far is that Campinggaz is horribly expensive. It's exactly the same Butane gas as in Calor Butane cylinders but about 50% more expensive. Furthermore, the cylinders are much smaller therefore they won't last anything like as long. However, on the up side they are (currently at least) widely available both in the UK and on the continent (unlike Calor).

A switch to Campingaz may be the only short term viable solution when our current supply of Propane runs out.

Another option being widely suggested is one of the several refillable cylinder options such as Safefill. However, their smallest (5kg) cylinder has a diameter of 310mm. It ain't gonna fit! Add to that, it can only be refilled on some, not all, petrol station forecourts that have an Autogas pump (and some other locations). And Autogas is in a slow but terminal decline. That's not a total show stopper as two full cylinders would last us all season (just about) but then we're talking about over £200 per cylinder! So they won't fit and with adaptors etc. it's an outlay of getting on for £450 for something that will be inconvenient to refill when we're out and about and may have a limited lifespan.

There are other refillable cylinders (Gaslow etc) but similar problems apply. Not liking that plan.

So what next? A bigger gas locker???

It will be a bloody nuisance but it is going to need looking at for several reasons.

The primary reason is the very reason why we use 3.9kg Propane rather than 4.5kg Butane. Butane cylinders stop gassing (generating gas from the liquid in the cylinder) at lower temperatures, Once the temperature gets into single figures, they become less effective and below freezing they pretty much don't work at all. Now as things stand, we don't know how much time we'll be spendind on board in the winter (virtually none for the next yesr or two, that we do know) but our long term plan has always been to live on Pagan year round and, depending on circumstances beyond our control, that may still happen. So Butane is not a good option.

So the question is going to be whether we can change out the current gas locker for one large enough to accomodate two 6kg cylinders and still make it gas tight and draining overboard well above the waterline. I thing we probably can, albeit it is a pain in the bottom to have to do it.

On the up side, two 6kg cyilnders would comfortable last us six months at least ... and that's on current usage (see below).

So there we are with the gas. It's either costly Campinggaz and maybe six to eight weeks of gas capacity or a new gas locker and bigger Calor bottles. Either way it's a PITA!

And that brings me back to plans I may have mentioned previously to wit reducing our gas usage (which is only used for cooking) by partially switching to electric cooking methods.

To recap, we've been considering increasing the battery capacity by adding a battery bank under the Port side saloon settee, contriving ways and means to fit as much solar charging capacity as we can to maintain that battery bank, and then using that bank to power, via an inverter, a microwave, a Ninja Foodi multi-function cooker and, probably, an electric hot plate (they're not expensive). We certainly can't create a system with enough juice to run two or more such devices at once but we don't really need to. Any one of the three at a time will suffice. 

To that end, we recently bought the 6l Smartlid version for use at home and we love it! However, it may be a bit big for use on the boat so the 4.7l Mini may be the better option although it doesn't have the same range of functions and it's capacity, whilst adequate for meals for two, would be restrictive when we have guests or crew aboard. 

We had already all but decided to turn the navigation table area into an extension of the galley and now my mind is all but made up on that. We hardly ever use it as a navigation area (we normally navigate electronically) and it's a bit cramped to sit at for long periods so I can't really use it as an "office". If space to lay out a chart is needed, we can use one side of the saloon table just as easily.

So I think that whole project is going to have to move up the agenda. That said, I am still determined that the next headline item expenditure has got to be the new sails. We ain't a sailing boat at the moment! We're a motor boat with big dishrags!!

So to finish (for now) this item off, the question is whether, if we go down the route of cooking electrically as much as possible (and I'm hopeful we'd be able to do so at least ever other day), do we then really need to worry about the gas bottle size and type or would Campingaz suffice? Perhaps the only way to answer that is to try it and see (with the caveat that swapping the 3.9kg propane bottles for 6kg propane bottles may be a short lived option).

Well, sufficient unto the day thereof. All of the above will have to wait until Spring at least. And on that front, the planned late Autumn working trips didn't happen because the weather was utterly shite. We decided there really wasn't any value in my spending two weeks on board, with all the expenses that entailed (my travel, Jane's costs getting to and from work etc.) when realistically I wasn't going to be able to make much, if any, progress on the jobs that need doing.

The down side of that decision is that the pressure is now on come the Spring.

At the very top of the list is addressing the ongoing leaks on deck. The latest leak is caused by the forward hatch Perspex no longer sealing at the corners. I can see only two options, it's either a new hatch or try and inject a sealant or glue (probably epoxy) into the gap that's formed due to the Perpex becoming slightly distorted. I'll be trying the latter option first but I'm not wildly optimistic.

And once I've killed all the leaks (if I ever do, it seems to be a never ending vicious circle) I really want to get the blasted forecabin refit finished. It's been dragging on for far too long and I'm really not good at picking up the thread of interupted jobs again. Hey ho.

In days of old, by now I'd be seriously into planning our summer adventures to far flung places (well, the Solent, the Channel Islands etc.). I can't realistically see when we're going to get back to that. In fact, I'm wondering just how much actual cruising we'll get to do this year at all as there's so much to do on the boat and our opportunities to crack on with the work are so limited at present.

Ah well, onwards and upwards.