28 Oct [Ep. 11] What Could Go Wrong? – Champagne Sailing, Parties & Boatyard Grit

0:00 Intro

0:23 Boatyard Fire

There is a fire in the boatyard, just one row upwind from our boat. It was a potentially dangerous situation that our friend Brian on the boat next to us noticed first and sprung into immediate action. We were working on our electrical system and could smell that it was an electrical type of fire. Worried that it was us we quickly shut everything down on our boat and gave it a full inspection. It was on another boat, but it is a sad story. The owner of the boat had been preparing his yacht for a circumnavigation for five years. He was due to finish and launch this winter. Errant current in an undersized solar panel wire likely caused the fire based on our visual inspection. The good of the story, fellow liveaboard cruisers in the marina saved the day, and likely the boatyard with their quick response.

0:53 Trip Home

We ran a few errands in Annapolis before heading home. We had to drop off our mainsail and #4 jib at the sailmaker to have an additional reef installed, reinforcements put on, and cut down the #4 to a storm staysail which would hank on our to-be-installed removable inner forestay. First, we had to return our borrowed jeep to our new friend and fellow Annapolis boater and boatyard neighbor Eric. Thank you!!!!! Then we picked up our rental car to make the 1000 mile road trip back to Toledo Ohio to see family and go to the Chicago Mackinac Awards party.

2:35 Chicago-Mackinac Race Finish

A short clip of the finish of the 333 mile long 2019 Chicago to Mackinac Race. In July, we sailed aboard Jim Weyand’s 1D35 Turbo sailboat Chico 2, hailing from Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, MI. Kate was a driver and I was the navigator. For more about our experience on the race, see the link to our blog: https://sweetruca.com/routing-for-the…

4:26 Chicago-Mackinac Trophy

We traveled to Chicago to attend the awards party for the race in November at the Chicago Yacht Club. We were very happy to meet up with our friends from the Chico 2 crew and accept the 100+ year old Chicago-Mackinac Trophy along with the rest of the team. There just aren’t enough good things to say about Jim and his team of amazing sailors. Official results: https://cycracetomackinac.com/results…

5:38 Mast Removal

Our time in Chicago and home with friends was awesome, but now we had to shift modes from vacation and party mode back into boatyard work mode. We were doing some major re-fit work to our monohull sailboat in preparation of further offshore voyaging. First up was removing the carbon fiber mast and rig to install the Dyneema inner forestay. This would allow us to shift between a sloop and cutter rig as needed. It would also centralize the sail plan in big breeze if we were to encounter a storm in the ocean.

9:19 Rudder Removal

Next up was removing the rudder. We had decided to replace the rudder bearings. Ours were serviceable as is, but knowing that we plan to put on 25000 miles, we found it prudent to do sooner rather than later. Bert Jabin Yacht Yard in Annapolis would make our work easier as well, rather than trying to do these major projects in a far-flung tropical island.

11:54 Rudder Bearing Replacement Part 1

After we had the rudder out, a major job requiring heavy machinery. It was time to remove the old bearings. They simply had to be pounded out. Before we install the new bearings, we first must change the bearing race on the rudder itself, from composite to stainless steel. This required quite a bit of cutting, grinding, and sanding. It is always nerve-wracking to cut into such expensive parts.

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