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UM2012 / EC2012 - Outfitting


ecgossett

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Due to time constraints and wanting to spend more time with family before next deployment I switched from the EC2012 to the Ultra Marathon 2012. I took great heed of the articles of people who dropped out of the EC and regretted not making their goal.

Is anyone else here entered in either race this year?

Any advice for outfitting my CS17 for the race? My three todo things before race are:

1) Oarlocks (looking at http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/oarlocks/index.htm)

2) Add foldup ladder on transom.

3) Mast stowage when down (need advice) for bridges.

Do you guys usually row with mast up or down?

V/R, Edward

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Ed,

Good decision I'd say on the UM. You'll be hooked, do just fine and be stoked for the next year with a good foundation.

We use captive bronze oarlocks on our CS20. I know Graham has switched to SS homemades for the EC22 after breaking countless bronze ones but we've not had trouble with them yet. I think they would do fine for you. Depending on your skill and the weather... If i was going to do the UM I would be ready to take my oars but if the wind looked good I think I would just take a canoe paddle or a pair of them if your going with a partner. I've paddled my 17 this way very well just over the side and it's not THAT far from the bridge to the end of the UM (CP-1) HOWEVER, if the sea is up and you opt to go inside, definitely want the oars. I would probably row (or paddle) with masts up usually to take advantage of every puff.

For bridges, you'll need some kind of mast crutch like you may have for trailering. One in each hole would let you just rack the masts up there above your head for a longer row. For a low bridge, if there is little traffic and low current, the easiest is just to lay them down on deck at a little angle so you can still steer and just canoe paddle under IMO. We even leave the mainsail on our main mast (on it's tabernackle) for quick drops. For current and traffic, i would pull off or anchor, take it down, rack them up and row under once ready.

Other advice would be a good gps and backup with e-charts and a route to follow and plenty of time using it. It's easy for the first day but if it gets dark, then it gets fun. Course you can always pull off and wait for the lights to come back on. And unless you've sat in your boat for 24 hours straight and are really comfortable with that, some butt cushions are a must.

-Alan

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Alan is right. We broke a bronze oarlock in two successive EC's and bent two. We were using 2 1/4" oarlocks with 10' oars. I do not think that it is fair to bash bronze without understanding the problem. We were using big oars in a big boat for hour after hour and I defy any one after they are tired to never make a bad stroke. What I found was, there was not enough height inside the closed oarlock to allow for a deep stroke and the oars just levered the ring off of the shaft.

When I made the stainless steel oarlocks I made them with extra height to allow for a bad stroke. Now my oars can go very deep before it binds in the ring.

I used 8'10" oars on my CS17 because that was the longest oar that could be stowed alongside the trunk in 2" PVC passing through the forward bulkhead.

I second Alan's points on the UM. I would carry a paddle but they are no substitute for oars. In the five EC's that I have done I have rowed a lot to check point one. We rowed a lot with the sails assisting. You are right in getting your oars well set up.

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Michael Collins ("Greybeard") and I are in the 2012 EC with a Core Sound 20. It will be our 6th together and the third in the Core Sound. We carry two oars, a yuloh, and a long canoe paddle. We find that it is easier on long pulls to have one of us on each oar' In the North Carolina Challenge we got good use of the yuloh (pivoted in san oarlock on the transom) because that person could see ahead and steer. For checkpoint one, the yuloh and paddle were enough.

I made some fairly simple cradles that fit in the mast sockets for trailering and for checkpoint one. There is a little sand beach on the right just before the first bridge going into checkpoint 2. We take down the masts there.

As usual, Alan is spot on. He has always finished ahead of us ;-)

Doug

"Ridgerunner"

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I"m just doing the UM.. It will also save me a little money on buying a drysuit and couple of other things I thought I would need for the longer version of the race. I have had two offers for prospective partners from other racers. (Sandbagger & Meatloaf if anyone knows anything about them).

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  • 3 weeks later...

I too decided I didn't have the time for a full EC this year and dropped back to the UM. Now we've got a 2-boat CS-17 class for the UM, so that's cool.

Alan has it correct that the UM will be a great first learning experience for this kind of challenge. If you're like me in the EC last year, you'll have figured out dozens of things you'd do differently next time.

Last year a couple of us kept regular radio skeds every even hour. All who participated found it to be a lot fun and that it kept the comraderie of the launch beach going a little longer. Let me know if you want to join us and I'll give you the details. I know it will be at the top of every even hour, probably channel 71.

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Joining you sounds good! We where out in the boat today with a total of 4 adults going to Cumberland Island. The Anderson Large Bailer B&B sent me worked like a charm once we got any kind of speed going, at one point it was like a vacuum in the bottom of the boat.

The bad was discovering it worse weather with some decent waves in the sound that having 4 adults onboard a CS17 really sucks. It made the boat wallow a little bit, our speed wasn't as great as 3 people would make it go, and it was harder to tell when I was over powering sails for the wind angle due to all the weight.

That said the 3M 5200 I coating inside corner of my centerboard with did not fix the pinhole leak near the bottom from the board damaging the side (was partially down when untrailering). At this point when epoxy arrives from B&B I'm going to carefull cut out a 1/4" groove where the plywood attached to centertrunk post and install thickned epoxy with lots of tape over it, this should strengthen and reinforce.

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I have the same question on boarding ladders. After 4 years with 'Lively" CS 17 having no boarding ladder, I have decided to add one.

Anybody out there have a suggested product or home built ladder? The two I have come up with are: http://www.garelick.com/product.php?pnumber=19612 or http://www.garelick.com/product.php?pnumber=19513

but I am worried that both stick out too far and will interfer with the rudder.

Please help both of us find or build something from your ideas.

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Joining you sounds good! We where out in the boat today with a total of 4 adults going to Cumberland Island. The Anderson Large Bailer B&B sent me worked like a charm once we got any kind of speed going, at one point it was like a vacuum in the bottom of the boat.

The bad was discovering it worse weather with some decent waves in the sound that having 4 adults onboard a CS17 really sucks. It made the boat wallow a little bit, our speed wasn't as great as 3 people would make it go, and it was harder to tell when I was over powering sails for the wind angle due to all the weight.

I've only briefly sailed three-up on my boat and usually single-hand. These boats are pretty sticky in light airs. I can't see where adding a couple more people would help. I'll be paying attention to my load out for the UM to try to keep the boat as light as possible given the gear requirements. Where this really comes into play is getting off the beach. It's going to be just about dead low tide when we launch which means a longer drag to the water. Here's a hint: set up on a steep part of the beach so you can use the help of Mr. Gravity to get the water.

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Thanks Mike for your input. It looks like it would work. However, in my sailboat which would probably be blown backward because of the centered mizzen, I would be a little concerned about the solid wood that would act as a brake on one side of the boat. Upon further research, I think I am going to order the Garelick Stainless Steel Transom Ladder Step #19612. It sells for around $50 and I think will do the job nicely.

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Here is a very interesting response I received from a member of the West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron WCTSS here in Florida. It makes a great deal of sense to me.

"I recommend an approach used by some small-boat sailors in the UK. Get a pair of cheap, light composite ("plastic") equestrian stirrups (I bought them online from a site here in FL for $20). Put them on lanyards. Tie the lanyards off on the p&s sides of the boat -- to shroud chainplates if you have a stayed rig, or perhaps to something sturdy under the side deck. As Eric points out, the lanyard should be reachable by the person in the water. For lack of a more outboard tie-off, tie the lanyard around the mast -- provided you can reach it from the water. Lanyard(s) should be adjusted to allow you to get a foot in the stirrup from the water while also letting you then get the other leg up and over the coaming. When not in use, the stirrups live very unobtrusively in the bottom of the cockpit -- but ready to be pulled or thrown overboard when needed. An additional benefit is that they can help you re-right the boat in the event of a capsize".

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Here is a very interesting response I received from a member of the West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron WCTSS here in Florida. It makes a great deal of sense to me.

"I recommend an approach used by some small-boat sailors in the UK. Get a pair of cheap, light composite ("plastic") equestrian stirrups (I bought them online from a site here in FL for $20). Put them on lanyards. Tie the lanyards off on the p&s sides of the boat -- to shroud chainplates if you have a stayed rig, or perhaps to something sturdy under the side deck. As Eric points out, the lanyard should be reachable by the person in the water. For lack of a more outboard tie-off, tie the lanyard around the mast -- provided you can reach it from the water. Lanyard(s) should be adjusted to allow you to get a foot in the stirrup from the water while also letting you then get the other leg up and over the coaming. When not in use, the stirrups live very unobtrusively in the bottom of the cockpit -- but ready to be pulled or thrown overboard when needed. An additional benefit is that they can help you re-right the boat in the event of a capsize".

I've used something similiar for jumping and swimming while sailing on a C&C 25. For limber youth it really wasn't a problem, with my wife trying it on the STMYC Houseboat it didn't work nearly as well, with less surface below the water the rope tends to go underneath the boat taking the man overboard with it. I'm going to use the two plywood aproach that folds down with rope hinges and call it good!

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Stirrups are a nice solution from an easy stowage point of view, but a lot of people find them hard to use for boarding a shallow draft boat like the CS. Without a deep hull to press off against, the stirrups tend to swing up under the boat as Edward mentioned, causing you to fall backward or flail awkwardly, rather than having a nice stable footing that lets you step up conveniently the way a good rigid ladder allows.

I gave a lot of thought to commercial boarding ladders, but we can't put a ladder on our CS transom or we won't fit in the garage anymore. We literally only have about 1 inch of clearance from the door with the transom pressed snugly against the rear wall (and the rudder removed, of course). So, after a lot of pondering, I came up with a ladder idea that I haven't yet tried to build... What I'm thinking of is a rigid vertical wooden post (maybe made from 2 x 2) with little wedge-shaped blocks glued-and-screwed on either side in an alternating pattern every 8" or so (to serve as steps to place one's feet... probably only 4 steps would be needed). I'd make it about 38" tall, which would put about 24" of ladder height under the water, and at the top I'll install a heavy duty stainless bolt that is sized to fit the oarlocks on my boat, as well as a small "standoff" where the lower part of the ladder would lean against the hull. To use the ladder, I'd just slip the bolt into the oarlock socket on either side of the boat, which should hold the ladder securely. Not sure if that's a good design idea or not, but it ought to come out fairly light and I suspect it would work fine. I thought I'd mention it since the topic of boarding ladders came up and someone might want to try making one.

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I was thinking something like this when I had the C25 since the transom ladder was usually tied up good. You can make one much cheaper.

I always carried something like this in my cave pack (in the good old days). It just hangs over the side until you open it.

Here is a very interesting response I received from a member of the West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron WCTSS here in Florida. It makes a great deal of sense to me.

"I recommend an approach used by some small-boat sailors in the UK. Get a pair of cheap, light composite ("plastic") equestrian stirrups (I bought them online from a site here in FL for $20). Put them on lanyards. Tie the lanyards off on the p&s sides of the boat -- to shroud chainplates if you have a stayed rig, or perhaps to something sturdy under the side deck. As Eric points out, the lanyard should be reachable by the person in the water. For lack of a more outboard tie-off, tie the lanyard around the mast -- provided you can reach it from the water. Lanyard(s) should be adjusted to allow you to get a foot in the stirrup from the water while also letting you then get the other leg up and over the coaming. When not in use, the stirrups live very unobtrusively in the bottom of the cockpit -- but ready to be pulled or thrown overboard when needed. An additional benefit is that they can help you re-right the boat in the event of a capsize".

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Two things:

1: I currently only have one set of reefpoints on sails due to sailmaker error. This should be fine for the race to be able to reduce to 60% of total working sail or less.. Any thoughts on this, does it meet the rules?

2: Dodger

Skip the very expensive sailrite kit. Go to your local canvas shop that does dodgers etc. They probably have some extra 1" or 7/8" stainless bows around that are to big for your boat and wrong size for anyone else's. I got given two stainless bows absolutely free yesterday.

Figure out required width and cut out middle section for the required size. Take say 6 inches of middle section cut a straight line down one side and use a vice clamp to bring together tighter. This will fit in between the two sections as an insert (saving $$$ that you would pay sailrite for similar), and use a rivet or two to hold together. Hardware can be ordered from Sailrite or cheaper at duckworks to attach to boat. Just use regular Sunbrella you don't need any expensive Seamark for this.

The local shop might have some odd vinyl glass to give you. Buyer beware it does have a lifespan that you can use it in, often several extra sheets that are tinted/smoked or something are sitting in a carton in the storeroom for the past couple of years and they will let them go cheap (expensive if they think you'll cough out full price).

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