So you want to try the ICW?
or
What to do for your winter vacation!
Bob Bierly
5/15/2005
Hull #255
In the February 2005 Mainsheet, Earle Ellefsen, our C380 Commodore was pondering how to prepare for an 8-month trip down the eastern seaboard from New England to Florida and the Bahamas or beyond. Although not having all the answers, my comments will be from the perspective of having made the major part of that trip twice in CMON WIND, our C380 hull #255. Although many pros have written extensively on the subject of an ICW trip, I will offer only my unique perspective and focus on the use of the C380 as a suitable vessel and home. I will use Earle’s rhetorical questions to direct my thoughts into various subjects that all should ponder before embarking. All of this is offered in the sure knowledge that your first trip down
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Northbound from Trinidad
Jim & Sue Seemann
5/15/2005
Hull #1
Sue and I flew back to Trinidad on Jan 10, 2005, to re-launch our boat (PipeDream) and begin our 2,000 mile voyage back to Florida. Here is our first installment on our northbound trip.
Trinidad (Jan 10 to Feb 5) is a beautiful and prosperous tropical island located about 25 miles off the coast of South America and near the eastern border of Venezuela. The island is 10 degrees north of the
equator and consequently enjoys a lush tropical climate with expansive rain forests, endless varieties of tropical plants and animals, and an annual celebration known as “Carnival”. We stayed in Chaguaramas,
Trinidad for three weeks and enjoyed the island amenities while preparing and provisioning PipeDream for the voyage north.
The first leg of our trip (Feb 6 to 11) took us 88 miles north to Grenada. What a contrast!!!
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Caretta Surfs to a 2nd in the 30th Annual Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race
Steve Dublin
Date: 5/15/2005
Hull #: 86
Caretta is a seven year old C-380 with the Z-Spar tall rig and the deeper version of the wing keel. We’ve owned her for about 3 years. We bought Caretta to use primarily for weekend day sails and summer cruises in the Bahamas. But as they say; “He goes among the fever stricken…..” After a few too many rum & cokes, following a win in the “Mother Tub” fleet during Abaco Race Week, we decided to enter Caretta in the next Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race. The sailing instructions for the 30th Annual Key West race required all boats to stay offshore of the reefs that separate Hawke Channel from the Keys. Too many racers had foundered on these reefs at night while trying to duck into
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Cruise The Bahamas in a Catalina 380!!
Tom Lincoln
5/15/2005
Hull #1
Some of you might think the 380 is marginal for such a task. Some might think it is necessary to have that heavy-duty ocean tested offshore double-ended battle ship of a cruiser. Put that notion aside. My wife Barb and I have been cruising our C-380 for three years. We departed Lake Erie and navigated the ICW and then jumped off to the Bahamas for the winter months. The C-380 has proven to be up to the task.
Our background in sailing is probably like most weekend sailors. We have been sailing since 1970 in small boats. We started with day sailors that we sailed close to our hometown, Fort Thomas in Northern
Kentucky, a Suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. We sailed on small lakes and the Ohio River. As members of Brookville Lake Sailing Association, we learned the
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At the August east coast Catalina Rendezvous, Richard Mastry of Mastry Engine Center spoke on related topics. Mastry is the Yanmar engine supplier to Catalina for our later C380s, C387s and C390s. I spoke with him after his talk. and again, at some length, on the phone a few weeks later. I concentrated my queries on props and RPM’s, as our Sailnet list discussions have been pretty heavy on this subject. Here’s his comments.
New Engine
First, Mr. Mastry spoke about the new Yanmar 3JH4xx engine, delivered for C387’s beginning about hull # 60. The major changes include larger diameter cylinders, lower working RPMs and some user-friendly upgrades including rearranging the salt water pump for ease of impeller and/or pump change. The transmission reduction gear has also been changed to 2.33 ratio, so that the shaft RPM’s will be closer to that of
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Our Commodore, Earle Ellefsen [C380 #271, Valkyrie], discovered chafe near one end of his mainsail furling line. He decided to turn the line end-for-end, and remove the chafed area as there was excess line length. The key step in accomplishing this was to remove the bolt, which locks-in the furling line, near the bottom of the furler. Of course, an “opportunity” soon arose when Earle realized that the bolt was Stainless Steel in an aluminum furler and, with a few years of salt-water environment, was thoroughly corroded in-place. Many shots of WD-40 later, nothing had changed! Early attempts at removal quickly resulted in losing the slot– or, as Earle put it: “it torqued open”. Obviously the bolt should have had a more substantial gripping head.
Once the slot was destroyed, heavy locking pliers are the obvious choice, right? Wrong– their
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After another great weekend of sailing, snorkeling, barbequing, and general partying at Emerald Bay at Catalina Island, getting ready to go home is a drag. We start the routine around 11:30, to wait for the predictable San Pedro Channel trade winds to fill in. First, we retrieve and put away the flopper stopper, then I stow the Honda generator, and the eight horse Yamaha, haul the kayaks aboard, and uncover the main. Last but not least is the dinghy.
I used to tow my 10 foot inflatable Quicksilver and take care of it when I got to home port. But I didn’t like the effect it had on my sailing performance. I hauled it aboard and laid it on the foredeck a few times, but up there it gets in the way and is a
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Affordable Cordless Drill as Winch Driver
Roger Cheney
2/1/2005 Hull #: 132
Faithful readers of this column [others are to be pitied!] may recall an earlier brief article [May ’03] in which Wallace Shakun [Morning Star, C380 #12] proposed using a heavy-duty cordless drill to drive winches. He put the idea into practice using a straight-drive 1/2″ Bosch drill together with an adapter “bit”, which he developed, that mates a standard 1/2″ chuck with our winch drive socket.
The idea sounded good to me, except that I felt a right-angle drill would provide an easier way to resist the high torques developed [about 500 inch-pounds]. Wallace indicated that the straight-drive version worked well, but that he was also considering the right-angle approach.
Milwaukee now has a hefty right-angle drill, which develops a “bit” more torque, and which costs somewhat more [$300 vs $200]. Roger Cheney [C380 #132, “2nd Wind”] has
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There’s been quite a lot of discussion on our email list concerning operating problems with our windlasses. These are principally the clutch not releasing, jamming when rope/chain splices transit the chainwheel with the “Freedom” version and failure/stalling of the unit.
To release “stuck” clutches, some captains have had to undertake some severe hammer work, as advised by Maxwell. The answer here seems to be proper maintenance, with at least annual cleaning and greasing required. The rope/chain splice problem is best minimized by having a good, professional “thin” splice made up. Some captains report that pulling the anchor line during the critical splice transit helps. A great way around both of these issues is to go to an all chain rode and add a down switch. This way, there is no splice to jam, and the clutch never needs adjusting, just leave it
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Companionway Door Options Author:Warren Elliott 8/1/2005 Hull #: 44
Mainsheet August 2005
Hi C380+ Captains, Admirals and Crews–
Here in the N.E,. thankfully, the new season is in full swing, with nice warm temps and some fair winds. Trust you’re all enjoying sailing. But, if anything is preventing your getting-out-there boat-wise, please contact me or sign into our Sailnet.com email discussion list where there’s a lot of captains ready to help.
This Mainsheet issue is devoted to four companionway treatments, most of which are “doors”. I must confess that I received much of the info a couple of years ago, so some of it is a bit dated, but still applicable. My apologies to the four captains, who may have expected to see their handiwork “somewhat” earlier. The first article is a fairly detailed one from Tom and Barbara Lincoln, who were sailing in the Bahamas. Lately, they are “sailing”
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