Wrapped up

At last she is all derigged, on her own trailer, cleaned out and covered up for the Winter.

I have the engine partly striped down and hope to have the whole thing out shortly. We're not sure if we will tow her home this year or not as I have a bit more work to do on the trailer and the shed I want to put her in needs work as well but either way she is not too badly off now. 

Trailer

I got a few phone calls last week putting the pressure on to get the trailer built so I put in a hard week to get it done. I tacked it all together in my shed but I don't have a heavy enough power supply in there to use the bigger welder I borrowed to do the big welds, so had to move it for the final welding , I used 7018 low hydrogen rods which were recommended to me.
The beams are 16' long 8"x 4" RSJ's with 6.5ft 6" channel irons running across, The uprights are 2inch galvanised pipe with Screw jacks to tighten up to the hull, The axle is a front lorry axle off an old Hino. I bought a weld on tow eye for the tow bar. The ballast sits on the axle and the 9" block of wood forward of it to keep her level.
Nothing went easy, I searched the boatyard for wheels to fit the axle they had given me but only found one. A local tire center happened to have another one to suit following a long wait. Next I spent 6 hours in the rain trying to free the brake drums on the axle up (murder) and ended up sick. Next the trip switch in my other shed wasn't big enough for the welder so had to go and replace that and then go by a pin type towbar for my jeep to tow it to the boatyard. Regardless it got there and on time, where it sat for the last week.
    I went to lift the boat yesterday but it didn't happen but today it did. We got the mast down and lifted the boat on to the trailer. I then had to weld on all the struts to hold her up. Of course my welder instantly packed up but they lend me another one. It was dark at that stage so couldn't get a picture but she looks tidy on the trailer and fits nicely as I had planned. They moved her out of the way on it so it also works :) I don't want to make one that heavy again !!

Teals sister

This is a picture I found online of Teals sister ship Water Wraith, Built from the same moulds but with a counterstern, I wonder if the counterstern and bermudan main were a later addition.

Teal for comparison 

Trailer

I finally got the trailer mocked up today. It shouldn't take long to get it all welded up.

We went to change Teals head gasket during September but one of the head studs had seized into the head and we failed to get the head off. We have decided to scrap the Petter engine and get something more powerful now. We were going to sail up the river when wind and tide suited but as it happened the time had come for me to put away the charter boat so I picked Teal up on the way and we towed her up to the boatyard where she is waiting to be lifted. Hopefully straight on to the trailer.

Sorry my phone camera is rubbish.

Bit of unwanted publicity

Well this was an interesting week, I was on a shark fishing charter for the day on Monday and meeting family and friends on Cape Clear on Monday night for a few days R&R. So after a long haul back in I headed off to Baltimore to get on board Teal and motor/sail to Cape.
It was a westerly force 3/4 and I was on my own so I planned to just put up the main to help her along and motor out the 7nm to North harbour.
About 4nm and out in the chop in Roaringwaterbay I notice she was getting quite smokey. At first I thought she might be working a little harder than she had been and was burning off some of the oil used in the plungers to start her in cold weather but as we proceeded it was becoming apparent that another head-gasket had failed.
She started to splutter soon after and seemed like it might cut out. I gave Ken, who was already on Cape to have a look around for anyone with a RIB or similar to maybe bring him out so we could sail or at least stand by me in case she died.
It was nearly 9pm with a headwind and the relatively strong tide soon to go against the wind so I didn't fancy my chances at sailing her single handed the rest of the way or making to any safe-haven downwind before dark.
When that failed I put in a call to the coastguard to maybe have the Schull ILB stand by me.
Straight any they tasked the Baltimore all weather lifeboat which was on exercise just around the corner. A little overkill but I was happy to have the company.
As it happened we plodded away under our own steam for the last 2 miles or so. The engine did indeed die out when I throttled it back out side the harbour and at first refused to restart. It eventually did and motored right in alongside the pontoon 'escorted by a massive lifeboat and its inflatable sidekick". Its one way to enter a quite little harbour late in the evening with the pub clientele looking on.
Now we are on facebook and the front page of this weeks paper. Slightly making a mountain out of a molehill but I know the more publicity the better for a great organisation who we are lucky to have and I was glad to see !


As for the rest of the trip, that was great, I opted to send my wife and kids back on the ferry and Ken and myself had a brilliant sail in beautiful weather with Teal at her best all the way back and on to the mooring. I was happy to leave very pleased with her, Great boat "stupid engine".

Gaskets are on the way to finish out the season and then the Petter will probably go over the side.....

1st sail of the season

It was the latest start we've had to our sailing season but better late than never.
The weather has been beautiful for the past few weeks so as soon as we got the chance we
made a point of getting out for a sail.
We were happy to be able to get off the mooring at low tide with plenty of water to spare.
The kids were all at school so we had just about enough time for a leisurely sail around Sherkin Island and through Gascannane sound.
We had an unusual visitor between Sherkin and Heir Island. He was still clinging to the shroud when we left the boat.

An Emperor Dragonfly, New to Ireland apparently and rarely comes to rest,  

Better late than never

So after watching the Ilen launch we figured nothing else was happening that day and the only way we would get launched was to hang around all week. The next day didn't look anymore promising and when we arrived on Friday the scrappers were cutting up the crane !

We had only planned on sailing the Sunday of the Baltimore wooden boat festival this year because I had a charter on Saturday and couldn't take the day off, but the chances of having Teal in were getting slim. A few phone calls on Saturday morning raised hopes, so we formulated a plan and had our registration penciled in. Another phone call and that was that, boatless for the boat festival.

We headed down to join in in the evening anyway and got tickets for the skipper & crews meal where curiously we were given a table, but not chairs ! Well what could we expect when we showed up without a boat. Few pints and all was well.

On the plus side I managed to get Teals mooring sorted out so now she has enough water to keep her off the bottom on spring tides and then this morning Teal at last went afloat. We headed straight down and took her down the river and back to the mooring. She didn't appear to be taking any water considering we have had lovely warm weather for the past couple of weeks and everything went fine.

Maintenance was keep to a minimum this year with the plan to trailer her home next Winter. The biggest issue we had to deal with was the fact we pulled down the halyards as the mast was meant to come down this Winter but as that never happened I had to make my way up to the masthead to feed them back through. That was ok as far up as the spreaders but a bit more nerve racking above that as my safety ropes being the throat and peak halyards were both below me. We also had an issue with the spreaders. I had noticed some black under the varnish last time they were down which has now turned into a hole of rot. For now I have shaped a piece of Iroko 3ft long and glued and bolted it across the effected area so it will last the season but new spreaders are a must.

Patch for spreaders

She always opens up a little on these few seams so a bit of soft putty helps her along 

Ready but trapped

Time for bit of an update, Baltimore wooden boat festival is on this weekend, Teal, along with quite a few others are still high and dry waiting for their turn at the boatyard so the aim of the game at the moment is hang around and grab the opportunity to launch when we get one.
We were rewarded today with the long awaited launch of the A.K Ilen which has been in Hegarty's being rebuilt for the past 20 years. For the entirety of Teals restoration the Ilen remained almost untouched as a completely reframed skeleton but since then she has turned into a beautiful ship.
I wouldn't want to be involved with loading the ballast though.

The hunter, Hunted 

Change of plan

Picture borrowed from facebook, Taken by Petre Riemers. Only one of her with the topsail

OK so we have come up with another plan which does not involve selling her.
I am going to build a tractor trailer capable of bringing her to my house.
There is plenty of room in my shed but I need to open up a doorway in the gable
which will be high enough to back her in.
There is a crane from time to time at Union hall pier so I am going to look in to the idea
of lifting her out there. We also need to locate our missing mooring which I failed to find last Summer and once that is done the plan is just to scale back our sailing ambitions to occasional day sailing and little over nighters in the hope that sooner or later, time off  and good weather coincide
whether it be this season or in a year or two and we can take her further a field.
What are we gaining ?
Well she would be indoors all Winter.
She will be outside my front door and under the same roof as the workshop.
We won't need to worry about getting round to Baltimore and up river etc come the end of the season.
If we really want to she could be mothballed for a season (the pitch pine shrinks very little)
and all the while the kids are getting older and what we can do changes.
We have spent a lot of money and the hard work is done.
So hopefully this will work out.