What a spring storm "Hi Niklas"

A nice storm, called Niklas, hit central Europe last weekend and keep half Europe quite occupied.

Well I was at Geronimo to finish the new bed for Chris and the cupboard in the aft cabin as the storm hit the coast. It was rubbish weather since the morning that for sure. It was blowing with a force 6 to 7, straight west. Geronimo was with her nose right in the wind. The was tugging at her lines, besides the coverage from the harbour. The rain was falling quite heavy but I was working below deck and a canvas cover was spread. As long as would stay below it was somehow comfortable.
I was completlye drained while I put everything on board. But luckily my father gave me hand.
I just had to give him a hand 2 times at his boat, which left me complete drained again. But I won´t complain, I know what was coming, or had had a slightly idea.
By the way I love my new "New Zeeland Shepard Hat", it fits on my head in a Force 7 and keeps my head dry.
Anyway it was somehow around 2 o´clock. I just gave my father a hand. I was cowered down to take a measure, as I heard the wind raising. "Nice" I thought and moments later I flew around, hit my knee and shoulder and said "What the f**k". I crawled up to the hatch to have a look at the wind gauge. Geronimo was heeling in 20° angle without any noteworthy stuff above deck.
The wind gauge showed 34kn decreasing, it turned slightly south. "Pretty bastard" I said and went on with my measurement.
Some minutes later my father showed up. "Have you seen that?" "Yepp, I flew around a little bit" I said. "We should grap our stuff and should heading home, there is more coming, have a look".
I took a look at the horizon, it was pitch black. "Agreed, give me 20min, you need a hand with your cover". "Nope I took it away before the blow came by" my father said. "See you in 20 min"
 So I started to pick up my tools, closed down all hatches. The wind gauge showed 38kn, straight west again. And I got coverage from the dyke / harbour.
So that storm gave me some trouble to get my tool box off, I can tell. As I closed down everything the rain was starting again. You know with a little bit of hail and the wind..... I was soaking wet, as I reached the car. And it seams that the wind was still raising.

You remember Peter? Well he tried to apply his Sprayhood on his boat. Don´t know how this ended.

We were heading home and Niklas was giving us some punches during the ride. And showed off over central Europe for 2 more days.

        

Spring is coming, time to get the boat ready

It seems that the spring is finally coming to town. And so this ichty feeling start in the fingers to get the boat ready.
So what´s up for this year.
1. Chris will get his own cabin, in connection to the main cabin. For this I already started to change the star board side of Geronimo. I closed the starboard hatch, removed the locker and started to build a new bed in connection to the main cabin. In the aft cabin will be the new storage for the sails.
 Well that´s nearly finished as you can see.

2. The Yellow Bitch....... well I throw her out. Well she runs fine, but the way to running is rather long. I couldn´t get a clue one why. She had been repaired, but man 1-2 min for starting and draining the batteries, no more. I could have spent more time on that, but there another point which leads to the decision to throw her out, horse power. You know the power was fine, but if you just wanted to punch through a tide or storm, she was running at her maximum. And if there was something on the prop, well she was having her time. So long story short result, her is the new one:

A Yanmar 1GM10 engine. Lovely don´t you think. But it cost some time to get it in.

3. Some small paint repairs on the deck.

That it will be for this spring. Quite a bit. I keep you posted.


  

Being there where nobody likes to be.......

I personal like to sail, when it is a little bit tougher out at the sea. I am not that adrenaline junkie who just need the kick. Personally I am fancy about the force mother nature can show and you know like any man I like to wrestle and fight with her. But I try always to have a certain respect to elements.
I am not that insane to drive out in a gale 8 to 9. But I have been outside when a gale hit me and the good shelter was out of reach. I have seen the North Sea after a gale 8 and expierenced the sea state after that. I smashed down with Geronimo in a wave where I thought I would have break her back. Well there are some stories.
Nevertheless my crew, Geronimo and I were always prepared. And I always like to have a plan B. You know if something breaks, I have somehow an idea how to handle that. Hopefully it works. ;-).

But what you do if plan B and C etc. doesn´t work and you are really in trouble. There are these brave men and women who are outside or come outside when nobody wanted to be there anymore. They save lifes.
Good material is necessary for that. Everybody tries to put the best equipment on her / his boat, the best cloths etc..
But these brave guys, who partly volunteer for that, need our help because most organisations are supported by fundraising.
I never thought about fundraising before, but through a project my brother in law started, I started to rethink , maybe also through the fact that I am now a father. Maybe through the fact I remembered the stories the father of my brother in law told me or I just getting old and settled....
I changed my mind.

So donate because they will give you a hand when you are out, where nobody else likes to be.... 

And it is a good project for next year :-)

The project from my brother in law:

https://www.justgiving.com/simonperks76/

The backstory:

http://simonperks.com/2014/10/17/a-new-project/

Or direct to your country Coast Guard or lifeboat station

German Coast Guard:

http://www.seenotretter.de/wie-sie-uns-helfen/

Netherlands Coast Guard:

https://www.kustwacht.nl/en

British Coast Guard:

http://rnli.org/howtosupportus/Pages/How-to-support-us.aspx

A Merry Christmas to you all

A Very Merry Christmas to you all. Let all seaman and ships be safe and sound.

Gear test: Jako-0 Softshell Overall

Well as you might have noticed this year a litte bit had changed, we sail or stay on board with an infant.

But as tall as Chris is for his age, he is still a baby, who needs some additional cloths. My wife Kathrin is responsible for this task. It took her some time, nobody could give her an advice, because none of our friends is sailing.
But after restless nights and lots of looking in catalogs she found something, that fulfill her high requirements. I am very proud of her first gear test.

Hi Kate speeking, mmmm writing. I am very satisfied with a Jako-O Softshell Overall. Our son is a small canonball, if you know what I am talking about. It is always a fight to get some cloaths on him. The overall is easy to put on through the big front entry with 2 zippers, especially out on sea. It seams that it is very comfortable, because he doesn´t cry, fight it off, what he normally does with some jackets, and he seems somehow relaxed. What I really like as a mother is the fact that he doesn´t get a cold back as usuall when he wears a jacket. I also like the fact that hood can be taken off, which is lovely on warmer days.
The only disadvantage of the overall is that it hasn´t any integrated socks and handshoes on it like the other overalls from Jako-O

Baby-Softshell-Overall JAKO-O 

(Order: 598463)

http://www.jako-o.de/produkte-baby-baby-mode-ab-gr-56-62-jacken-und-overalls-overalls-baby-softshell-overall-jako-o--598463.html?stat=598463

Gear test: Sound absorber

Through the fact that our "normal" sailing behaviour had changed, since we are parents, meaning motoring a little bit more, we decided that we will invest this year in engine room sound absorber.

There had been one, but I had rooten over the last couple of years and due the fact we just used the enginie to enter and exit the harbour there was no need. So I started to clean up the engine room, well actually getting rid of the old sound absorber.

After I cleaned up, I started with cutting new wood plates for the engine room, where I will fit the new sound absorber on. It took some time to get right fitting of the wood plates but finally I made it. Then I cut the new sound absorber, till I satified with my work.

And the result, you will ask. I used an app for my new smart phone to measure the sound pressure in dB(A). With the old sound absorber I was around 100 to 103 dB(A) now I am down to 85 to 89 dB(A).

Well after some testing with the App, I am quite sure that there is something wrong with it. My normal speech is around 90 dB(A). But I see it as a tendency.

After I fit the new sound absorber in, I made a test drive with Kathy and Chris, and Kathy said it quiten down. But we both think there is still some improvements to make. I will add some additionl plates to the wood plates to gain some weight, in order to get rid off the low frequencies.
http://www.svb.de/de/antidrohnplatte.html


So my personal test results:

• Handling during appling: perfect, (for cutting you just need a carpet knife and it is self adhesiv)
• Sound reduction: good
• Cleaningness: very good, through the aluminium tape on the surface. If you drop some oil you can easily wipe it away
• Looking: very good

http://www.svb.de/de/motorraum-dammplatten-495.html

Gear test: Variprofile

For quite a while (half a year), I drive around with the Variprofile and I really love it.

I have more power at the shaft, I accelerate and deaccelerate faster, I have a better speed at 3/4 Engine power ( 5 kn) and at full power (6- 6,5kn). The big advantage is that I can manover at the point. With the old fold propeller that wasn´t possible. I had to run the engine in full reverse that it infolds, quite a show, you can imagine.
Also it seam if you head up against the wind, it seam that Geronimo got much more strengh to punch through, which gives us quite a comfortable zone. 
At sail, it turns itself at a boat speed at 2kn in neutral and I can´t see any speed reduction through drag during sailing.

So the invest of the Variprofile is a defently full return of invest and I can really recommend that propeller.

 

 

http://www.spw-gmbh.de/de/