olivepage

2008-06-23T22:33:00.000+01:00

At Last

2008-06-23T21:34:00.002+01:00

Finally rigged the mizzen sheets and set up the topping lifts on both masts and so off to sea.

It was somewhat lumpier than I had been expecting after a long run of Northerly winds and the gaffs were a bit unruly as they were hoisted. The power winches worked well though the main peak halliard was a bit too long and didn't flatten the mainsail as much as it should.

But she actually sailed, not too fast but definite progress under sail.

It became clear that she needs the big headsail as the weather helm was taking any speed off the boat, which was a pity as I hadn't rigged the foremost stay. Thats all completed now and all we need is for the rain and gales to go away and we will have the rest of the year to go somewhere.

Some discussion about where to go for the summer cruise. I favour South she favours North. So no doubt we will split the difference - and go North. Must admit I would like to anchor at Holy island again.

Slow Progress

2008-04-17T17:28:00.003+01:00

Afraid work has taken rather too much time to progress Olive for some time.Made some headway with electrics and installed a couple of extra lights so now its easy to read in the bunks.

Olive is out of the water at the moment and we intend to get the hull polished and antifouled next week. We did try to get someone to do the antifouling for us to save time but the estimate was £900 which was a bit too much for us - so its brushes and rollers to the fore.

Something of a performance having the old girl lifted, The boat lift has one fixed cross member and one moving cross member. Normally with a sloop you drop the backstay and reverse into the dock. But with Olive being a ketch that wasn't going to work so some debate about removing forestays and going in ahead. After measuring and a bit of head scratching the tabernacle was judged substantial enough and we went in ahead - with no problems. Getting out astern may be another story, but we shall see.

Some days things just don't work out

2007-09-10T20:59:00.000+01:00

In amongst all the work we have had the occasional trip out just to keep our hands in.

Sadly the last trip wasn't an outstanding success, as the picture shows. We set off in a roughly northerly direction and about 4 miles NE of the Tyne, the engine failed. There was a strong off shore wind and we were drifting in the general direction of Holland, and towards the main channel into the Tyne.

I'm no diesel engineer and the brute didn't seem inclined to re-start so I called Humber Coastguard, who in turn called Cullercoats Lifeboat.

Its all been said about the RNLI and the Cullercoats guys were top notch and hence the photograph thanks to tyneships.co.uk, and of course many thanks to RNLI Cullercoats.

On the refit front the electric winches are all installed and working and make life much easier. I used the ones on the mizzen mast to enable me to fit the radar scanner. So now we are fully equipped with radar, which on first sight seems a very capable little set - a JRC 1500.

Next on the to do list is the stern cabin and we are waiting for the estimate from ABC for the changes and that more or less completes the job.

And then we can go sailing!

2007-09-10T20:56:00.000+01:00

Work Continues

2007-08-20T20:00:00.000+01:00

Despite the rotten weather the work has continued to get Olive fully fitted out.
The bow thruster is now fully wired up and working.
The Helmsmans seat is in place. The winches to operate the gaffs are all built up and ready to bolt to the tabernacle.

Once the winches are done I can fit the radar and another battery or two and we're there.

We even found time for a little trip out to sea. The weather was nasty, lots of rain but in a nice warm wheelhouse you don't really care about the rain.

Oh the smugness of a motor-sailor.

Also went to Sunderland airshow at the end of July - anchored up in about 10 metres of water. The Danforth anchor held absolutely solid, which is good. What is less good is pulling about 40 metres of 10mm chain and a 60lb anchor up with a manual windlass - hard work.

So I think we need to budget for an electric model for next year.

It never ends with a boat - always something to spend money on.

2007-07-09T16:24:00.000+01:00

http://www.smallboatclub.org.uk/

2007-06-24T11:18:00.000+01:00

Google

2007-06-23T23:46:00.000+01:00

Google

Starting to come together

2007-06-23T23:29:00.000+01:00

Now we have the boat at home in Royal Quays I can start to make some progress in the installation and upgrades.

I have fitted 2 new batteries to replace the ones we lost. I will be fitting another 2 later when we have finished the rest of the electrical work. The Shorepower installation is to shift to make room for the conversion of the stern cabin and at the same time I am going to install a split charging system and a charge controller.

I have installed the new fresh water system using flexible tanks under the floors. I had some problems with the piping. I bought 38 mm pipe from 2 different suppiers. One supplier's pipe was too big for the fittings, the other supplier's was too small.
So had leak problems.

After the horrible foggy trip from Amble I have bought a JRC 1500 radar so that will be to fit soon as well. Its going on the mizzen mast and the control box will sit above the helm position.

Lots of other stuff to do including fitting the helmsman's seat but things are coming together.

2007-06-10T12:09:00.000+01:00

FOG!

2007-06-10T11:31:00.000+01:00

Picked Olive up from ABC, despite the delay they have done a really good job for us, so happy at last.

The down side was that the power had been left on so all the batteries were knackered, four of them, and not a volt between them.

Somehow in going flat they had taken out the ignition fuse - which we found when we tried to start the engine to drive off the boat lift.

The end game was we spend an extra day at Amble marina (worth a visit if you are coming this way)

Forecast for coming back to the Tyne was for patchy fog. We left a 20.00hrs in a patch that went all the way to Tynemouth! Unfortunately I'd forgotten to pack the power unit for my laptop and didn't have a working chart plotter so we had to go into the Tyne on a GPS bearing of the latitude of the North Pier. The fog horn was going and certainly helped put us in the right place. The sea reach was very thick in fog and we couldn't see from one buoy to the next. Afrain we wandered around a bit between the two greens we wanted to take us into the river proper. But it all turned out all right in the end.

Todays job is to order a radar!

More frustration

2007-05-17T09:17:00.000+01:00

Will I ever get to sail my boat?

Spoke to ABC yesterday and find they have not really started on the jobs. They have apparently removed the mizzen and its tabernacle - and thats it.

I have been given a firm date of 5th June for completion. Hope they hit that.

I found a picture on TyneShips.co.uk web site of Olive on her delivery trip coming towards the Tyne entrance.

It shows her complete with bowsprit, davitts and a big pile of fenders and other junk on the aft cabin roof. Its a good site for anyone interested in ships, boats and the sea.

2007-04-15T21:11:00.000+01:00

Been doing lots of jobs on Olive, all the stuff I should have done last year if I hadn't been abroad.

We're converting the aft cabin to a double. Started by taking out the water tank that caused all the problems on the delivery trip. We've replaced it with 2 flexible tanks under the berths. Gives us more room in the cabin and greater capacity.

I managed to get the generator going, its a single cylinder diesel, hellishly noisey and still a bit reluctant to start, hoping an oil change and a bit of work will sort it. Throw in a new cooker and we're well on the way.

We took Olive up to Amble last week,to Amble Boat Company, where she's having the nasty bit of wood in the back of the wheelhous replaced, together with some windows and also having a bowthruster fitted.

Over the winter we played about with the rigging, now Olive has 3 forestays and a pair of running backstays. The idea being to keep the topmast but do it without the bowsprit. We now need to see how all the headsails fit, probably mean a bit of recutting, but such is life.

It means she will stay as a ketch and not become a schooner, pity really, I always fancied a schooner.

2006-12-15T18:34:00.000Z

At last I'm back in the UK and looking forward to seeing Olive again.

Just though I'd put in this picture in to remind me of what its like being warm - England in December seems a bit dismal after 40C temperatures.

Looking forward to getting some of the planned work don on Olive - Bow thruster, radar, SSB, new water tanks and electric winches on the gaffs.

2006-07-07T15:17:00.000+01:00

Olive at Melton

2006-07-07T15:05:00.000+01:00

Measuring

2006-07-07T14:31:00.000+01:00

Although by design Olive is a CW 34 when fitted with her bowsprit and davitts she measures something like 44ft LOA. Sinec our previous boat was only 31 ft this represents a considerable increase in mooring cost.

So bowsprit and davits had to go

The davits were easy and we will refit them for any use more than day sailing.

The bowprit was another matter

Its about 10ft long as thick as a young tree trunk - in fact it is a young tree trunk. However we managed it. Being without bowsprit means that the topmast (sailors of Bermudian rig shoul pass over this bit) is not fully stayed.

So that will have to go next.

Not quite as drastic as it may seem - I will only lose 2 of the seven available sails, although the mizzen topsail is unlikely to see much use.

Thinking about it since the mizzen mast is longer than the mainmast I guess it will become the main and what was the main will become a foremast.

So I will have a gaff rigged schooner.

Which is unusual, I doubt there are many CW34s that are rigged like that

Will it work?

I'll let you know.

But at least I've got the LOA down to 10.9 m which saves me best part of £500 a year mooring fees.

olivepage

2006-07-06T22:18:00.000+01:00

We parked the van in Melton boatyard and asked again how so much stuff (and 3 people) could fit into one boat.

We barrowed about a thousand loads and spread stuff all around the saloon and wheelhouse. Eventually everything seemed to find a home and there was actually room to spare.

After a nights sleep and final checks we watched the tide in the River Deben rise until there was enough depth to float Olive into the channel.

The Deben is said to be well buoyed and mostly it is. There are however lengths with no buoys at all which cause some some consternation. The area of moorings around Felixstowe Ferry particularly seemed down to guesswork, but we worked our way to the sea reach.

The sea reach is a sort of horizontal waterfall and if you are late on the tide like we were its a bit of a torrent. Julie is adamant that we touched bottom near the red buoy. But all turned out well and we headed South for Shotley Point to top up with Diesel and water. After a long and slightly traumatic day we decided to stay the night.

An early start and off we went headed for theRiver Tyne. A cuppa seemed a good idea so Julie headed for the galley while daughter Ann and I navigated across the Felixstowe channel. This is where the story really starts.

The water from the tank was rust coloured.

We did have some water in bottles and after a bit of a debate decided to head into Lowestoft for water. If you want a bit of a laugh try jumping into a taxi in Lowestoft and asking for somewhere that sells water containers! Eventually we found some 5 gallon containers at Argos of all places and again set off in a Northerly direction.

I set 1800 rpm on the dial and that gave us about 6.5 knots on the log. Darkness fell soon after leaving and we motored past the Scroby sands windfarm in the dark with the eerie sight of the huge mills looming to starboard and the distant lights of the Norfolk coast to port.

Navigation was from buoy to buoy to the Haisborough Sands, from there we were to go through the inner Dowsing channel and into Grimsby to refuel. Around Haisborough I started doing lots of hard sums about Diesel. I was becoming less and less confident of reaching Grimsby. After much consultation with the almanac and charts we decided to head for Wells next the Sea to refuel.

We arrived early on the tide and decided to have a bit of a drift for a couple of hours. Eventually the harbourmaster answered the VHF and led us into the harbour, which was just as well because there was not much water under the keel in places. Although we were only there for an hour or so we really liked Wells. The harbourmaster was helpful, the harbour pretty and the channel not quite as bad as it looked. In fact as we came out a large sailing vessel, the Albatros, came in.

After being rather alarmed at the fuel consumption I decided to slow down a bit and set the engine to 1200 rpm giving about 5.3 knots. By this time I was very tired and gave Ann and Julie a course for the inner Dowsing light and turned in for some sleep.

It was than that the Autohelm died.

I tried to mend it but it seemed determined to stay dead. Funnily enough I had the new autohelm on board but I didn't fancy fitting it in those conditions so it was hand steering from then on.

Ann wanted to go the Hull, Julie was keen on Bridlington so I compromised and said we would head for Grimsby.

As we approached the Humber we seemed to still have a full tank so I relented and re-routed to Bridlington. HW was still hours away at 0930 the following morning and as we still had almost a full tank of Diesel we changed our destination to home in the Tyne, with diversions into Whitby or Hartlepool if necessary.

As dawn broke we were approaching Whitby and still had lots of Diesel so set a course direct for the Tyne. I was steering and Julie and Ann were asleep below as I headed North West with the coast barely visible to port. With the clearing of the morning mist the familiar marks of the North East coast appeard; Seaham, Sunderland Flats and then the harbour and finally Souter Lighthouse before the piers for the river Tyne. A quick call to Tyne Harbour Radio and we are in and tied up on the waiting pontoon at Royal Quays Marina.

Done it we're home!

olivepage

2006-07-06T20:55:00.000+01:00

Delivery Trip

2006-06-02T00:43:00.000+01:00

Spent most of today buying equipment for Olive. Her previous owner used her as a "country cottage" and she is a bit light on safety gear and sailing kit too.

She now boasts (or will do when delivered) a new liferaft and dinghy a danbuoy and life ring, and an auto extinguisher in the engine room.

For sailing she has a new auto helm from Raymarine, and a hand held VHF from Standard Horizon. I was going to buy a chart plotter but I have decided instead to use the Admiralty/RYA software on a laptop instead. This should mean that I can have a range of other stuff on the PC, particularly when I install my amateur radio gear and interface that to the PC. That will give me Weatherfax, Navtex and RTTY forecasts.

A few other cosmetic bits and pieces and a pilot seat on order complete the first phase of getting ready for sailing, (not to mention GBH of the bank balance).

At the moment Olive is in the care of Mel Skeet at Melton boat yard near Woodbridge having some bits of work done in preparation for her trip home to the River Tyne. We appear to have a problem with the propellor not allowing the engine to achieve full revs. It is going away to be re-pitched which shold help but I have a sort of feeling it will involve a new prop.

Looking forward to the trip now 250 miles up the North Sea should be a good introduction to a new boat.

2006-05-23T22:31:00.000+01:00

Olive Page

2006-05-23T22:18:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody

Olive Page is our Colvic Watson motor-sailor. She is unusual in that she has a gaff rig sail arrangement. This is usually regarded as being old fashioned but in a boat like Olive it has a number of advantages.

It is a simple low tech low stress rig. The masts and spars are made of wood so that in the unlikely event of a spar being broken a piece of tree and a power plane will soon create a replacement.

Olives other strong points are her accommodation and her lovely big 6 cylinder Perkins diesel engine.

Because we sail out of the river Tyne we need to be able to keep warm and Olive has a wonderful solid fuel stove in the saloon which keeps the whole boat warm so we can sail in comfort all year round.

2006-05-23T21:52:00.000+01:00

OLIVE PAGE