Red Lantern Rally 2016

July 9-10 was the 3rd annual Red Lantern Rally in beautiful Mystery Bay, WA.

We had 9 Scamps show up with an 10th showing up later in the day. I hope I have all the names correct.

1. Pumpkin Scamp (name unknown): Christian, Lizzie & Matilda
2. New boat (name unknown): David & Vicki
3. PT Puffin: me
4. Scamp #1: Josh
5. Gig Harbor boat with green stripe: Falk
6. Gig Harbor white boat: Bob
7. Serenity: Sergei
8. Skol: Terry
9. Noddy: Simeon
10. Tor: Mike

One thing I love about the Scamps is that we always see a new boat. Last year, we had Dan's boat launch for the first time. This year, we had Dave launch his beautiful new boat. It's great to see the new boats get launched.

LtoR: Pumpkin Scamp, new boat, PT Puffin, Scamp, Gig Harbor boat, Bob's GH boat 

LtoR: same as above but now with Serenity (Sergei).

The same order with Skol out at anchor and Noddy on the dock

Most boats had arrived by 10:00AM per Simeon's recommendation to get there before the tide got too low.
The wind in the morning was gusty to probably about 20mph. We all reefed in as far as possible and went out for a thrilling sail. I do feel bad for the new launchers. I'm still nervous in a 20mph wind.
Sergei was gracious enough to take out Dave and Vicki and show them the ropes. Simeon helped Christian rig his sail and Falk was kind enough to help Christian and Lizzie when they were under oars and having trouble with the winds.

I rushed to get the Puffin the water and violated most of my own rules for safe sailing. Firstly, I had forgotten to rig up my tiller clutch line. So when I noticed I had a reef line wrapped around my boom, I had to fix the tiller clutch before I could unwrap the line. It was then I realized that I hadn't even put on my PFD, something I always insist on before I ever leave the dock.
I was also unhappy with the fiddle block on my downhaul. I was a bit worried about it being too skewed and indeed the block was a bit twisted and not working like I wanted it. I decided that I did indeed need the double block that I had originally wanted.
I had to fix all the above problems on the water under a gusty 20mph wind. I need to work on my discipline and mental checklist. Make sure everything is correct before I actually set out.

The afternoon was very calm. I didn't get out on the water as I was too busy chatting with other builders.
After a nice dinner with Bruce, Josh and Sergei, I stayed the evening in the PT Puffin tied to the dock.

Sunday morning we were becalmed so we all packed up and left before the tide got too low. I got to stop by Skip and Melissa's wonderful Port Ludlow estate and see their scamp-in-progress.

I think everyone had a good time; I certainly did. Thanks to Josh for organizing.

TODO list:

1. build some oarlock reinforcers (blogpost in progress)
2. build some oars
3. get a new tent built
4. Put my battery in a waterproof pelican case
5. consider fixed ballast as I'm light right now
6. sail even more this summer

Soft shackle follow up

I found some grey 1/8" Dyneema single braid. This is much more suitable for soft shackles than the 1/4".

I made a fid from a metal rod that I had laying around and worked up a few soft shackles.

Top to bottom: better 8", better 5", better 5", normal 5"

 In the above picture you can just see the vise marks where I clamped down and pulled the knot tight. I did it twice, once from the tails and once from the top. Similar to the instruction page.

The same after using a hot knife to trim

I installed the soft shackles on the cabin top. I've gotten some wear there from the 90 degree stainless shackles that I had. These seem to lay better and won't scratch my finish.

Cabin top

When I recently re-rigged my traveler, I had two shackles to join the two blocks. I replaced that with a soft shackle.

Traveler

I am keeping all the original stainless shackles in my repair kit in the boat. I know Dyneema has amazing strength properties, but having a backup is a good thing.

Unfortunately, today is not a great sailing day. Tomorrow may be better.

I'm looking forward to the Red Lantern Rally 2016 at Mystery Bay July 9-10.

Update: Also see my post on soft padeyes. I put 4 of them under each side of the cabin top and more of them in each well under the hatches. The toy hammocks that hang there work well for storing objects up off the bottom of the hull.

Soft shackles

Soft Shackles

While investigating l-36.com (mentioned in my last post), I found a page of ideas for soft shackles. I had seen some soft shackles at WestMarine, but they were $25 a pop and seemed ridiculously expensive. After reading that page and a page at Grog's Knots, I decided I could tie my own soft shackles, learn something and have fun.

I found 50' of 1/4" dyneema single braid cord.  I followed Grog's directions and built a soft shackle.

Closed up

Open

When we were in Port Townsend for August 2014 Scamp Camp, Howard went over the PT Bronze Foundry and picked up some bronze bow eyes. I really like the look of the bow eye, but it doesn't fitthe trailer hook. I had an oval link on there since I launched her. It hadn't really scratched the paint, but I wanted to replace it.

Now it's a soft bow eye

Unfortunately, the 1/4" dyneema is huge when it gets doubled up. I'm going to find some 1/8" dyneema and use that for the two shackles on the cabin top. I also have a 90 degree shackle on the traveler and on the centerboard padeye. Those might get soft shackles too.

And they won't be orange.

Rudder repairs 

I mentioned a few posts ago that I had lost the nylon lock nut on the 3/8" bolt that is the pivot that joins the rudder to the rudder head. I replaced the bolt with a clevis pin.