2009 news September 2/09 - Fall is here, as is some delayed summer cruising. But before we depart, there's always a project that needs to be completed. On the slate this round is cockpit organization. Out - broken suction-cup cockpit bags and ugly, discoloured plastic winch handle pockets. In - removable Blue Performance cockpit bags and winch handle pockets. June 12/09 - It's never fun on The Folly unless we're spending money! Given my love/hate relationship with ice, coolers, and spoiled food, the next project is boat refrigeration. We'd like to keep the boat leaning at least a little towards her racing lines, so we're opting for portable refrigeration. March 17/09 - Happiness is an engine that starts immediately and doesn't stall when you switch between forward and reverse, and we smile about this each time we move the boat in and out of her slip. We are nearing the end of the 50 hour engine break-in period and look forward to working her hard for many years. On the other hand, sadness is a diesel engine service company that closes unannounced as soon as they're done installing your >$20K engine, thereby screwing you if anything goes wrong with the workmanship outside of the engine warranty. I'm still really pissed about this and every time I see the owner, I curse his name. We are now customers of Raven Marine, the company who bought the customer list and took on some of our favourite mechanics. So far, they've been pretty good to deal with. However, they are not a Yanmar dealer so we're not quite sure what we'll do should we require warranty work. 2008 news October 8/08 - We'd like to announce the arrival of our bouncing baby Yanmar 3YM30. Isn't she cute? She looks so much like Tom. October 1/08 - It gets worse! The engine stopped running once the injectors were put back in. A compression test showed that the seals need replacing. ARGH! Given everything that needs work, it will be more economical (is that word allowed when talking about boats) to replace the engine. Yes, the current engine could be overhauled, but by the time they get it out, fixed, and back in, you might as well have put a new one in. One nice thing though is that our mechanic will take the current engine as a trade-in; some other poor slob may want it one day. So, a new, efficient Yanmar is in our future. It includes a new transmission and a five year warranty! Thank you, former owner, for biting us in the ass yet again. The over-propping of this boat has cost us thousands and made us worry A LOT. Then again, the amount we've worried about this engine will make having a new one even sweeter. September 30/08 - The engine runs great but is now having a hard time starting. So, the mechanic has removed the injectors and sent them out for servicing. I guess this should be done more often than ya think as ours were in pretty bad shape. The engine is also still stalling when idling. Sadly, since this hasn't resolved itself since re-pitching the prop, I guess we found the pitch issue too late and the transmission probably needs to be rebuilt or replaced. Oh well...fun with boats! Since our summer plans tanked, we're also planning a cruise in December. I can't wait. We're going to head to the Sunshine Coast and see what kind of winter trouble we can get into there. June 11/08 - Well, we had some great races with our awesome friends, but we've had to pull the plug. Tom is ill and we're converting the boat back to full cruise mode so that we can get out whenever the opportunity presents itself. May 28/08 - The mechanic conluded that our transmission issue in April was due to an incorrectly pitched and oversized folding max-prop. The pitch and size of the prop causes the engine to overload when run as directed by the engine mfgr. This is why we saw so much coke in the exhaust when running over 2000 RPMs, and why, eventually, the transmission started flaking out...the fluid had essentially burnt. So, the plan is to haul the boat at Canoe Cove, have Pacific Marine Diesel re-pitch the prop, and then she should be good as new. May 25/08 - We spent last weekend giving the folly new sani hoses! Some dork had previously used fuel hoses for the head and the time had come to replace them. I pride myself on my clean-smelling boat and the subtle odor the hoses were generating was disturbing. May 21/08 - The first Wednesday night race was spent doing RC while the mechanic sorted out our tranny problems. The second Wednesday night race didn't have any wind. The third Wednesday night race had gusts to 40 knots at Trial Island and took five guys to get the folly back on the dock after pulling out of the race. Will the next one be any kinder? **20 knots, 20 knots, 20 knots** April 29/08 - We were going to start racing tomorrow but the boat has a mind of her own and is now out of commission. This past weekend, she started stalling when idling. The mechanic has been down and thinks something is binding in our transmission; That possibly one of the former owners hit something or wrapped something around the prop or shaft, replaced the prop and shaft, but didn't check to see if the tranny was damaged. It makes sense because we've had a couple odd transmission issues since buying the boat, but because everything essentially worked, the mechanic was loathe to open it up. So, here we go spending some more money that really should be paying for a new roof for our house. But really, who needs a roof? It's so...well...passé! April 14/08 - The time had come for new bottom paint so we had the boat hauled at Canoe Cove Marina. But with every haul-out comes another opportunity for improvements: Blackline made us aft chocks to match the forward chocks and bow roller! No more chafed aft spring lines and ugly chafe guards! March 01/08 - After a horrible winter where we got stranded once (at Friday Harbor, in 60+ knot winds) and had to cancel another trip for fear of being stranded, spring has sprung and we're trying to make up for lost time by spending most weekends on the boat. 2007 news October 01/07 - We've stopped racing for a while and are enjoying cruising. We made it to Princess Louisa Inlet this summer and had a fabulous time. photos The Folly was also seen 'bedroom racing' while we participated in local regattas with friends Al and Kay on their San Juan 24. May 22/07 - We just finished another awesome Round Saltspring race, with the earliest finish time I've ever experienced. We finished in 8 hours and 48 minutes and were drinking beer on the dock in no time! It was a very challenging race with lots of hot boats and gusty, variable, oscillating winds that ranged from 0 to 40 knots. At one point, we were cruising along with our 160 genoa and full main, turned the corner at Beaver Point, and suddenly needed a reef and a #3. We had to take another reef on that leg, but the boat was a machine, pointing 25 degrees upwind and traveling at 7.5 knots, steadily gaining on the leaders. Boats were being knocked down in rapid succession all day. However, our excellent trimmers kept us perfectly heeled and sailing fast. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed in our corrected time but I guess we're just no where near aggressive enough to have improved on that given the conditions. We made a conservative start that put us towards the back of div 1 but were passing people until just after Sansum Narrows when we had a little spinnaker mess that rattled some of the crew and caused us to stop and regroup for a little while, much to the disappointment of the rockstars we had on board. Once in Trincomali Channel, the wind disappeared for a while, but filled in behind, driving the other boats closer to us. As our co-skipper, Al, said...the rich got richer. We also couldn't fly our 160 genoa in the last third of the race, which I noticed had some friction damage to the luff tape. This resulted in many peels as we made our way to and around Nose Point. However, our crew was awesome. Although everyone was experienced, other than one practice sail on a light day, we hadn't sailed as a team before. The communication and cohesion was impressive, the mainsail trimming and foredeck work were spot-on, and the spinnaker trimming and gybing were great. We also made excellent tactical decisions all day long. 2006 news November 06 - While racing, our forward starboard jib track and the deck beneath it decided that they no longer wanted to be attached to the boat. We originally thought that this was due to a manufacturing defect as C&C didn't install backing plates on the tracks. However, the insurance surveyor and the yard fixing the boat determined that the damage was partly due to a previous shitty repair - a repair done to the decks to fix delamination discovered during the purchase survey in 2005. The work was not done properly and not all of the delamination was removed. This means that we will have pull the mast, shed the boat, and let them start drilling to find all the delamination, which recent estimates show to be 50%. Cha-ching! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it), winter is a busy time for boat repair and our boat yard doesn't have the shed space to fix all of the wet deck. However, this type of repair is not critical unless we wanted to sell the boat. So, they will repair the current damage, make the boat completely sea-worthy, and we will make an appointment for the remaining work sometime in the next several years when we're ready to do more cosmetic work to the deck and mast (which the repair will require anyway). I'd love a new pretty paint job on the mast. Whoever took it out last wasn't very careful with it. So, it seems that our objective with this boat is to spend as much money as possible without losing our shirts. I know that everyone likes to make improvements and replace things needing replacing and we fully expected to do this, but we really didn't intend for it to be QUITE this bad! (I.E. the oh-so-pricey keel fairing and delamination issues.) We relied on the boat professionals we worked with to guide us through a safe purchase but it hasn't worked out very well. However, we love everything (else) about the boat. January 06 - Hauled the boat to repair the keel. Once the old fairing was removed, we found a defect in the keel which probably led to the failed fairing. It was a weird open vein in the lead that had water in it. It took a couple months to dry out and then a new fairing job was done by the excellent Blackline Boys. Of course, when the boat was out of the water having the keel repaired, we 'needed' to do a bunch of other $$$ stuff. Need...it's a funny thing. :P 2005 news We found Tom's dream boat, purchased her in February, and immediately repaired a bunch of stuff found during the survey. <crying> After a few months of enjoying her, we hauled her out for cleaning and bottom paint, only to find that the keel fairing failed. </crying>