Further Setback for OCC Shock Horror

[Silkie]

Had quite a lively few minutes on Sunday afternoon. A big gust hit us when on the wind in F5. There was a loud bang and Silkie's forestay parted company with the stemhead fitting. Fortunately the mast stayed up (let us give thanks to the man who invented the baby stay - the spinnaker halyard on the pulpit probably helped a bit too) but I was pretty busy for a while.

Not neccessarily in this order I dropped the main, got the genoa off and below, put the genoa halyard on the foredeck cleat and winched it up, secured the forestay and started the engine.

Amazingly this happened right at the entrance to Dunstaffnage Bay though I'd been on the wind in F4 and then 5 all the way from the south end of Kerrera.

The yard have quoted a truly eye-watering figure for custom-building a replacement stemhead fitting (in solid gold I think they said) but even if I could afford this they still couldn't do it until next week. So Silkie is not going to be ready for the OCC sadly.

[Booby Trapper]

Glad it was not as bad as it could have been.
At least you got out Yesterday. I went down to Ardrossan and heard the harbour control tower discussing with the Arran ferry that it was gusting to 30 knots.
Decided to do some maintenance instead of sailing!.

[Silkie]

Perhaps I should have been doing some maintenance too!

LInk to PBO thread with a picture of the damage.

[ash]

Hi Silkie

Sorry to hear your bad news.

I've replied to your post in that other place, and also sent you an email.

Ash

[claymore]

Nae doobt, ra cash saved oan drink wid go some way tae payin fer ra stemheed. Gold you say? I ken they use a titanium/platinum mix at Kilmelfort which may work oot a couple of thousand shekels less

[Nick]

but best it happened when it did.

Silkie seems to have a habit of holding herself together until the marina entrance is in sight then breaking something . . . I seem to recall it was just off the entrance that the tiller came off in your hand the year before last??

Two plates bolted and a new hole shouldnñt be too expensive.

[Silkie]

but best it happened when it did.

Indeed. I can think of lots of situations which would have been far worse.

You're supposed to break something on a shakedown cruise after all, aren't you?

[Silkie]

Jings Silkie

That must have been a bit scary - I assume that when you say 'we' - you mean just you and the boat.

I also assume that you had removed the forestay sag that you had on your first outing.

I would imagine that the limitations to modifications as described above would be the internal width of the clevis fork.

I would have thought that there would be enough adjustment on the bottle screw to allow you to use one of the other existing holes but you would always worry that it was too near to the surface.

Your own suggestion of grinding away the remains of the hole and drilling a new one as near to the base as the depth of the clevis fork allows sounds the best solution.

I will sent you a pm with details of a replacement stainless steel double bow roller stem head fitting manufactured by the VAGB for the Vega - as a comparison only to your eyewatering figure.

Ash (in the other place)

Was really much too busy to have time to be scared though the adrenalin was flowing and it did take two very large malts to steady me down once back alongside.

Yes I was single-handed and it had been a brilliant weekend up to that point; blue skies and plenty of wind and Silkie going like a good'un with the rig sorted (as I thought!) and a clean bottom. The new expensive free anti-foul seems to be very slippery.

Thanks for the other suggestions.

Dave

[Silkie]

So Silkie is not going to be ready for the OCC sadly.

Belay that. I've decided to go for a repair to the existing stemhead fitting so I won't be able to manage Loch Melfort on Thursday evening but might manage to meet up on Friday.

[DaveS]

That would suit me (and take some of the time pressure off). Ignore previous PM (if it arrived - the 'puter I was using this morning was v. dodgy). Any thoughts on itinerary yet? The tides allow progress northbound from about 1100 on Friday IIRC. The forecast seems to be good (if a bit light windwise) for Friday & Saturday with a bit of Wet coming in from the west on Sunday.

[Silkie]

Going north would suit me too if only because it would give me an extra cushion on the boat-fixing front if I didn't have to be out until lunchtimeish on Friday.

As you say wind doesn't look to feature much on Friday or Saturday. If stronger winds do appear on Sun/Mon they're likely to have south and/or west in them.

I'm a bit uncomfortable with you asking me for thoughts on an itinerary.

a) I was only pretending to be Cruise Director. (The very notion that anyone could step into Claymore's shoes!)

b) There are only two of us now.

c) You are, by a country mile, the more experienced and I'm sure your passage planning would be far more considered than mine. The Mull thing (daren't say it's name) looks like it might be a possibility.

PS - I don't seem to have been able to figure out the new CG VHF weather broadcast schedules yet.

[Aja]

Clyde every three hours from 0210
Stornoway every three hours from 0110

http://www.franksingleton.clara.net/vhf_hmcg.html

Donald

[Silkie]

Thanks Donald.

[Telo]

Sorry to hear about that Dave - that's two of us down on our luck at the moment.

[DaveS]

Well it still looks like Friday and Saturday will be dry but with little wind, Sunday and Monday wet with SW wind, reasonable on Sunday but quite strong on Monday.

Given that, I can think (so far) of two possibilities. If doing the Mull thing, accelerate it, i.e. aim at being in Tob. on Friday night and Tinker's Hole on Saturday night, giving basically a broad reach back on Sunday. In some ways that would be a bit of a shame since it rushes past all the really nice bits west of Mull, and might need a fair bit of motoring to keep to schedule. Alternatively, gently potter up either the Sd. of Mull or F. of Lorne on Friday - getting as far up as we get; back again on Saturday to Puildobhraoin; beat / motor home - hopefully in a break in the weather - on Sunday. In either case effectively abandon Monday. What think you?

I'm off to bed now since I've a c. of d. start tomorrow, but should be able to get on the internet tomorrow at the airport. In any event I'll give you a call on the mobile tomorrow night or Friday morning.