Century Club: Richard Turman

Beautiful sunny evening in the upper 70's with 6 knots of breeze to start, dropping to 2-4 ish.  Caught up to some of the bigger boats on our downwind leg, which oddly enough turned into another upwind leg when the wind shifted dramatically.  Great night out on the water.  Since we had the spin all rigged up we popped her after we finished and then tooled around Round Bay with our spin until the wind finally died.  

Great to take the boat out at 6:15 and sail until 8, when the sun goes down.  Did so on two successive days after lots of issues at work.  Nothing like single-handing in the evening on an 8 knot breeze!

Finally made it back on to the boat two weeks running, and had a great time.

Wednesday, May 10 was our second race of the season, and we came in fourth out of eight, beating all the other boats in our start, but remaining behind past fleet champions in a Catalina 27 and two Johnson 18's.  Long upwind to Sherwood forest and back, which gave us a chance to best our fleet on the upwind and use our spin, for the first time in competition, downwind.  Did decently, though with practice should be able to get our angles better.  With 3 of our 4 regular crew and a great pick-up crew member, we're getting better about handling the boat.

Wednesday, May 17 gave us lots and lots of experience on sail trim changes with 6 or 7 mark roundings, and two downwind legs.  Our spin jibing got better as the night went on, and our upwind genoa handling continues to improve -- with better tacks each time.  Still had 3 of our regular crew with one ringer, who helped us a lot.  Beautiful night out with strong breeze throughout, including after the race was over and the sun went down.

On Sunday, May 7, I was working on my sailboat and happened to hear the bilge pump on my powerboat run about every 20 minutes.  Since it was in the water and not on a lift, I was worried it might sink before my mechanic could take it on Tuesday.  So I took the sailboat off of the lift, placed it on the dock, and drove the powerboat around and onto the lift.  The lift didn't break, but the bunks bent in a way they don't normally with the sailboat.  Received huge help from my neighbor and my daughter in this boat jockeying.

On Tuesday, May 9, I drove the powerboat to the Herald Harbor boat ramp once I verified that the mechanic had his trailer in the water there.  The bilge pump ran constantly, and continued to do so once we got the boat out of the water.  Found a nickle-sized hole in one of the bellows.  Frightening!

On Friday, May 12, met the mechanic at the boat ramp and was overjoyed to take possession of the boat again, though once I saw the bill I did a double-take.  Both bellows were replaced as was the trim sending unit, the seals were replaced on the hydraulic arms that control the outdrive's trim -- which was the problem in the first place.  The lower unit was also lubed.  Took my friend on a boat ride out into Round Bay; significant amount of chalky water coming out of the bilge but verified with the mechanic that this was because he'd washed the boat and this was the soap.  Whew!

On Saturday, May 13, drove the powerboat to Jabins' boat yard so she could get put into the boatel.  Took 10 minutes to get to Smith's to fill her up with 23 gallons of regular and then 20 minutes from there on a glorious ride across glassy water until I got to Annapolis harbor.  Got the boat battened down on the dock,ready to be forklifted out before the rain started.