We hit the road Feb 1 towards Mexico, for five more weeks of boat upgrades work in Puerto Penasco, Sonora at the Cabrales yard. In this video we’ll finally get those saloon opening port lights installed, and it’s really nice inside now with all the fresh air coming through. I’m pretty sure the new crew will approve, and we KNOW Momma is happy because these come with bug screens! Enjoy the show…

Ravenswing has new crew. With very sharp teeth. Boat work down at Cabrales / Puerto Penasco went on hold first to reunite Jeanne and Greg after a month, but also to drive up to NE Oregon for our long-awaited chocolate log :)

This is how Ruby behaves about 1% of the time:

Mostly it’s running around chewing on stuff, which causes yelling, that seems to get the attention, which leads to a moment of quiet / good dog, which invites freedom, meaning finding something to chew, and the cycle repeats. Only to be interrupted by peeing, pooping, and our favorite, EATING! She’s 9 weeks old today, already pushing 17 lbs, and we’re proud to report she’s very smart and doing well in her training sessions (sit on command, early fetching, leash walking, etc)

Apologies in advance, because there will be puppy video clips interrupting your regularly scheduled trimaran movies. Because you deserve it, and they will be exceptionally cute.

Tonight, let’s recap the day out at Anton & Fedi’s ranch. More good stuff putting the love back into the Newick 26 Sommersault prototype boat “000”. After a few weeks docked at Charlie’s place on the Napa River for her re-launch maiden sails, this boat is deemed a winner and very worthy of more refurbishing work. Anton’s gonna be a force on the Bay Area Multihull Association starting lines soon. Enjoy today’s work, without getting paint dust in your ears and beard (don’t ask).

We got Ravenswing’s snugged-up daggerboard refitted Saturday, and as it sits under the mast, that cleared the way to restep the rig first thing Monday morning. I was eager to access the mast and boom to finally, accurately measure the mainsail. We knew something had gone wrong in the planning of enlarging the sail (because this mast is taller than the first one), but i hadn’t measured how short the luff (forward edge) is on the mast track. Instead we had been sailing with it not fully raised to the top, so that the bottom of the sail was in the right place at the boom. So, up it went on a still-air Monday morning.

We took measures and photos, then pulled it down, removed the long battens, and packed it into the pickup for a return to California and likely the original sail loft for an extra panel add. I’ll be very excited to sail the boat this spring with the main properly matched up to this new amazing mast. And speaking of added horsepower, the performance cat GenM next to us has raised their spinnaker halyard 6’ during a strengthening refit of their standing rigging. Their asymmetric spinnaker doesn’t fit their boat anymore and i was around as they received their new spin. We got to talking about sail dimensions, and darn if their old one didn’t sound really close to Ravenswing’s numbers. So we hauled it across the paddock and sent it up the halyard…

We grabbed a lull in the evening breeze to quickly deploy the sail and check how far back along the boat it reaches (foot length). Fits very well, and it’s the heavier 1.5oz fabric I prefer because it’s more durable than the 0.75oz racing sails. So Marvin and I are talking about a possible sail sale.

Yeah it’s the same Marvin who helped us out with spray painting. These bits look great.

Those are the rudder cassette (housing), tiller extension and bowsprit.

To wrap up this work session we did a number of small rigging upgrades, including refresh of the backstays. Here is new anchoring to the deck of fresh running backstay tails as they lead to the cockpit winches. You guys saw a few months back the lovely box of shiny cordage from Skateaway Designs. It looks even better on the boat ;)

After the very busy Monday of stepping the rig, installing/measuring/removing main and trying out that spinnaker, plus packing up the truck and cleaning up the crazy-mess work camp, I hit the road for home at 6am Tuesday. This time I took MX highway 8 up to Sonoyta but didn’t cross there, instead running MX 2 along the border to San Luis.

There’s a SENTRI lane at the San Luis / Yuma border, which if you properly online-register your vehicle, pay the convenience fees, etc., works really well. I realized my US trusted traveler Global Entry card can be used for SENTRI on the southern border. Last time I tried the lane but hadn’t registered the pickup, which is a big no-no and earned 1.5 hours in the border patrol penalty box. This time I sailed thru the SENTRI lane and avoided the big border line.

After 16 hours on the road, it was fantastic to park it in the driveway at home. Probably a new personal best for single day driving. Check the trip odometer; I don’t need to top this one anymore.

PS. When is 8 week old chocolate work a 650 mile drive? Answer next time here at cartersboat.com

The Sonoran Desert has had a cold February and early March. Mainly the temps drop a lot at night. But this evening was different, an invitation to work outside. After dinner I pulled out a spare Suzuki water pump kit, a headlamp and toolbox. Spent 8-11pm pulling the lower unit off the main engine for a water pump and gear oil change. Found a bit of pump housing damage so it took a little longer than normal. The boatyard rat hunting felines Dulce and Pantera were quite amused by a human with funny headlight during their busy hours.

I had spent the afternoon rigging the engine with electricity, gas, throttle and transmission cables, plus general cleaning up. This install came out really well. This photo was before the water pump night job.

Something is wrong with my WordPress app here, as I can’t upload more photos for you. So imagine…

Marvin on catamaran GenM graciously offered his paint spray equipment for my orange bits. Bowsprit, rudder cassette and 8’ long steering stick looked amazing this afternoon. Tomorrow I’ll brush on the orange accent stripes at bow and stern.

The daggerboard was supposed to be a simple drop in job Thursday. The yard guys lifted it to the deck via forklift, but when we slid it into the trunk it was too wide. Or rather the trunk was too narrow because my added shims were too thick. And I had added too much on the forward bumper section (the part that doesn’t go down into the water). I figured there might be a bit of trimming, but it ended up being a two day job, including about three hours where it was completely stuck. It’s amazing how a 7’ tall, 100 lb, 3” wide barn-door like thing can wedge itself in so badly we needed the crane to free it. After that I used our ladder up on deck as a derrick with block and tackle to fine tune the fit. I think I finally have this thing set up so it won’t bang in the trunk during sloppy cross seas. I also had some end-of-run orange paint and decided to paint the board. That’s for the unthinkable: the boat has flipped and we’ve put an orange and black emergency flag, formally known as daggerboard, into the air.

The under-beam braces got finalized Wednesday. It was terribly windy with sand blowing. Pretty awful conditions. So I kept eye and ear covers on all afternoon and cut away then end-polished all those big 3/4” thick bolts so it’s all tidy. Removed a few pounds of unnecessary washers and bolt thread offcuts, so that felt great.

Lots of little detail work has come together this week and we’re nearing the end of what’s turning out to be a solid two months project (spread over five calendar months). Last push for this round is to step the mast Monday morning. Sail track is repaired and boom looks great. I’m eager to hoist the main again and get proper measurements to the sailmaker so we can figure out what went wrong in the 2018 recut (made the sail match the longer new mast), and test out a spinnaker that’s available here from a friend’s performance catamaran.

I’ve been shooting more video footage and will get YouTube going once I get home.

… and be warned, this boat blog is in jeopardy of high jacking by a ball of canine cuteness very soon. Do you like chocolate?

“Hey, careful where you touch!”

That’s a good thing, finally getting some topcoat paint down.

Boom is looking good. A bit of the carbon fabric upgrades are slightly showing through so this will get a second coat.

I think the cleanups on the mast won’t need it though.

Here’s the masthead standoff for the windvane (yes, Keith, I made sure it stands clear of the elevated sail head ;)

Many hours over the past few days went in to stripping, repairing and prepping the under-beam support braces. The ten removable bars went through the Cabrales sandblasting station. On the hull, there was a bit of cracking in the rigid fairing; ground all that out and replaced with 5200 flexible but permanent adhesive caulk. These areas were painted today and the braces are ready for install.

Lots of parts continue on the paint path.

Do you guys remember what that disc piece is?

The daggerboard is ready for trial fit tomorrow, pending its paint drying. Might wait until Wednesday now that I think about it. Stood it up on the sharp trailing edge and painted both sides at once.

Light grey is the finish paint. Dark grey is the portion that remains wet when the board is retracted but this section rests below the water level. That’s a second primer coat and it will get bottom paint once it’s re-installed.

Anton asks about why the daggerboard needs a trial fit. Recall that coming down the coast there were sea states that made the board bang around in the trunk. We temporarily (for over a year) handled it by shoving sticks with wedges on the ends down between the deployed board’s head and the trunk walls. Today we’re filling that gap with the 1/8” ply shims discussed last time. Plus we added a 1/2” thick plate on the front of the head rectangle, the section that deploys against the front of the inside of the trunk. These are a lot of precise-fit changes, hence the new 65” deep hole under the boat so we can test deploying the board. I need to get it exactly right this time, which is impossible from the water. Once it fits well, I might take the time here to reshape the exit slot at the bottom of the trunk. Because the board was modified in 2018, that opening is too big now and not efficient.

The engine was permanently installed. It fits and looks good back there. Spent Sunday morning mocking up a connection between tiller and motor so the prop will track with the rudder when motoring. This should make a major improvement to our low speed, close quarters maneuverability. Ravenswing gets sideways quickly in a windy, crowded harbor and we will take any handling upgrades we can get.

Didn’t photograph the solution, but for Carlos and Rick… we’re starting with simple strings, like a 40’s lake runabout ‘wire cable and pulley’ steering. No need to get fancier yet until we try out the new motor position.

Long hours, and I’m grateful the daylight is letting us work outside until 7pm now. gotta get done. Tomorrow is grey paint, coat 2. Orange paint prep. Install under-beam braces. Finish motor steering mounts. Maybe tackle the needs-a-repair windlass. Or rig the engine – yikes, both very important!