Sjogin – Page 14 – Hove to off Swan Point

A light air sail

Went out Sunday morning and managed a bit of a drift about. Pleasant enough though the first nice day in a while seemed to encourage far too many motorboats and jet skis for the first weekend in October. No worries; my season’s longer than theirs.

The new Hempex running rigging worked fine with no noticeable stretch. We see how it handles in a bit of a breeze. Looks fine and feels like manilla.

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Very light air
Just enough. The breeze filed in to about 5kts with lots of holes.

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Hove to off Sloop Point
Enough breeze to heave to off Sloop Point. That’s one of the new Osprey nests on the Point built by a local Eagle Scout. Be nice to see them all full one of these years.

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Breakfast!
Breakfast on the Bay. Just cool enough for a fire and fixins’.

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Here’s a video of our locally famous Glimmer Glass Bridge. I believe its the only one of it’s type in the country where the balancing mechanism consists of rolling weights. It’s also a local cause celeb’ as the County wants to replace it with a modern bridge meeting current standards. They claim they’ll reuse the lifting system but it’s feared they’ll find some excuse not to do so. We’ll see.

Hempex!

Replaced all of Sjogin’s running rigging yesterday with this Manila substiute. It’s 10mm Polypropylene and finished to look like the real deal. While there’s always a worry about sun light degradation as opposed to Polyester (Dacron), I’ll give it a try. Available from Gordon Laco (new block supplier) at a reasonable price.

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New mainsheet
Hempex has a fairly tight lay, making splicing a pleasure. Managed to do the main sheet splice while having a visit from Mark, a local Forum friend. Still need to put a whipping on the upper end of the splice.

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All rigged
All done. I also tied the old jib sheet blocks to the rail and ran the tiller lines through them. If it works OK (too little friction?) I’ll seize them to a bronze pad eye on the inside of the rail.

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Let’s rig something! Sjogin’s collection of spare lines await. The coil on the left is the leftover Hempex. I needed about 200′ for the all of the running rigging.

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Old Hankins
A very old Charles Hankins beach skiff. Not sure what’s going to happen to her but she needs a lot of work.

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Striper
Striper, a nice old bass boat. She was in the shed with me this Summer, undergoing a thorough refreshing.

Perfect September day on Barnegat Bay

Julia joined me for the last sail of Summer on Sunday and to make sure Sjogin’s new blocks worked. Of course they did but I still need to move the jib sheet eye bolts a few inches outboard and forward. Quite pleased but need new sheets. I think I’m going to try Hempex, a manila substitute.

Breeze slowly built to 5 to 8 knots. Perfect Sjogin weather. Reached down to Reedy Creek and had a one tack beat to MYC.

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Julia
Julia at ease. Temps around 65, bright sun, ideal day. (And decidedly less traffic.)

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Serena
The Beaton built Serena, stretching her legs. Tom heard from a surveyor who had just looked into the for sale Charlotte, Serena’s stablemate. The surveyor told Tom that “If everyone built boats that way he’d be out of a job.” Nice feedback.

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Sleeping?
Look Ma, no tiller. At ease and hove to off Sloop Point.

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Cormorants
Cormorant City. To the dismay of bipedal fisherman, this bird is quite happy here.

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Taken this morning: last sunrise of Summer.

New blocks for Sjogin.

Her new Ording main and jib sheet blocks arrived this week and now are the brightest things aboard. They’re Elm and Stainless with copper drifts. Hand made by a Dutch master blockmaker. Available from Gordon Laco at Traditional Rigging and Outfitting . I won’t need my arm and leg I guess.

Had the first fire of the new season today, complete with tea and a bit of sausage bread. Just cool enough.

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New jewels
Just a touch on the big side but close enough. They’ll look fine with new sheets.

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Main Sheet blocks
Main sheet all rigged. Waiting for Beaton’s to order a spool of 7/16ths Dacron to make new sheets and halyards.

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Jib blocks
Jib sheet eye bolts need to be moved outboard a bit so the blocks clear the house. Or not. I’ll see how they lay when the jib’s backed.

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The Fall migration out of the water is in full swing. Regular readers will recognize Go Y’all, a classic Chris Craft Skiff.

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Joe driving
Went out for a run down to Reedy Creek on The Gale with Joe. Beautiful last Saturday of Summer. Sailing tomorrow with Julia on Sjogin.

She flys….

Sort of. Rigged Sjogin yesterday and had my first sail of the 2009-2010 Season. The first trip lived up to my tag line as I sailed as slow as I could. Barely a breath, with the occasional puff of 3 kts.

Quite different from the conditions a day earlier. We had gusts to 45 with the wind out of the NNE for three days. Classic Northeaster.

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Ready to rig
Set up under the junior rigging ladder. Sjogin’s mast is light enough to be stepped with a simple watch tackle.

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Mast ready
Randy, Saturday Rigger, ready to step the mast. Doesn’t look too bad for just having the bad bits refreshed.

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Ready to go
All rigged, sails bent and ready for a new off-season.

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Randy
Randy, sailing as slow as he can.

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Irene Tansy
Very light air. Almost nothing at deck level, a knot or two aloft.

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Beaton’s to leeward. One happy Skipper.

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Looks the same
Same as she ever was. Shortest turn-around ever: about five weeks from haul to rigged, with a lot of help from the Yard.

Progress on Sjogin

Look’s like she’ll be rigged this week. Yesterday I managed to paint the house, coamings and the long neglected bridgedeck bulkhead with the usual Kirby white semi-gloss. The Kirby family’s been making boat paint in New Bedford since 1846. A Mr. Kirby still answers the phone.

No need to do the boom as it’s still in good shape. Just fixed the blisters and such on the mast, putting the third coat on those spots today.

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Fresh
Decks and house painted. Hope to get the cabin top, trim and handrails done before she’s rigged.

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Beckoning Bay
The Bay beckons. I really need to get the cabin top painted.

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Speedwell waits for her turn after Sjogin’s back in commision.

Duckboat Worlds tomorrow.

Received a call from Peter Kellogg this evening reminding me of the need for our Duckboat to show up for the Worlds. Sadly, another year must go by with Speedwell on the hard. She’s our Clarke Duckboat, built in the early 50’s by Phillip C. Clarke of West Mantoloking. He built the first batch of Duckboats for the local Yacht Clubs. After 14 were built he sold the plans and molds to David Beaton, who’s yard went on to build hundreds of these able little boats. Generation’s of Barnegat Bay sailors learned their craft racing Duckboats with some gone on to Olympic glory.

Though Speedwell’s showed up for the World’s before, she needs attention to the centerboard case and garboards. I’ll do some prep work this fall, with the yard doing most of the work. I’m going to use a lug rig from the Joel White Shellback design in place of the regular leg-o-mutton rig, It’s great for eight year olds but a little low for senior sailors. I’ll keep the standard rig for the annual Duckboat World Championship’s. Didn’t I say this last year? Oh well, making haste as slow as I can.

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Beaton built Duckboats ready to mix it up.

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Here’s Speedwell, dusty from several years in storage.

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Sunset glow
Last light earlier this week. Deck work this weekend and sailing by Labor Day. Bring on September and the start of the Quiet Season.

She swims!

Went down to Beaton’s today to see what progress they made on Sjogin. Before we left for Maine I asked Tom to do a little more painting than usual. Walked into the shed today to see her happily moored in the slip and barely leaking. More importantly, the paint work by the Beaton crew looks great.

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Boat to be named later. The letters still need to be polished and carefully screwed back on. Hope to have her rigged and sailing next week.

Recent bits

First off, I heard from the daughter of Sjogin’s second owner. Her note to me from the Contact page spoke of her “many fond memories of sailing on it in 60’s. laying on stomach in bow, with torso leaning over water, ala titanic.” I tried a response but had an e-mail failure. She also spoke of a “swedish captain who got parkinsosn and had to sell.” That would be Mr. Gullberg. When Jon and I bought Sjogin in 1985, the then owner told us she had been built by a Swedish Captain who had sailed Square Riggers ’round the Horn. When he settled in South Jersey he built a small boat in the traditional style to remind him of home.

Melissa, if you read this, please know that I tried to respond to your gracious note but the e-mail address you gave didn’t work. I’d love to hear more about your childhood with Sjogin.

And Mr. Gullberg’s progeny is now hauled, having her Summer refit. She’s almost 50 and still going strong. I hope Mr. Gullberg would approve of her current state.

Regular maintenance this year. The bottom paint just needs a new coat and the deck has a only couple of spots to fix. The Kirby paints are holding up well.

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Evening light
Last week near Sunset. Freshly hauled and ready to have her age spots tended to.

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Gin
Gin! Every year the letters are removed and polished. Makes painting easier.

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My view
The view from the deck looking toward the Bay. The wet slip is where I hope to keep Sjogin for a bit and finish her painting.

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Fresh varnish
Here’s a freshly varnished Silent Maid, ready for the anchor start race at Ocean Gate Yacht Club.

More Maid pics at Flickr.

Sailing with Phil Heffernan

As mentioned below, our now analog friend Phil was down for the weekend. After a blissful evening and longish morning we bestirred our selves and went for a sail on Sjogin. Usual short sail; over to the club and hove to on starboard for half an hour, just yammering away in the steady southwesterly, watching the traffic go by. Wing and wing, we ran home and just managed a one shot landing with some deft boat hook work. Sorry ’bout the MOVE order Phil.

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HTw/Phil
Hove to with Phil a fifty yards off the Mantoloking waterfront. Slight ebb tide so the scenery moved by quite slowly.

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Russ, Phil and Walker
Your host, Phil and Walker, quite the sailor.

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Ready to haul
Sails off, halyards pulled, Sjogin’s ready to be hauled for her late Summer refit.

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Here’s the new Silent Maid, all sanded and ready for a fresh coat of varnish. She’s racing with the A-Cats this Saturday at Ocean Gate. The race is the sixth in the BBYRA season. For this race only, the A-Cats start in a line at anchor with the crew in the cockpit. At the gun the anchors are brought home as fast as possible while the boat falls off (hopefully) on Starboard tack at the last minute. Exciting stuff.

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Our favorite day lilies, drunk with the late afternoon sun. Another iPhone pic.