Diva nearly goes AWOL

Just checking Diva one Saturday morning, using the club's webcam, as you do, when I noticed there was no sign of the mooring buoy. Sometimes the buoy does disappear behind one of the amas but there was no mooring line to be seen either - thought I had better have a look. Got out to Diva - pulled up the mooring strop and nothing on the end - just a frayed tail. Luckily, I had been experimenting with a bridle of 10mm polyprop to cut down the amount of sheering about Diva was doing - thank gawd for 10mm blue polyprop. Diva was hanging on a couple of 10mm polyprop 'strings'... Time to put her away. So as a temporary fix put Diva on the club's visitors mooring

Next year, she will be moored with chain throughout. But Diva is now happy in the Exeter Canal.

Tendrils

I had been thinking about doing some sculpture using some of the methods that Simon and I had

learnt building his cat - I particularly liked the use of "armaflex" insulation as an armature to lay-up epoxy-glass on - Simon used it on the back edge of his boats cabin following its curves - so nice.

Stevenson Screens

I built this Stevenson Screen a few months ago with a veiw to selling them. I had an original Casella Screen in kit form and put it on ebay and to my astonishment it reached over £200.

The kit was not unlike a giant box of matches - mainly the louvre slats. And seeing a new screen for sale at £495 - thought there might be a market, possibly only a small one. My screen is still on sale at on ebay for £250.

Self Steering...........

I have been musing over the possibility of building a "self steering" gadget for Diva. Looking at commercial devices they mostly seem to be constructed of welded tube or aluminium castings and both of these ways of putting things together, I don't have the technology, so a composite construction looked good, being strong and importantly light. I have been making the bearing housings using a plastic form (in black). These are the wind vane bearings - I'm using some plastic bearings with glass balls as this needs to be built with as little friction as possible. More to follow...........

Starcross Merlin Rocket Open Meeting

I offered my boat as the Committee Boat for the Merlin Open this weekend 3/4 October. I had been keeping an eye on the weather and by mid week BBC was showing 35mph - gusting 55mph on Sunday but by Friday it appeared to have moderated 10mph Sat. 12mph Sun - Oh yea. Saturday was lovely with no wind at 09.30 but the forecast southerly coming in warm and sunny. Good day had by all. Baked potato, vegetable curry, few beers, mediocre band and I was ready for bed. Had to call the club house once on the boat! No problem getting to Diva. Checked the Navtex "Gale warning for Portand F8 southerly" oh well - got to sleep - but a bit lumpy wind increasing. Woken by wind at 04.30 pretty windy but no worries then wind dropped going east so no chop to speak of for a while then bang, back to the south and full on gale - sea was a " churning urn of burning funk" Had to get out and tie down tender as it was lifting itself on to its side (with the outboard) and try to stop the genoa cover flogging. Could not sleep - worrying about the mooring/mast/tender/outboard all much worse in the dark and on your own . Glad to see the "sun rise" Looked out the cabin and a cabin cruiser AWOL was in the main channel, made some tea and looked out again and cruiser was gone. Much too windy, still, to do anything about anything. Decided to lock the boat up and go ashore at about 09.30, still pretty windy - surfed over to the club. Amazed that the outboard started first pull - Unfortunatly, the tender got caught by a gust and dumped the outboard upsidedown in the water - that did it - wouldn't start after that - but its alright now. Girls in the galley were keeping an eye on me during my surfing and made me a most welcome cooked breakfast - very much apprciated.



Rest of the day was a breeze after last night. Turned out the cruiser crunched into Pete Browne's"Hunky Dory" Luckily, not too much damage to either. One of the SYC boats ended up on the mud up river a bit - undamaged - and another got a shredded genoa.

Roger's last "Wings" trip

This was the last trip for Roger in his Kelsall cat Wings. Bought by Adrian who is the brother of the builder of Wings - so, I think its going to a good home in the River Avon (Bantham)

Left the Exe at midday - beam reach down to Start Point - untill the wind disapeared.

Motored the last coupe of miles into Salcombe in the dark - looks like Salcombe's sectored light might need a good clean.

Anchored in Millbay - where Roger produced a some lovely cous-cous and corma followed by a couple of glasses.

Mill bay is a perfect place to anchor just across the river from the Salcombe and the Yacht Club
After breakfast in Capt. Morgan's Cafe we left Salcombe passing Soar Mill Bay. Arrived at the Avon at an hour before high water - coming into the Avon can be a bit tricky if the weather is bad. Its strange to be passing surfers surfing 4/5ft surf 30 ft away. A good job done.

Trip back from Plymouth

Perfect morning for a sail, took off from Queen Anne's Battery with Karen, luckily missing the tanker in the tender. North-westerly 2/3 - we were able to sail out of the sound. Could not decide weather to drop in to Salcombe or try to make Dartmouth. The forecast was not very nice for tuesday - wet and windy, so tried to make Dartmouth. A lot of downwind sailing most of the day- some interesting sailing past Start Point with the wind on the beam and bit of speed. Got to Dartmouth before we expected. Headed for Parsons Mud - opposite Greenways - home of Agatha Cristy.

Woke up to some wind on the river - forecast 4/6 poss. 6 W - after breakfast put in two reefs - easier to shake out than to reef on the hoof. Came out of the Dart to a gentle breeze and more running. Didn't make the Exe in time to get the tide with the wind finally coming in from the NW - anchored until the tide turned. Diva back - although we ran aground 10 metres from the mooring.

Plymouth Trip

Left the Exe with a half reasonable breeze at the same time as the Starcross Fishing and Cruising Club left for a trip to Bridport - possibly the second most dangerous harbour in the UK - open to negotiation. Dave crewed at short notice. We managed to get as far as Berry Head with a building thunder storm inland but no wind. So, unfortunately, we had to motor most of the way to Salcombe, visibility becoming bad, Start Point disappearing. Found a good place to anchor in Salcombe - Mill Bay - a lovely sandy bay opposite Salcombe town. A near miss with anchor - I think due to some sort of back eddy in the bay - oops!

The leg to Plymouth started with a fairly stiff northerly breeze - one reef- which lasted until late morning before easing. Dave needed to catch the bus/train back to Exeter when we arrived in Plymouth, so after picking up a mooring just off Mountbattern, dropped him off at the Mayflower Y C slipway - a useful landing place. Called Karen and had a very pleasant kip before she arrived. Just about to leave the boat when I was informed by a local that I was on his mooring. Changed mooring whilst Karen waited to take me home and shower.

Diva's Cooker is Rebuilt

On our trip to Lyme Regis the other day, the cooker decided

to be a bit troublesome and needing some loving, control valves leaking and finally a broken cleaning needle. So, as a temporary measure I have in bolted two standard "primus" stoves. But now thanks to spares from Basecamp.co.uk. its all back working, soon to be put back.

Karen and I have a day out on "Darkmoor" and walk as far as the eye can see.

Karen didn't really know the the east side of Dartmoor - so we did a trip around the head waters of the River Teign starting from Scorhill near Gidleigh - as Amy used to call it the "Cirque de Scorhill" the route goes along a ridge in the distance as you come up from Scorhill, therefore you walk as far as the eye can see. This must have been a fairly popular place in the past as there are numerous stone circles (Scorhill Circle - the biggest on the Moor) and hut remains. At the end of the walk, I "made" Karen go through the Tolmen Stone, so she would be cured of any rhuematic disorders and generally be purified - Very Druidical.... And here is a picture that was tooken earlier.

Bit of Furniture Design for Ramon.

Ramon, Karen's Ex being involved in alternative therapies, needed a small folding or dismantlable table in his consulting room. Karen wanted to get one for his birthday but was having no luck - so clever me says "I'll make him one" and half a sheet of plywood later....

First over the line - Second on Handicap - drat!

This was the third time of entering the "Drew Trophy" The first, my first sail in Diva with Dave as crew. Due to few problems on the day we managed to get to the start line half an hour late and the rest of the fleet were mere dots in the distance. The wind was in the east and we were flying the big genoa that came with the boat and that certainly did the business Force 3 and we were doing 8/9 knots passing most of the fleet by the Ore Stone and finished first.Didn't stay over night as Dave needed to get back. This was where the trouble started, getting back to the Exe - that "lovely" genoa only allowed us a tacking angle of about 150 degrees - we were embayed in Torbay! Second time Karen crewed - we got off to a cracking start until we were becalmed off the Marychurch - wind went round on to the nose and that "lovely" genoa did what it did best - beam reaches at 8 knots and on a dying evening breeze we crawled into Brixham an hour after the last boat. Third time lucky with Nishok as crew - a novice at big boats but full of enthusiasm, we managed a half decent start. This time I had a different genoa, this time we were able to point like the other boats and go faster. The race ended with the commodore chasing us across Torbay a nerve racking time wondering if we would lay Brixham breakwater. Picture - Diva at rest (blue and white) - with Starcaser the other club Telstar.

Will and the Bass

Will with good training from his Grandfather caught this lovely Bass just as we came into Lyme. Having already caught a Mackerel , we decided that I could not eat so much fish and let it go but unfortunately I think it had been out of the water too long ,after it swam off Will later found it dead on the beach. Moral - only catch what you can eat. Sad affair.

Lyme Regis with Karen and Will

Diva on the visitors pontoon in Lyme Regis. An interesting sail with the wind from the southwest - forecast northwest. Little bit of motoring, until the wind picked up for the last hour.
Trip back was a slog beating against a westerly only freeing up in the afternoon as we approached Exmouth with some fairly strong gusts - 6.3 knots on the wind.

Wasp Trailing Log Spinner

I have always liked the principle of trailed logs - a devise for measuring distance travelled through water. Trailed logs were a fixture on every cruising yacht in earlier days until the advent of electronic navigation instruments. One of the advantages of these "antiquated" instruments is the lack of power requirements - what, no batteries. There is one problem with

trailing logs - apparently they attract sharks, most logs come with a spare spinner but that's only allows two shark attacks. I thought that there might be a need for spare spinners. I have been producing spares for Wasp type logs. Check out ebay .......... I'm looking for a "Walker Log" to replicate. The Wasp blades are cast with copper filled epoxy with a brass and stainless body.

Introduction to Diva

Diva is a 26ft Telstar Mk2 Trimaran built in 1979. Supposedly a four birth cruiser but much more comfortable with two. I was never quite sure about the name but its short and easy to say on the radio and is it bad luck to change the name of a boat.

New Doors for Diva

I have been intending to make some new cabin doors for my trimaran for some time, I found some nice teak which came from Karen's dad. The doors are 18mm plywood with the teak rebated on the edges.