PocketShip in the Florida 120

Last week my PocketShip participated in the Florida 120. This year was grueling and out of the 49 boats registered for the event only 4 made the entire trip. I'm happy to say my PocketShip was one of them. My crew and myself are battered and bruised and my boat has a couple of battle scars. But the worst of it was a slightly cracked rub rail. This event tested PocketShip with many different sailing conditions. 

 The first day was 11 hours of bob and bake beating against minimal winds and being happy to reach 3kts. We spent 12 hours covering the 35 miles.

The second day was a blast running with the waves in 12 kt winds and having perfect conditions to do a little surfing. The GPS hit 7kts on many occasions. We made the 40 miles that day in just over 5 hours.

The third day is a 15 mile trek across Pensacola bay. That morning the crew and I had a discussion on if we should stay at anchor or try to finish. We decided to press on. The winds were forecast for 15-20kts so we set out with a reef in the sail. As we started to cross the bay we were greeted by confused seas that required an active hand on the tiller to keep from being spun around. We buried the bowsprit once and a couple of times we were knocked down so far that the portholes were partially submerged. We made it in about 4 hours of the scariest sailing I've ever done. This is where a majority of the fleet gave up. We arrived at the 3rd nights anchorage with just 11 other boats. Most of those chose to bail out at a marina 3 miles north rather than trying to recross the bay.

The next day the forecast for the bay seemed better and it was. Fine easy sailing in stark contrast to the day before. 

PocketShip sailed well and showed how rugged she is. You do start to wonder about all those fillets when the seas become like a washing machine. My hats off to the designer and a call out to the only other home built to finish the event, a Bolger micro named 'Pete'.

Some things to fix up.

Mrs TaTas has been splashed and sailing now for six month or so.  The florida sun really takes it toll on boats.  Production boats seem to always be in a state of chalky gel-coat and silvery looking teak.

Mrs TaTas has been no exception to this rule.  Several things needed attention after the first season of sailing.  Most (if not all) was due to oversights I made during construction.  Some of them have been mentioned before.

1.  The most obvious sun damage was that of the rub-rails.  It seemed that in some places I sanded too aggressively and removed too much epoxy.  The clear coat in these areas turned yellow and peeled off revealing the unfinished black walnut.  Black walnut has a very open grain and mold quickly moved in.  Didn't really do in long term harm but it looked pretty bad.

Although I don't have the after pictures it was a very easy 2 day job to sand the rub rails.  Apply a couple of coats of epoxy and then do a LIGHT sanding and reapply the WR-LPU clear coat.  They look as good as new and have held up for 2 months now.

2.  Had a similar situation with the breast hook.  You can see where I got a little agressive with the sander and got through the epoxy.

The solution was as easy as the rub rails.  Sand, re-expoxy, sand lightly and repaint.  Good as new.

3.  This one was the scariest and most disturbing of the problems.  During construction the backrests as they were cut from the factory did not fit.  They were about 1" too short to meet the forward bulkhead when fitting correctly aft.  I decided to butt-joint a couple of inches of wood along the front and then cut to size to make up the inch.  I did this butt joint with a slurry of epoxy and biaxial tape on the inside of the backrest.  After exposure to the sun the butt joint partially separated.  This may have been made worse because of the expanding foam I installed behind the backrest.  I've got a lot of theories but my leading one is that the foam retains heat as it shrunk it pulled the backrest in separating it at the butt joint.

At first I tried to pull it back out into position, but the foam behind it was acting like a glue and it wouldn't budge.  I got out my handy little dremel tool and cut a wide "V" down the center of the crack.  Again I tested it and satisfied myself that it was stable, just misaligned.  I filled the "V" with thickened epoxy and then placed another layer of biaxial tape over the crack.

I sanded that smooth and then applied fairing compound.

 I blended the faring compound with a sanding block until every looked (and felt) even.

After that it was a simple mater to prime and paint.  Although not invisible most people can't detected the repair unless told where it was.  I think it will disappear totally when the entire cockpit it next painted.

4.  In addition to the above I fixed the spray hood separation that occurred on the first splash and was documented in a prior post.  This was because of my improper masking and painting that didn't leave a non-painted areas for the epoxy to adhere to.  This happened only on the starboard side, as the install was solid on the front and port side.

To remedy I carefully put wedges between the deck and the splash hood on the starboard side.  This allowed me the room to chisel out the old epoxy.  After that I masked the area and used 80 grit sandpaper glued to the edge of a scraper to remove the paint.  I then applied some thickened epoxy.  Before that could set up I pulled the wedges out and, using the original construction screw holes, I screwed up from under the deck to close the glue joint.  After it set up I removed the temporary screws.  Been walking on it ever since without any indication of a problem.

5.  Finished the installation of the running lights.  Installed waterproof through hulls, pulled the wire and installed the power panel and main switch.  The running light needed wooden shims to ensure they were in parallel pointing forward.  I have a 80AH group 24 AGM battery that runs those lights and a interior curtesy light.  All are LED and the power draw is minimal to be almost non-existent.  I also have installed a couple of 12VDC outlets to power anything else I might want.  I want the electronics to stay minimal.

6.  Added 50 lbs more ballast in the forward floorboard hatch.  I have a total of 225 lbs of ballast and not more room in that compartment.