This blog documents the modifications necessary to get seaworthy (warts and all), then the adventures (hopefully) on board our Trailer Sailer 6.1 metre Jarcat6 Catamaran, Kismet.
We set off for a few days on the Gippsland Lakes leaving the petrol outboard motor behind and instead taking our 80lb thrust trolling motor (Pelican EMP80). I had a second LiFePO4 (Lithium) battery dedicated to the electric motor.
We launched at Johnsonville quite late as I was waiting for the wind to drop. My concern was that I had never powered the boat with the electric motor and wasn't sure how much wind it could fight to dock. It turned out to be quite zippy and we had no problem docking with the 90° capable steering. We stayed the night, and next morning had a slow but pleasant sail down the Tambo river then across Lake King to Paynesville.
We using the motor every now and then on the river to "power tack".
Once across Lake King, I tacked as much as possible to get into the straight at Paynesville but finally motored (slowly, around 2.5 knots) most of the way down to the Yacht club.
We found some power there to charge the propulsion battery and next morning I was surprised that the battery had only required 15AH to fully charge. It's a 100AH battery. I can clearly use a lot more throttle without worrying too much about range.
We only stayed the one night at Paynesville (no problems, just a long story to do with folk at home) then back across Lake King and up the Tambo next day. We came home that night.
After watching the wind and weather for Paynesville for the past couple of weeks we booked a waterfront cabin at Allawah (Caravan park with boat ramp) for 5 nights and set off for Paynesville. I was a bit tired to launch after driving down (290km) so we launched at the Allawah ramp the next day. We were finally rigged and ready to leave the Allawah jetty at around midday.
Kismet at the Yacht club dock.
Since it was so late already we elected to motor around to the Yacht club docks and grab some lunch at the bakery.
We went for a sail on Lake Victoria for a couple of hours to familiarise ourselves with the boat again, then back to Allawah around 4PM.
Next day we set out at 10:30AM for Steamer Landing over at Bunga Arm. That was the longest time we had ever spent following channel markers. It wasn't difficult but classified as "a first" for us. We kept sails up all the way to 100M short of the jetty then, while we were putting sails down, watched and learned while someone else approached the dock to windward. We copied their approach with Laurel at the helm and were very pleased with the ease that we docked. Ken (from the boat we following in) was there to take our lines but Laurel's approach was good enough for me to have easily stepped off the bow.
We walked over the sand hill to the 90 mile beach and went for about a 45 minute stroll along the beach.
We had to motor a little bit coming back.
At was a very pleasant sail back with Laurel demonstrating the Tammy navigation system. A joke from the Whitsundays trip where Tammy would lift her polaroid sunglasses to read the Nav unit. William started the joke on our Wyndham Harbour outing (see earlier posts).
The next day we set out for Metung, arriving there on a near downwind sail at about 11:45AM. We really liked Metung and might look at basing ourselves there on a future trip. We had lunch at the Meeting Bakery and Cafe.
Tied up at Metung outside the pub. Me looking stylish as usual.
On the way back it was directly into the wind so we sailed (tacking) about a third of the way but decided it was just too cold and getting late so motored the last 5NM.
Just a note here. Laurel had four layers of clothing on but found it really difficult to stay warm. This included thermal underwear, Merino tops etc. We need to address this problem. For some reason I don't get cold - maybe fiddling with sails etc. keeps me warm.
The next day BOM was showing quite light winds from 11AM onwards but we had decided that we really wanted to visit Loch Sport - so off we went. The sailing was great but gradually the wind dropped and at about 5NM into the 12NM trip the wind was less than 6 knots. Our required track was into the wind so after tacking several times it was clear we wouldn't be there until dark (unless we motored). Regretfully we turned back and sailed as much as possible (downwind on the way back) then motored back for the last 20 minutes.
Note the totally unflapping Jib centred on the boat - no apparent wind.
We learnt an important lesson here. If we are going to base ourselves somewhere in accommodation (because it's a bit too cold on the boat at night), we need to take bedding and food out with us so there is no time issue - we would have continued on had we had our bedding. (Our boat bedding was back at Allawah on top of the too-hard bed in the cabin.)
We left retrieving until the next day and had a quiet day preparing for travel back to Melbourne.
A very successful and peaceful holiday with enough learning thrown in to keep us on our toes. Laurel helmed Kismet four times into dock with perfect results. The fifth time (retrieving) was no wind and it surprised her how little power she needed and had to do a hasty reverse.
November 27th 2019. I took my son sailing for his first time since we've had our Jarcat6. We launched at Altona, sailing over to Wyndham Harbour, had lunch and sailed back. It was a long day - 08:30 start to 23:30 back home.
William at the tiller.
I reminded him abut doing up his PFD shortly after taking this picture.
Holding his sunglasses was a joke from our Whitsunday holiday where my daughter was photographed several times holding her sunglasses. Son joked that it was her navigation system.
This was about halfway - just past Point Cook.
Kismet at her visitors berth.
The return journey.
We had lunch at Wyndham Harbour and hung around a bit too long, leaving at 16:15. We arrived at Altona just in time to battle with the fishermen coming in with their powerboats. Caught some abuse for taking more than a minute to retrieve. With 6 lanes you think you wouldn't line up behind the sailboat.
It was a difficult retrieve. The wind was off the dock at about 15 to 20 knots and we needed two stern ropes to get enough grip to be able to hold her near the dock (by hand while walking her forward).
I need to be more pushy at the ramp. I lost my place a couple of times assuming I would get time to walk the boat forward.
Next day saw us leave Hamilton Island and motor through Solway Passage (uneventful at slack tide) to Chalkies Beach on Hazlewood Island for a snorkel. We easily picked up a mooring.
That's not a frown - just a trick of the shadows. I can see how my nose got a little sun through.
We snorkelled to the beach on Hazlewood Island then walked north along the beach for a while as we had been told the best coral was on the northern end. We had a long chat with a honeymoon couple from Canada who had a bareboat charter, then got back in the water. It was a long swim back to Kismet. Not much unbleached coral I'm afraid.
From Hazlewood Island we motored around to Tongue Bay and picked up a mooring for the night. It was a fairly rough night and next morning the huge mooring bouy had somehow made its way round to the back of the boat and was crashing on Kismet's rudders. I used the boat hook to move it back to the front (that sounds simple - it wasn't). My phone app, Anchorwatch, showed we had just made tiny circles all night.
The charter skeds next morning were alive with advice from the charter companies about the wind picking up a lot and finding safe anchorages for that night so we took the hint and decided to head for Nara Inlet.
From Tongue Bay we motored up the east side of Whitsunday Island almost dead into the wind, then through Hook Passage. Our destination was Nara Inlet however I forgot to save the track feature on Navionics so I have reconstructed a track in the picture below.
After getting safely through Hook Passage (easy again) we went to raise sails. It was here that I mucked up. Once the main was up, I went forward to get the Jib ready to hoist and couldn't get enough slack to attach the Jib halyard. (I had detached it to use it for our shade the day before). I think I also realised that the jib sheets need a bit of re-routing and went back to the cockpit to adjust them. Totally forgetting that the halyard shackle wasn't yet attached I gave the halyard a big heave (I tended to raise it quickly when not heading into the wind as it goes up more easily), and up the halyard shackle went - minus jib. I attempted to get it down by standing on the cabin roof using the boat pole but was told to STOP - I was being rocked about a lot and it must have looked precarious holding on to the mast with one hand and the end of a very extended boat pole with the other.
Since Kismet is really difficult to keep correct heading when on a close reach, we couldn't sail. I regretted losing the days sailing due to my mistake. At Nara Inlet, once anchored, I tied a small shackle to the boat hook and was easily able to retrieve the errant halyard shackle.
We had anchored only once before at Homestead Bay where I had used the cheap sand anchor that Kismet came with. This time, since it was overnight we initially anchored with the sand anchor then I broke out my shiny new G7 alloy anchor and spent a few minutes assembling it, adding equally new 8 meters of chain and 8mm nylon rope (now rode). Swapping over anchors was a little challenging but soon we were safely secured with the G7. There was lots of discussion with the crew about just where we were anchoring as there was a lot of rock around us.
Our dinner at Nara Inlet was frozen homemade hamburger patties cooked on the Origo (with lots of salad stuff), between two slices of bread toasted on the Origo using one of those campfire toasters. (After getting home and checking/cleaning everything I am surprised it hasn't rusted - it's only chrome plated mild steel.)
Tammy showing me the frypan while I was setting the Anchorwatch position.
Tammy is toasting bread here. Our 90 x 60cm stowable cockpit table has adjustable height and we has just found the lower setting to be a lot easier to use when using the Origo stove.
Laurel tended to take most of the pictures so isn't in them much.
Next morning, 7th September, after a quiet night, Anchorwatch (phone App) showed we had only wandered a few meters and we prepared to pull up the anchor and get under way to our Port of Airlie berth.
I didn't believe Tammy at first when she pointed out that there was only a meter of water between us and the rocks but the boat pole affirmed that it was true - whoops. Whitsunday tides.
I found with Kismet that we didn't really need to motor to the anchor as the boat is light enough that a firm continuous pull on the anchor rode moves the boat fairly easily. So it was then I found that the rode was wrapped around just about every rock within a 10 meter radius. I got Tammy to come forward with the boat hook and between her pushing the nylon rode around each rock then me pulling Kismet up to the next one, we got her free pretty easily. It took about 5 to 10 minutes.
Once I got to the chain it was easy to recover the anchor. I was quite surprised when it all fitted in the anchor locker.
While carefully threading our way through the rocks out of Nara Inlet, there was a guy near where we anchored standing on the bow of his charter boat with the anchor winch remote control in his hands looking gravely at the water. What we just did getting our rode untangled would be sooo much harder with a 5 tonne boat.
Leaving Nara Inlet.
Once clear of Nara we hoisted sails and had a great sail to Port of Airlie.
It wasn't so great dropping sails at Airlie though. By the time we neared shallow water the wind was up and the waves were over a meter with whitecaps. There were some white knuckles but we were fine if a little uncomfortable (Laurel says we weren't fine). We motored into Port of Airlie where we had been given the same berth that we started from.
After checking the weather forecasts for the next few days, we decided to retrieve next morning.
So next morning the 8th of September at around 08:00 (high tide) we motored the 300 meters to the Port of Airlie boat ramp.
Trouble. As we rounded the corner to the boat ramp there were two 30 meter Cruise Whitsundays power catamarans, one rotating on the spot and the other sounding "I am going astern". We were pretty stuck on which way to go so I swerved into one of the commercial berths only to be waved off from a dockhand pointing at yet another large Commercial Sailing Catamaran.
We managed to avoid to much confrontation then saw that there was a largish power boat launching on the jetty side (the side I had to dock) of the ramp.
He was in the water and off the jetty in short time and again, we avoided each other while ducking the shuttle boats.
The wind was off the dock at what I thought to be about 20 knots so I had talked through how we were going t dock with daughter Tammy. She was up the front with a mooring line ready to tie off the bow. We came in at about a 30 degree angle to the dock with just enough power to overcome the wind and I turned off at the last second and reversed a little to stop the boat. Tammy calmly stepped ashore and a wrapped couple of turns around the dock cleat.
Then it went belly up.
I was supposed to leave it in reverse and turn the motor as if doing a turn to port. Instead I placed it back in forward and turned to starboard. With no wind that would have been fine, it would have pushed the stern in, but as it was the boat quickly came around to almost 90 degrees to the dock. Tammy was yelling "REVERSE" - and I did. At that point the stern started moving to the dock and we were OK again. A bit more power and we moved parallel to the dock and tied off. But I had banged the port bow and made a golfball size dent about 1cm deep - even though the jetty had a rubber strip - it was obviously hard rubber. My bow fender almost saved it but not quite.
After that we retrieved OK - with me mightily annoyed that we had discussed docking and I had mucked it up.
As we prepared Kismet for road travel and Tammy got her gear out ready to catch a 09:50 shuttle to Hamilton Island, the wind just kept getting stronger. We parked Kismet and car next to the boat ramp and walked Tammy up to the Transit lounge.
Daughter Tammy aboard the Cruise Whitsundays shuttle pointing to Kismet next to the boat ramp waiting to get her outboard flushed - and a preliminary wash down for boat and trailer.
Next post - preparation for the road and the trip home...
We left Port of Airlie on the 2nd September around 11:30. We motored out a little bit then raised sail. We had a very pleasant crossing to Stonehaven on the west side of Hook Island. We poked our nose in at the southern end but then decided to go as far north as we could find a mooring.
Here is our daughter Tammy on the helm while motoring out of Pioneer Bay (Port of Airlie) while I mucked around getting the main sail ready to raise (actually I'm sitting on the sail bag in this picture). Airlie Beach is in the background.
Finally under sail.
We arrived at Stonehaven at 15:52 (16.2NM) and picked up a mooring for overnight.
At this stage I deployed our "beach tent" shade. This was really just a pretty cloth tarpaulin with lots of eyelets. Since the sun was behind us we placed it out the back - hoisting its pole with the main halyard. It billowed out the back of the boat and made me concerned for our mooring attachment - not very successful.
By that time it was sunset anyway.
The cabin windows seem to be quite useful as mirrors at night.
We left Stonehaven at 09:55 and motored over to Langford Reef (1.7NM) where we picked up a mooring and fired up the 12V oven then cooked muffins from a muffin mix.
With full sun on the Solar Panels the battery didn't even notice the oven's 8.3 Amp current draw (about 100W). They were delicious - not quite as risen as in a home oven but pretty good.
I was a bit hot when we got to Langford Reef so I went for a swim while the muffins baked. A turtle eyed me off before diving away and I got laughed at by the crew for cleaning the Kismet's hulls. They were a bit scummy after this short time in the water - mainly the bows just above the waterline.
From Langford Reef, we went over to Blue Pearl bay on Hayman island, picked up a mooring and had our first snorkel.
You can see our zig-zag course near Langford Island as we raised sail, discovered that there was almost no wind and dropped them again.
We had planned on going around to Luncheon Bay but the wind was "on the nose" (dead ahead) so we motored. As we were a bit worried about what time we would arrive (we left Blue Pearl at 16:29), we stopped at Butterfly Bay instead at 17:30 for our overnight mooring.
I'm glad we shortened that trip - Luncheon Bay would have been another 30 minutes at least which would have had us navigating coral bommies at sunset.
At Butterfly Bay, we heated up some frozen Lasagna for dinner using the Origo Stove (alcohol) with a frypan covered in foil. It did a great job.
There's that toothy gap again.
The 3/4 pants I'm wearing are a full pair that Laurel cut down and re-hemmed following some advice from Peter Yates (Trailer Sailor Place) to keep knees covered from the sun. They were VERY practical but I'm told not a great fashion statement. I note that I'm already sporting sandfly bites on my legs from the caravan park.
Butterfly Bay next morning.
I was hoping we would go ashore for a walk at Butterfly Bay but we had a big trip down to Hamilton Island that day so decided we would be back to Butterfly Bay a couple of days later (it was on my itinerary).
We made our way down the east side of Hook Island and carefully motored through Hook Passage at slack tide (it was quite calm) and on down to Homestead Bay on CID island. There was no wind to speak of and we had to make reasonable time - explaining why Hook Passage was so calm.
We anchored at Homestead Bay for lunch. At this stage I deployed our shade for the second time and it was a little more successful as I used a sail slug and ran one side up the mast with the main halyard - it still needs work though.
After lunch the wind had picked up a little and we then sailed part way to our Hamilton Island berth overnight.
Laurel joked that sailing was a tad slow when you had to go in almost the opposite direction - but I enjoyed the sail. We dropped sail when we entered Fitzalan Passage (where we turn SSE) as we were straight into the wind.
Our overnight berth at Hamilton Island. Once again at the base of a ramp.
I was a little critical of Hamilton Island at the time but I actually enjoyed it in retrospect. The Lorikeets were very demanding. You really did have to fend them off your breakfast.
We were fortunate that we were able to meet with Peter from the Trailer Sailer Place forum while in Paynesville. Peter and crew motored out to meet us and took some pictures (unbeknownst to us) while we were sailing.
That slack near the foot of the main sail, I found later to be caused by the way the main halyard cheek block (pulley at the top of the mast) had been riveted on. Two of the four rivets are within a few millimetres of the sail track preventing the bolt rope from sliding up further. To Be Fixed...
(Later edit: I am now sure it's NOT the rivets - just the bolt rope getting stuck in the mast track. I've purchased some McLube dry silicone spray. I'll clean the slot then lube it - and the main next time it's up.)
(Later, later edit: The McLube fixed the main going all the way up the slot.)
Well just Lake Victoria actually. We took accommodation at Captains Cove where we had our own boat berth (picture above). It let us get out on the boat without the rigmarole of setting up each day. A VERY successful four days albeit only two days actually sailing.
We have trying to get out on Port Phillip but out of a nine hour day we don't even get two hours actually on the water - then arrive home exhausted from the whole process.
This way (Paynesville) we arrived and launched and were ready next day to just step out onto the boat. There were some complications this time as I had to rig a few things for the first time.
It was quite helpful to tow to 300 or so kilometres down to Paynesville as this is the longest tow we have done with the boat.
For instance:
- Insects splat against the hatch fronts and somehow find their way into the cabin - lots of dead bodies.
- Webbing straps slowly loosen for the first 100km as they tighten on the drums.
- The Tacktrack lines (ropes) along the front of the boat vibrate a lot and need some kind of restraint to stop them thrashing and compromising the ropes.
- The boat becomes more stable at speed but uses more "fuel" from the car than our small caravan that is heavier.
We got the right wind conditions (that aligned with other life stuff) on Saturday.
We launched at Altona this time - this was a lot better than the Warmies (Williamstown). We raised the newly adjusted jib at the dock and it looked good. We then put it away and rigged main only.
We solved the retrieval issues. I purchased 2 of 6" rollers and frames to replace the offending 2 just forward of the wheels. We launched then I replaced them. During replacing it became obvious why we couldn't easily retrieve. The port side roller stem bracket is welded on crookedly. The 6" roller fixes the width problem..
Two issues:
1. The Outhaul tends to rotate the boom about 20 degrees due to the padeye being off the side of the boom slot. This stuffs up the mast steering shackle. I think this is easily solved with a bit more thought from me on how I tie the outhaul to the padeye at the end of the boom.
2. Getting the bolt rope into the mast slot as I hauled it up was a pain. It kept wanting to jam at the top of the slot opening. (Googling I find this is common - since this was my first time I'll reserve judgement for now).
Anyway, once up she sailed well on the main but four attempts to tack failed - in irons. No jib, no dagger boards - I hope that's all it was. Crew was very concerned most of the time - hence no jib and daggers.
From what I read since then it was pretty optimistic that I could tack with no daggers down. The Jarcat has quite flat hulls unlike a beach cat so I would think it really needs the daggerboards to steer well.
During the previous week I added grab handles to the front of the cabin roof. Now I don't have to throw myself across the roof (in waves) when going forward. The picture show the starboard handle just above the green navigation light. I realise that they may pose a problem for the genoa in future but they are pretty streamlined and the sail shouldn't get caught on them.
We took advantage of the light winds on Sunday to take Kismet out for the first sail. A number of time consuming reasons had us in the water with mast up at 1:30pm.
Nearly ready...
There was a lot of traffic on the water and we had not boated for almost a year so it took us to almost 3pm (having lunch while drifting) to finally raise the jib for the first time.
Given about 5 knots of wind I was happy we made steering speed but we ran out of time to try the main (long story).
The jib appears too long. See attached picture. It's OK on downwind or board reach but closer to the wind it's sitting on the roof. It was up close against the top halyard block.
Retrieving was a pain AGAIN with Kismet slipping off a roller and gouging the keel a bit. Not sure how we can improve that - it's the worst part of going out for the day. (We are doing day sails while we shake down the boat.)
Over all I regard it as a great success - the mast appeared solid with so sign of distress in chainplates or tacktrack.
We won't launch at the warmies again for sailing - too busy and takes too long to get to sailing areas.
We should also rig all sails on land - live and learn.
Better half was quite concerned even with the light conditions so I took that into account - hence jib only.
The jib turns out to be about 500mm too long in both luff and leach so it's at a sail maker now awaiting us to give him some critical measurements so it can be modified.
In the picture you can see the jib dragging on the cabin roof.
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