Congrats mate, you went one better than me. I reversed into the boat ramp in safety bay until the trailer was on the sand, back tyres of the 4wd were in the water but the boat was floating! Then pulled up into the rigging lane to put things together, had a few guys come tell me not to waste my time as the ramps not deep enough for a sail boat, but that's why I put boat in the water before I rigged it.

While I was digging away a guy came over to ask for help and modus operandi changed to 4wd rescue mission, car was stuck in the ocean with water coming into his car, been stuck since 3:30am, being Father's Day the only help he got was cops came down and have him a $250 fine, ranger and recovery crews didn't want a bar of it, don't really blame them though, he will be in the Rockingham paper sometime this week so I'll keep an eye out for the pics.

Parked up the boat during the retrieval then when I hooked on again I had to drive out onto the street and back in, checked the powerlines were all on the other side of the street but didn't see a tensioner line and clipped it with my mast, snapped the pot rivots off holding the top section of the mast on, foiling any plans of getting out. Point of the excursion was to be a shakedown, I did shake something down, boat ramp is deep enough and that part of the mast was on its way out so I'm happy it broke while on land and not while I was under it, so even though no sailing took place I'm calling the day a success!

Wow Jake, sounds like you had an action packed day!!
Shame you didn't get yours in the water.
I've got a few mods I want to make to mine then ill be back, lets try and tee up a launch.

Stu, I like the sticker, looks very good quality where did you get it and how much?

well it took me a lot of searching to find it but after a while.

i came across www.boatnames.com.au/

for 3 stickers plus 2 rego number stickers it was like $74.00 so that seemed good to me

Select to expand quote

Stuman92 said..
Wow Jake, sounds like you had an action packed day!!
Shame you didn't get yours in the water.

At least he made it all the way to the boat ramp.

I looked at the weather today and with "Winds Westerly 25 to 30 knots, reaching up to 40 knots in the evening. Tending southwesterly in the late evening. Squalls in excess of 50 knots possible in showers and thunderstorms south of Mandurah late afternoon and evening. Seas 3 to 4 metres. Swell Westerly 3 to 4 metres. Weather Cloudy. 90% chance of showers. The chance of a thunderstorm along the coastal fringe early this evening. Caution: Dangerous surf conditions hazardous for coastal activities such as swimming, surfing and rock fishing. "
and more of the same tomorrow I left the boat on the lawn and decided to have a few glasses of port instead.

Hi Stu, the weather is keeping you out of the water?

Hey Felix

Nah work is, flat out, down in esprance all this week's and some of next week.

The following weekend will be out for sure!

Hey Stuman, Have you been out yet?

I got my mast fixed by bullet boats in Rockingham, great guys, easy to deal with and awesome job. Did a sailing course (Crewing and Helming) through Fremantle yacht club, another thing I recommend for novice sailors, they really push you through your paces, had us tacking and jibing every 50metres.

Finally got out on the weekend on the Red Jacket, on pushing off from the dock my accelerator cable snapped, some quick hoisting of the sail saved us from drifting into rocks/ other boats and we were away, the yacht course helped in how to enter and stop purely under sail power safely so no dramas!

Hey jake

Not for a little bit now. slowly getting all my systems sorted.

that sucks about the throttle cable but great job on getting it out!!! :)
Im potentially heading out this weekend. then ill be away for about 2 weeks. so no Sailing

Hi Jake,

Im in exactly the same position, just bought my first redwitch aswell

mate Im just starting the journey on my redwitch, would love to take a look at yours sometime for a few ideas

Rick

Select to expand quote

Stuman92 said..
slowly getting all my systems sorted.

yeah Stuman, 2 months since I've been on the water as well. So many little things to get sorted or could be modified to work better that only show up after the first sea trial.

Hey Guys

Sorry for the late reply
Working in Alaska this Month.

Yeah December will be very Sailing orientated,
For starters my new 80W German Solar Panel has arrived whilst ive been away so that will be the first job, then oil the woodwork.
check the Rigging and off we go.

Out of curiosity does anyone have any tips on how to transport your stays whilst attached to the mast. mine seem to rattle loose whilst driving to the Ocean or river.

Cheers

A popular tie is lengths of Velcro wrapped back onto itself. It is very strong. I've also used old house wiring. A bit faster but maybe not as secure.

Hey Stuman, Welcome back, I use 50cm pieces of nylon rope tied in a reef knot and that does the trick.

I've been out the last 3 weekends in a row and no dramas! Had 20knot+ gusts yesterday and she handled well, I've been using the Bell St Boat ramps in Rockingham, just deep enough to get off the trailer at low tide (I have no extender bar on my trailer), quiet enough that you get 1 -2 boats an hour going in and out, plus you're in the more protected part of rockingham from the waves without having to go out and under the coat hander bridge.

Always little things to do though, my bilge pump arrived last week and I'm wiring it up so I can move it anywhere in the yacht. Its a little hard to determine where the lowest point is and I guess the lowest point depends on which way you're rolling so I figure a moveable system will solve this issue. Next job is constructing my own wind vane to go on top of the mast.

Also made my own tiller arm, not as fancy as yours, its a shovel handle with a hole drilled in it, but does the job!

All the best mate and sure I will see you around.

Hope to see you out there Jake888 in Cockburn Sound / Warnbro Sound. I use Pt Perron ramp,it has floating fingers and is well protected. I will be out sailing from this Wedensday to Friday. I think I will sail around to Warnbro Sound and pick up a visitor mooring at Long pt on Thursday night.

I didn't know you could tie up down there as a visitor. Do you have to radio to anywhere to let them know or maximum length of stay rules? That would be a nice sail there and back.

4 elastic cord ball ties to secure the stays along the mast from the top to the mast step and 2 ocky strap to keep tensioned the remaining lose bit from the chainplate to mast

There are five visitor moorings down there. Three North East of the PK ramp and another two to the west. You don't have to tell any body. You are supposed to stay only 4 hours there I think. But if you are there 4 hours before sunset then its yours for the night. There is five in a row near where you launch from and I often sea boats there for a week. As I ride my bike passed there every couple of days. We will have to meet up under sail one time. I have a Swarbrick 18 trailer sailer. I think it has the same hull as the 18 fixed keel but the cabin top is not as boxy. I have not seen another one like mine.

I kayak up to those moorings and back before work, seen the same boats there for weeks, I assumed people had bought them, bit of a pain setting the mast up and down so like the idea of being able to Moore up close by for a night.


Anyone know how deep the channel is over near bent st boat ramp in safety bay? Currently dredging it and when I've been kitesurfing over it, it hasn't look deep enough for a keel boat yet but looks are deceiving

Thanks for the stay help

Jake and LA we should try and organise a meet up down that way.
those moorings sound good.

Alaska is still cold in case anyone was wondering :)

Well my 80W Solar panel is here, just needs mounting and running cable to the regulator.

This is about where it will sit.

I was going to say "watch out for that shadow on the solar panel" but clearly I'm an idiot and that's the lowered mast in the photo. Looking good Stuman!

hahaha thanks Nebian

should have it fitted and wired in this weekend all being well.

Do people remove there turn buckles from there stays before transport? or do you just tighten the locking nuts up?

paranoid ill loose one someday.

Only one of my stays has a turnbuckle which I didn't take off the first time I transported the yacht, and I lost it. The rest are a more permanent the way they are affixed. Good luck with the solar panel, mine is much smaller and on the back transom.

I leave the sidestays locked as I don't need to touch them to lower the mast and only remove the one on the forestay.
Since you will need to remove one end anyway when you lower your mast it's faster just to remove the pin from the other end of the turnbuckle as well rather the lock the nuts .
If you use the mainsheet tackle to lower/raise your mast you could put the extra tension on the forestay so you can remove the pin without the need to losen the turnbuckle at all,

Hey Stuman , here is a pic with the sidestays tied up along the mast and ocky strapped
Did you get to fit the solar panel yet ?
I did mine today with sikaflex so now I can walk on it.

Hey harb

Yours looks great!!
Yep solar is all mounted and running great. 80w panel with 2x40 amp batteries. Plenty to run the radio lights and beer cooler.

Mast is secured nicely now and all the stays are out of the way. Took a bit to tune them but happy now. I've been looking into some of the quick release alternatives to the turn buckles. Ill post some up later.

Select to expand quote

Stuman92 said..
I've been looking into some of the quick release alternatives to the turn buckles.

My boat came with Ronstan RF444 Stay Adjusters for the front and lower stays and they did the job. The reason I changed them to turnbuckles was because they bend too easily with side tension, as in when pulling on the stays with them caught sideways when setting and removing the mast .
Now that I keep the boat in the water for 10 months of the year I'm thinking of replacing the front turnbuckle with a RF2331 or even better a Highfield lever type tensioner adjuster if I can find one locally so I can release some of the forestay tension when I don't need it.
Haven't seen your setup but if anything like mine you could leave the turnbuckles locked if you are happy with the tensions on stays and use the jib halyard and your own weight to lean on it to get enough bend in the mast to insert or remove the turnbuckle clevis pin and split ring. That's almost as quick as using a quick release pin.