What a great weekend!
It was cool in temperature, but hot in accomplishments! Jack vanArsdale, Mark Johnson, Warren (Guy), Whitney & Justine Stewart, Troy Cain, and Jim Clark all came to Erie for the mast stepping and splashing of Kelly III. After stepping the mast we thought we discovered a problem with the newly recut and refurbished roller furling genoa. It seemed that the sail was cut about 4 inches too long. It seemed that I would need to return the sail to the sailmaker for cutting the excess 4 inches back to the proper length.
Even though the motor started with little trouble, we found water flowing out of the block at an alarming rate, by the time we inspected it while running in the slip. It seems the soft plug had been pushed out by the water pressure. Fortunately, Mark Johnson found the plug and reinstalled it. This reduced the leaking water to a trickle from the water pump gasket.
After sleeping on these 2 problems, “First Mate” Jim Clark suggested we prepare the roller furler for when I returned in a couple weeks with a repaired genoa. As Jim and Jack worked on wrapping the furling line onto the drum, they discovered that I had installed the rotating upper drum upside down. Meanwhile, Guy discovered problems with the fresh water pump at the galley sink. Guy and Jim took off to buy new plumbing for the fresh water system. Jack & I set to work on the roller furler. After significant consternation and effort, Jack & I disconnected the forestay, removed the lower furling drum, disconnecting the lowest extrusion tube, pulling off and re-installing the upper drum (but right-side up this time), re-assembling the extrusion, lower drum, and re-attaching the forestay.
Guy & Jim returned with Whitney and Justine and their team re-plumbed the fresh water system with new hose. While the hose was necessary due to the old and cloudy nature of the old hose, it seems the galley hand pump has failed and needs to be replaced. We decided to do that later.
After heading Kelly III into the wind, the entire team began the final rigging and furling of the roller furler and sail – now it all worked great! During this wrap up of the genoa, Nelson Roller (mechanic extraordinaire), showed up and inspected the motor. His verdict: “Go Sailing”! The leaking water pump gasket is not critical (though we’ll get it replaced next week) so we all head onto the bay for a brief, but beautiful sail on Presque Isle Bay. Well, all but Jim, but he did get his lost ring back from the marina, so even Jim is happy.
It was a challenging but satisfying weekend. Especially since we thought we had 2 MAJOR problems (a sail needing to be recut and a water gushing engine). Instead, we got things accomplished and went sailing!
