Memories: 2015 Great Schooner Race at SFYC

With MAYAN moored in her slip while we're sheltering in place from the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to reach back in time to one of our favorite events.

We had the tremendous luck of having the Crowninshield schooner MARTHA visiting the San Francisco Bay for the event, giving us a rare opportunity to sail against a staysail schooner of similar length. The schooners BRIGADOON and YANKEE were racing with us, but their gaff rig puts them at a disadvantage when going upwind.

MAYAN flying her "Lowers", with her small Yankee Jib

The day started with the threat of strong winds. A gray overcast hung above us and a strong ebb tide was forecast. It would be bumpy!

We had set all the lowers: Yankee Jib, Fore Staysail, Main Staysail, and Mainsail, in anticipation of a blow. But as we reached back towards the Knox Buoy starting line, the wind faded away.

"Change to the Genoa Jib!" called Beau, only 4 minutes before the start.

Under the leadership of the foredeck boss, Syntha Petroka, the foredeck crew went to work. With one minute to the gun, the sail-change was completed, we were on the line on time, and had the correct sail flying. As the starting gun went off, the boat settled down, and we started playing the puffs in the surprisingly light air.

MAYAN was new to us all. Thanks to the quick work of the foredeck crew, we had the right sail up and began to extend our lead on MARTHA. But, we didn't know how much wind the rig and sails would take. As we reached the windward mark, the wind was above 25 knots with gusts to 30. We turned downwind and hauled up the massive Advance Staysail to replace the Main Staysail, and set the Spinnaker flying from the bowsprit. With her centerboard pulled up, MAYAN has far less wetted surface than the other schooners. As one of the crew said: "She's lifting her skirts to run away now."

On the wind sailing back from Southampton Shoal to Alcatraz

The leeward mark far to the east of Angel Island was fast approaching and the wind was still in the high 20s to low 30s. Just before rounding the leeward mark the Advance Staysail and Spinnaker came down, the Main Staysail went up, and we took a chance by flying the Genoa Jib. Our crew boss, Skip Allen, had the team working beautifully.

"Wayne, how much can that bowsprit take?" Beau called out.

"More than the sailcloth can!" responded Wayne with a smile.

Wayne had entirely rebuilt MAYAN a decade earlier, he was confident in her strength. He was right. With the large jib drawing well MAYAN started clawing her way back upwind, bouncing in the ebb chop, and covering her crew with cold saltwater. A typical spring day on San Francisco Bay.

As we approached Alcatraz Skip Allen could see the ebb pushing us westward, directly upwind. MARTHA was gaining on us now, her full keel holding her to a lot less leeway than MAYAN makes with her centerboard.

"Bow down, Beau" called Skip. "Don't pinch her in this chop. You'll be too close to the island."

Beau pushed the bow down and MAYAN picked up a knot of boat speed. She was romping along now, spray flying everywhere. As is usually the case, Skip was right. The ebb tide kept pushing MAYAN westward towards Alcatraz and we ran the risk of getting into the lee of the island. What's worse, if we got too close, we'd be lifted out of the favorable ebb tide.

MAYAN riding the edge of the ebb tide upwind past Alcatraz

As we shot past Alcatraz, Beau called to Skip: "Call the layline. We don't want to go any further towards the City than we have to."

Skip grinned and started to gauge the current, wind, waves, and boat speed. One of the most experienced racing sailors in the world, this was a call he was really enjoying. 

"Stand by to tack!" rang out as Skip rallied everyone to their positions. "Tacking in 5, 4, 3..." he counted down. 

"This is nuts." said a friend from the Pacific Northwest as he took his position at the Genoa sheet winch. "We will never get around the island. We'll be headed right for the center of it."

"Just watch," Beau replied with a grin, and then called out: "Helm's a lee!"

As MAYAN completed her tack she was indeed pointed right at the rock cliff in the middle of the south side of Alcatraz. People ashore and on the ferries started to point at us and pull out their cameras. We were only six or seven boat lengths from the cliff and going fast. Our friends from out of town were worried.

But, Skip did what Beau knew he would. He had judged it perfectly. The ebb tide continued to push MAYAN upwind at over three knots. It runs especially strong along this southern cliff. "Keep the bow down, Beau." Skip called out. "You'll clear by two boat lengths."

Often referred to as The Elevator, the tide along this cliff is legendary. It is also extremely difficult to judge just how much a sailor can count on it. MAYAN did clear the southwestern tip of Alcatraz by two boat lengths as Skip made himself helpful by coiling lines and pointedly not looking at the island as it rushed past. 

MARTHA, not knowing the local conditions, had stood on a while towards San Francisco. There she tacked only to discover that the ebb tide and pushed her a long way west and she was badly overstood. The rest of the race was a romp back to Knox Buoy as both boats eased sheets and reached along with spray flying everywhere.

Wayne had brought his movie camera along that day, and just recently provided us with a beautiful video of the race. A special thanks to him for his efforts and a reminder that all of us who cherish these old wooden boats need to keep guys like Wayne going strong. You can find the race video at this link, and please visit the Maritime Preservation Trust for more information on caring for these lovely old boats. 

Testing The Manual Bilge Pump

Yesterday we wrapped up the rebuild and re-plumbing of the Edson 11" Manual Bilge Pump. It was time to give it a test!

We blocked off the limber holes to isolate the water in one section of the bilge between MAYAN's deep floor frames. Then took the freshwater flush hose from the engine room and ran it in reverse to fill that section of the bilge with saltwater. Matthew manned the pump handle and in the attached video you'll see that he has no trouble draining the bilge with the 30-gallon per minute pump working against the 7-gallon per minute flow from the hose.

After the test, we connected a freshwater hose to the input hose and filled the system with fresh water. No need to let seawater sit in the pump. That said, apparently, seawater has been sitting in that pump for decades without hurting it at all.

The video is YouTUBE HERE or just click on the video below.

We also tested the engine-driven Jabsco 60-gallon/minute bilge pump which ran perfectly. It emptied the bilge so quickly that the crew spent quite a bit of time waiting for the bilge to re-fill. We've only run the engine at 1,000 RPM so far, which is below the maximum RPM for the pump. As a result, we were only seeing about 80% of the pumping capacity expected.

Our neighbor, the Columbia-50 XANTHIPPI, has hauled out for a paint job. This has allowed us to test the engine-driven pump in the slip. The outlet for the bilge water from this pump is located near the waterline, and when we engage the pump bilge water is sprayed all over the dock and into XANTHIPPI's slip. We washed the dock down completely after the test, happy that we'd waited until the slip was empty!

These tests are run annually to ensure that the pumps are in good working order.

:Winter Projects: Crew Training: Flooding - Part 1

MAYAN Going Cruising

The following is a bit dry and instructional compared to our normal posts. If crew training and dealing with a sinking vessel aren't interesting, we'd suggest moving along to other posts.

In Part 1 we cover the tasks which need to be done when the boat is found to be flooding. We have also arranged them in order of importance, to best utilized the relatively short time one has before a serious leak can get dangerous.

In Post 2, we will cover various techniques we've learned over the years which can be used to stop flooding. As always, we're constantly looking for new ways of dealing with problems. Please feel free to email your thoughts to SchoonerMAYAN@gmail.com

Having been aboard a few boats which were trying to sink, the MAYAN crew is focused on including training for this eventuality in addition to a host of other training programs including Person Overboard, Fire, and Collision. All of these are in addition to the regular sailing practice and training that we'll be running in the spring. Each of these major training areas will be documented here and a handout will be given to the Crew as they go through the training.

Note: Let us start by saying that these instructions are designed to work best aboard MAYAN. Your crew may or may not find these suggestions useful. We'd recommend writing up your own set of instructions based upon the characteristics of your own boat and crew. More importantly, these instructions are NOT a substitute for attendance at a US Sailing Safety At Sea or US Power Boating class or any other official training. They are solely our own opinions and the way we do things aboard MAYAN.

FLOODING: Part 1

Prioritization of Tasks - It is critical to rank order the tasks by importance, ensuring that the highest priority tasks are attended to as quickly as possible. While this sounds rather obvious, it is surprising how rarely a crew is prepared to triage a problem they face. Below is a prioritized list of actions that need to be taken as soon as it is determined that the boat is flooding. At some point, while working down this list, the problem will be discovered and in almost all cases will be resolved. It is almost always safer to stay aboard MAYAN even if she were partially flooded.

1. Determine the source of the water: While this sounds silly, in our experience some crew will immediately start attempting to operate the radio, launch the life raft, or start pumping rather than organize themselves to identify the source of the water. In a boat that is the size of MAYAN, the source may be difficult to find initially. We identify search areas and crewmembers who are responsible for searching those areas. Four Crew Assigned to the following search areas:
• Engine Room - Because there are numerous thru-hulls and pipes here, it is the highest probability source of a problem including both salt and pressure freshwater leaks. 
• F'o'csul & Head - Possible collision or raw water intake leak, holding tank failure, shower sump failure, pressure fresh water leak. 
• Galley - Sink outflow, pressure fresh water leak. 
• Main Saloon - Manual bilge pump outflow, 12v Electric bilge pump outflow, leaking freshwater tank, leaking freshwater pressure pump
2. Assign Crew to Deal With The Leak: An appropriate sized and skilled team will be assigned to deal with stopping the leak. (This topic will be covered in Flooding: Part 2) Typically, this is no more than three crewmembers as space is typically limited and only one person can be positioned directly at the leak. The other members of the team will be running for parts, tools, supplies of various sorts. Also, some repair techniques require crew to work from the deck or even the water. Appropriate safety equipment and techniques should always be considered.
3. Assign Crew to Pumps and Communications: With the leak identified, the skipper will then assign one crew to the VHF radio to stand by for instructions and NOT send out a message until told to do so. Two crew will be assigned to the pumps:
• Manual Bilge Pump - Located in the main saloon. Suggest a strong crewmember
• Engine Driven Bilge Pump - Located in the engine room along with its clutch control.
• VHF Radio - Note the Longitude and Latitude of MAYAN. Pull the emergency radio procedure Cheat-Sheet from the Log Book. Perform a radio check to see if anyone is within range and responding. Standby the VHF Radio. DO NOT ISSUE A MAYDAY until ordered to do so by the Skipper.
4. Assign Crew to Abandon Ship Team: Only on the orders of the Skipper, execute the following steps:
• VHF Radio Crew - Start MAYDAY calls.
• Grab Bag Crew - Locate the secondary EPIRB, in the master stateroom, and bring it to the Nav-Station. Locate the Grab Bag in the hanging locker aft of the Nav-Station. Place the secondary EPIRB and one handheld VHF into the Grab Bag. Ensure the Grab Bag is sealed. Move it up onto the deck amidships near the Liferaft. Secure it to the mainmast.
• Life Raft Crew - Ensure that the raft is ready for launch. DO NOT LAUNCH without a direct order from the Skipper.
• Deck Crew - Secure MAYAN to the greatest extent possible: sails down, hatches, portholes, sea-cocks closed and wheel lashed.

Practice The Tasks - It is best to practice the tasks and (where possible) have crewmembers cycle through the various tasks to ensure that in the event of a problem, all the available crew can execute all the important tasks. While some crew is better suited to certain jobs, like a large grinder operating the manual bilge pump, flooding typically happens in foul weather and not all crew may be available.

MAYAN will gear up for spring practice which will cover all these tasks.

As always, please feel free to contact us by email at SchoonerMAYAN@gmail.com

Winter Projects: Bilge Pumps

This winter the projects aboard MAYAN are primarily of the "Once Done You'll Never See Them" category. So far engines have been services, minor leaks have been fixed, some rigging work has been completed at the masthead, and the one exception is that we're nearing completion of the annual varnish binge.

Today's post is about bilge pumps, a topic only a sailor could love, and one often neglected until the water is up to one's knees.

MAYAN has a small 12-volt bilge pump which is for clearing out the water when the washup-technician (me) spills the pasta water. As a result, there are two other pumps to deal with a serious leak.

Ideal 11" Manual Bladder Pump 30-Gal/Min

The first is a manual Edson pump with a 4' handle which will move 30 gallons of water per minute activated by even a small crewmember. On the right is the Edson pump stripped down. Because it is solid bronze, even after constant service from 1947 it is still in great shape and only needed new rubber bits.

The second is a 60 gallon per minute Jabsco pump belted to the Yanmar generator engine through a clutch.

While pumps almost never save a boat with a serious leak, they do buy time for the crew to address the issue and stop the water from coming aboard.

A key problem with a serious leak is that every bit of rubbish in the boat, under the bunks and along the inside of the hull flows into the bilge and will clog the intake of the pumps. Often, pump intakes are buried at the bottom of the bilge where the crew can't get to them to clear the blockage.

Engine Driven Pump Pick-Up Under Saloon Sole

The first step with MAYAN's pumps was to relocate the pickup to a place where a crew could easily reach the intake even if there were three feet of water in the boat. This required moving the pickups to the bilge beneath the main saloon sole.

The second step was to build a screen (sometimes called a Strum Box) which will keep rubbish from clogging the intake, and once the inevitable clog occurred, to allow the crew to clear it easily.

PVC Screens for Bilge Pump Pickup

The picture above shows the bilge beneath the Saloon sole. It is easily accessed by lifting a hatch in the sole. This is the inlet of the 60-gallon per minute engine-driven pump with it's 2" hose leading to a 10" long length of schedule 40 PVC pipe, and the screens. The entire screen can be removed when it clogs (It will clog!) and replaced by the spare screen tied to the hose in the picture so it won't wash away. The crew can then clear the clog by removing the end cap on the end of the PVC pipe and returning it to the bilge as the spare.

All connections are hand fit, as this is on the suction side of the pump and the use of a hose clamp would make it impossible to swap in the spare or clear the screen.

Once we've finished all this work, all the hoses and screens will be laying in the bilge for years, hopefully never to be used except for testing and training. We'll post an example of the training program in a future edition of the blog.

MAYAN Gets Her Rudder Re-Shaped

John G. Alden designed hundreds of boats over many decades. MAYAN is design number 356-B and based a design from 1928. Alden's design serves a specific mission: To annually traverse the Intercoastal Waterway from New England to the Carribean in the fall, returning home in the spring.

To succeed in this mission, MAYAN needed a draft no deeper than 5' with her centerboard up to avoid the shoals. She needed a masthead no higher than 65', to clear the bridges without forcing them to open. She needed a broad beam to hold her up against a stiff breeze, and a long waterline to let her make the passage quickly.

MAYAN sporting her beam and shallow draft

Alden's design delivered solutions to all these problems in a graceful seaworthy design: 60' on deck, 16'6" of beam, 4'6" of draft, a 45'6" waterline, and a mainmast head that stands 63' from the waterline. She is a bit short on sail-area, but that's perfect for her new home sailing on Monterey and San Francisco Bays. Here we have consistently strong winds that mask the ill effects of MAYAN's small rig. A side effect of her shallow draft is that her rudder is a bit under 4' tall. When combined with rather primitive ideas about hydrodynamics, it was challenging to keep MAYAN on course in quartering seas and hard to maneuver in close quarters. The advantages of our strong local winds dissipated on the square front and blunt trailing edge of our antiquated rudder shape.

I'm catching up on long-overdue posts. Our significant winter project last year was to re-shape the rudder while MAYAN was ashore to refresh her anti-fouling paint and various other maintenance tasks. Homer Lighthall, who has built hundreds of rudders for racing boats like MERLIN, was recruited to perform the work. Bill Lee, the yacht designer, volunteered to advise on the new shape. A squad of friends formed up from thin air and offered opinions about nearly everything.

The original rudder had a substantial list of problems:

MAYAN Original Rudder Shape

1) The prop aperture took up more than one-third of the leading edge of the rudder. 2) That leading edge was 4" thick, cast of bronze, and sported square corners!
3) The trailing edge of the rudder was 3" thick and finished in a hemisphere; one of the worst shapes when considering drag.
4) The rudder didn't extend up to the counter above, leaving a gap between the rudder and the hull.
5) The rudder didn't extend to the full depth of the keel, leaving it undersized.
6) A gap of 3" ran between the deadwood and the rudder post, allowing turbulence to form along the leeward side of the rudder.

Cardboard CAD

As Bill and I discussed various strategies to re-shape, extend vertically, and reduce the after edge of the rudder, Homer appeared with a sheet of cardboard. He clamped it to the old rudder, lining one side with the trailing edge of the deadwood. Trimming the right angle with a box cutter, Homer slid the top up until it was as close as possible to the counter. Extending a straight edge from the bottom of the keel, he cut the lower side of the cardboard. Finally, after stepping back and estimating the new additional area, he cut the cardboard short of the trailing edge of the old rudder. In ten minutes, Homer had designed the profile of a new rudder, expressed in cardboard. Bill weighed in, "That's about right."

I was still pondering which CAD system I was going to use to draw up the new rudder profile.... but, it was over. Homer's design looked good to me. Cardboard CAD!

Old Rudder vs new Cardboard CAD

"Homer, I'd like to have the same rudder area so that we don't change the boat's handicap rating," I said.

"I'll get my tools," Homer responded. Measure what I've added and what I'm going to cut off. Let me
know if I missed it."

Five minutes with a tape measure confirmed that Homer's eye was nearly perfect. He was off by less than two square inches out of a total of 1,848. "Damn near perfect!" I told him as he returned with his pushcart loaded with a circular saw, power planer, and angle grinder.

"Do you two want to talk about this more, or is this good enough?" Homer asked Bill and me.

"It looks about right to me," responded Bill.

With a little trepidation, I agreed. "Go for it, Homer," I said, sounding more confident than I felt. "We can always screw some back on if it's too small."

Homer just laughed and scribed a line on the old rudder following the trailing edge of
the cardboard. Then, picking up his circular saw, he cut about 7.5" off of the trailing edge of the old rudder along a graceful curve. Seeing a four foot high, by 7.5" wide, by 3" thick slab of wood laying on the concrete under MAYAN, felt incredibly odd. It had happened so fast.

Trading the circular saw for the power planer, Homer went to work, making the trailing edge of the rudder thinner. He worked entirely by eye. Where I would have built templates and patterns, Homer just ran his hand over the shape, stepped back to look at it every few minutes, and kept grinding. My job was to sweep up the rapidly growing mound of teak shavings growing underfoot.

To reinforce the wood and transfer the significant loads from the rudder shaft aft to the blade, the original builders had used two 3" by 1" bronze straps, which extended aft three feet. Homer cut away the last four inches of these straps.  Removing the tail end of the bronze straps allowed the after edge of the rudder to be ground down to a far narrower shape. Before the advances in hydrodynamics made in the 1950s, builders and naval architects didn't appreciate the drag created by thick foils. MAYAN was being brought forward into the 21st century just a bit.

With the profile and the foil shape roughed out, Homer headed off to his shop to order some 4" thick mahogany he could use to build up the top and bottom of the rudder to match the cardboard pattern. I set to work grinding all the paint and putty from what remained of the rudder and from areas of the deadwood, which would be shaped and faired to let the water approach the rudder and aperture.

Just aft of the propeller, the square leading edge of rudder was now clean, shiny bronze, highlighting the absurdity of its 4" thick square-cornered shape. As Homer looked over my shoulder, he laughed at the shape.

Re-Shaped Leading Edge In The Aperture

"That's like towing a bucket!" and then continued, "It is terrible in that spot because the water leaving the propeller is moving a lot faster than the boat, It hits that flat surface and goes around those square corners. I'll bet she'll get better fuel economy once we fix that."

Having completed the cleanup, I sat in the shade under MAYAN's port quarter and researched the clearance the MaxProp required aft of the blades and at the tips. We had plenty of space. It seems that MAYAN had once had a much larger propeller. At least she had an aperture large enough to accept one.

"What's the answer?" asked Homer.

"We can make the leading edge round. We've got 5" to work with, and we only need two. We can also bring the bottom of the aperture up about 3".  I replied.

"That's what I was hoping," replied Homer as he started cutting the long wooden strip for the bottom of the rudder.

Taking Shape - Note: New Wood and
Bronze Straps

Within an hour, he had cut the bottom edge of the rudder off straight and square, roughly shaped the new addition, dry-fit the new piece with long screws, and then attached it with West Epoxy and a bonding thickener. Turning his focus to the top of the rudder, he installed the new wood in the same manner. Mixing up epoxy and a sanding filler, he built up low spots on the sides of the rudder, which I hadn't noticed.

"We'll start final shaping tomorrow," Homer announced as he packed up his tools. We were only a few days into the project, and MAYAN's rudder looked entirely different.

As always, the final shaping takes much longer than I expected. It is a series of steps repeated over and over. First, the planer and grinder rough out the shape. Then, epoxy filler builds up low spots. Finally, after more shaping with the planer, hand rasps, and a sander, it's back to the first step to continue the shaping. With each pass, the flat wooden plank, which was MAYAN's original rudder, was becoming a much more modern foil shape.

As Homer worked his magic with the power planer, I assigned the task of figuring out how to fill in the large gap between the rudder shaft and the trailing edge of the deadwood. Taking a cue from Homer's work on the rudder, I fashioned wooden blocks which we attached to the deadwood with epoxy and small screws. The trailing edge of these blocks cut to a concave grove to parallel the front of the rudder shaft.

Filling The Gap, Rudder On The Left

We exposed the blunt leading edge of the bronze straps holding the gudgeons to the deadwood. A ramp of thickened epoxy served to fair their sharp corners into gentle bumps, further reducing drag. I ground away the anti-fouling paint to expose the epoxy and epoxy primer sealing the hull and re-coated everything with West Epoxy making it ready for the new primer.  Epoxy's ability to survive for decades underwater undamaged and its ability to adhere to high moisture content wood make it the perfect sealer and glue for work on wooden boats.

Homer (l) and Matthew (r) Comparing the
New Trailing-Edge to the Old

As Homer wrapped up his tenth day of work shaping the rudder, I fashioned a template of the port side. Having watched Him work by eye for days, I was impressed with how symmetrical the shape of the rudder had become. But, it was time to measure it with something more accurate than my eye. Flipping the template over I, lined it up along the starboard side of the rudder. It fit perfectly. Homer had shaped the 4' broad and now 5' tall rudder perfectly. Using nothing but his decades of experience and skill, he had shaped the two sides of MAYAN's rudder to within a few thousandths of an inch.

As we examined the new rudder shape, one of our long-time crew, Matthew, joined in by holding up the old trailing edge of the rudder for comparison. It wasn't until relatively recently, by schooner standards, that designers realized that the trailing edge should be nearly sharp. As we now know, the hemispherical shape of MAYAN's old rudder trailing edge is just about the worst possible shape, causing more turbulence than a square edge. We predicted this change in the trailing edge would improve MAYAN's performance substantially.

Finally nearing the end of the project, Homer and his team applied two layers of West epoxy and glass cloth to the rudder and deadwood, completely sealing the rudder and bonding the new wood along the rudder shaft to the deadwood. Two coats of epoxy primer covered the West to fill the cloth pattern. Then three coats of anti-fouling finished everything off.

How did it work?

New Rudder Shape Completed

After relaunching MAYAN, we headed out of Santa Cruz Harbor on a calm day. In the channel, idling along at 4 knots, everything felt about the same. But, upon reaching the open Monterey Bay and pushing the engine up to 1750 RPM, the crew and I exchanged glances. It was noticeably quieter.

Gone was the RUMMA-RUMMA-RUMMA of the prop wash smacking into the square flat-fronted rudder just aft of the propeller. Now at 1750 RPM, in a calm sea, MAYAN was making 8.2 knots through the water, a full knot faster than with the old rudder shape.

I pushed the rudder hard over. We watched as MAYAN turned much more quickly and in a far tighter turning circle. Our experienced eyes estimated that at maneuvering speeds, the turning circle was at least one boat length smaller.

Perhaps the most attractive feature of the new rudder shape was expressed by Gene, our most experienced crew member at 80 years old, when he announced, "I used to have to work at turning her. Now I'm driving around with just one hand on the wheel!" His smile was infectious. As each of us drove MAYAN around in drunken circles, backed her up, and spun her side to side, the grins grew wider. The new rudder was a tremendous success.

Gene Sofen at the helm, MAYAN

MAYAN: Updating the Blog

We've Been Silent Too Long: I'm embarrassed to see how long it's been since we updated this site. Ah, well, our primary excuse is that we have done a lot to MAYAN and then sailed her a lot. Our secondary explanation is that we tried out using Facebook as a place to post things, which didn't work as well. The FB interface isn't set up to support someone who wants to write pieces that are more complex than a paragraph. As a result, we're back here.

To start with one of our more recent exploits as a bit of a tease for the rest of the story, here is our girl crossing the finish line in first place during the last race of the 2019 Rolex Big Boat Series. 

Now, back to where we were when we last wrote here on this site. 

Wet ride north of Pt. Conception

Gettin' Outa LA: When we last blogged here, MAYAN was getting her new rail caps, a new cockpit, new fuel tanks, fresh fuel, and exhaust system, etc... etc... etc...

With that work finished, we left LA in a non-stop passage north to San Francisco in September of 2018. The short version is: No wind or waves south of Pt. Conception, 30-40 knot winds and enormous seas from Pt. Conception north, arrived in San Francisco sopping wet and tired. Cleaned and dried out MAYAN in two hours and greeted our guests for a cruise to the Sacramento Delta. There is a great deal more to the story, but that deserves and will receive its own story.

As we tied up to the fuel dock in Santa Barbara, the attendant greeted us: "Welcome home, MAYAN. It has been too long." In every port we've entered along the coast of California, MAYAN is a long-missed friend.

As a teaser, the video on the left shows the water running off the chart table. The decks were deeply awash for two days as we slogged north.

Commodore Glidewell awarding Beau the Jessica Cup

2018 StFYC Jessica Cup: Following our cruise to the Sacramento Delta, we gathered MAYAN's race crew together and joined the fun in the StFYC Jessica Cup. Each year the Jessica Cup gathers a group of classic yachts together to race around the central San Francisco Bay. A fantastic venue for MAYAN as the winds are traditionally strong, and she loves a breeze. MAYAN managed to win both races on handicap and came away with the Cup.

2018 Leukemia Cup: Many of us have lost loved ones to the various forms of blood diseases. Each year the San Francisco Bay plays host to the most significant money-raising Leukemia Cup in the country. The Corinthian YC provided the racing and sent the classic yachts on a course, which was a lovely tour of the central Bay. With light winds and some great sailing by a beautiful 30-foot Bird class boat, MAYAN ended up in mid-fleet. 

Sailing MAYAN home to Santa Cruz

Following the racing, it was October and time to sail MAYAN home to Santa Cruz. We gathered up crew from 4 to 80 and had a lovely sail down the coast in postcard weather. We were finally back in our home slip and ready to get to work on winter projects. 

We feel that this will become our pattern in future years. Enjoy the warmer spring sailing in Santa Cruz and points south, then move to the San Francisco Bay for the lovely fall weather, returning home as the stormy weather of November starts to arrive.

MAYAN showing her beam

Winter Projects: As every boat owner knows, winter is the time when one puts dreams of warm, gentle breezes and gets to work on all the tasks it takes to get the boat ready for spring. This year would be no exception. It has been two years since MAYAN had been hauled out, and we had a long list of projects. In addition to refreshing the anti-fouling paint, we needed to sort through and service all the seacocks, and most importantly, do something about the rudder. The rudder project deserves a separate post; we completed the rest of the work as planned. 

Once back in the water, it was time to get to work applying additional coats of varnish all around. People have asked, "What sort of varnish do you use?" and "How many coats does it take?". The quick answer is that the type of varnish isn't nearly as important as how much of it is applied, and most important of all is how frequently those coats are applied. An entire post is required here too.

The Sun is the enemy of varnish. If left exposed, a crew will need to apply a coat every month or two for the best results. If covered, as MAYAN's varnish is, one can use a solid base and three or four top coats, then leaving it covered and only needing a couple of coats a year.

2019 Master Mariners Race: With the weather warming up, it was time to go racing again! Since the 1880s, the Master Mariners Benevolent Society of San Francisco has held a race on the waters of San Francisco Bay. The entry fees were initially used to support mariners who were retired and left ashore in their old age, a near-fatal fate in the late 1800s. Over the decades, this old regatta has become much loved. 

MAYAN: 2019 Master Mariners Regatta

Now populated with classic yachts of all varieties, it has some comical racing rules. Our favorite is that one has to round all marks "...except that hitting a mark with a potato thrown from the Big Schooner will constitute a correct rounding, no matter which side of the mark the Big Schooner is on." Some intense competitors are said to have recruited an outfielder from the San Francisco Giants baseball team to join the crew, thereby allowing them to turn inside of other yachts but still follow this rule. 

Sloppy wet ride heading south to Santa Cruz

Cruising The Coast Again: Some sailors have asked us why we take MAYAN to and from San Francisco so often. Why not leave her in San Francisco Bay all summer? The answer is rather simple. Even in the worst weather, we'd rather be at sea sailing the boat than almost anywhere else. MAYAN is a great boat, even in foul weather. The video to the left is typical. After the Master Mariners Regatta, we headed back home. It was a wet gray day, with a bit of southerly chop running cross the NW swell, creating odd bumps-n-lumps. Because we were short-handed, we set the main staysail to steady the boat and headed for home under power. It was a wet and bumpy ride, but the heater was on belowdecks, Stacey's Amazing Soup was on the stove, and the crew was happy to be at sea.

Stacey Vrolyk

I have gone long enough without introducing Stacey, my perfect partner in life. MAYAN and her crew clad in MAYAN logo-gear, our sailing team shirts are legendary for their bright colors, and the soup is to-die-for! Without Stacey, this program wouldn't be the same. From the help she gives the race team, through the fantastic cruises she hosts aboard, to her incredible willingness to learn an entirely new sport, she's great!

From someone who had never been sailing, let alone heading out in the rough-n-tumble of San Francisco Bay and the legendarily rough ocean beyond the Golden Gate, she has been a willing supporter of the MAYAN project. Our cruising crew's first question is: "Will Stacey be bringing the food?!!?" 

Going Sailing Again - Boogedy Boogedy Boo: After a summer in Santa Cruz, we started our fall on the San Francisco Bay with the StFYC Labor Day Cruise to Tinsley Island. MAYAN was sporting some new awnings as she took up her usual place at the Sail Dock. Built from CostCo tarps and PVC pipe, they worked well enough to let their builder (me) avoid extreme criticism. Keeping the Delta sun off the decks helps a lot with the temperature below.

Our trip up the coast was uneventful, took all night, and made under power. For those who aren't acquainted with the central west coast of California, the wind blows hard from the NW, starting around 1200 hours and continuing until about 2100 hours. Most evenings, it dies down, and a few hours later, the sea state calms. The trip from Santa Cruz to San Francisco is almost directly into that strong wind, so we start the passage after a leisurely dinner at around 2200 hours. Typically, we arrive in San Francisco for a warm breakfast ashore. (Of course, Stacey's Soup is gone by 0300.)

Photo finish: Race 1, 2019 Rolex Big Boat Series, Classic Class

2019 StFYC Rolex Big Boat Series, Classic Class: For many years, I have worked with various people to try and get classic yachts into the Big Boat series. This year, with the election of Paul Cayard as Chairman of the Board of StFYC, I found a strong supporter of the idea. We rounded up five stunning classic sailing boats, and the Classic Class was born. Rolex became a strong supporter of the newest class, with two of their team sailing aboard MAYAN in one of the races.

I'll do a separate post about this event. The summary is that the racing couldn't have been better, the addition of the Classic Class was a fan-favorite with the starts and finishes right outside the Clubhouse windows, and there was enough drama for everyone to stay interested to the end of the series. 

MAYAN crossing San Pablo Bay

StFYC Stag Cruise: With the Big Boat Series behind us, we moved MAYAN back into cruising mode and headed up the San Joaquin River to Tinsley Island. The sailing couldn't have been better. Broad reaching in 25 to 30-knot winds, MAYAN set a new record to the Island. This was the first year that our son John joined us. It was great to have him see for himslef the varous hyjinks his male adult relatives have been up to all these years. He also managed to wind 1st place in the Laser racing, no surprise there. Returning to San Francisco, we off-loaded the cruising gear and returned MAYAN to racing trim in time to be ready.

The Sailing Heals Crew

Sailing Heals: This is the first year that MAYAN has sailed with the Sailing Heals team. This organization takes folks with cancer and their caregivers out for a day sail. We were thrilled to host 6 survivors aboard for a sail. Two survivors, who had a little sailing experience, drove MAYAN out under the Golden Gate Bridge, back into the Bay, rounded Angel Island to port, and then back to the City front. The smiles on their faces brought tears to their caregivers. It was a deeply touching event for us all.

2019 Jessica Cup: Once again, we found ourselves setting up on the starting line just outside the Clubhouse windows with a group of classic sailboats. We did miss having YUCCA join us this year but still managed to find the competition excellent. MAYAN took home the Jessica Cup again with a crew hardened by four days of close competition in the Rolex Big Boat Series.

2019 Leukemia Cup: Once again, we lined up with our fellow sailors to support this great event. Once again, the Corinthian YC did a great job of running the races. Once again, we ended up mid-fleet, and that well-sailed Bird boat took home the prize. Despite the challenges, the crew had a fun time sailing for a terrific cause.

Sailing Home Again: Leaving San Francisco after breakfast, MAYAN carried us home to Santa Cruz by dinner time. The calm weather of the fall made this a slow trip down the coast; we powered all the way. After all the trips we'd made this year, that was fine with the crew. Some slept, some read, we all ate Stacey's soup. I wrote out the list of projects for the winter haul-out and watched from the tip of the bowsprit as MAYAN's stem cut through the swells occasionally joined by a porpoise. Remembering makes me smile.

MAYAN winning the start, Race 4, Rolex Big Boat Series, Classic Class

MAYAN Gets New Rail Caps & Sheet Adjustments

Sheeting To The Rail

Mayan was originally built with some form of inboard sheeting for her jibs, fisherman staysail, spinnaker, and gollywobbler. That was the tradition back in the '20s when Alden designed her and that is the way the Tewie's Dockyard built her in 1947. But over the decades whatever sort of sheeting she had disappeared and was replaced by the newer idea that one run a track along the top of the rail allowing the sheet points to be adjusted by sliding a car along the track. You can see the bronze track and cars with a sheet lead through them in the picture on the right. The genoa sheet is lead to the block ahead of the mainmast shrouds and the advance staysail is lead to the block closer to you aft of the shrouds.

There were two problems with this approach on MAYAN. First, she is a beamy boat. Alden made this choice when designing her so that she could carry more passengers in comfort and so she'd stand up without heeling much in a blow. Her broad beam makes her quite stiff despite the fact that she has only a shallow and relatively light keel. The difficulty is that the beam is wide enough that the sheeting angle is too far outboard and as a result one can't trim the sails in tight enough to allow MAYAN to sail to windward at her best. After doing a bit of calculating, we determined that it would be best to have the sheet points moved about two feet inboard from the rail to get the correct sail shape.

Second, when sails flog or flap they jerk quite hard on the blocks which as riding on the rail. Similarly, when sailing in heavy weather there is a tremendous load put on the sheet and therefore on the rail when gusts hit or when a wave top fills the sail with water. In that case, the bulwark frames and bulwark planking have to carry the load. This is something they weren't designed to do. In the first few years of our sailing MAYAN hard in the strong winds of San Francisco Bay we discovered that the bulwark frames had been moving a little, indicating that they were overloaded. 

In the picture above you can see MAYAN beating past Alcatraz Island in nearly 30 knots of wind still carrying her largest jib. the strain on the rail in these conditions is substantial and well beyond the use she had seen in her earlier life in S. California. It was time to do something about it.

Sheeting Inboard

Once we'd decided to move the sheeting inboard we started exploring various methods. Some recommended simply moving the track off of the rail and attaching it to the side deck, where there is plenty of space. As someone who has had both little toes broken by banging them into objects mounted on the deck, I was completely unwilling to clutter up MAYAN's side decks with bronze tracks with sharp edges and cars running on them. We turned to the oldest way of attaching the sheets and adjusting their angle to get the sail to set correctly. Our guess was that this was used on MAYAN when she was built. Returning to this old technique is particularly interesting because fixed sheet points with barber haulers used to just the sheet lead is now the very latest technique used on the fastest racing boats.

The first step was to remove the track from the teak rail cap. Once that was done we took a good look at the wood, which we believe was installed sometime in the '60s, and decided "While we're in here" we might was well put new rail caps on the boat so we can varnish them. Age has rendered the old teak so badly damaged that we couldn't bring the wood back to a level that would support varnish, and the number of wood plugs we'd need to put in was astounding. So, we removed the rail caps and Wayne announced: "I still have the teak I ordered in 2004 when we rebuilt the hull. It's ready to go." as he wandered off to start locating the raw planks of teak for the new rail caps in the wood shed.

New Rail Caps

(We'll get back to the inboard sheeting once we get the rail cap completed.)

Once all the rail caps had been removed, which required removing hundreds of wood plugs and backing out the bronze screws, we set about filling all the holes in the bulwark and the bulwark frames. The tops of some of the frames had some minor water damage which was treated with epoxy and then all the frame ends were brought up to the correct height with a hard compound of epoxy and filler.

As is typical of Wayne, as soon as the rest of us went to work on the rail cap, he dragged a large teak plank into the shop, built a form of the curve of the transom rail cap which stretches across MAYAN and arches up in the center, and then clamped the raw teak plank to the form. "What's that for?" I asked. "This will let the teak plank get used to the idea that it's going to be bent like that for the next thirty years." Wayne replied with a grin. We lifted the plank clamped to its form onto a shelf in the back of the shop and set about the rest of the work. When we retuned a few weeks later, it was already "used to the idea" of being bent and didn't even try to straighten out when we pulled off the clamps. 

Once templates had been made and the teak milled and rough sawn to shape, the joints were cut between the sections of the rail cap. The picture on the right shows a locking scarf. Three things are important about the way Wayne does this. First, there is the lock in the center of the scarf, which keeps the wood from moving fore-n-aft as it swells and shrinks with moisture changes and as the hull of the boat moves under load.

Second, at each end of scarf he turns the cut to intersect the edge of the rail cap at about a 50° angle. This makes the joint sides thick enough that the thin side won't splinter away during sanding or in the event that something like a block or or oar bangs into the rail cap. 

Finally, in four places along the run of the scarf two inch pieces of bronze all thread will be glued into both pieces of the rail cap from the joint side. This eliminates the need for bolts covered with wood plugs to be inserted into the curved sides of the rail cap. Plugs on rounded surfaces, like the edge of a rail cap, have a bad habit of coming out over time. It's good to avoid them if possible.

With the top edge of the bulwark heavily coated orange anti fungal primer the rails start to work their way forward from the transom plank. The rail cap expands to round the shrouds. In the picture on the left you'll notice that the rail is wider as it goes past the mainmast shrouds. The rail cap is set down over the chainplates and caulked into place once screwed down. 

Before being screwed in place, most of the rail was shaped with a series of router bits and then sanded to a 150 grit finish while the planks were still on the bench. This saves a tremendous amount of back breaking labor when compared to doing the sanding once the wood has been mounted on the boat. 

The process of cutting, shaping, sanding, and fastening the rail caps went relatively quickly. Within a week all the easy parts were screwed down and ready to be finished. But, as is always the case, the difficult fitting came at the corners. 

Here are Wayne and Garrett working the complex joint between the transom rail cap and the starboard side rail cap. Like the locking scarf, these joints were reinforced with two inch lengths of bronze all thread which requires more careful assembly but much less work later on.

In addition to the two large sections, each corner of the rail cap has a triangular piece which allows the rail to sweep gracefully from the side to the transom. Fitting this was Garrett's challenge. He did a terrific job and learned a few tricks from Wayne along the way.

The most difficult part, by far, was the tip of the bow. You can see it on the left. Again, the joints were reinforced with bronze all thread and glued with epoxy. But the curve of the rail, the sweep of the sheer, and flare of the bow all gather together at this point causing each piece to have sides which were far from square to anything.

After an afternoon of careful fitting, Wayne applied the glue and clamped up the pieces with bar clamps, "c" clamps, a special jig he cut from some scrap, and a trailer load tie-down strap. It all held and was aligned perfectly in the morning when all this bondage was removed. 

Because there need to be flat surfaces to clamp against at every scarf and joint, a great deal of hand work was now required to shape the exterior of the rail cap where these occurred. Now came days of that back breaking hand work with everyone pitching in to get the shape just right.

Once shaped the finish work started. In the picture on the right you can see Garrett helping to sand the rail as each coat was applied. 

We're taking a new approach with this varnish stack. At the bottom on the raw wood are two coats of thin sealant. It penetrates the wood and stabilizes the natural oils in the teak. Then we apply three coats of West 207 special clear epoxy. What you see in the picture on the right is the shine of the second coat of epoxy. While difficult to sand, the epoxy is extremely tough and will resist chafe far better than traditional varnish.

Finally, we applied 5 coats of a classic spar varnish to provide UV protection for the epoxy and because it yields a beautiful shine. Because the jib sheet tracks have been removed from the rail, one person can sand the entire rail cap in one day. This is more than twice the speed of anyone who had tried it, especially me.

Now back to the Inboard Sheeting 

With the rail caps nearly complete, Garrett and Rubin set about installing the deck plates which will hold the eyes and snatch blocks for the sheets. In the picture on the left you can see the bronze pad with its removable eye screwed in, upper left. It will be let into the deck. You can see the diamond shape dent which has been cut into the teak to match the bottom of the pad. It has been sealed with epoxy to prevent rot and the bronze pad will be covered in dolphinite to further protect the wood.

Once the pad is pressed into to the teak deck, then the bent stainless steel plate is taken below decks and clamped in place. The holes for the retaining bolts for the pad are drilled using the pad as a template, then through the stainless steel plate. Once drilled, the holes in the stainless are threaded to accept the mounting bolts from the bronze pad. The stainless plate has been pre-drilled and is then thru-bolted to the deck beams ahead and astern of the pad. Once assembled, this construction is extremely strong.

These pads were located approximately three feet aft of the known sheet point for each sail. Then approximately three feet forward of the known sheet point, another pad was installed. Fortunately, this spacing resulted in being able to re-use a number of pads for different sails. As a result, the side decks have a pad approximately every six feet and these pads can manage our entire inventory of sails.

In addition, the pads serve as terminations for the running backstays for both masts.

For each pair of pads assigned to a sail the aft-most pad carries a snatch block which accepts the sail's sheet. the forward pad carries a barber-hauler with a low-friction eye spliced into the upper end. To protect the varnish and more importantly the sailors aboard, the eye in the end of the barber-hauler is run through a soft vinyl tube as shown in the picture on the right. This is expected to reduce the damage done when the sheet is flogging and the eye is swinging around the leeward side deck. 

The lower end of the barber-hauler is secured to the pad's screw-in eye with a hobble splice. This splice, which was become quite popular with the adoption of high strength Dyneema single braid lines, works in a manner similar to a line with a rolling hitch tied around it. When the line is relieved of load, one can slide the hobble to make the line whatever length is required. Once the load is reapplied, the hobble will not slide. Aboard MAYAN we mark the barber-hauler lines to that the crew can preset the hobbles to the correct position for each sail.

Of course, adjustments of the jib lead position do require that the load be removed from the jib sheet using this technique, but that was also true of the bronze track and cars which this system replaced. We also sail with a 6:1 handy-billy on deck. It's quite useful for tasks like pulling the jib or staysail sheet down while one adjusts the barber-hauler.

So far, this system has works quite well. We used it while competing in the Jessica Cup in San Francisco Bay and found it to be reliable and easy for the crew to understand. However, one problem was discovered, with the sheet leads inboard where they belong for the best sail trim, the sheet runs directly over the signboards and running lights on the foremast shrouds. Naturally, we found the lights dangling from their wires and bits of the signboards missing entirely. Not everything goes according to plan, we'll need to relocate the signboards to a place out of the line of fire. The fact that the signboards were damaged is great evidence that we've finally got the sheets in the right places, looking on the bright side.