Kotik, Kotik, Kotik!

[IanMilne]

Thank you Thad, Jeff, Andrew, Mike and Steve, for your interest and encouraging comments. Good to hear from you!

Mike, We will hope to see you on one or more of your trips south. Let us know when you're coming.

Here are the photos from our Easter trip on Lake Benmore that I was going to put up yesterday, but I got distracted with other stuff.

Lake Benmore was formed in the 1960s as the third and highest dam of three in the Waitaki River system, north-west of Dunedin, inland from Oamaru. The other dams are the Aviemore and the Waitaki, in that order downstream.

We drove north to the launching place, Sailors' Cutting, on the Tuesday before Easter and put the mast up, for easier access to the cabin, before it got dark about 6.30 pm. We rigged on Wednesday, not hurrying, launched about 5 pm and tied up at the jetty for the night. One of the other members of the party had arrived and rigged his boat by then (a Farr 7.5m) and launched as it was getting dark, so he stayed at the jetty too. It was foggy in the morning.
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We stayed there until about 3 pm, making a few adjustments and talking to other arrivals, and watching the cyclists coming through on the "Alps to Ocean Cycle Trail" (q.v.), and then motored around to the "Hare's Ears" (because it looks a bit like that on the map) in the Ahuriri Gorge, which is a popular place for trailer-sailer groups for the first stop. It is a convenient place to tie up for a beach mooring. The gorge is part of the lake but is narrow and winding so is not good for sailing, and there was no wind anyway, so we motored all the way, which took about an hour and a half, using the top internal tank of our new motor. There was no wind anyway. There were six yachts there that night.

On Good Friday the others all headed off to various parts of the lake, and we motored around to a small bay in the southern part of the lake where we had not stayed before, for some time by ourselves. It was still flat calm. The top petrol tank ran out after about half an hour, so it has a capacity of about two hours. We used one of the external tanks after that.
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As you see, we had put our sail covers on (Alison made them), but in the morning there was a slight breeze, so we took the covers off and motored out from the beach, but found that the jib would not unfurl. I could not see the problem from on the boat so we landed again and I found that the jib-cover halyard had tangled with the upper swivel of the furler. I released the jib halyard from the tabernacle and dragged the jib down with my weight, which solved the problem by breaking the jib-cover halyard, so I was able to remove it. We will not have a separate halyard for the cover now, but will be able to pull the furled jib down, attach the cover around the top swivel, and zip up the cover as we haul the jib up. You can also see the latest evolution of our boarding ladder, with an "H" frame made out of 38mm (1 1/2") plumbing pipe, which slips onto the lower legs of the ladder, and can be removed for stowing. The pipes have tennis balls fitted over the ends that bear on the hull. It worked very well, so we won't have to carry the black wooden ladder on the boat any more.
After lunch we motored up the main part of the lake to a place called Shepherds' Creek, which was the group's rendezvous for Saturday evening. Kotik is just past the red boat here. In past times there would have been a fire in the middle of the social circle, but not now.
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That's five photos for this posting,
.
To be continued.

[IanMilne]

On Saturday we had a "Fun Race", but it was very slow. Some of the boats got around the course, but most, including us, didn't. It was cut short after about three hours, but nobody minded at all. Here we are preparing to start.
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And here we are back in the creek. We can just step off the deck onto the shore here.
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The next day some of us went over to Poplar Gully, where we were last time. Alison and I went out on the lake to try out our new mizzen staysail that Alison had made out of lightweight material from our daughter Fiona's "Stitch Kitchen". The wind was just enough to fill the sail and let us see how it behaved. We were pleased with it, so far.

The peak goes to the mizzen mast. I have used the flag halyard for it here. I do not want to add any more lines to the mast-band. It is busy enough already.
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The tack goes to the handrail on the windward side.
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And the sheet goes to a continuous loop that goes around the mizzen sail through a block on the end of the boom. At this stage I didn't have a way of controlling the position of the loop. The sail would probably be pulled back further than this.
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I have read that to tack or jibe the mainsail, you lower the staysail right down. We found it easier to leave it up but to undo the tack, bring it back around the back of the mainsail and attach it to the handrail on the other side, and then to pull the clew around the front of the mizzen mast on its continuous loop. I will fit snap hooks or clips of some kind, to save time in these actions. Of course this is all just for fun, not that we expect to be winning races with it. We will do more experimenting with it next season.

OK. That's five more photos. There are only five more.

[Andrew Donald]

I see at the start of the race you were in the lead Ian, I bet that extra sail area only improved your chances of bringing it home ! Only prob is it won’t do your handicap any good

[IanMilne]

Leaving Poplar Gully, on Monday. Anchored by the stern, the cable was cleated on the cleat where the "cat-head" is here, so I had to shift it onto the other cleat to pull it up. We are thinking of stowing the stern anchor in the port locker instead of one of the 12-litre petrol tanks, with suitable protection for the tank that is still in there, and in use. The spare tank can then go in the starboard locker where this anchor is now. That way, if the tank in use runs out, we can immediately switch to the small internal tank in this motor, and go on while we swap the two 12-litre tanks. Hmmmm....
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There was still no wind, so we motored from Poplar Gully back down the lake to a small enclosed inlet we had not stayed in before, known as "Nobby's", where you can step ashore and tie up to a tree, without anchoring. It is just before you turn the corner to go back towards the Ahuriri Gorge and Sailors' Cutting. I went for a walk up the steep rocky hill at the back of it, for a good view of the lake.
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Here are a couple more drone photos, courtesy of Jurgen Goossens, OTYS Webmaster, who sent them to all the members.

I like to sit up on the aft cockpit coaming when we are motoring.
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This must have been during the fun race.
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And here is the view we had of the Southern Alps, seen from on the northern part of Lake Benmore. The high one is Aoraki Mt Cook, New Zealand's highest peak.
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So, on Tuesday we came back to Sailors' Cutting, rigged down on Wednesday, and came home on Thursday. Between these two trip reports, you probably have a reasonable idea of Lake Benmore now. We enjoyed them, but decided that the Easter trip was cold enough, so we are declaring that this is the end of our second cruising season. We are pretty happy with Kotik now. The rigging is working alright, and our camping systems are back in place. She just needs a bit of touching up, here and there, and then we will lay her up for the winter. I have caught up on the house maintenance for the time being, so I will be able to turn my attention to that dinghy by Eric Hvalsoe that I have mentioned in my Feather Pram thread. I hope you all have a nice sailing summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Thanks again for following my progress. It is good to have your company.

Ian

[Mike1902]

Thanks for the update Ian.
Looked idyllic.
Will definitely let you know when I'm heading down...probably when it's warmer

Cheers,
Mike.

[IanMilne]

Thanks, Mike. Yes, it has been pretty cold and windy in Dunedin today.
Cheers,
Ian

[IanMilne]

I see at the start of the race you were in the lead Ian, I bet that extra sail area only improved your chances of bringing it home ! Only prob is it won’t do your handicap any good

The instructions were to put the sails up after the starting signal and then go, except that they told me I could put the mizzen up before the signal. You can see that I am still putting the main up, and haven't got the jib out yet. We don't do any serious racing. The race was before we had tried rigging the staysail. It might have helped!
Ian

[IanMilne]

FOURTH SEASON 2022-23

On 10th September 2022 we attended the Opening Day of the Season of the Southlamd Trailer Yacht Squadron at Riverton, on the south coast of New Zealand. There were only three yachts from the club there. They had three races out in the bay, and won one race each. We were the "spectator fleet", and took photos of the others from various points around the course. This was the fourth time we have been sailing at Riverton with these people. Our original purpose was to learn how to cross the river bar if we needed to come back that way from Stewart Island, instead of going to Bluff. The practice is to launch into the river by the ramp below the bridge when the tide is about halfway in, by which time there will be enough water over the bar, go out, do your sailing, and come back in while there is still enough water. The bar was flat calm this time so it was easy to
cross. Here are a couple of photos:
This one has all the boats in it, except us. The big red one is a local yacht acting as "race boat". The owner is a club member too. He crosses Foveaux Strait quite routinely. We did it in our Eun na Mara Islesburgh in December 2010-January 2011.
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This one is more colourful.
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From Riverton we stayed a night at Tuatapere (see my " A Hvalsoe Dinghy in New Zealand" thread), and then went for a short cruise on Lake Manapouri for three nights in Stockyard Cove in the Hope Arm, where we were last March - nothing very adventurous but nice to be there. The lake was like a mirror the whole time so we had to motor all the way there and back.

This is the view from the launching place in the Waiau River, a little way downstream from the lake. .
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This is a bush track at Stockyard Cove, up to the waterfall. This is one of the easy bits. There are orange track markers every now and then.
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A view of the lake, coming back. Nice, but not sailing weather!
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That's all for now.
Cheers,
Ian

[Hugh MacD]

Alas, the images wouldn't open for me

[Steve TN 15]

Scenery pics opened but no boats

[Alex1N]

Scenery pics opened but no boats

What Steve said here, too. Scenery looks lovely, though - nice snow!

[IanMilne]

OK. Don't know why. Sorry about that. I'll try again. Here are the two Riverton ones, and a couple more.

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We are not racers, but we have been on cruises with these people too, We enjoy their company.

Ian

[Alex1N]

Excellent! Thank you very much, especially for the bonuses.

[IanMilne]

And some Manapouri ones.

This is the view from the launching place in the Waiau river, about 1km downstream from the lake at "Pearl Harbour"
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This is the beach at Stockyard Cove. In the upper centre of the picture, below the dip in the skyline, you can see a waterfall.
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This is an easy part of the track to the waterfall.
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This is the waterfall. It has a lot more stages than just this one.
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A view of the lake. It was like this the whole time we were there.
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We are having no trouble with our new motor.

Cheers,
Ian

[Andrew Donald]

Love that first photo on #959. Good news about the motor, can Alison start it?

[Thad]

Great to see, Ian! Thanks.

[Hugh MacD]

Gorgeous, Ian! Thanks

[IanMilne]

Yes, Alison can start the motor, which is a good safety factor.
You probably guessed that the big red yacht in the Riverton pics was the "race boat". Its owner lives at Riverton and is a member of STYS too. He sails to Stewart Island from there quite routinely. The other three yachts are a Joker 8m (owner built), a Noelex 25 and a Noelex 22.
Other Manapouri pics are on p.27 here. The second picture on #933 is taken from the other side of Stockyard Cove, looking towards the main beach where we usually go and were this time.
Ian

[IanMilne]

In October Alison and I spent three consecutive weekends with Kotik on three Otago hydro lakes: Dunstan, Aviemore and Benmore. We were living on the boat the whole time, on the trailer or on the water. We left home on the day we had snow to sea level in Dunedin, a real blast from the Antarctic. The Dunstan trip was the one we had done in March, this time with only one other boat, Chinook, from the Clyde Dam up towards Cromwell, spending two nights in a small steep inlet under the Hugo Bridge on the new Dunstan cycle trail (q.v.) which goes along the western side of the lake. The bridge is a very impressive piece of engineering. The wind was very blustery on the Sunday so we explored the area on foot, including the bridge, and returned to Clyde with a good run the next day. We didn't get as far as Cromwell this time. Our friend Brian had invited us and there were supposed to have been some others, but they didn't come because of the bad weather in the previous few days.

The bridge inlet. The cycle track has a "chicken run" below the bridge.
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The Hugo Bridge.
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Over the next few days we visited a friend at Bannockburn, and went up the Lindis Pass to Otematata to meet up with other members of the Otago Trailer Yacht Squadron to help put up the marquee for the annual "Aviemore Classic" trailer-yacht racing event to be held over Labour Weekend. We did some gentle sailing on Lake Aviemore the day before we put up the marquee. (We used to go to the Aviemore Classic ten years ago with our previous boat, Islesburgh, but the people of our vintage have stopped going and it's all younger people with fast sports boats now, so it's not really our scene any more.) With the marquee up, we used it for the annual OTYS "Cocktail Cruise", a purely social event, enjoyed by all.

Otematata Boat Harbour.
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Then we went with the OTYS people to go cruising on Lake Benmore for about a week over Labour Weekend. There was hardly any wind at all, but it didn't rain either. On these lake cruises everybody pretty much does their own thing, but we have radio contact and meet up for some of the time. We went to some of the same places on Lake Benmore that we went to at Easter, and some others.

OTYS members at Poplar Gully. The boat is a Noelex 25. There were four of these on the trip.
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Mt Cook, with snow.
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With the travelling between these lakes and half a day each time to rig and unrig Kotik, it was not hard to use up three weeks. Benmore is a popular lake with Otago boaties as it is not too far away and has not many sandflies.

That's all for now.

Ian

[Thad]

Grand to see you out there.

[Andrew Donald]

Good to see you having a great time Ian. That bridge must have been some climb. Doubt I’d make it!

[IanMilne]

Thanks Thad. Thanks for keeping in touch.

Thanks Andrew. Yes, it was a steep climb, but I could have gone a longer way. It is very rugged country.

Ian

[IanMilne]

On our recent trip, we decided that the squabs on the quarter-berth were taking up too much room. (They were made from a 5" thick foam mattress.) We don't use it for sleeping on, so we took out the short squab from the "trotter box" and replaced it with a piece of an old closed-cell foam pad, so it is easier to get at the stuff we keep in there, and Alison made a new one for the "settee", 3" thick and narrower, so it doesn't go right back to the hull and leaves more room for the spare (Norwegian) tiller, paddle and umbrella and our clothing bags. It also makes it much easier to get into the under-bunk locker.

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And here's one of the mast in its "at home" position, for easy access.
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Ian

[IanMilne]

This is how we have the cockpit lockers now.

Instead of having two petrol tanks in the port locker, we now have one tank and the 4kg Danforth anchor with its cable (nylon, it sinks), in a bag and chain in a bucket. I have to tie the bitter end to the deck-eye on the motor-bulkhead when we get the anchor out. This makes anchoring off the port-side stern much easier, as when landing on a lake beach. The bag for the anchor cable is in the form of a circular piece of material with a double draw-string around the edge, which can be spread out flat on the cockpit floor for the cable to be coiled down onto it, then drawn up around the cable and lowered into the locker. Thanks for that idea, Steve "Stromborg".
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This is the same with the mat for putting the anchor on, a glove for starting the motor, and the dipstick which I graduated with 1 litre of water at a time, up to 12 litres. Our rubbish goes into this locker too.
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This is the starboard locker with the other 12 litre petrol tank under the red bin for washing dishes in (I empty it on land when possible), and the 6kg Rocna anchor with its cable (nylon) and chain, A 10 litre bucket goes in here too.
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In the after half of the locker are two fenders, mooring lines (polypropylene, it floats), two each of long, medium and short, and one with a hose loop, a grapnel, camp-stool, heaving line, lead-line (with an old padlock as a weight), potty chemicals, scrubbing brush, sponges, kayak-type bilge pump, etc., etc.
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"In port", we keep our life-jackets in the lazarette (stern locker). and a third fender.

End of lecture.
Cheers,
Ian

[Andrew Donald]

So much stuff. Can’t have enough lockers by the looks. When the time comes I’ll be looking back here to make sure I haven’t forgotten to take account of my stuff. I remember my last boat the stuff was everywhere because I didn’t have enough cupboards.

thanks Ian. Have a great summer

[IanMilne]

That's good, Andrew. Glad to be of some help. Interchange of ideas is why we are here.

Ian

P. S. I just found this, not sent, so now I'll send it. Ian