Vogelsang – Hood 23 Yacht.

Wednesday, 27th July 2005.

Wake up Wednesday at a suitably late hour to compensate for having been woken by the wake from ships and ferries at various times during the night. First phone call comes in at 8:30AM but fortunately, the mobile phone battery goes dead after that call. Note to self – must get a spare mobile phone battery. Check the servers, do some work, chat with the overnight help desk staff. Time for coffee. I crack open the seal on the tin of coffee I found on the boat with a use-by date of 1990. Percolate a big mug of coffee (three shots). Hmmm, I think that use by date is probably right. I might stick to the tea for the time being.

Time to finish repairing that starboard navigation light. After that, I rig up the new spinnaker halyard. Andrew estimated the length of the old halyard on Saturday and was adamant that 18M of sheet would be enough. Lucky I bought 20M as I would have been a meter short otherwise. When it comes to measuring up the other halyards I think I might get Pythagoras to help me out. Wash up and a quick scrub of the deck. Time to head off.

Head off around some time around 11:00AM. Once suitably clear of Robertson’s Point and the lighthouse I see that there is a slight breeze coming up. Is it from the SE? I would have expected something from the west. What the heck – time to have my first sail on Vogelsang. I’m not going to be too adventurous because on Saturday the feeble little screw which had been holding the tiller extension to the tiller for probably more than thirty years snapped and thus there is no tiller extension. (I went to Bias boating, Rockdale, the other day to purchase one but the ones they had were too long for such a wee boat as Vogelsang.) I find the No.3 head sail below deck and bring it up and go to clip the hanks onto the forestay. Wow, these hanks are literally encrusted in salt and corrosion. This sail has not been out of its sail bag for many a decade. Obviously not a popular sail with previous owners. Back below deck I grap the pliers from the toolbox and give each hank a yank to get it to open as I clip it to the forstay.

We are sailing. But not going anywhere fast. Time to try out the No.2 The No.2′s hanks are far more cooperative. I only have to bang one of them against the bow rail to persuade it to open up. And now we are sailing again – past Kirribilli House and straight into the doldrums around Sydney Cove and the bridge. On with the motor until I get over to Walsh bay and find some wind. Slowly the wind picks up and to gather some pace I decide to weave my way up the harbour on broad reaches. By the time I reach Balmain, Vogelsang is sailing along at a very relaxed pace. I’ve got time to tie up the tiller and nip below to put the kettle on. Sipping a cup of tea as I sail along Birchgrove and circumnavigate Cockatoo Island and then back to Greenwich.

What a lovely first sail. I’ve been reluctant to sail her, wanting to get familiar with the boat overall and also because I do want to renew most of the standing and running rig, and because the very ancient looking back stay tensioning device is completely ceased up.

Return to mooring at Greenwich around 4pm.

Tuesday, 26th July, 2005.

Depart Greenwich 12 noon.

The reason for being back on the boat despite being a little the worst for wear lately (see Shopping Day) is because I need to finish those repairs to the starboard nav light and also because I did not stow the outboard below deck on Sunday. It is blowing from the west and is predicted to get up to 20 knots in the afternoon. So I better get back on the boat and secure everything, and while I am at it, why not spend some time mucking about rather than working. So, I’ve come packed to spend the night aboard.

Cast off and head straight down the harbour. I’ve made an appointment to see a client so I might as well motor there. Boy this wind is picking up. I make it to Clontarf, Middle Harbour at 2:30pm, but the wind and current are too strong to anchor in the narrow, wind tunnel of Middle Harbour. I decide to head over to Clontarf marina and find an empty berth to pull into. I head into the office to speak with Steve, the manager. He isn’t too keen to let me stay at first – they don’t offer casual berths or moorings. I assure him I will only be two hours and he tells me I will have to because they lock the gate at 5pm sharp. I give Vigy a call to come and pick me up. His office is just up the hill. Meeting ensues – lots of talk about his CMS, email, domains and web geek stuff. Meeting over, back down to the boat.

Oh my goodness, it is blowing a gale now. This wind is gusting over 30 knots to be sure. I have a disaster of a time getting out of the marina berth. It is low tide and I have no water to manoeuvre in. The boat is facing nose into the marina so I have to back it out, but when I do the wind pushes her around to face into shore. I fend her off the other boats and slowly manoeuvre her back into the berth but this time facing the right way. Ready, steady, go… and I push her off at full throttle hoping to get enough speed up to turn her into the wind before being blown onto the shallows. Great, all is going well, I’m going to make it. Hang on! What’s that, oh my – the dingy line has wrapped itself around the bollard on the floating marina. Quickly put the engine into neutral – pull on the dingy painter and unwrap the dingy from the marina pontoon. All the time the boat starts drifting toward the shore. Back on the throttle – too late, the keel has hit bottom. Full throttle in reverse, bouncing up and down at the stern. We are away again – but I can make no progress reversing straight into this gale. So I’m back to fending the boat off the other boats on that side of the marina wondering how long I am going to have to stand there waiting for the wind to drop. Finally, Steve from the marina turns up on his launch to give me a tow out to the channel. Thanks Steve – what a champ! I apologise profusely for being such a nuisance.

I motor down Middle Harbour and am relieved when I’m able to swing southwards upon entering the main harbour and am able to hug the windward shore to stay out of the wind. As Vogelsang chugs past Obelisk Bay the orange embers of twilight extinguish on the western horizon. I hug the shore all the way down to Bradley’s head. Can you believe there are fishermen out in this wind? I round Bradley’s head and head past Taronga Zoo towards Little Sirius Cove. Shining a torch searching for unused moorings, I find a mooring bouy which has obviously been bobbing around in the water for some time – I don’t think its boat will be back tonight.

Cups of tea and 2 minute noodles for dinner and it is time to boot up the laptop and crank up the iBurst wireless internet and settle into doing some work for the evening.

Saturday, 23rd July 2005

Departed Greenwich approx. 10:30AM under motor. Motored to Birkenhead Point Marina to take the old girl shopping. Tied up at the marina. They charge $15 for a three hour “shopping berth” but Bridgett kindly let me stay a little longer (to 5pm!). I decided the boat needed to put on some weight so I spent the afternoon buying supplies and goodies. These included (in no particular order):

• A 70 amp hour battery (which fitted snugly into the existing wooden battery box on the port aft side).
• Snacks – chips, biscuits, lots of two minute noodles.
• Beverages and condiments.
• A frying pan and kettle.
• Cordless drill.
• Various plastic tubs and containers.
• Esky
• A torch, batteries, and candles.
• A coffee peculator (oh so important).
• Sleeping bag.
• Winch handle pocket and sheet bags.
• Spinnaker halyard.
• Electrical wiring, connectors, light bulbs and a battery tester.
• Personal hygiene stuff.
• 5 litres fuel.

… and most importantly,

• A bottle of Bundy O.P. Rum.
• A bottle of Dimple Scotch.

All this and more was purchased at the Birkenhead shopping centre and at Whitworths and Shell down the road.

Andrew came over to visit me in his run-about (Boston Whaler) bringing me a gift of Monique’s home baked biscuits. He berated me for having purchased 100m of 3mm general purpose lashing. True, it was a total overinvestment – but it had the advantage of being neatly coiled on a spindle. Andrew measured up the length of the spinnaker halyard and we agreed that I could go back to Whitworths and exchange the 100m rope for a new spinnaker halyard for not much more money. Off I went to do the exchange.

Got back to the boat and packed things away, randomly finding places to stow all the crap I had bought. Hooked up the new battery and did some wiring. Replaced the starboard nav light – but too late to reseal it properly. It had gone dark by now. So I tacked it together with electrical tape until later.

Wow – is that the time? Time to motor off to Berry’s Bay and find a place to anchor for the night. Can’t get the stove working right – I am doing something wrong, it either burns with a flame almost licking the cabin ceiling or goes out altogether. Get to Berry’s Bay and anchor close to shore (just off Waverton park) and near the dingy storage area. No hot water (due to lack of operational stove) so cold wash out of a bucket. Dress into going out clothes (minus shoes) and then into the dingy and row to shore. Have to drag the dingy up a small rock ledge to store it.

Set off on foot for the Union Hotel, Crows Nest. It’s the twenty year reunion of my class from school, St Aloysius College, Millson’s Point. What a great night meeting up with the lads. At some crazy wee hour I set off and meander through unfamiliar streets hoping to eventually weave my way back to Berry’s Bay. Grab the dingy and go to lower it down to the water’s edge.

Whoops! Talk about being legless – I’ve landed on my face two meters below where I was just standing. Face does not feel great. Better get into the dingy and head out to the boat and get some sleep. Back onboard the boat, getting ready for bed. What’s this? A bit of blood. Dab my face with a cloth until the bleeding stops. Now it really is time for some sleep.

Sunday morning – 11AM. Wow, what a headache! Oh well time to head back to the mooring – I’m to be back in Oatley at 2pm! Arrive back at mooring at Greenwich approx. 12 noon.

Post Script: The fractures to my eye socket, upper jaw and cheek bone did not need surgery. Sure enough the bleeing into my eye and nose ceased, the bruising faded and after a few weeks my head eventually regained it’s symmetry.

It was a sunny, sparkling summer day in January when I first hopped aboard Vogelsang. There are quite a few Hoods moored around Sydney waterways and many of them appear to be little more than mooring minders. They are an old boat – the first production GPR yachts to be build in Australia according to what I have read. But I will post more about the Hood class another time. Vogelsang is probably a fairly early build of this class of boat. The fabric of the soft furnishings below deck is orange with thin stripes of other red/orange hues and purple (Groovy baby, yeah!). To me, that places the fabric (and the boat) to around the late 60s possibly early 70s. Vogelsang was the second boat I had looked at. Compared to the Hunter 19 I had just looked at, her interior below deck seemed palatial. Not too long after that first boarding I had negotiated the purchase.

Soon the glory of lazy summer holidays and the innocent optimism which a new year brings had passed. The exuberant hedonism of the Sydney new year and its propensity to cause one into a rash boat purchase was over for another year. It was back to work. All of a sudden it was mid-February and the date which I had booked Vogelsang to be hauled out was upon me. Naturally, this coincided with a project for which the timeline had, inevitably, slipped. So, although I had planned to take a few days off to work on the boat, in fact, I was right in the middle of a development project, endless revisions and calls at all times of the day and night from an anxious client and designer. What followed were three days of:

• getting up at the crack of dawn and making my way to Noakes at McMahon’s Point (the shipwrights where Vogelsang was hauled out and placed on hard stand),
• work on the boat for a couple of hours,
• hopping on board the boat and working on my laptop over wireless internet,
• doing some more work on the boat into the twilight,
• going home and working on the laptop again until the early hours of the AM,
• repeat above.

Luckily my mate Andrew, who has owned a life-time of boats in only thirty years, and who has been aboard many, many more, would drop by each afternoon to giggle at my progress and lend a hand and advice.

Originally, before hauling her out, I had envisaged an amazing program of works for Vogelsang all to be completed within the three days she was to be hauled out. In the end, I only managed to antifoul her, repair the rudder, repair the gudgeon, repair the rudder post and housing and give a bit of beauty treatment to her sides.

When it came time to putting her back in the water, there was only one problem. I had used a soft anti-foul (Norglass) on the boat and it was, well… very soft. The travel lift operator explained that lifting her up in the slings would drag the antifoul off the bottom and onto the sides of the hull. The shipyard kindly let me keep the boat in hard stand over the weekend (on the condition I didn’t work on her). On Monday she went back in. Only a little bit of slipping of the antifoul occurred under the slings. About one inch. Lesson: if you are going to have your boat lifted in slings, don’t use a soft anti-foul.

Once back in the water, the 5hp outboard seemed to push the boat along much easier with her beard shaved off the keel. Having a rudder that steered seemed to help too.

Vogelsang is a “Hood 23″ – a 23 foot GPR yacht currently moored at Greenwich, Lane Cove River, Sydney. She was purchased by Mark Da Silva early 2005. Besides getting her bottom scraped and anti-fouled not a lot has happened to Vogelsang since then. In fact, Vogelsang has mainly sat at her mooring these past fifteen or more years and she has not seen much adventure. That is all about to change as her new owner slowly goes about re-rigging her and getting her out and about more often.

This blog will be the web based log for the adventures of Vogelsang and hopefully a place where I can post more information about the Hood 23 class as I gather it from around the place. Although there is a Hood 23 class association here in New South Wales (Australia) there is not much information published about the class on the web.