Llandegfedd Lake 26th June

This was a new location for a very small Drascombe Rally. It is a lake owned and run by Welsh Water near to Pontypool.

Llandegfedd Reservoir is a large reservoir north of Newport. It is run as a country park and supports a sailing club and windsurfing school with rescue cover provided by the park wardens. Not surprisingly, with the upkeep of this service there is a charge for sailing on the reservoir, payable as either an annual fee or a day ticket (special rates can be negotiated for groups.)

There are limitaions in that sailing craft are not allowed to use engines and there is a restriction on length to 20 feet. Moksha shrugged her shoulders and managed to convince the warden that she was under 20 feet. She would not be so lucky next time!

Sailing without a motor certainly hones your sailing skills and other than a little difficulty in starting off from the shore we had no problem sailing. A fresh breeze came up in the afternoon and we had enjoyable day achieving speeds of up to 4 knots. There is an active Sailing club with facilities. The launching area is rather restricted for a large boat like a Coaster.

We will go again but probably take a smaller boat such as Topper Topaz.

Beale Park 10th June 2011

Top:- A diagram of a proposed new boat based on a Swallow Boat Bay Raider. The idea is to include a crawl in and die cabin and keeping as much as posssible the sailing qualties of the open boat.

Bottom:- Bay Cruiser 23 sailing in a breath of wind.

Sailing at Newport, Parrog Beach, Pembrokeshire

On the 28th May 2011 we attended the Camping and Caravaning Boating Group meet at Parrog, Newport, Pembrokeshire. This is an annual event which we have been attending every year for more over 10 years. Newport Bay is located just North of Dinas Head giving an interesting sailing area with beautiful scenery of the headlands and the Presseli mountains. Unfortunately the Nevern River at Newport is very tidal with the river entering the sea over a large sandy beach. Access is restricted by a sand bar which is only passable two hours either side of HW. Moorings are drying, but are cheap at £20 a week. You need a dinghy to get to you mooring or you can wade over the beach and get wet before the tide rises too high.

The weather at the beginning of the week was windy and made the bar impassable. The tide times were poor with high water late in the afternoon or in the early hours.

I did not get out until the Wednesday evening when the wind had died down and managed a few hours sailing in the Bay. I sailed the next morning leaving at 07:30 hours but the sea was like a mill pond. I motored to Cwm yr Eglwys, anchored and made a cup of coffee. By the time I came out of Cwm a slight breeze had come up from the North and I had a nice sail back to the River Nevern.

Chichester Rally 29th April 2011

On the weekend of the 29th of April we attended the Drascombe Association Rally at Chichester. It was well organised and the berth at Chichester Marina was excellent with good facilties. Unfortunately the weather was blowy although it was dry and sunny. As a result we only got out sailing on the Saturday. We sailed to Dell Quay and then to Bosham where we stopped for lunch.

First outing of Moksha this season. I took her to Bristol Docks launching at Bristol Marina the old Albion dockyard.

Engine started first pull.

Repair to rudder bearing seems to be watertight.

Tiller Hand steering lock works well.

The only fault seems to be a flat battery

and so it would seems that my large solar panel is not working properly.

I had a motor about the docks and enjoyed the sunshine. The bars and restaurants on the dockside were busy and the water was busy with other pleasure craft and rowers.

Recovered the boat back onto the trailer with no problem and went back home to sort out the battery.

Rudder bearing repair

When I first acquired Moksha she suffered from a leak which resulted in water under the cabin floorboards. Initial investigations were made in the bow area of the boat such as the forward keel bolts and the screws fixing the band on the bow area of the boat. These proved to be inconclusive and so I took a radical step in order to discover the area of the leak.

I flooded the interior of the boat with water and tipped it forward thinking that the leak was going to be in the bow are of the boat. What happened was that as the boat filled and reached the stern locker with the keel box that water started leaking out of the boat. It became clear that the problem was in the stern of the boat.

I carried out some research on the Drascombe forum and the NKDE (Dutch Drascombe website and I found the likely source of the problem.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~veronica/tom/#mozTocId873807

The bottom rudder bearing is fixed to the GRP hull with 2 stainless steel wood screws. The assembly is covered by the keelplank.

It is common for damage to occur when the rudder is lowered through the trunking and the bottom bearing is hit by the rudder. The photograph shows that the bronze is bent and when it was removed the two crews were detached and loose. The keelplank was keeping the bearing in place.

The second photograph shows that the GRP around the screw holes was cracked and broken and that the fissures went right through the GRP structure around the rudder casing causing a leak. When I came to drill through there could not have been more than 2 or 3mm of GRP. I carried out a repair using 6mm screw bolts and an amount of expoy to seal the cracks on the underside and to surround the tops of the bolts and to strengthen the whole area. It will remain to seen whether it will remain leek free.

This is a blog of the exploits of my Drascombe Coaster "Moksha".

She was bought in 2010 from an owner in Devon who had her for her 5 years and as far as I know I am the fourth owner. The previous owner have included a carpenter and a priest.

The name was I believe picked by him and always causes comment and enquiry.

According to the dictionary "Moksha" is a noun derived from Buddhism,Hinduism,Jainism meaning freedom from the differentiated, temporal, and mortal world of ordinary experience.

This might aptly describe the "Drascombe" experience.