Chichester Harbour Map

First Adventures

Van. Tender (-that's the dingy to row back and forth from the boat) Yacht

All provisions and bedding loaded on, and being rowed out.

Everything stowed away, we decided on a spin, . Suddenly there was a lot of black smoke and the  temperature of the engine went off the scale! Oh dear, why did no one tell us to turn on the water cooling inlet?

Damage to impeller after being run dry

After supper,

                             

and sunset

 A scrutiny of all the manuals;

Chief Engineer puts on his overalls and has a look

We are on a "drying mooring", this means that when the tide goes down, as it does twice a day, the boat sits on mud. This doesn't matter much as our boat has two keels, which allow it to settle comfortably and remain straight. But it means that if anyone is on the boat they'll have to wait until the tide returns, six hours later, to get off and go shopping, or to find a replacement part.

Swans on a shingle bed at low tide

We had some breakfast,

Notice tea in a screw top cannister because I forgot to pack mugs!

We gingerly tried the engine after replacing the impeller and felt confident enough to make a new start.

We put some sails up, we sailed to Bosham, Where we grounded in mud. It was sort of on purpose, as we had decided to stay the night there, and if you moor on the Quay, they'll charge about £20 a night. There was a marquee in the sailing club grounds and a party got going about nine o'clock.

Worried that the tide would lift the boat and sweep it into other yachts moored nearby, we set the alarm early. (4.30!) this was far too early actually, and we eventually shifted about 6

Skid marks

Making the most of an early start we "borrowed" an empty mooring buoy for breakfast and listened to the far off sounds of yet another party coming from Cobnor Point. We wondered if it might be coming from Cobnor House, was it a birthday party for teenaged triplets?

We spent the late morning and low tide on another borrowed mooring buoy outside Hayling Yacht Club in the Emsworth Channel. The Harbour Master, (or someone- he was an amenable chap) heard our story of engine trouble and waiting for the tide, without argument. We went for a swim.

The wind picked up a bit, and turned westerly and as the tide was rising we decided to sail up and down the Emsworth Channel. It was now early afternoon and there were more and more boats and craft of all sizes, windsurfers and dingy sailers zipping about like dragonflies, crowds of brightly coloured sails of the sailing school dinghies like flocks of butterflies, yachts big and small, huge engined power boats.... it was getting very  busy; and we were still on a learning curve with the boat and the area. 

Chichester Harbour is very shallow in many places, and although it looks like open water, in reality it might be only a few feet deep, our boat has a draft of 1.4 metres. This means that from the bottom of the keel to the water surface we need at least that to stay afloat. At one point we were making a hash of a tack and drifting onto East Pole Sands, we looked up to see a coast guard on a big RIB chasing after us to offer assistance. We  managed to sort ourselves out without his help, but I then got a bit wary of it and suggested heading back towards Dell Quay.

We sailed sweetly on a run all the way through Itchenor Reach and up past Birdham Pool, saving the engine.

Within sight of the pub at Dell Quay, we ran out of water again, dropped the anchor to wait, and noticed other boats coming in following a designated channel marked by buoys which we had ignored.

Original brochure images

Mmmm, lovely salad with Hayward's Picalili, or Branston's Pickle?

Ours is twin keel profile, the one on the bottom of the page.

Actually, it's Mahaskah

That extra "h" appears on all boatie bits, so I will change the blog name too.

We received loads of excellent quality extras from the previous owners on Sunday: one of those is the three man Avon Redstart inflatable dingy, here it is in the sitting room:

It comes with an outboard bracket and 3HP yamaha outboard, wooden oars and foot pump.

We are almost as pleased with this as with the whole boat!

In addition there are 3 spinnakers (why?), two in chutes. A spinnaker pole, extra swim ladder, loads of charts and original manuals and paperwork.

Ownership or own a ship!

Transfered the balance for Mahaska today.
Feel as if a new chapter is beginning!

Accessories

The wish list has been shortened by one item this weekend:
A Brompton Folding Bicycle bought in the Nevill Table Top Sale Trail for £100!

John is very pleased!

Brompton Folding Bike



Wind or Solar?

I have put the question to the very useful Yachting and Boating World Forum and had a number of informative replies, which I hope they are happy for me to reproduce here:

"I had a Tomahawk for a number of years, a wonderful boat with good sailing ability and will keep going when you have given up! SWIMBO cried when we got a bigger yacht!

Many Tomahawks have travelled far and wide, I would adviseyou to join the owners association.

We were also low tech and low leccy as well, never felt the need for lots of solar panels and wind turbines. We had 110Ah domestic and a 75Ah engine start. No fridge or heating, GPS and usual instruments, nav lights and cabin lights (not LED), VHF plus radio/CD player.

Biggest concern was the Tricolour up the mast at 25W I always worried on overnight passages that we had enough juice.

Not sure where you would put a decent sized wind turbine on a Tomahawk or a large solar panel for that matter!

We just used the engine to charge the batteries and only had a problem on a couple of occasions when the domestic died. We would go away for a couple of weeks no shorepower or other means of charging the batteries with no problems. Boat lived on a swinging mooring. If I had her again I would put a solar panel on the coachroof to keep the Domestic fully charged.

I had a rutland 913 on the last yacht (Sadler 32) and that was fine but you were always aware it was there! Anything smaller would have been a waste of effort and money. On a Tomahawk it would have been much too big.

Have gone Solar on the latest boat. I would recommend a solar panel to keep the battery topped up."

"Solar is the way. I was a big windmill fan myself, but comparative output figures, plus the noise, relative maintenance requirement, and uncertainty of wind versus sunlight, reduce their appeal.

But they need to be recognised as a long-term plan, and if you try to over-economise, you'll always be disappointed. It's worth looking hard at the figures: a photo-voltaic panel with twice the basic version's output tends to cost less than double; and so on, as the output increases. They're not pretty things to deck the yacht with, so one pricey square meter on the coachroof, kicking out 100w on a sunny day, will be much better use of the money than several relatively gutless cheaper ones, bought over time as you find the cash.

It's worth paying for the most robust version, unless you can be sure that any sort of unscratchable clear laminate you'll cover it with, does not reduce output. Clever (costlier) ones won't be too diminished in output by the shade from flapping lines/standing rigging. Whichever you fit, well worth thinking hard about how you'll prevent it being stolen.

I rather fancy stitching a row of eyelets in the mainsail about a meter above the boom, enabling perhaps 300 or 400w worth of flexible panels to be 'hoisted' on the rig's sunward side, during long beats!

I've had many optimistic and unconventional ideas about vast deep-cycle batteries on board, serving a lightly-used electric auxilliary. One of those not frightfully practical plans that would take half a century to cover its outlay, but refuelling by pure sunlight is a lovely idea, and having shore-style amperage on board (without needing long rumbling sessions of charging by diesel) will always be welcome.

However equivocally realistic my own plans, a high-output solar cell will serve your purpose I think. "

 

thank you to Rickym and dancrane

 

I have also been reading a very scientific analysis of different panels and performances in Practical Boat Owner, so I will now consider myself to be better informed!

Ideas and renegotiations

After the Survey, the thing to do is to try to come up with a figure that represents the shortfall between the vendor's expectation and the purchaser's hopes.
So we trawl through the list of issues highlighted by the surveyor, and point out one or two items that are missing or incorrectly described on the inventory.
I have spoken to the Engineer, who says it's a good engine, the man who repairs the bodywork, who says the stress cracking is mainly cosmetic.
I have called out a Gas Man who told me the heater wasn't working and needs a complete overhaul, he also mentioned that we will need a Gas Report Certificate in order to insure the boat. The cooker is gas.
I've spoken with a Rigger, to get a ball park idea of running rigging (all the rigging ropes) replacement cost....
I have spent an hour or two on ebay looking at second hand equipment. Now all I need is for the Broker to return my calls so I can let him know our revised offer.

In the meantime here are some pics of the interior:

table becomes bed

looking aft

shiny cooker

looking forward into the V berth

Tomahawk Owners' Association

Joined The Tomahawk Owners' Association over the weekend.

What I have discovered:

• the boats were given names of American Indian relevance, and many of them still use their original names.  We have decided to do the same.

Mahaska means White Cloud and is the name of an Ioway Indian Chief who apparently hoped to negotiate peacefully with the settlers, however he was shot in the back at a camp fire!
What can one say?.......... "He did his best"

• Members of the TOA have already been very helpful and inclusive and now we are receiving newsletters with useful and interesting snippets to keep us better informed

• Mahaska was in the Round the Island Race in 2008 and did very well. She has form then. ( For non-sailors, the island in question is the Isle of Wight)

• There is to be a rally of Tomahawk Owners in September which we will try to attend

Thanks, Ian, Graham, Tony,  Don and all.

Survey

The survey showed few points that we need to address: some expected wear and tear on the engine, some stress cracking, and a missing VHF radio...
we are not at all dismayed by these things as the next part of the process involves getting some idea of costs to repair/replace and negotiate a new price.
I will meet up with the engineer next week at Dell Quay to discuss and chat. In fact, I was needing an esxcuse to look at the boat again, I feel a little bit of yearning already!

I have been thinking about using wind and sun power to charge the batteries, this will give us  flexibility of mooring choices (not being dependent on shore power) as well as feelgood factor and reduced ongoing costs.
I think we can get a wind turbine for about £300, and a solar panel for under £100 which will give us enough juice.
Other fun things to think of are what needs to be on the ""essential items"" shopping list. John has been looking at fixed focus binoculars, which can cost up to £500!