11th Trip - significant hull sea-life problem

Peter J MacWilliam

As you can see, we did not go very far. I should not say we because it was just me on a solo trip. The wind was not very strong. I immediately found that I did not have very good control with the rudder. I had actually noticed a bit of this behavior several days earlier, but the wind picked up and then she handled more like she should after the wind picked up. Today the wind did not pick up and I noticed I could push the rudder all the way over as if for a tack, but she would keep going basically straight forward. So, since I could not even tack, I just fired up the motor and went back to the mooring. Sailing finished for the day. I came back later in the evening to the club and brought the boat into shore and then pulled it over on its side by attaching the main halyard to my car (hoping I can post a pic of that). There was a shit-ton of life attached to both the hull and the rudder: mussels, barnacles, plant-life, etc. so I scraped off all the animal life from my hull and my rudder. I subsequently went for a test sale and everything is back the way it should be. So I learned from this experience (by the way this is season three for me as a sailor). The area where I moor my boat in Musquodoboit Harbour, Petpeswick Inlet, apparently has excellent conditions for these types of life to flourish. I'd rather not use anti-fouling paint so I'll just do the hull cleaning a couple of times a season. The method I use makes it easy as you'll see in the pic.