Janna under sail with reefing jib and old mainsail

Contact

Email: syjanna@gmail.com

Phone (Malaysia): +60122513997

Skype: klubkonet or syjanna

…as in arabic al’janna, which means “garden” as in the “Garden [...]]]>  (click the picture to see more photos)

Janna under sail with reefing jib and old mainsail

Contact

Email: syjanna@gmail.com

Phone (Malaysia): +60122513997

Skype: klubkonet or syjanna

1  We call her Janna

…as in arabic al’janna, which means “garden” as in the “Garden of Eden”…

You won’t need to spend months in a boat-yard. You can go cruising immediately, because we are cruising right now on this boat. You can step aboard as we step off.

We take a good care of our little boat. She’s a lovely home and a great performer at sea.

The equipment is minimalistic, but we rarely wished for more. We’ve put a lot of thought into transforming Janna into a cozy, but utilitarian vessel.

It is our home and an office.

We are the third owners and we are selling Janna for family reasons.

1.1      Significant features

These are the most important features that make Janna what she is (see more below).

She is a perfect home for a couple, however, four people will find comfortable berths on board. Two on the V-berth and two in the cabin. The cabin settee cushions fit nicely in the cockpit and you will spend many a night there.

1.1.1      Minimized routes for water ingress

We have kept only 3 seacocks (out of 10) – one for the seawater intake, one for the galley, which doubles as a port cockpit scupper drain, and one for the second cockpit scupper drain.

1.1.2      Confortable and safe galley, lots of storage space

The galley is well designed and we have never had water coming through the galley sink, even in foul weather. Two large storage lockers are right next to the galley sink.

We have converted the quarter-berth into another locker accessible from the cockpit and made special drains which keep the lockers dry in all weather.

We have also made a heavy-duty rail guard for the stove and the pots stay put even in bad weather. In really bad weather we cook in a pressure cooker (our most useful utensil).

There are two 5kg aluminum LPG cylinders on the deck. They usually last two and half months – but we cook a lot and bake regularly. The LPG is carried via a single high-pressure hose, thus minimizing the points of failure.

1.1.3      Efficient rigging

Previous owner added a strong 3’ stainless-steel bowsprit and a roller furling genoa. This allows for extremely easy wing and wing setup for downwind passages. The genoa is a real workhorse.

There is an inner forestay for hank on sails: light genoa for light winds and short tacking and reefing jib, which doubles as a storm jib. There’s another spare jib.

The virtually frictionless Cape Horn windvane will steer the boat on any point of sail, including downwind even in light winds. Maintenance is a piece of cake.

Halyards lead to the cockpit. This is great for single-handlers or your partner who can remain in the safety and comfort of the cockpit during the sail changes.

Only hank-on jib halyard ends at the mast, which makes it easy for the crew handling the jibs to control the sail. Occasionally we have used also a downhaul for the jibs, which makes pulling the sails down in strong winds safer.

We have ordered new large mainsail, with extended roach, as well as very light hank-on genoa. Both sails provide extra power and make short tacking in light winds very enjoyable.

1.1.4      Substantial ground tackle

Since we bought a 20kg Rocna, we’ve never dragged, even on a shorter scope. The chain is of prime quality, made by Acco. There are two more CQRs, spare piece of chain and about 200m of three-strand lines.

1.1.5      Spacious and save cockpit

A folding table fits in the cockpit and six people can enjoy a dinner in reasonable comfort. The cockpit is relatively deep and you will feel save even in foul conditions.

The cockpit sole can be lifted, which provides a great access to the engine room, which makes regular maintenance so much more enjoyable. Engine can be easily lifted out of the boat using the boom.

1.1.6      Everything is well documented

You can see our adventures and most work done on Janna on our blog http://www.klubko.net/en/ (or the Czech version which is more complete).

You can also visit our Google+ albums and click through to see the details.

2        Specification

3        Equipment and improvements

Extras:

• Engine shop manual and parts catalogue (both printed and digital)
• Manuals for all essential equipment (printed or digital)
• Lots of spare lines, new and old

We will gladly deliver the boat on reasonable terms to a reasonably distant location

Get in touch if you are interested.

Email: syjanna@gmail.com

Phone (Malaysia): +60122513997

Skype: klubkonet or syjanna

Main excuse for this expense [...]]]> We got very fond of our iPad 2. Small, fast to start, last couple of ours of typing. Love it. Except that it does not run our Windows applications like dictionaries, Office and such. Thus we when we visited Taiwan, we bought ourselves Asus VivoTab Smart tablet with Windows 8.

Main excuse for this expense was so that we can write without turning on our laptops. The second one was, that we can run OpenCPN and have instant navigation tool other than Navionics on iPad.

OpenCPN on Windows 8 tablet

The only trouble is, that Microsoft decided to wrap the internal GPS with an API that many application don’t know (including some sold by Microsoft!). There is a $15 solution, but it doesn’t work as reliably as one would expect.

So I’ve decided to write a little TCP server that interfaces the Location API and sends NMEA sentences so that OpenCPN can read them.

More details here: https://bitbucket.org/petrsimon/geolocationtcp/wiki/Home

I’ve tested it briefly, seems to be working. We will test it at sea next week when we head down the west coast of Borneo. If it turns out to be usable, I will improve it and make a proper application out of it.

Let me know if it works for you.

We were about to make a dodger, [...]]]> We have a new, large roach mainsail, which significantly overlaps the topping lift and little bit the backstay too. After few trials, playing around with topping lift and pondering our options, we decided that we will make ourselves a boom-gallows. We wanted it for a long time anyway.

We were about to make a dodger, but the gallows idea got in the way and the dodger project was postponed. It didn’t take too long to convince ourselves that we are a tough bunch and that like the many other cruisers before us, also we will cross the oceans without the unsightly roof above the companionway.

While at Xingda fishing harbour we tied together both halves of our dinghy mast to the coach roof and put the dinghy boom between them to get some idea about the dimensions our boom-gallows must fit into. Trouble is that there are no right angles and the boat is far from being symmetrical. After an hour or so of jumping around with a tape measure and a protractor, we came up with a simple design, that we passed onto our SS man (as in stainless-steel), with whom we discussed couple of details.

When we got the supports and the teak timber, we were just in the middle of making a new non-skid on our deck.

When the day came, I was nervous. Drawing up the design was one thing, but now we actually needed to drill the boat and mount that thing so that it looks straight.

First of all, I have realized that the angle of the cockpit wall on starboard and port are about two degrees off. I did measure twice, what twice, I measure five times, but only on one side… Well, it won’t be as straight as intended.

In the end it turned out quite well. Only the forks that hold the teak timber are visually slightly off – yes they were supposed to be horizontal, but life ain’t always fair either, right?

Now it’s all done and I have even passed the initiation by thumping my head to the gallows couple of times when entering the companionway. Jana’s shorter so instead of the gallows themselves, she bumps her head into the boom on the side of the cockpit. But she has learned her ways now as well and we are both happy.

The handholds that the gallows provide are just marvelous. Boom sits calmly even in the constant waves that passing ferries, fishermen, harbour police and pilot boats create. We have also took our topping lift to the stern, where it goes through a block on the pull-pit and is tied to a cleat on the starboard. It can be easily worked with a sheeting winch and we will use it to hoist the dinghy.

We were little reluctant to get into it, because we knew it will be slow and nasty work. The first phase [...]]]> Not much has happened in the last few days, i.e. nothing worth telling a story about. We were concentrated on one thing only (not to mention translating of course): creating a new non-skid deck.

We were little reluctant to get into it, because we knew it will be slow and nasty work. The first phase for sure, because first we had to sand the old non-skid, which on our boat is a molded gelcoat. It’s 39 years old and especially the front deck was almost flat and was turning into a dangerous skating rink when wet.

We are planning to paint the whole boat, step by step, but it was imperative that we do the non-skid before our crossing to the Philippines, because most likely we are up for a bit of wave action. The north of South China Sea is well known for it.

Sanding the fiberglass is a nasty business, because the fine glass powder gets everywhere and when you get it on your skin it itches like hell. I wrapped myself as well as I could and Jana sealed herself inside the boat and worked on our next translation project.

First thing one has to do is to wash the surface properly, get the dirt and grease off, because experts say that you could work it into the fiberglass when sanding, which would prevent the paint to stick properly.

I spent the morning washing and waiting for the deck to dry. In the afternoon I sanded the non-skid on our deck. Took me about three hours. Not too bad. The next day I went over it again and fixed few spots I missed before.

Then we found out we have a problem. The deck was full of little holes, probably caused by improper wetting of the fiberglass mat when the boat was build. We had to fill these. Not to mention that the International boat painting guide suggests to seal old gelcoat using an epoxy primer, because it could contain microscopic holes which could trap moisture and result into blistering of the paint. We were lucky enough that they had stock of Interprotect in Kaohsiung. In the meantime we have filled the holes with Interfill. Then painted over with two layers of Interprotect and one layer of Perfection Undercoat.

Then the main step. Put on a coat of Perfection topcoat and disperse Intergrip into the wet paint using a sieve. There was naturally quite a wind so that plastic crystals were flying everywhere. Next you let the paint cure and vacuum the deck to get all the Intergrip that didn’t stick to the paint away. Or blow it away. We tried to brush it away too, but that does not work very well.

Finally we put another coat of Perfection and waited for the result. The next day we realized that the texture is actually quite coarse, too much for our delicate bums. Thus we put on another coat, which made it little better.

Few points for those that decide to follow the same path:

1. Surface preparation is important. Interprotect will fill some tiny holes, but not very well. We tried to fill the holes that we missed when filling with Interfill as much as possible, but the hole usually remains visible. Next coat of Interprotect helps a bit and so does Prefection Undercoat.
2. Intergrip is quite fine, you need a fine sive or it will just fall through. Also the crystals sometimes stick together creating much coarser “stones”. Had we realized that soon enough, we would have sieve them first. These are no good on the deck.
3. Intergrip has to be spread very evenly and the cover should be a little thick, otherwise you’ll be left with spots where the Intergrip is sparse, which doesn’t look too great. We were worried that we don’t have enough Intergrip in the beginning and thus our deck does not have a very even texture. But it does not slip at all.
4. Intergrip should be distributed as soon as possible, the paint dries quite quickly and then it doesn’t stick that well. We had about 25 degrees and we had to move fast.
5. We used foam rollers which didn’t last very long. Regular hair roller worked quite well. But for topsides we will probably stick to foam.
6. We also tried to mix the Intergrip into the paint and roll the result. It’s not very easy to work with it, but it’s possible to achieve quite good texture. Sieve is much better, even though it’s messy.

The trouble is when you want to write multilingual offline posts. No editor is [...]]]> Sometimes you feel like posting, including sharing a photo, but the signal is weak or non-existent. Those who write in one language only have an easy life. There’s quite a few offline blog editors for most of the common blogging platforms.

The trouble is when you want to write multilingual offline posts. No editor is ready for that. And since we are getting ready to cast off soon and will be without regular internet connection for days at a time, I started to look for a solution that would enable us to write full blog posts offline and upload them immediately when we get signal, without the need to login to WordPress admin environment and finalize the post for publishing as we did so far.

We want to write and we want to spend as little time formatting, uploading pictures etc.

The simplest and most convenient solution came to me the last. That sometimes happens to me. I wanted to use Windows Live Writer for preparing the posts offline, because after few experiments I found that WLW is most likely the best. Personally I like ScribeFire as well, but it’s useless offline, because it requires instant upload of pictures.

After few hours of studying Windows Live API and playing with Visual Studio Express I had a plugin for WLW, which worked, more or less anyway, but unfortunatelly is seems impossible to send the markup in title required by qTranslate, because WLW escapes all the markup into HTML entites.

Well, at least I got acquainted with C# and VS2012.

Then I’ve spent little time digging around ScribeFire sources, but to rewrite their handling of images seemed like too much work. And I would have to check that my patch still works with new versions.

Finally it occured to me that it would much simpler send few innocent tags that wouldn’t be escaped to HTML entities and write a WordPress plugin that would convert such a post into a markup expected by qTranslate.

This solution will also free us to use any editor we wish to. The plugin is hardcoded to process Czech and English in this order. The double double colon is used as a delimiter of languages.

Post title:

Český napis :: English title

Post content:

 Český text :: English text

If you wish to insert pictures do the following. Insert the images at the end of the post and separate them by another double double-colon delimiter. The put the following placeholder to where you want the picture to appear in the text.

Image in the text

:photo..Image caption:

The complete post would look something like the follows. (All editors have a special field for post title, so the title would naturally be entered there.)

Český napis :: English title

Český text bla bla kolem a kolem

:photo..Západ slunce:

další povídání a tak dále

::

English text blah blah

:photo..Sunset:

and on and on, etc.

<img src=”…” alt=”” />

You can use as many pictures as you want. You can naturally insert pictures directly into the text, but in multilingual post you would have to insert two copies and both copies would be uploaded to the server. This seems wasteful to me.

WordPress plugin source code: qtranslate_offline.zip

La Grace grounded

La Grace, a rare replica of 18th century sailing ship was grounded on the Spanish coast and needs an urgent help. If the ship is not rescued within two weeks, the Spanish authorities take over.

You can help by a donation:

Account: La Grace

Acc. No: 240290748/0300

SWIFT: CEKOCZPP

IBAN: CZ90 [...]]]>

La Grace grounded

La Grace, a rare replica of 18^th century sailing ship was grounded on the Spanish coast and needs an urgent help. If the ship is not rescued within two weeks, the Spanish authorities take over.

You can help by a donation:

Account: La Grace

Acc. No: 240290748/0300

SWIFT: CEKOCZPP

IBAN: CZ90 0300 0000 0002 4029 0748

Variable symbol: 26102012

If you have any questions, you can contact:

Dan Rosecký (Dan@lagrace.cz)

Lucie Forštová (Lucie@ifp-publishing.cz)

Jaroslav Foršt (jaroslav@ifp-publishing.cz).