My 4th Morgan Invasion

By, Bob Horan

April 2007

With the preparations behind me, I hit the road on Tuesday the 18th of April about noon. I always expect trouble when I am one the road and this trip was no different. It was a windy day and driving the 8 miles to Interstate 75 was the first lesson in what can happen. I could not get my truck to go faster than 40 miles per hour in high gear going against the wind. I had thoughts that I might have to turn around and check to see if all 8 cylinders were firing. When I hit Interstate 75 and turned South, no problem, up to 60 mph and I was cruising but I noticed a little vibration. Must be the road. I made it into Florida and the vibration was still there, so I crawled under the truck and checked the drive shafts. I could not see or feel a problem. After a little rest, I drove on and arrived at the Davis Island Public Boat Ramp about 6AM., with the high tide expected about 14:00. I took my time getting the boat ready and at 14:00 I recruited a couple of gentlemen to help me launch because by then there was a 15mph cross wind on the ramp. After parking my truck and trailer at Davis Island Yacht Club, I sailed away from the dock at about 15:00. Life was good and I was sailing again. Checking the chart, I decided to sail to a small spoil island about 5 miles out. By 17:00 I was sailing into a protected cove on the back side of the island, with one other boat anchored. I set out a couple of anchors and dinghyed in to shore for a walk & swim. My boat was joined by 33 ft Ericson sailboat as I swam a few strokes in the cool water. The night was quiet, but Wednesday promised to have 15mph winds.

I got up early and by 9Am I was pulling up my anchors and sailing away from my deserted island shelter. The wind was coming from the Southwest and I wanted to sail to the Southwest. I tacked upwind toward my destination, Egmont Key located about 8 miles past the Tampa Bay Bridge. Around noon the wind dipped to about 7mph. I shook out the reefs in the jib and main and started making pretty good time. It was not 45 minutes later that the wind was back up past 15mph and I was setting my new tiller pilot to steer the boat while I reefed again. With the reefs in I beat upwind again until 2:45PM. I was still 4-5 miles away from the bridge and there was no way I could make Egmont Key before dark. I looked at the chart for protected anchorages and decided I would buzz by St Pete, then turn down wind and sail back to the spoil island I had anchored behind the night before. It took 2 hours to sail back to the spoil island after leaving St. Pete. 11 miles in 2 hours. At times I thought the dinghy would get pooped but it skidded ahead of the waves just in time. By 5:15, I was anchored with all my anchors out and only 50ft away from the beach. The 20mph wind had shifted and I was only being protected from the waves now. A small sand bar on the South side of the island was my only protection. The other boats at anchor were further out and were rocking and rolling.

The next morning I found the wind had done a 180 on me and the island was again barely blocking the wind and the waves. I decided after checking the wind, that I would just stay there for the day and wander on the island, and maybe do some reading. I wanted to check out the awning I had made and today was the day. It worked well except that the PVC pipe I used would eventually be permanently bent and would not provide any tension. I would have to work on that. Maybe some fiberglass rods inside of the PVC pipe. About noon, I noticed a Macgregor 22 motoring past and dropping anchor near the shore. I decided to take the dinghy in and found the owner up the island some picking up trash. His name was Bruce Avery and no, cleaning up the island was not his Job. He had worked for the Dept Of Natural Resources in Michigan and after retiring had moved to Apollo Beach, FL. and a few years back had decided the island was getting a lot of trash on it and started coming out to pick up the trash since no one else was doing it. We exchanged backgrounds and I asked if he had a spare trash bag that I could use to help him. He said he was leaving soon and I told him I could have a bag full in 20 minutes and would meet him at his boat. 20 minutes later I struggled out of the trees to the beach carrying a full bag of trash to his MacGregor. He was waiting and surprised I had returned with a full bag. We talked a little more and as he prepared to pull up his anchor and motor back home, he invited me to come down from Georgia anytime to spend time at the island and to help him pick up trash on it. With the awning up the boat was a great place to relax in the afternoon, reading and watching the many visitors to the island. By 7PM there were only a couple of people on the island and I took the dinghy ashore to watch the sunset on the opposite side of the island. I had a quiet night because this time the island was blocking both the wind and the waves.

Friday morning was quiet with barely a whisper of wind as I pulled up my anchors and prepared to sail to Davis Island Yacht Club (DIYC) for the Morgan Invasion. I sailed leisurely along and by 3PM I took down the sails and motored into the channel to the seaplane basin. As I passed by the Yacht Club, I smelled something hot and after checking the motor, I found I had no cooling water. I would have to work on the motor, probably a water pump. As the evening came I asked around and found not much in the way of a Honda Outboard dealer that might have the parts. Finally I found one near Brandon and would try to get a water pump kit from them in the morning. After dinner, Charley Morgan gave a presentation about his early days of sailing Tampa Bay, his adventures in the sail making business and then yacht building & racing, leading into Morgan Yacht Corp. Linda and Chris (my crew for the race on Saturday) arrived about the time Charley was finishing up and we developed a plan for the next day.

The first thing Saturday, we had to replace a lower shroud on the starboard side because of a long crack in the crimp of the original, so Chris winched me up the mast so I could connect the new one. With the lower shroud replaced, we were off searching for a water pump kit and breakfast. We arrived back at the Yacht Club just as the gun had gone off for the skippers meeting. As we were coming away from the meeting, Tim Horsman arrived. He would be my third crewmember for the race. He owns "Blue Cloud" a M24 that he sails and races out of St. Pete. We had to get a tow out to the race and "Dungle Jums" a Morgan 22, (hull # 1) volunteered to do that. Our timing for the start was off by a minute so we had a late start and lost some time on the first leg. The second leg, was a downwind and Tim suggested we take down the 100% jib and put up the 120%. Without loosing any time against the boats around us, we put up the 120% and immediately could feel the difference. We sailed the course making a few errors including leaving the centerboard up on one upwind leg, and bumping one buoy. At one point, Tim stepped below to find the carpet wet. I had forgotten to shut off the sink freshwater feed and because of the heel of the boat, the water had run out of the bow water tank and into the sink, running out on the counter and into the bilge. Running the bilge pump for a couple of minutes was enough to get a lot of the water out. For the last three legs of the race the wind was blowing over twenty. Watching the GPS to stay on course on one leg, we watched the boat speed go to over 7kts for most of that leg. As we came onto the last leg of the race, we decided to reef the main. With that done we made a couple of tacks to line us up with the finish line. We could get fifth!! With a wind shift we had to bear off some, and "Amanda" (another Morgan 24) was coming in very fast. We had to make one more short tack near the finish and as we straightened out to sail to the finish line, "Amanda" came by us and beat us to the finish line by 5 seconds. We got 6th place out of 8 in our class. We lost our whisker pole on our last tack, so we turned around to see if we could find it. It was in the extended position and was about 14ft. long. It was easy to see. It was sticking straight up, 1 foot out of the water, the other end was resting on the bottom. We sailed into DIYC and using the motor for just a short time we made it back to the dock. Linda was soaking wet and the rest of us were only half wet. Dinner and the racing awards followed. We all slept pretty good that night although my bunk was wet from water that had leaked in from the seat hatches when we had heeled over so far on the last couple of legs of the race.

The following morning Chris and I tried to get the Honda apart enough to replace the water pump impeller. Not successful and by 10Am it was time for Linda & Chris to head out. I cleaned up the boat some, trying to get things dried out. In the afternoon, walking back from the truck, I talked with George Russell, (Unplugged, Morgan 27) about his Honda 8 and in the process, he told me how to get my Honda apart and what to look for to check out the whole cooling system. With that knowledge, I knew I would have to spend quite a little money to have a marina do the work or I could cancel the plans to sail in Charlotte Harbor, do the Mug race, and just pack up the boat to go home to do the work at the house. Either way, just replacing the impeller would not be enough. I opted to pull out on Monday when the boat ramp would be not very crowded and I would drive home on Monday evening.

With an early start and a 10mph wind, I sailed away from the DIYC dock with a reefed main only. I knew I would have to sail to the dock with no motor and I did not want to have to manage too many sails at one time since I would be going down wind to get to the dock. I managed to sail up to the dock and at the last minute stall the boat to let it slide gently up to the dock. Just like I knew what I was doing. Loading the boat on the trailer took a little time but was uneventful although I did have to wait for a couple of hours for the tide to come up enough that I would be able float the boat onto the trailer. I spent the afternoon taking the mast down and getting the boat ready for the drive home. I waited until after supper to crank up and start my drive thru Tampa. By 7 PM. the roads were nearly empty and driving North on I 275, I started feeling a vibration as I got above 50 Mph. By the time I merged onto I 75 I could tell that I had a serious problem with the drive train on the truck. It was probably the universal joint on the front of the read drive shaft this time. Last year it was the rear one that went out. By the time I got to Warner Robins, the outside mirrors were a blur from the vibration. I had driven easy the whole time hoping that I would not have a failure on the road. I arrived home at 8AM safe and sound. By 9AM, I was sliding under the truck beginning the process of replacing all the remaining (original 1972) universal joints, including the one that had come so close to breaking on the drive home. The following day, I started on the Honda outboard and found a frozen thermostat and a pump impeller that had no fins on it. I ordered the parts from Plantation Marine in Eatonton and had the outboard motor back together & running great 4 days later. I look forward to attending the Morgan Invasion again next year.