Good Morning Class

And what did you do for your vacation? Robert? I went to the Toronto International Boat Show, and it was awesome! Ok, truth, it was good, but did it ever wear me out. I hate shopping.

My two day visit to the boat show in Toronto, just over. We went Monday/Tuesday this year, and it was a good time had by all. No crowds, and no rude, irritating children. From now on we'll stay away on weekends, this was definitely better. Unfortunately, going on the 3^rd day of the show, you miss some of the clearance items that get scooped up early, but more importantly, you miss some of the best seminars and their speakers.

I missed Paul and Sheryl Shard this year. For the uninitiated, they are Canadian cruising sailors who built there own 37' boat from an empty hull, and cruised around the North Atlantic, Carribean and the Mediterranean making videos about sailing and creating a half hour television show called Distant Shores portraying their adventures. They are pretty cool, and although I have spoke to them several times before, and watched some of their previous seminars in other years, I still would have liked to see them again. Perhaps I will one day, in an anchorage somewhere out there.

Its funny. My whole life, or at least as long as I can remember, I have picked on people who are star struck. I could never understand how someone could idolize a movie star, or musician, or sports star, or royalty. These people have never done anything noteworthy; really. As I have said many times in the past, “the farmer down the road deserves my admiration more than they do.” But the truth is, I have my hero’s too, and for whatever reason possesses people to go gaga over Ja Lo, its the same thing that compels me to seek out and be in the presence of those sailors that have helped me create the dream of the cruising life, through their writings and videos.

Now I am not saying that I would kick Ja Lo out of bed for eating “Crackers”, and if the Queen of England showed up for tea, I would try my best to be a gracious host. However, if Lin and Larry Pardey pulled into the driveway, I would be so beside myself that I wouldn't even be able to speak. In fact Lin sent me an email the other day in reference to a question I had placed on their website, using her personal email, and it was like Xmas, my birthday, and losing my virginity, all rolled into one with a side order of Ja Lo to boot. And that was just a simple email.

Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea. Luckily for me I got the chance to talk to John Neal of Mahina Tiare III, at the boat show. He may not be on the top of my list, but Robby royalty nonetheless. His wife was a wonderful speaker and we really enjoyed her seminar on Galley Essentials.

So here is my list of hero's. Feel free to look them up on the internet. Also, if you must, take a moment and laugh at me for idolizing people who haven't accomplished anything important. Truth is, although I may idolize them and praise them for what they have given me, I still have more respect and admiration for the farmer down the road.

Henry David Thoreau – Not a sailor. At least not as much as I am aware. However, he is perhaps the father of North American Philosophy, and his book Walden, takes a look at the pathetic nature of our society, while highlighting a simpler existence. Goals I strive for, although unsuccessfully as of yet. What do they say, “its not the destination, its the journey.”

Lin and Larry Pardey – If you have ever seen a sailboat, you have probably heard of this amazing couple. Authors of several books, four videos, and innumerable articles on sailing and the sailing life, they are my generations cruising gods. They have a utilitarian view of cruising, preferring to embrace the KISS principles, and using the remainder of their energy to focus on enjoying life. Everyone could learn a little from them on this.

James Baldwin of Atom– Perhaps not as well known as the two above, James has circumnavigated the world twice in a 28 foot Triton. A small boat designed by Carl Alberg, and built by the Pearson brothers. Often touted as the first fibreglass production boat in the world. More importantly though, James believes in small boats, just like the Pardey's “go small, go simple, go now” philosophy. And perhaps most importantly, he believes in modifying a boat in the most basic ways to make almost anything a safe, yet compact ocean cruiser. Check out his site. If your an advocate of small ocean cruisers, this guy will be your deity.

Paul and Sheryl Shard – If only because they are Canadian and sailing famous. They are refreshingly down to earth when you talk to them, and although they and their show has changed to become much more commercial over the years, they still started out in a bare bones simplistic way, and that is to be admired. Try their shows. We find their first couple of seasons were more focused on sailing, whereas the newer shows are more about the travel, but still nice to watch when snowed under, during a frosty Canadian winter.

Nigel Calder – The guru of maintenance. You can't own a sailboat and not own one his books. At least not unless you are omnipotent.

The truth is, I feel a little sheepish mentioning all these names. But each and everyone of them have been an inspiration to me, and this list is by no means exhaustive.

Liza and Andy Copeland

John Vigor

Annie Hill

Don Casey

Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger

Reese Palley

Herb Payson

John Neal

Ann Vanderhoof

Dave and Jaja Martin

Anne Hammick

John Guzzwell

Rebecca Burg

Deb Cantrell

Jim Moore

Dan Spurr

Emiliano Marino

And the remainder of the list is pretty much anyone who has done it. And by done it, I mean cut the dock lines, cruised and lived the dream. And that list is endless. Although special note should be given to anyone who has written about it, so that I may be a part of their dream too.

Okay. Well. I have a crap load of stuff to do now. We purchased a bunch of equipment at the boat show, and I will blog about that soon. For now I need get started sewing. I have a list as long as my arm, and as long as it is related to the boat in some way, I'll post it here.

Cheers.

Rob :-)

Ode to the Masters Throne

I borrowed a bunch of money to buy some stocks in early December. Lucky for me the bet payed off, and I made back all the money I was down over the last few months, plus a little extra. Now I have the funds needed to finish the refit. By the way, I don't recommend playing with the stock market to gain a few extra dollars for a boat. Not that investing is a bad thing, after all, it is my most favorite thing to do after sailing, but it can be very dangerous, it is not for the faint of heart, and you have to be prepared to to take it in the @$$, maybe for years.

So I phoned The Store (Mason's Chandlery) in Toronto, Ontario. I love these guys. They have a great store and I found them extremely helpful when trying to make decisions on gear, plus, they don't mind giving the odd discount, which is nice. They also happen to be the only place in Ontario I could find the Lavac "popular" head.

I ordered it so that I could pick it up when we go to the boat show in two weeks. It has to be installed before the boat goes in the water, because I am re-plumbing the boat. We need to be able to pump out our waste tank when in places where there are no facilities to perform such functions. I also want to add a grey water tank for the head sink and shower. We are going to connect our pressure water system to raw water, install a deck wash down, and convert our fresh water tanks to hand pump only. Quite the list, however, we prefer to keep the pressure water system as non-essential, and it helps us conserve fresh water by not being able to just turn on the tap. Also, I prefer to use a holding tank always, and then pump out the tank when we are at sea. I don't really relish the idea of letting the waste go in the anchorage, where I swim and fish. It wouldn't be so bad on an out going tide, but I don't think I can hold it that long.

I have never seen one of these heads, let alone used one. But they come highly regarded from some of my favorite sailors. Apparently they do not suffer the same ills as a standard boat head. I screwed around with our Jabsco during our trip in Aug last year, and it drove me nuts. It just would't play nice. Plus after hearing the horror stories from many, many others, I was not looking forward to tearing it apart on our short little trip to clear a clog. Also, even with a 20 gallon waste tank, it was full in 3 days. The Lavac is supposed to use less water, and is more reliable, so it doesn't take 30 strokes to make the nasty stuff go away.

Most importantly, this modification has been spousal approved.

Later. Rob :-)

A boat by any other name...

Quick note. Its official, the boat is no longer called "the boat", she will from now on be addressed as "Vita", of Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Step one to leaving the country is complete, even if the trip is slightly delayed. I was so worried that the process of registering her was going to be a real pain, and it ended up being quite the opposite. The Transport Canada clerk was excellent. I am tempted to remove the licence number from her bow now, but we'll see. Still working on the house, boat stuff to resume in a month or so.

Cheers.

As the World Turns...

So are the days of our lives...

Just kidding, enough with the soap opera crap right... However, I would argue that most peoples lives are like a soap opera anyway. And so goes my own...

Originally there was a five year plan to purchase a boat, get to know her really well, upgrade her as we used her, and then head off to the wild blue wonder for an indeterminate number of years. Basically until it stopped being fun. Then, as I mentioned before, during an alcohol assisted whim this spring, we decided to leave in Sep 2012 to try it for a year. Good plan I thought. We would leave the house in the capable hands of our teenage son, and off we would go for 10 months to try cruising. It was an aggressive schedule to try and accomplish the refit. But I am never happy unless I am in over my head.

Unfortunately, things change. It scares the crap out of me, because I know that there are a lot of people who continually put off going cruising because of one reason or another, until it is too late. I do not want to be one of those people, however, Sep 2012 is not going to work for a couple of reasons, so sailing to the Bahamas has been put off for another year. I console myself with the fact that we are still well under our original 5 year plan.

So the issues. Most importantly, the stock market has taken a shit kicking, and all the money for the refit is tied up in the market. Only a fool would sell at time like this, and I don't want to be one of them, so I really need the market to come back a bit before I would feel comfortable completing the refit. Second, we are really uncomfortable leaving a $250,000.00 asset in the hands of an 19 year old. Don't get me wrong, he is a good kid, but not yet mature enough to the handle the responsibility of maintaining a house in pristine condition, so that it can be ready for sale when we return. The house is very "dent-able" as Serena puts it, which basically means that a little bit of neglect or damage could have a dramatic effect on the aesthetic value, and subsequently reduce the sale-ability. Read; a lot of soft wood; floors, ceiling, trim, stairs, railings, etc...

So we have decided to sell the house before we leave and put everything in storage. Unfortunately because we just received occupancy this summer, we cannot sell until Aug 2012 in order to escape the capital gains tax on the sale of the house. The agony... Plus, Aug is a bad time to sell a house, at least around here. The Spring is a much better time, so we'll list it Mar 2013.

That doesn't change the blog much. I will still be doing the refit, and we will still be traveling, it might just take a little longer, and there won't be an arrival in Nassau for an additional year.

By the way. I got an email from Transport Canada. It looks like the boat's new name will be "Vita" out of the Port of Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Vita, pronounced (Veeta), is Italian for "Life". They still need some pictures and a declaration from us, but it looks good. Can't wait.

The basement is coming together nicely, so hopefully I will be back to boat stuff very soon.

Until next time.

Winter has Come

At least it has for me. There is no snow on the ground yet, but the boat tarp is closed up for the season. I didn't get half of the things done I had envisioned, and now I have to finish the basement before Xmas. We have 14 people coming for the holidays, and we currently have a 2 bedroom house. Priorities. There probably won't be many posts between now and January when I start sewing. Then the spring time will be a flurry of activity.

Dreaming of sailing.

Rob

Caveat Emptor

Maybe not the appropriate title, since I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into when I bought the boat. I had a survey done, even if it wasn't worth the paper it was written on, but it did highlight some areas of concern, and I saved a couple of thousand dollars for my headaches. I am curious if it is too late to get my money back? As a side note, most small boat surveys in Canada now are to appease the insurance companys, and really don't reflect the true condition of the boat all that much, but we have to have them to get insurance, and we have to have insurance to get a slip at almost all clubs/marinas. Ironically, it has become a process for the sake of the process.

I had forgotten how much fun it was to renovate. Several years ago, with our first home, we got ambitious and embarked on a 4 year refit/renovation of our new to us, house. We made about $35K for our efforts, during the resale, but it cost me a lot of aches, cuts, bruises, and a chronic back problem. In an ironic twist with this boat, I am ending up with the same broken parts only in the end I am sure that I will be giving up that $35K, because the boat won't be worth any more than I paid for it. Funny thing about boats and boating, we will always end up in the financial dumpster with a boat, giving light to the phrase, "a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into". However, as every boater knows, the priceless experience of being on the water can never be measured with coins.

Spent a few hours working on the boat yesterday. I tried to get the prop off, but my puller was a little too short, so I guess I'll have to get another one, or modify the one I have with longer arms. Then it was on to gutting and tearing apart.

I cut out the bottom of the starboard cockpit locker, which was just a shallow tray. Under it was a quarter berth, that will provide a lot of space for a new cockpit locker, starting battery, and the condensing unit for the refrigerator. It went well, a few cuts and bruises, including pinching my finger in the lid, its a pretty black colour today. I will have to grind down the edges, and fibreglass a couple of spots before painting, but that is a long way off. The fibreglass was a solid 1/4" thick, not bad for a shallow locker.

Before the saws-all.

After the saws-all.

I still need to cut out the pan below that acted as the quarter berth, but I want to make sure I get that just right when designing the new galley. Which I also started gutting today. I was taking it really easy because I wanted to save all of the teak. I am not sure that I am even going to use teak for the new cabinets, but I would hate to destroy it at the cost it is today.

 The real fun though came when ripping out the fibreglass in the starboard cockpit cubby. During the survey it had been noted that this area had water in it, and there were some noticeable slices in the fibreglass. Turns out there was lots of water, in fact the plywood was completely saturated, and had become delaminated from the fibreglass. Luckily it is only a small strip, and does not have any effect on structural integrity. I will let it dry out over the winter, even drilling a couple of holes in the bottom, and then re-epoxy in the spring.

Before

After

I also removed the batteries, and tried to figure out how the new batteries will fit. Bad news is that I am going to lose the second quarter berth to battery storage. So I will have to modified that side too. It is amazing how much space 4 golf cart batteries take up. So, I guess if anyone comes to visit, they will have to go home at bed time, or sleep in the cockpit.

I leave you with a couple of pictures of the cockpit. Destruction is always so messy. I did clean it up before I left though. I probably wouldn't have gotten out of the boat if I hadn't. Now I have to wait a few days before I can get any more work done. I have company coming, and truth is, I need the break.

Elbow Grease

OMG... I hurt. There, my kids will be happy, I used a new millennium word.

Owning a boat is hard on the body. And I am not getting any younger. No offense to the folks over 42. Serena and I spent the better part of 5 hours scrubbing the topsides to get rid of the years of staining on the gelcoat. I eventually had to go out and get a rubbing compound in order to get out the really bad stuff, and to get the last remnants of the old name off of the transom and both port and starboard bows. We had to get her cleaned up as best we could, as we have decided to paint the decorative hull stripes and the boot stripe. They are currently brown, and that color is not available around here without mixing, and using stock colors makes touch-up so much easier. One of the previous owners had painted the stripes around the letters of the name, a cute effect, but a pain now that the name is changing.

So that done, we put all the ground tackle gear on deck to see how it was going to fit. About the best spot I can find for the windlass is right on top of the anchor locker door. So bye bye door. Actually, I am going to cut the door in half, beef up the front half with plywood and epoxy, and leave the back half opening. The trick will be in getting the front half stiff and strong enough to carry the windlass with all the pressures on it. Then I will pipe the main anchor chain down into the cavernous area below the bows, and the secondary anchor rode will stay in the locker at deck level. Sounds kind of ambitious, even to me, but it is the best solution I could come up with.

Also noticed while I was crawling up in the bow that someone previously had cut two holes in the furthest reaches of the bow in order to get access to the bolts holding the bowsprit, presumably, however, I can see light around the holes, so my guess is that they are leaking. Another thing to add to the list. I'll probably have to remove the trail boards to get access, ugggh.

Built a makeshift frame, and got the tarp on. So, worst case scenario, we are ready for the winter. The tarp is full of little holes, but it should be sufficient to keep most of the moisture out. I may yet buy another tarp to put over this one. Just one more for the list. Buying old boats is exactly the same as buying old houses. You never know what you will find, and you always spend extra time and money fixing up someone else's screw ups.

Today we start cutting up things. I once heard a guy say that the only difference between him and most people when it comes to refitting, is that he wasn't afraid to take a saws-all to a boat. And although I am not really afraid, and am always a little concerned when ripping something apart, because it can never go back to the way it was. Of course, if it was okay the way it was, I wouldn't be changing it, right.

Until next time.

Rob