The Work Begins

Well, it has been two weeks now since I brought Cassandra home. The topsides were scrubbed down to remove the black mildew that covered the hull. Pinesol and water worked pretty well, and also did an amazing job of revitalizing the teak. I think everything might still need to be washed down with some chlorine to get the last of the grunge off. I removed the old seacock and thru-hul assembly with minor difficulty. The plywood backing plate was mush and so it needs to be replaced.
Very little of the deck hardware had a proper backing plate and so every fastener has leaked and may have started core-rot. I have oiled the teak to preserve it for a little while and will be installing a new seacock as soon as I have the money to buy it. I'm also waiting on the money for epoxy to begin re-bedding deck hardware and encapsulate the plywood backing plates I need to make.
If a boat-dollar is about $500 US, I think it will take 1 or 2 boat dollars to get Cassandra on the water, and that's without removing the old saildrive. It will cost even more to get everything to the condition where I would like it to be, but much of that can wait until I have the money. Progress will be slow until I get some more spending power.In that vein, I am selling my RC airplane on Craigslist to help generate some funds. I would post new pictures, but very little has changed since the boat was cleaned.
One last thought before I forget, I used Scotch's delicate surfaces masking tape to cover the various holes in Cassandra that leaked when it rained. So far it has held up quite well and has a 60 day clean removal guarantee; even when exposed to UV.
Anyways, next summer will be very different and quite fun and I'm taking one step closer to it every day I can work on Cassandra.

The Big Day

Rejoice everyone for today has been a day of much progress! Today was the day that

Cassandra (technically still either Ken-Do or Coral Vette until I hold a denaming ceremony) came home.
The day began at 05:30. After a quick breakfast and picking up my cohort for the epicness that was today we were off, Dad leading the way in his Bonneville, Bonnie, and my friend Brian and I followed with the pickup, Clyde, towing my newly modified trailer.
The ride down was pleasant and uneventful. I plugged Clyde's radio back in so we could have tuneage for the trip. We arrived the house where Cassandra was being stored 15 minutes before the move was supposed to happen, but the truck was already there and working to maneuver itself into position. There is very little as impressive as watching two men effortlessly pluck a 4000lb boat from the field where it has been sitting for almost a year. The only thing more impressive was that they were able to do so with less than 2 feet of clearance on one side and not hit anything. You really have to have been there to get the full effect of it.
So, once the boat was out of the field and on it's way we took Bonnie and Clyde up to the Village Shores Marina in Hammondsport. Now, say what you want about Hammondsport, but I cannot over-emphasize how friendly and generous the people at Village shores were.
The two gentlemen who run the place were quite friendly, and patient as we adjusted the trailer for the boat. Although it took a few attempts to get everything where it needed to be, we soon had Cassandra situated. However, the hitch on the truck was too low to the ground once the boat was on the trailer. So, the marina owner called around until he found a suitable hitch extension, which he loaned to us to get the trailer home. He also was kind enough to loan a strap to hold the boat onto the trailer, since the one I brought was not long enough to reach.
I have to go back down to the marina later this week to dismantle the cradle for transport and to return the hitch and strap to the marina.
Leaving the marina was probably the most interesting part of the whole trip. You see, the marina is located at the bottom of a rather steep driveway that is only a couple feet wider than my trailer is. To get out I had to back the trailer part way down the launching ramp so I had enough room to turn around. Then I had to mucle my way back up the driveway onto the main road. I was a little nervous at times, but Clyde managed it in low gear. For the drive back I stayed under 50 mph the whole way and downshifted while I was stopping. Clyde handled it like a champ.
Once the boat was backed into the driveway Brian and I began pumping out the bilge to remove the rainwater from the big thunderstorms that had rolled through a few days prior. We managed to beat another wave of rain that chased us all the way back to B'ville. Then it was time to start scrubbing the muck of ages off Cassandra's once white hull and deck. That work will most likely continue for a day or two and involve much bleach and water. Then the real work will begin.

New pictures will be on Flickr in the next day or so. I forgot to bring my camera along for the road trip, but Dad took some photos with his phone, and snapped a couple shots of us cleaning the deck, so look for those soon.

Huzzah, It's a boat!!!

The Trailer

After many months of unforeseen delays and setbacks my trailer is finally finished. The current plan is to meet the truck from Village Shores Marina at the boat. They'll put the boat on their trailer and take it to the marina where they can forklift it onto my trailer. If everything works out I should be able to just drop the trailer on and drive off. More likely it will take a few trials to make everything fit properly.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it but I've got Jackson up and running about as well as I can. He'll need some fine tuning once Cassandra is in the water. Here's hoping.


(Jackson is my donated outboard for those of you who haven't been following the story.)

A day at the Beach

Well, avid readers, my trailer is still at the shop. The parts were fabricated, but not yet back from the galvanizers in Utica yet. So the move get's postponed again. I do not yet have an idea of when I will actually get this boat home. I'm back to wondering if I should just motor it up the canal and pull it out on a trailer when I get it home. But that is not the point of today's post. Oh no, today's post is much more exciting and interesting.
This past Friday (the 19th) my siblings and I, and one friend, all took a day trip up to Lake Ontario. We started off they day with an 0900 departure. The weather was cool, but scheduled to warm up, and a light to moderate drizzle of rain was falling intermittently. Our first stop of the day was a trip to Oswego Harbor to view the Nina and the Pinta replica ships that were docked there for the latter part of the week.
The Nina and Pinta are accurate reproductions of two of the ships Columbus took on his voyage to the New World. The ships themselves were OK. Not much to see. I'm still upset we weren't allowed below; that's where all the cool stuff is anyways. Still they were just wooden planked ships, two decks (three if your count the raised quarterdeck)pretty open and surprisingly small. I find it very hard to believe that someone thought it smart to go to sea in such vessels. Then again, I am contemplating sailing Cassandra to God only knows where and she's a third the size of these ships. Needless to say, my sister and her friend were less than thrilled about the whole thing.
Our second stop, where we planned to spend the rest of the day, was Southwick Beach State Park. Located on the sandy Eastern shore of Lake Ontario Southwick Beach is usually a busy place for families and individuals to enjoy the lake. Such was not the case when we arrived. The wind was blowing somewhere around 6 knots and the water looked a little ominous. The beach was still wet from the rain storms we'd had that morning and the wasn't another vehicle or person to be seen. It was a little spooky walking down a deserted beach. It felt like, well, like we were doing something wrong just being there. I managed to get over that feeling though, and by the end of the day there were about four other cars in the parking lot.
Now, it has been a dream of my to get my PD Racer Adra out onto some real water. I was sort of expecting to do Oneida lake first, but the chance presented itself so I threw Adra into the truck and took her along for the day. Pulling a 110 pound boat across a sandy beach by myself was tiring, to say the least. I managed to sail around for 15 minutes or so before my GPS died, but I didn't feel like trying to fight back out across the sand bar and surf that characterizes the east coast of Lake Ontario, so I kept going. The wind was from the Northwest so I tacked my way up the shoreline to a spot where we rented a summer cottage when I was younger. I would have gone longer, but some darker clouds were skirting the shore in the east and I decided it was better to play things safe and head in until they either did something, or cleared up. I got back just in time to help cook lunch, hot dogs. After lunch the weather had cleared significantly and after popping some new AA's into my GPS I headed back out. I logged over 5 miles in three hours that day and I don't think I could have been happier, unless maybe I could have just kept going instead of turning around and heading back to the beach at the end of the day.
Adra took the larger waves pretty well. The only sign of any fatigue was at the mast step where some excessive wear was becoming a problem. I'll add a mast wedge at the partner to see what that does for it.
All in all, it was a good day. I was getting a bit tired by the end and had a hard time keeping my eyes open, partly because of the sun and partly because I had gotten up at 0800 that morning. Dragging the boat back up the beach was even worse since the sand had dried out since that morning. The "up" part of the equation didn't help much either. I slept well that night and am still a little sore from dragging the boat through the sand. Now if I can just get Cassandra home I can work on that "and just keep going" part. :D

Looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Pictures and commentary on Flickr.

It has been quite some time since October 31 when I won my O'day 25 on eBay. Today I finally saw it in person.
After a short series of postponed meetings I was finally able to contact the boat's owner and arrange a meeting for noon today. My brother and I left the house at 9 in our van, burdened with a tarp, rope, buckets and a variety of other tools I thought would be needed to close the boat up properly for the remainder of the winter. We arrived at the boat's location about half an hour too soon, but once we knew how to find the place we decided to do a little exploring. So we drove around the roads in the area for a little while, and then returned to the boat at noon. Kenny, the fellow I was meeting, showed up about the same time we did, and got right to business showing me around the boat. The first thing I noticed when walking up to the boat were the areas the stanchions mounted. The lifeline stanchions had been removed, but the holes had some fiberglass epoxied on over the top, so no water was getting in. Still, it's something I'll have to fix. The next thing I noticed was that the hatch boards weren't boards! There were two pieces of smoked plexi-glass to fit in the hatchway instead. I suppose that would let some light in, but to be watertight they'll need modification or replacement. Ken showed me a couple other issues that needed to be addressed. The sink seacock was frozen open, the centerboard pin needs replacing, and the fitting should all be re-bedded. The whole boat needs a good cleaning, but the fittings and deck hardware all look to be in good shape. The bottom should be scraped clean and repainted, and there are a few sections of the topsides that need glass work. Real simple stuff like filling old holes from gauges and fairing in some previous repair work.
All in all I think I got myself a pretty good deal on a boat. I don't know if I would risk buying sight unseen again though.
The trailer is still a sticking point, but I now know how the boat got where it is (on top of a hill, 25 miles from the nearest lake). Apparently a marina in Hammondsport has a hydraulic boat hauling trailer that they used. I'll have to call them and get an estimate. Right now we're thinking about putting the boat in Seneca Lake in the spring and sailing it up the Erie Canal to somewhere a little more accessible for repairs to be done. If I have to I could probably keep the boat in the water somewhere until I can find a trailer. Hopefully that won't be a problem though.
Here's to adventure! I have a boat.

Still Looking

Well, my friend and I went down to Ithaca to look at the 24' Allied Greenwich they had there and it was pretty sad. The side decks were mush, the fiberglass was split in a number of places, and most of the woodwork looked like it was ready to fall off at any minute. Besides that, the cabin was so small I could not sit on the settee without hitting my head on the cabin top. So that boat is pretty much out. There was a Triton there that might come up for sale soon, but I'm not really planning on waiting for that. Dad contacted one of the many people he knows, who also happens to be a sailor, and asked what boats he would recommend for cruising. So now I'm looking for Bristol 24's and Grampian 26's along with my previous wish list items. Next week I'll be home again, and I'll probably go back to Oneida Lake and see what there is to see. Everything still looks about a thousand dollars out of my price range, but we'll see.

Another big idea?!

Well, it's a week until our first longish break here at Albany. When I go home I'll be looking at a 24' cruising boat, and asking our neighbor up the hill what his boat is and how he likes it. And if I can make it out there I might bum around the yacht club on Onondaga Lake, or an Oneida Lake Marina. So far the search is slow, and mildly promising. I doubt that I'll have time to look at many boats this fall so winter storage will have to be budgeted in if I do buy a boat this year. So far nothing has really said, "I'm the one." I'm not sure whether this is a blessing or a curse. We'll see though.
Anyways I believe I mentioned in my last post that one of the few ways I could afford to look at boats would be to hitchhike to wherever it is. Well, this and some related reading I've been doing has inspired me to what may be an impossible idea. I would like to write a book. Not just any book, a handbook. I want to write "The Adventurer's Handbook." It will be a repository of all relevant, and much irrelevant information related to travel and survival in the pursuit of adventure. I would like it to be an Earth based version of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." It would contain useful knots, sailing basics, hitchhiking tips, how to hop a freight train, how to live on nothing, and many other useful skills. Interspersed within the tips would be true stories about my own experiences of the topics being discussed.
I know, another pipe dream, but what can I say? I dream like it's my job, so why shouldn't it be?

Links

Liveaboard Simulator Amusing and true.
Life for Sail Blog of Impulse, the artists from Kentucky who sold everything and moved onto a Hunter 27.
Nick Jaffe's Site This is the guy who inspired me. He's doing a trip from England to Australia in a Contessa 26.
Cruising the Great Lakes and Bahamas This site chronicles the adventures of another guy who wanted to circumnavigate the Great Lakes. Unfortunately defunct now, but you can read a good bit of it with the Wayback Machine.

Photos

For more pictures see my flickr account.
Capt. Straw on Flickr.

Contacts

E-mail:

tench745@hotmail.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/brian.mcburney.54
(I'll upload photos here before my flickr account usually.)

Twitter: 

          seastepping

Skype:

brian.straw1
(I am not often on, but if I know you want to talk I'll make an effort to be on.)