Getting a little better....

So there is some light at the end of all this. I got a call yesterday from the guys at Federal Marine. They will be able to rebuild a transmission with the same specs as my old one by cannibalizing three other trans and ordering a few parts. The trans alone will run around 4K, but it sure beats total repower at 18K.

I took last night and got my old grill fired up for the first time and did some cooking on the boat. After buying a $140 propane tank I was a little upset when the grill wouldn't work at first. After cutting a few bolts and cleaning it all real well I got some great chicken out of the deal.

I am recently back from a family reunion, and from what I can tell they may be the only people who look at these pages. Anyways, the one constant piece of feedback I got was more posts. So I've been trying to keep them coming more often even if they are a little shorter. I thought people might like an idea of what this place looks like so I'll try to upload a video. Let me know if it works.

No love from Romance.

Ok, so I’ve been on the phone with parts shops way too long today. It’s generally not good news all around. The gear on my boat was a very rare one. It was 17 inches long and dropped 2.5 inches from the engine spindle to the output flange. No modern day gear has the same specs. (I need the PL model)

To make some of the newer models fit I may have to completely remove the engine and rebuild the engine mounts. A mechanic I trust told me that if I am going that far already I should seriously consider a total repower. I know he is right, but that would run around 18K before it was all said and done. That’s just more than I have to outfit this boat. I am really kicking myself for not having the engine inspected before I bought her. It is definitely true that if anyone really understood how much boats cost they would never own one.

To add insult to injury my AC hasn’t been cooling the boat off like it used to. I started digging around to see how difficult it would be to try and recharge the coolant in the system. I started poking around and realized I have no idea what I am doing. I need to call a technician, but will hold off until I get the engine problems sorted out. That or keep poking around until something clicks and I have an idea of how to proceed. Having this boat ready to go cruising is suddenly seeming a long, long way off.

If anyone has a line on a good rebuilt or rebuildable Paragon P25L let me know. It would save a world of hurt in Kemah.

Lee

On buying a boat.

If you are buying a used boat, spend the few extra hundred bucks to get the engine inspected. Especially if you are looking at a 30 year old sailboat.

I got a call from Jim at Federal Marine outside of Chicago today. The first thing he told me was I didn’t have a transmission. When they opened up the case, what used to be parts and gears had essentially dissolved away with salt water corrosion. There was nothing left to be rebuilt.

Apparently, J.D., the previous owner had never checked the transmission oil because it would take several years for a gear to degrade to this state. This is something that could have been easily prevented by a new oil cooler, but was simply overlooked or ignored for too long. I now have to make a choice about having the guys a Federal build me a new gear out of a Paragon case they have or find a new/rebuilt gear that will match the old Westerbeke 4-108.

What has me really scared is wondering how much other deferred maintanence is going to catch up with me during this refit. A rebuild of the old gear would have run about $2,000. A new one is more likely to run around $4,000. I may go ahead and get the engine surveyed now while I am working on the mechanical side of things. I don’t want to spend 4K on a new gear only to have to replace the whole engine later. If there are other problems lurking I want to know about them sooner rather than later.

Racing, Showers, and Transmissions.

It's been two really good back to back weekends. One of the local yacht clubs holds rum races several times throughout the summer and there happened to be one last weekend and yesterday. A rum race is a chance to bring new racers out on performance sailboats and introduce them to the world of racing in a low key environment. Equal emphasis is placed on the consumption of rum and winning the race which creates some interesting results. I spend yesterday working on the foredeck of a J-109 learning how to both work with and avoid the mass of line needed to fly all sails including the great big asymmetrical spinnaker. The great thing is I've learned enough yesterday to feel confident in flying my own asymmetrical on Romance.

I finally solved the great shower problem and once I run to Target and pick up a curtain I'll be able to shower on the boat instead of running to the top of the dock. It's a small thing, but living aboard does require a few creature comforts. I had to snap a 10 foot boat hook in half and use it to fish the shower sump hose past my water tanks, but that system is probably better than any other on the boat. Now I have to figure out where I want to dig in next. I am thinking I'll pull my main sail and mizzen sail down to take to Cameron Sails for renewing or replacement. My transmission is still sitting on the floor in a shop outside Chicago so I won't be going anywhere for awhile. Might be a good time to get my starter rebuilt as well. It's been having a few problems.

I am out to CA and NM for work and class. Four more classes and I'll have the EMBA done and will double the time I can spend both working for money and working on the boat. I can't tell you how excited I am for that.

Simple projects turned complicated

I’ve been slowly plugging away at boat projects. For $140 I replaced the 6lb propane take on the back of the boat that feeds an old Force 10 BBQ grille. I was tempted to replace it with a newer model one of my neighbors were letting go of, but on further inspection, the Force 10 was very heavy duty and in great shape other than a little surface rust. I cleaned it up and will be cooking steaks tonight. I also pulled the “Captains Chair” out of the cockpit. Having that chair out of there made the boat much more comfortable. While I understand the comfort aspect, aesthetically, it just didn’t belong on a sailboat. I used a new product for the first time as well. West Marine makes a 2 part epoxy that comes as a green roll with the activator on the inside of the main substrate. I mixed it up like play-do, filled the holes left by the chair and 10 minutes later it was hard enough to be sanded. Building momentum off each of these I though I would try something a little more challenging. Little did I know.

Romance has a small shower in the head, but it hasn’t been functional since I’ve owned the boat. I started poking and prodding to figure out where the problem was and found multiple breaks in the negative sump pump wire and float switch. I tracked all the bad wire down using a test lamp and replaced the bad sections. Once I got it all put back together, still no shower love. Using the same test lamp I figured out that the pump itself was shot. I figured this would make life easy and I would just pick up one of the new self contained units and drop it in. Easy, right? No. So I dropped the $100 at West and started connecting up the new unit once I drilled out the intake valve on the sump. Reconnected everything again and the pump took off, but no water was moving. This confused me.

I started running down all the plumbing connections and couldn’t believe that the previous owner had used regular green garden hose in the system. Oddly enough, the garden hose had been tied into the cockpit scupper and let to one of the yellow t-valves like you would find at home depot. This then came off to the shower sump and one other mystery line. For the life of me I looked and looked and couldn’t figure out where the other hose ran. Oh well. I’ll make it work regardless, or so I though.

Realizing the whole hose needed to be replaced I ran back to West for more hose. After buying the required amount I returned and believing the hose run to be an easy one I removed the old hose. Huge mistake. First, one I had the old one out I realized why the pump wasn’t working. There was a check valve in the line to prevent the cockpit water from draining into the shower sump. It’s been so long since it had been used it was completely frozen. Oh well, that could have made it a five minute fix, but his is much better.

By pulling the old hose out I removed any possibility of getting the new hose to lie in the same spot. I should have tied the new one to the old and pulled them both through together. So now, I’ve got 20 feet of shower sump hose run, but it’s 5 feet too short and I can’t get access to the area of the bilge to run it where I need. So much for a simple project. Hopefully I’ll be showing on my boat before the next week is over.

The Good, the Bad, and the down right Ugly!

The Good: I’ve made good on the promise I made to myself of getting more involved locally and trying to meet some people who race in the area. Last week I went out on a J80 in the Galveston Bay and had an incredible day on the water. These boats really are fast and a lot of fun to sail. We had an almost perfect day. This was a check out sail of sorts to see if I could actually sail or not. I’ve been invited back so I guess that means I pass. Hopefully, I actually am in town some Wed. or Sat. soon for the evening races.

The Bad: This one blows my mind and is severely damaging my wallet as well. I pulled Romance out of her slip to get the dingy off the davits so I could motor around the lake. (In case you are wondering the top three entrants for the naming contest are Blava, Reality, and The Duck) Everything was going fine until I headed back into the slip. The wind was up so I was moving a little faster than normal to keep some control of that big full keel. As I lined up on the slip and came about a quarter of the way in I throttled down, threw her in neutral, then reverse, throttled back up and no luck. I don’t slow down a bit.

I made a pretty good jump from the boat to the dock to try and get in front of her to slow her down, but that was pretty futile. The only thing that really saved me, the boat, and the dock from a major collision was the fact that I keep a small floating barge in the front of the slip to make it easier to clean the hull. The barge took the full brunt of the boat and forced Romance to slow down preventing me from ever touching the wooded dock itself. Thank God.

So what’s the point of this story? Well, my transmission went out. No more neutral and no more reverse. Obviously this isn’t a good thing for close quarters maneuvering. I started making calls to see who could help me out and the only mechanic who wasn’t booked four weeks out was Blue Water Ships Stores here in Kemah. They sent some one out and little did I know the mechanic was actually their refrigeration guy. Something he let slip at the end of the day. Well, he went to work pulling the trans out, but never before have I seen someone who more closely resembled the old adage, “A bull in a china shop”. In an attempt to pull the gear out he somehow managed to kick/break off a thru hull valve. For those not familiar with these it resulted in a hole in my boat about the size of a quarter that was rapidly letting water in. Sinking would be the correct term.

So the fridge guy started hammering a rag into the hole and letting me know all was well. He then took to slashing the plumbing for my raw water wash down pump in an effort to restart my air conditioner since the thru hull he broke was the water feed for the AC. Now I have a broken thru hull and plumbing to redo. Even more amazingly, he started blaming the broken valve on electrolysis. It certainly wasn’t something he felt he was liable for.

After contemplating the day’s events I called Blue Water and told them not to bother coming back and not to expect a payment for me for the work done as the damage Romance received was far in excess of the 4 hours work by his mechanic/fridge guy.

Thankfully I found a really good shop through my boat broker who stepped in and took charge of the situation. Y.E.S. assessed the situation and asked when I was leaving town again. Fortunately I had to be back in NM for class so while I was out they arranged a tow boat to come pull my disabled Romance (no transmission remember) over to the shipyard, hauled her, repaired the thru hull, and put her back in my slip in a days work. They’ve also picked up the gear and have shipped her to a specialist in my type of gear and will reinstall when she returns. So I am back on track, but I am guessing this will set me back a total of around 4k before it is all said and done. And that is if they can rebuild my gear. A new one will be 4K all by itself.


The UGLY: Heads. Oh god have I learned to head the heads on boats. There is another thru hull on a boat that pumps in salt water to flush the head. Turns out over time if the hoses are not carefully flushed with vinegar then extreme deposits of calcium can build up clogging the hoses. I had a mother of a clog. I guess the previous owners never flushed the system with vinegar. The 1.5 inch hose was blocked down to .5 in and the calcium had become dislodged completely blocking all water flow. Several feet of pipe had to be replaced, but not before much of the waste water had been allowed by a technician to run into the bilges. It’s all back together, but not only have I flushed the toilet, but the whole of the bilges have been well flushed to boot.

Ok, that’s enough boat love for today.

Lee

The Good, the Bad, and the down right Ugly!

The Good: I’ve made good on the promise I made to myself of getting more involved locally and trying to meet some people who race in the area. Last week I went out on a J80 in the Galveston Bay and had an incredible day on the water. These boats really are fast and a lot of fun to sail. We had an almost perfect day. This was a check out sail of sorts to see if I could actually sail or not. I’ve been invited back so I guess that means I pass. Hopefully, I actually am in town some Wed. or Sat. soon for the evening races.

The Bad: This one blows my mind and is severely damaging my wallet as well. I pulled Romance out of her slip to get the dingy off the davits so I could motor around the lake. (In case you are wondering the top three entrants for the naming contest are Blava, Reality, and The Duck) Everything was going fine until I headed back into the slip. The wind was up so I was moving a little faster than normal to keep some control of that big full keel. As I lined up on the slip and came about a quarter of the way in I throttled down, threw her in neutral, then reverse, throttled back up and no luck. I don’t slow down a bit.

I made a pretty good jump from the boat to the dock to try and get in front of her to slow her down, but that was pretty futile. The only thing that really saved me, the boat, and the dock from a major collision was the fact that I keep a small floating barge in the front of the slip to make it easier to clean the hull. The barge took the full brunt of the boat and forced Romance to slow down preventing me from ever touching the wooded dock itself. Thank God.

So what’s the point of this story? Well, my transmission went out. No more neutral and no more reverse. Obviously this isn’t a good thing for close quarters maneuvering. I started making calls to see who could help me out and the only mechanic who wasn’t booked four weeks out was Blue Water Ships Stores here in Kemah. They sent some one out and little did I know the mechanic was actually their refrigeration guy. Something he let slip at the end of the day. Well, he went to work pulling the trans out, but never before have I seen someone who more closely resembled the old adage, “A bull in a china shop”. In an attempt to pull the gear out he somehow managed to kick/break off a thru hull valve. For those not familiar with these it resulted in a hole in my boat about the size of a quarter that was rapidly letting water in. Sinking would be the correct term.

So the fridge guy started hammering a rag into the hole and letting me know all was well. He then took to slashing the plumbing for my raw water wash down pump in an effort to restart my air conditioner since the thru hull he broke was the water feed for the AC. Now I have a broken thru hull and plumbing to redo. Even more amazingly, he started blaming the broken valve on electrolysis. It certainly wasn’t something he felt he was liable for.

After contemplating the day’s events I called Blue Water and told them not to bother coming back and not to expect a payment for me for the work done as the damage Romance received was far in excess of the 4 hours work by his mechanic/fridge guy.

Thankfully I found a really good shop through my boat broker who stepped in and took charge of the situation. Y.E.S. assessed the situation and asked when I was leaving town again. Fortunately I had to be back in NM for class so while I was out they arranged a tow boat to come pull my disabled Romance (no transmission remember) over to the shipyard, hauled her, repaired the thru hull, and put her back in my slip in a days work. They’ve also picked up the gear and have shipped her to a specialist in my type of gear and will reinstall when she returns. So I am back on track, but I am guessing this will set me back a total of around 4k before it is all said and done. And that is if they can rebuild my gear. A new one will be 4K all by itself.


The UGLY: Heads. Oh god have I learned to head the heads on boats. There is another thru hull on a boat that pumps in salt water to flush the head. Turns out over time if the hoses are not carefully flushed with vinegar then extreme deposits of calcium can build up clogging the hoses. I had a mother of a clog. I guess the previous owners never flushed the system with vinegar. The 1.5 inch hose was blocked down to .5 in and the calcium had become dislodged completely blocking all water flow. Several feet of pipe had to be replaced, but not before much of the waste water had been allowed by a technician to run into the bilges. It’s all back together, but not only have I flushed the toilet, but the whole of the bilges have been well flushed to boot.

Ok, that’s enough boat love for today.

Lee

To the Pacific!

Ok, so I cheated a little and flew to San Diego first, but I still accomplished a milestone. I’ve been wanting to take Romance out for several weeks now that I have moved to Texas and I just haven’t slipped the lines for some reason. There really is no other excuse other than I have thought about it for too long and let fear of single handing get the upper hand. I decided to do something about that.

I had to come to San Diego on a business trip and found myself pretty well caught up by 4:30 in the afternoon. I ran down to Marina Sailing of Southern California (www.marinasailing.com) and rented a little Hunger 290 called BeesNees. I didn’t know if Marina Sailing had rules about singlehanding or not so when they asked how many life jackets I needed I quickly replied that two should be sufficient. No lie there as two were absolutely more than sufficient.

After a quick walk through I started prepping the boat for a quick run to the line of demarcation where the Bay ends and the Pacific begins. The wind was blowing 15 – 20 and I felt the pang of fear come back as I started considering how to maneuver out of the slip without taking out the boat next to me. The only relief I get from these thoughts are to think the solution right through them. Once I had the girl ready I loosed the port stern line, released the starboard bow line, released the port bow line, and managed to keep her still long enough to crawl aboard and get her out into open water without incident. That’s when the real fun began.

Did I say I had never singlehanded a boat before? Not even a little one. With no crew and no autopilot I wasn’t just real sure how to keep that full batten main head to wind while I was hoisting the halyard. Sure enough, it took several pauses to realign the boat and get the main up, but I did it. Turning for the Coronado Islands of Mexico she heeled over and started close reaching at 4.5 knots. After getting the feel under main alone I tied the helm to hold her and went forward to bring out the jib which quickly brought her up to 7.3 knots and buried the port rail in the water.

Fortunately the main had a reef already tied into it otherwise I would have stuck to main alone, but regardless, this was a great sail. Tacking singlehanded is a bit more difficult, but certainly nothing a determined person can’t accomplish. It was also exactly the confidence boost I was looking for before taking Romance out singlehanded or even with a less experienced short handed crew. I’ve got to admit as well, it was nice to be back in deep, clear blue water.

Fair winds, following seas, and clear blue water.

Lee

Settling In

Every now and then you land somewhere new, pause to take a look around and say, “Yeah, this is it”. I spent the week in Kemah settling into my new office and new home, Romance. Many times I’ve moved and told myself I’d make an effort to get more involved in the community and get to know the people I was living around. It never seemed to happen for one reason or another. I was dedicated to doing the same thing with this move and amazingly, the community seems to be pulling me into it more than I’ve gone out looking for them.

The first part of the week was pretty slow even through I have a million things I wanted to get done to the boat. As the week moved on I seemed to pick up steam tackling jobs like removing the old autopilot, installing new Lewmar 40 self tailing winches, replacing the genoa sheets, taking my primary 150% genoa to Cameron Sails, and generally cleaning the place up. At the end of Thursday I ran into the harbor restaurant for a burger and ran into a really cool local couple. I was a little freaked out as the guy looks like the identical twin of my buddy Jeremy in Dallas. They both have the same oversized head and are brilliant when it comes to military history. They were good folks I am hoping to stay in touch with.

The same night I met a Brit who lives locally and was throwing a “black tie optional” St. Georges Party tonight (sat). Long story short, I’ve pulled out my best suit and will be heading up the ramp this evening to meet all kinds of locals out to live up St. Georges. Turns out St. Georges is the British equivalent of the Irish’s St. Patty’s Day. This gave me a great way to meet the locals at what should be a pretty cool event. They even hooked me up with a skipper who is looking for crew on the Sat. and Wed. J109 racing circuit.

Friday, as I am finishing up the winch job, one of my neighbors pulled back into their slip after a week long cruise. Next thing I know I am sitting back in the same bar as the night before having drinks and talking boat projects. I was definitely sorry to see the Razorbacks move off the pier, but turns out I’ve still got some really cool neighbors. These are the kind of people it’s fun to grab a beer with and they have been filling me in on all the local hotspots. I’ve got to get the dink in the water as it looks like that’s the safest way to bar hop around Kemah considering the police force is really, really bored.

Things are coming together in a good way.

Big Changes, Few Words

I’ve been pretty tongue tied lately and haven’t been able to blog. That certainly doesn’t mean things haven’t been happening. I broke up with my girlfriend of 3.5 years three weeks ago tomorrow.

She was and is an amazing woman that I deeply loved, but I knew that if I hadn’t committed myself to the relationship in that amount of time, I wasn’t going to. It may well be that I let myself get spread too thin to dedicate myself to making the relationship work. For some reason I quit talking to her about what was wrong and let things lay to the point that, looking at the relationship from a distance, it made more since to me to go separate directions than to continue trying together.

I’ve been using a large stick to beat back the urge to drink, smoke, and rebound may way back to normalcy. Lots of positives have come out of the past few weeks and I want to keep up the trend. The major change is that I now live aboard Romance! That’s right, considering I had moved from St. Louis, MO into my lady’s house I didn’t really have a place to live. I couldn’t even consider moving back into an apartment after living in great houses for the past six years. Too depressing. That combined with the urge to step up the refit of Romance made the plan pretty clear. Move aboard the boat. So that is exactly what I did. This has presented a few problems.

Of no small matter is the fact I cover the west coast of these United States as a sales rep for Thermo Fisher. I’ve got a new boss that looks very promising, but I sure hope they don’t have a problem with my new commute. In reality, I’ve got better access to most west coast cities from Houston than I did from Albuquerque, NM. To make sure my working conditions are conducive to selling, I’ve rented a 300 sqft office space on the water in the Marina next door. This will let me get some separation from living and working quarters while providing a real office from which I can stay on top of my business. Plus it is only a five minute walk from the boat.

The second trick I’ll need to pull off is graduating from my Executive MBA program in New Mexico while living in Texas. I am currently 32,000 feet above ground on a flight from Houston Hobby to Albuquerque for class this weekend. One more biweekly commute for the calendar, but what the hell. It won’t cut into my work schedule any more than it already did and I’ve been racking up the Southwest Rapid Rewards vouchers so I shouldn’t even be out of pocket for the next couple of months.

For those of you who really know me, you probably are wondering what I’ve done with Georgia, my dog. Well, she is safe and sound on the boat with me. We’ve been slowly learning the ways around the boat like getting up the dock step, down the companionway stairs, and with a little help from yours truly back up the companionway stairs. She has really taken to it extremely well. Seeing her paws slip on the nonskid will force me to raise new and more course nonskid up on the project to do list. It will be much more safe for her and me.

I’ve also stepped up the refit in a big way. This week I finally lowered my gigantic dingy off its davits and into the water. She needed a cleaning in a big way, but actually looks pretty damn good after a scrub. The 15 hp Mercury probably hasn’t been started in a couple years and the fact the spark plugs were corroded and crumbling had me a little worried. Amazingly, she fired right up on the fourth pull. I’ll have to replace some of the electrical lines as they are pretty shot, but once I get a battery in and the running lights up, I think she will serve me well.

The next big step hurt the cruising kitty. I used Froogle (this google product is worthy of its own blog) to find the best deal possible on both a set of Lewmare 40ST Chrome winches and Raymarine Autopilot with the S3 Corepack, ST6002 Control Head, and Type 2 short linear drive arm. This is oversized and can easily handle a boat up to 33,000 lbs. Romance is only 23,000. I shelled out about $5,500 for the lot, but should be getting 2,900 back for the Maxprop that didn’t fit and a nice little tax return for 2,900 so by my math I am ahead $500 bucks. (yeah, I know that doesn’t really add up)

In addition to working on the boat on my off class weekends I really want to make an effort to get involved in the sailing clubs around Kemah. I’ve written a few times about the benefits of racing to learn how to sail a cruising boat more effectively. I’ve had a few invites in the past, but living in New Mexico really prevented me from accepting any of them. If you are in the Clear Lake area and need green racing crew, shoot me an email. I’d love to get involved and race as often as possible. Anyone know if there are Wed. night races?


Fair winds, following seas, and new beginnings.

Lee

P.S. I am holding a competition to name the dingy. I am looking for funny, smart, and creative so send me all ideas. Not sure yet what the winner will win, but never you mind. Just keep those ideas rolling.

Givens Continued....In the trash can it goes!

So I called again this morning to Givens and had a return call in a few minutes from both Frank and Lori Perrino. Needless to say, they were very unhappy that I was generating negative publicity for them that might negatively impact their business. They had received the tests from my raft and while it may be possible to perform several repairs bringing it back into working order they were of the opinion they no longer desired my patronage as a customer. I explained that the feeling was mutual at this stage and requested they dispose of the raft.

Interestingly, the second half of the conversation turned decidedly more positive. I reiterated that I was aware of the age of the raft and the fact that it my no longer be serviceable. Knowing that, if the raft couldn’t be salvaged, I would need a new raft we discussed purchasing a one when I first contacted Givens.

Frank stated that there were really two options in terms of high quality rafts: Givens & Switlik. Frank said that in order to show there was good faith on their end they would be willing to sell me a replacement raft at dealer cost.

An interesting offer and decidedly unexpected considering the start of the call. I am not sure I’ll take them up on it and will probably wait for next month’s practical sailor where they are doing a new set of raft testing. At least this is finally resolved. I don’t think the folks at Givens are bad people by any means, but I do think they are a little overwhelmed.

CONFLICTED!!!

I am just back from a 10 day trip to Prague, Czech Republic and Bratislava, Slovakia. The trip was a part of the Executive MBA I am pursing and I went into the trip with few expectations except to drink some good beer with my classmates. What happened was something totally different.

Communism fell in the country of Czechoslovakia in 1989 with the student led Velvet Revolution. Since then, the countries have experienced extreme growth, but it has been driven by the youth of the countries. Seemingly, the generation that had come to adulthood under the communist rule was not well prepared for a free market economy. Today that means that the average age of a CEO is around 35. There is a real shortage of highly educated people to continue the growth they have seen so far.

As a part of the trip we were introduced to a tight network of people ranging from two U.S. Ambassadors, the CEO of Sky Europe, the author of the Slovakian Tax Reform (a flat tax of 19%), and Jan Bubenik who founded Bubenik Partners recruiting firm and was a key leader of the student group who led the velvet revolution. The experience has me conflicted for several reasons.

Going sailing was a chance for me to reevaluate where I am and what it is I want to accomplish with the time I have. Trudging up the corporate ladder has lost most of its appeal since I started working after graduate school. I simply don’t have the patience to put in 20 years to make it up the ladder to a management role where I could actually have some impact. As a result, I started looking at traveling and fulfilling a personal dream of seeing the world. All of it. Sailing eventually became the logical way to fulfill that dream on a budget. Now enter the Prague network. What if I could move right into a management level position while simultaneously garnering some international experience? Not to mention the economy is rife with entrepreneurial opportunities. From what I have seen so far, I don’t think I could continue to pursue a corporate career in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean all those aspirations are gone. Now that I’ve found a path to continue the pursuit of those aspirations what does that mean relative to the personal goals of traveling the world?

Is it possible to break a circumnavigation up over a lifetime? Say I go for it as planned in 2008, but head east to the Med instead of south to Panama. Work in Prague for a few years and see what happens? The Croatian coast is supposed to be beautiful with over 1000 islands in its cruising grounds. Not to mention easy access to the Suez and down to the Indian Ocean. I feel like an author who’s come to a cross roads in the story he is telling. How do I want this story to read? What should be the title of my next chapter?

BM Boat Works & Givens

Boot Stripe $900Bottom Job w/ antifoulant $1482Blister Repair $382Boat Lettering removal $100ST 60 Instrument Installation $400Repair of old and install of new through hulls $250Gelcoat Repair for old instrument housing $350Y-valve for macerator plumbing $50Restuff packing gland $75New Zinks on prop shaft, shaft nut, and others $20Misc. Parts $200Yard fees for haul out $400Mizzen chain plate repair $150rudder glass repair $100

Total: $4959

I'd do it again in a heart beat. 5K is no small figure, but the work looks very good and it would have taken me much longer to get the same result. All of these projects had to be done and done right. If you need work done in the Clear Lake area give Ben a call.

I sent this to Lori, the V.P. at Givens on the 1st. Guess what. No response.


Hi Lori,

It's been two and a half weeks since my last request for an update and still nothing. I am really just looking for some idea of when I might see my raft again. Can you tell me what place it is in line? Has it undergone a pressure test yet? I have an offshore trip scheduled for March 30th and really need that raft back by then. Alternatively, can you send me a loaner until your services team gets through processing mine?

Lee

Long time no blog....

Ok, ok, I know it's been awhile. I won't bore you with why I am so busy as I know everyone is busy and it's no excuse. Anyway, where was I? Romance is looking better and already back in her slip. Ben Miller of BM boat works was kind enough to shoot a few pictures of the repairs as they were happening with Romance. Below you can see that we stripped off the dragon’s tail and big red heart. It just didn't really fit with us. I'll be painting the stern a nice white next time I am in Kemah. Below that is the rudder repair. There were some pretty deep cracks in the top edge so Ben sanded it down and reglassed the whole top edge. Should make her water tight and much stronger to boot. Next is the patch of the old through hulls. for some reason the previous owner had the speed and depth indicator mounted at the stern of the boat. Now I don't know much but I do know, especially after running around at Offats, that I'd rather know how deep the water is in front of me than under me. That way at least I have a shot at slowing down or stopping. Next comes the shiny new paint job. Please note my only complaint was that we didn't strictly measure the prop aperture before I shelled out 3K to PYI for that Max-prop. So, I fixed up the old proplock and we'll just have to live with a little bit of drag. But, speaking of PYI, let's talk about vendors for a minute.

Since the email exchange below I still have not heard a single word from Givens. I've also just noticed that they did not take part in Practical Sailors life raft test this year. For some reason they were just too busy to provide the raft to PS. Makes you wonder doesn't it? Maybe I should send them another reminder email that two more weeks have gone by and I still haven't been updated.

On the other hand, two huge gold stars to PYI who distributes the Max-prop and to Katadyn Water Makers. PYI has been excellent through out the past haul out. Even thought the prop didn't fit they were exceptionally customer focused and said not to worry, that they would provide a full refund and all I'll be out is the shipping. Good people over there. As for Katadyn, they purchased the company that made the PUR Power Survivor 35. They still make it in a manual form for ditch bags and the like, but no more power version. However, upon one single email they provided me with the now out of copy owner’s manual that had been produced by PUR. They even pointed me towards the part numbers for the service kit I will most likely need to get her running again. Now that's good customer service.

Givens Continued....

Did I overstep my bounds or am I being unreasonable in expecting at least some sort of feedback after 7 weeks? I'd think at a minimum some sort of timeframe would be in order. But then again maybe I am just too demanding of a customer.


Lee: your raft is in for testing and I agree since this is life saving equipment we DO NOT RUSH TESTING.I would think you would appreciate that. There are other rafts in for serviceahead of yours and yours went in proper order. I cannot ruch the servicng procedure and conveyed this to you every time you called and I did call you and spent alot of time with you on the phone explaining how to ship the raft and answering your questions. After you decided to send it , You told me there was no rush. I will discuss the status with my staff and be touch as soon as possible.
Best Regards,
Ms. Lori Perrino
Vice-President
Givens Marine Survival Co.,Inc.

Givens Marine Survival: Customer Service

I am getting really annoyed with Givens. I've sent them the link below and let them know my experience with their company is being documented through this blog. Let's see if this makes any difference at all. I'll copy their response in if and when I get one.


Hi Lori,

I am sorry to say that I am frustrated with the lack of information that has come my way since I sent you my life raft. The only updates that have been provided over the past 7 weeks are in response to my direct inquiry. Not only that, the only content provided in those updates are that my raft is still in the shop for testing and that you believed there to be no rush. I've been updating a published web log with my experience outfitting my boat for cruising departure and Givens is not ranking high on the list. For a manufacturer of a piece of equipment so critical to the safety of sea going vessels I am surprised at the lack of customer service and it forces me to question the viability and safety of your product.

It is in my interest, and hopefully yours, that we can conclude this transaction to the satisfaction of both parties. I can assure you that I will happily act as a positive reference based on the outcome of our interaction. I look forward to more detailed information about the status of my raft.

Lee Winters

http://leewinters.blogspot.com/2007/01/things-are-about-to-get-expensive.html
http://leewinters.blogspot.com/2006/12/givens-life-raft-inflation.html

Quick trip to Kemah

What can I do in a day and a half?

1. Pull spare sails and take them to Neil Pryde for review and repair. (Spare main, genoa, mizzen, mizzen staysail, storm trysail, and spinnaker)
2. Remove windlass, disassemble, and take for sandblasting.
3. Pull all chain from locker and mark 25ft & 100 ft intervals with zip ties and secure the bitter end.
4. Pull autopilot pump and determine cause of fluid leak. Repair if possible.
5. Remove captains chair and epoxy open holes.
6. Check cockpit speakers and replace if wires are live.
7. Find a way to fold dodger forward while underway
8. Remove/replace fish finder

I am overshooting a realistic goal for this weekend. I know already that I will only be able to do either one or two, and not both. Both shops close by noon on Saturday and the sand blaster is way north east of downtown. I am waiting to hear if the sail shop is open or if he is out racing this Saturday. That answer will make my decision for me.

Three and four both came up when Kris and I went to Offats Bayou. While the ground tackle worked great, I realized I had no way of knowing how much chain I had let out. I’ll use multi colored zip ties to mark the chain in bright color so I know I have the right amount of scope. Dragging anchor seems to easy to prevent not to better understand my tackle. The autopilot just loses it’s fluid almost immediately. Upon first inspections is seemed to come at the housing opening for the ram. I know jack about hydraulic pumps so this should be interesting.

There is a feature on this boat that never fails to elicit comment from the sailing community. That damn captains chair in the cockpit. It really isn’t all that functional since you can’t see over the dodger in it anyway, so I think it has to go. A little west system epoxy and we can take a big step towards cleaning up our cockpit. There is generally just too much clutter.

The rest of the list are more random odds and ends I though I would remind myself of in case I make good headway on the other projects. Even though she is on the hard I am happy to be getting back to Romance.

I want to say a quick thanks to those readers who are writing in. Your comments and encouragement are extremely helpful. I’d encourage any others who are following along to drop me a comment at the end of this post or an email from my main page. In fact, I’ll pose a question to you. Given the choice between two lives, one of safety, security, and routine the other of great joy, hardship, and adventure would a man chose the safe, but mundane? When did we stop risking all to make our own positions in life better? Has pure, unadulterated capitalism really become the only, unquestioned way to raise ourselves and others up?

The rest of the New Years pictures

So I finally got the rest of the still pictures from our New Years trip. Run your mouse over the pic and you can speed up the scroll rate. There is really no justice done to the immense size of those cargo ships. These things are like mountains cruising at 20 knots. (1.15 statute miles per nautical mile) Cutting across the Houston Ship Channel will definitely get your blood up. There was a fair amount of hanging about until we had a nice wide passage we could cut through. Even then, those things move deceptively fast.

Romance got pulled out of the water yesterday. I'll be flying into Houston this weekend to check on the progress. I also bit a major bullet and dropped $3,000 on a new propeller. That fancy feathering job I mentioned down below. This eliminates the need to try and fix the worn out proplock. It also ensures that I won't kill the transmission by sailing while the prop freewheels. Not to mention it typically adds up to 15% of the hull speed by reducing drag. That could give us 0.5 - 1.0 knot faster sailing performance. I'll take all we can get. The cruising kitty is starting to hemorrhage......I am afraid of where this will finally end.

Things are about to get expensive.

So the boat is being hauled this week by Ben Miller of BM Boat Works. His rates are a lot cheaper than the yard. I guess I'll soon find out if the discounted labor is worth it. First order of business is to get the new sailing instruments installed, fix around a dozen of the worst blisters, get the new bottom paint on, add a boot stripe, plumb the macerator pump, and shore up the port side mizzen stay chain plate. I am probably looking at a bill somewhere between 6 - 8 thousand. This is why most cruisers do their own work. It'll be much easier when I live in Kemah.

On another note, I am not so impressed by Givens Life Rafts. I shipped my raft to them and got notice of delivery on December the 20th. I had to call and email 4 times before I finally got any kind of reply. Unfortunately, that only included letting me know they were under the impression there was no hurry. Apparently my raft has been checked in for testing, but since all the field service sites are shutting down they are swamped at the factory. I can't believe they are telling someone this that is in the market for a new raft. Practical Sailor is doing a study on life rafts in the next issue. I'll probably be looking for anything other than a Givens at this rate.

There have been a few ideas swirling around in my head I haven't completely sorted just yet. For some reason I keep thinking of the movie The Ice Harvest. Oliver Platt says "There is nothing left in this country for a man but money and p****." Hey, this is a family place. You can read between the lines.

The next one is a little overused in movies these days, but even watered down it is a great one. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so? When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others." --Marianne Williamson

John Playfair was a friend to James Hutton, the Father of Modern Geology. There is a place I visited in the UK called Siccar Point. It was at this location that Hutton found proof to the means by which the earth formed through massive upheaval and continuous erosion. Playfair wrote of the encounter at Siccar Point, "The palpable evidence presented to us, of one of the most extraordinary and important facts in the natural history of the earth, gave a reality and substance to those theoretical speculations which, however probable, had never till now been directly authenticated by the testimony of the senses. We often said to ourselves, what clearer evidence could we have had of the different formation of these rocks, and of the long interval which separated their formation, had we actually seen them emerging from the bosom of the deep? We felt ourselves necessarily carried back to the time when the schistus on which we stood was yet at the bottom of the sea, and when the sandstone before us was only beginning to be deposited, in the shape of sand or mud, from the waters of a superincumbent ocean. An epoch still more remote presented itself, when even the most ancient of these rocks, instead of standing upright in vertical beds lay in horizontal planes at the bottom of the sea and was not yet disturbed by that immeasurable force which has burst asunder the solid pavement of the globe. Revolutions still more remote appeared in the distance of this extraordinary perspective. The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time; and while we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much farther reason may sometimes go than imagination can venture to follow."

The great philosophical and educational renaissances in history didn't occur as people dug deeper and deeper into sectioned off areas of study. The great scholars were typically students of all sciences including sociology or what we would call the "arts" today. While we have made huge advances in some areas such as microprocessor technology or molecular modeling we seem to store this information in silos rarely combining the information with other hard won insights.

Marianne's quote should give reason to pause. What really could be possible if each of us were completely uninhibited to achieve anything we believed to be worth while? Is it possible for a person to become an expert in many areas of study today? Or are we so specialized with such a breadth of knowledge that it is too much for one person? What could we do with all of the knowledge at a given persons fingertips?

It seems like we've grown stale in the U.S. anyway. So comfortable that we no longer hardly feel the need to try. So many safety nets that if you don't have the motivation to do or be anything that's ok. There is a program to make sure you don't have to. Have the rest of us gotten lazy? Necessity is the mother of invention, but do we really need anything anymore? I guess this brings me back to my first quote from Ice Harvest. it could be that the real opportunities to do something are in the developing world. I'd sure do like the idea of taking a look.

Allied Boat Company: Allied Mistress Mk III Production Run 1976

Here are a few shots of the Wright/Allied production facilites in Catskill, NY. These were taken during the 1976 Mistress Mk III production run. I've got a whole slew of these and will try to post them back on my site. I love knowing the history of things and Romance is no exception. If you've got other historical documents from Allied Boat Company let me know. I am always interested. I've also got a copy of the largel scale archetect's sail plan for the Mk III. I can make copies for anyone who needs them.