Re: Dolphins!
Hi Mark -
Thanks for visiting my blog.
You have a problem with my writing?
You say I'm insulting people and hiding behind words?
You claim I dont SAIL?
Dude - in two years, I've put Nomad through her paces, logging over 2000 miles out on SM bay. 2000 Mark, almost all of them solo, and I have the GPS tracks to prove it. How many miles did you sail her? Know what conditions demand a reef, and what demand two, and how to keep her on her feet and driving into the chop? Know how to get her to lie quietly at anchor? How about heaving to? Cooking at sea? Navigating with a map and compass and dividers? Unlike guys like Charlie Dwell, I take sailing very seriously, and I think it IS Rocket Science. It requires a great deal of physical and psychological preparation to safely cast off for foreign waters - or even to head out for a few hours on the bay, where sailors, even experienced ones, seem to die with alarming frequency.
I have been over every inch of your old "Varua" many, many times. I hope to god YOU were not the owner who painted all of her beautiful exterior teak pink, and her decks brown . Whoever painted her bright-work also PRIMED it really well with white lead - it took me the entire first summer I owned her to scrub that damned primer out of her grain, and restore her to Bristol. She now sports 10 coats of traditional epiphanes varnish, topped with Bristol two part polyurethane. To own a boat with brightwork requires work and dedication - stop by some time and have a look at her now. People who dont like brightwork should buy Catalina's or Hunters.
The rig had never been properly tuned, and her head-stay is too long, giving her excessive mast rake, and weather helm. The reefing system was a joke when I got her, the hatch boards cheap plywood, and the starboard sheet cleat was installed BACKWARDS (wrong lead angle). Appeared to be the original installation too. The battery caps were not accessible, and her battery dead.
My favorite screwed up system was the anchoring set-up. The first time I went to drop anchor, the thimble that attached the nylon rode to the chain leader WOULDNT FIT THROUGH THE HAWSPIPE. The rode, all 350 feet of it, was trapped in the chainlocker. Good thing I had thought to bring a second anchor and rode.
Whoever had the boat before me clearly had never anchored her - but that 16lb Bruce sure looked pretty sitting under the bow sprit - though it's shank doesn't fit on the roller.
If you'd like to meet me in person, e-mail me, or just reply to this post. I'll be happy to give you a tour of Nomad, and how she works now.
It wasnt all bad - her interior was in fine shape, except for some idiot who removed all the galley shelves and lockers. I have since rebuilt them.
...and who the hell put in that compression post, and WHY? Did they think they knew more than Bingham and PSC?
And what is it with you guys and MDR? Do you all belong to the same Yacht club or something? Get drunk every night and congratulate each other on how great you are for living in a dredged out swamp? There are many harbors in the world - I dare say many are nicer than MDR, which is essentially a giant boat parking lot.
Alimitos bay comes to mind
Newport Harbor
San Diego
Marblehead
Boston
Los Angeles
Long Beach
Athens Greece
Brindisi, Itlay
Santorini
Crete
All of which I have sailed, first hand.
Lol.
Dont like my writing? Dont like my blog? Dont like how I sail or what I've done with my boat? Hate my opinions?
This is America, and I have the Constitutional right to say what I think, and to do what I want with my property. You and the rest have the constitutional right to fuck off if you don't like it -
Or join me for coffee some time....I'd really like to know more about the history of my boat.
;-)
By Bill Hogan on
5/4/2011 3:19 AM