Cabin Fever, SailCare and Goodbye to the BYC
We're on spring break. SPRING break!! Except that it doesn't feel much like spring here right now. Although there have been hints of it coming, a few days around 60 degrees, flowers along the roadside, trees budding and the grass needing to be mowed for the first time, today was wind howling, bone chilling cold. And it's been raining. We had promised our grandchildren activities over the spring break, mostly outdoor activities, the kind you want to do in warm weather. And we want to plan things. Things like cutting the shrink wrap off the boat, and being able to work for 2 days in a row without being either blown off the deck by freezing wind or washed off the deck by freezing rain. This has been a very long, very cold and very dark winter. I want to walk, I want to ride my bike, I want to spend time in my yard and I want to sail. A little sunshine, please, Lord. It's time. We have old sails. They are the original sails, which makes them 28 years old, and they were certainly looking it, gray, limp and frayed. We really would have loved to replace our old rags, but it isn't in the budget this year, and probably not next. This winter we saw, in our Cape Dory Owners Assoc. newsletter "The Masthead", an advertisement for a company called SailCare. They clean, repair and refurbish sails. Lance looked around on their website and read some testimonials about how 30 year old sails came back looking and feeling like new, so we decided to try it. We had to remove all lines, battens, hardware, etc. and box the sails up to ship to PA. On the order form that you send with the sails it was stated that you should allow 8 weeks turnaround time. We sent them mid-February and asked if possible could we please have them back by early April. (Turns out this was unnecessary. See the above reference to bone chilling cold.) We sent them a mainsail, working jib and 2 sailcovers to be cleaned and repaired. A few days later they called with an estimate, $825, which was to include cleaning, sewing numbers and insignia, telltales, repair of the batten pocket ends on both sails, resewing the slides, overlay of leeches and luffs both sails, restiching on sails and sailcovers, replacing a grommet on the sailcover, and impregnating all with resin to restore the body and crisp feel that had been lost over the years. This was a bit more expense than we expected, but they were doing a lot of work and we felt we were committed, so we told them to proceed. About 2 weeks later the box with the sails arrived on our porch.
I must say we were both pleasantly surprised at how white and crisp the sails both were. Repairs were made as promised with the exception of the tack on the jib which has some broken stitching that was missed. I couldn't find that we were charged for it though, so I'll drag out my Sailrite machine and fix it myself rather than go to the hassle and expense of returning the sail to them. The sailcovers, which were looking pretty dull and lifeless, look really good again. Overall, we are pleased and feel we will have a few more years of use out of the sails before we have to break down and buy new ones. Two thumbs up for SailCare. Unfortunately, and quite unexpectedly, we are no longer members of the Baltimore Yacht Club. We are not really the yacht club types, but we were ecstatic when we found this beautiful facility, a little over 2 years ago, about 2.5 miles from our house. They have nice docks, a beautiful pool, friendly (for the most part) people, lots of year round family activities, a restaurant , a nice bar that serves "Hook and Ladder" , brand new bath houses, all tucked away unnoticed behind a very secure gate on a private island They have a fuel dock and next door there is a boat yard for winter haulout and a crab bar. And did I mention only 2.5 miles from our house...... We couldn't join fast enough.
The year we joined we were still working on our 22' Cape Dory and really not yet in need of a slip. They told us that there is usually not a problem getting a slip for a small boat, it's the big guys that have to wait, and they only charge half dues up until the time you get your slip. We were in. That first year we just enjoyed the facilities more or less as social members. Our grandkids loved the pool in the summer.
Last year we sold our CD22 and purchased our Cape Dory 28. We were unable to get a permanently assigned slip, but they had a temporary slip available for us immediately. It was kind of close in and they were unsure of the depths there, but we sounded the slip 2 days in a row at low tide and the water looked good, so we took it and spent the season happily in our new dock home. Of course our dues increased to the full ride, but we had a slip so all seemed right with the world. Then this year the totally unexpected happened. We didn't get a permanent slip, that wasn't such a surprise, but we didn't get a temporary one either. We were number 14 on the list for a temporary slip and I guess they ran out long before they got to us because we were told basically that we didn't have a prayer. Also, to our surprise, we found out that once your dues go up, they never go back down again even if they don't have a slip for you.
In the "I'm so filthy rich I don't have to ask the price of gas or the price of dues" world I guess this is okay for some people. But it wasn't okay for us, so we were now faced with needing to find a place for our boat, and we needed to do it quick before everything decent and affordable was gone. Fortunately, God watches out for fools and children (we're both in our 50's, so you know which one that makes us.......) and we just happened to find our way to a place in Middle River called Parkside Marina. Wow, what a gorgeous little marina. It's only 9 years old, is surrounded by a private park and beach, in a bonafide hurricane hole (remember Isabel, not a single damaged boat) on Frog Mortar Creek. Usually there is a waiting list, but they just happened to have 1 slip left that would work for us. We took it and we are ecstatic. Not only do we think that the facility itself is nicer than the BYC (floating docks for one thing...) but we'll be saving ourselves about $1100 a year. Like I said, God looks out for............
"Fair Winds and Following Seas"
Becky
well I had given up on you guys but I am glad to hear your still around...welcome back...
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We're still here. It's been a crazy year. Our daughter and 2 grandchildren came to live with us last fall and although we love having them here it has been a huge adjustment. Our once quiet (clean) house is now pleasantly cluttered and chaotic. There's homework and softball games and skateboard parks and friends, where once there was me and Lance and boats. Also I have been taking a college class in addition to working and Lance got a promotion but can't be released from his current job until the end of the school year, so he is going back and forth trying to do both most of the time. Seems there is either no time, or when there is time there is no energy left to write. (We rarely even follow the Cape Dory message board anymore!!) The boat was tucked safely under its shrink wrap all winter, so it was sort of "out of sight, out of mind" while we concentrated on other things.
We had even decided to sell S ojourner this spring after our slip at the BYC fell through, but have since reconsidered and taken it off the market. We are not going to launch her this year though and instead plan to concentrate on repairing our decks, removing and rebedding all our hardware and repairing the area of the gudgeon shoe. That should keep us plenty busy this summer. Since our bottom will be nice and dry we are going to start off by stripping it down to the gelcoat so that when all is done we can put an epoxy barrier coat on before we bottom paint next year. These are all things she would need to be out of the water for anyway so this is a good opportunity to get it all done in one fell swoop. Assuming we launch next year, we will pull the mast first thing and secure the wires inside to stop that god-awful banging and hopefully replace the rigging as I am sure that it is original with the exception of the forestay that we put on last year when we removed the roller furling.
It's nice to know people follow the blog though, and we love to hear from other sailing "friends". The cover is off the boat now and summer break is almost upon us so we hope to be concentrating more on the boating side of our lives soon. Thanks for writing!!
Far Winds and Following Seas,
Becky
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We've been looking for a CD27/28, and saw Sojourner posted recently on Yachtworld. What happened? Did the yacht club relocation not work out?
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Hi Dan. Nice to hear from you.
Well, I will say that the yacht club thing certainly set things in motion. And once our apple cart was upset and we got to thinking about what we were doing (and hearing the prices for a slip in a place anywhere near as nice as the yacht club) we decided that the thing that made the most sense for us right now was to sell and buy something small and trailerable that could sit in our backyard ready to go on the rare occasions when we had the time, but able to be ignored the rest of the time (and costing us nothing beyond the purchase price).
But the yacht club thing was only part of what actually led to our decision to sell. We live in an 80 year old house that needs a ton of repair that we always put off doing in nice weather because we feel guilty if we are not either sailing or maintaining the boat (after all, it's costing us a fortune, right!?!). Also our daughter and 2 grandchildren came to live with us this winter. We are helping her with the children and they don't enjoy sailing nearly as much as we do ("Can't this thing go any faster.....?"). We figured that if we spent 7 good weekends aboard during the short season we have here it would run us about $1000 a weekend when we tallied up our yearly expenses. We could take the whole family on a cruise 2 times for the same amount and not have the maintenance headaches in between (might actually get the stones reset in our front porch or get the gutters cleaned out, or the siding painted, or the front door replaced, or.........you get the picture).
Well, that's probably far more information than you wanted, and I hope I didn't put YOU off of buying that 28 you're looking for. We worked on our boat really hard last year. I am off all summer (I work at a middle school) and I worked full time everyday on it. Lance put in his share of hours every weekend and on his vacations. She's beautiful and I am sure someone will love her. Maybe that someone might even be you!!
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Becky
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Becky,
Thanks for taking the time to respond. We understand your situation, and we're trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves for fear of the same result. We've got an 82 Typhoon Daysailer that we have fixed up and love, but are looking to upgrade to a CD27/28 so that we venture farther afield, do overnights on Lake Champlain, etc. However, we're concerned that with our limited time availability (damn jobs!) we'd now have two boats, couldn't sail them both enough, expenses add up, etc. If we were semi-retired we'd just move the Typhoon up to our place in Maine, but we barely have enough time to get up there in the first place. Oh well, it will all work out somehow. Hope you find a buyer that will care for Sojourner like you did!
Dan and Chris
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Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Becky
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Hi Becky...Please excuse me for bringing up old stories here, but I am very interested to find out how EXPEL worked for you back in the days when you had a smell or three on the CD28.....we've torn everything apart and our noses are still being assaulted!!
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The Expel did work, to a degree. It was all a process and I think each part of it was essential in getting rid of the smell.
The first step was to scrub (several times) everything I could reach with Clorox cleaner. I put most of my effort into following the path that we determined the leak had taken from the tank to the bilge, but no surface I could reach went untouched. Then I put a garden sprayer filled with the Clorox cleaner onto the hose and sprayed down into all the forward lockers letting the water run into the bilge (again I assume following the same path the sludge from the leak would have taken). After that I filled the bilge with bleach water, left it soak for a day and pumped it out (twice). This got rid of most of the actual residue from the leak, but didn't come anywhere near to getting rid of the odor.
The next stage, which was the Expel, because it is aerosolized, got into all those areas that I couldn't get to and did seem to help a lot, but still didn't completely get rid of it.
At that point we came to the conclusion that the remaining odor was what had been absorbed into the wood. My last step was to bleach, sand and apply 4 coats of varnish to all of the wood in the boat (yes I said ALL, even all the inside surfaces that I could get to). The surfaces of the plywood inside the v-berth area where the holding tank resides had penetrating epoxy applied before the varnish was put on as I figure not only had that wood absorbed odor, but also the actual liquid from the leak. At that point we were completely odor free, except for the pleasant smell of fresh varnish.
The boat was stored under shrink wrap all winter. We just cut the wrap off last week and after being covered all winter, it still smells nice and fresh so it would appear that the odor problem has been permanently taken care of.
It was really a lot of work, but not only did we get rid of the smell, we got a meticulously clean boat and gleaming bright wood in the process. It was worth it and we are very proud of the result.
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Becky
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Thanks, Becky....Your information on where to order new holding tanks saved us untold hours - which will probably now be spent doing "woodwork"!!!
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