Commander 157

[Commander227]

John, A fellow WYC member and Sonar racer who lives up the shoreline from the marina, just dragged home his ebay purchase from Cleveland.
Over all she is a very clean and solid old girl. She looks like she has been well kept, loved and only been in freshwater.
C157 will come through our shop this winter with a pretty long list of modifications and upgrades. We will try to keep up with the pics and details.
Anyone have any info on her past?
Mike
C227

[Commander 147]

Mike

I like the name of 157. What a great thing to tell a customer when they call and your playing hooky sailing..."he is out on a job site". :-)

You should have enough commanders there soon to start having class races.

Looking forward to the pictures.

[Tony G]

Mike

You always seem to bring good news to the forum. I'll buy you a beer for that fact alone!

Did you get any background on her? With the diagram in the forward cockpit I wonder if she was a 'rental'. Either way se was a great find nd I am still amazed at how good these hulls look out of the water. Do you think having the Princess so near swayed John's decision to pick up another boat?

[mbd]

I think Mike and "The Princess" have started a Commander revival up there!

Hey Tony, maybe you can have Mike and crew finish up A-113 so you can start Weaving your Dreams sooner? ;)

[Commander227]

Its #157's turn in the shop. We moved her in a few days ago.
Tim and I have her stripped down and pressure washed inside and out. After we scrape off all the old caulking and silicone we will have us a blank canvas.
We tapped out the deck and found a few areas for core replacement: The whole forepeak forward of the mooring cleat, a small area around the port aft chain plate and the aft half of the cockpit sole. Other than that she is in good shape.
Stay tuned for a long list of mods!

[Commander 147]

Mike

It's good to see you are saving yet another Commander. You get these boats turned around really quick and they look good. I hope you can save many more of these fine boats.

[carl291]

Mike , You can't find a customer for Chance's Celi?? That boat is killing me still being up for sail and only 500 miles away from me...... I've promised myself no more till I get one in the water but it not easy seeing that one on the market. Heck for $3500 with all the upgrades and a $5000 trailer to tote it home on??? It's warmer down here this time of year to boot!

[Commander227]

Tim plugged away all week on 157.
Serious silicone and caulk removal and general boat clean up.
Bad core cut out of forepeak, aft port chainplate, cockpit sole.
Front hatch and aft lazerette prepped to be glassed over. All holes drilled out and ready to be filled.
Port lazerette reduction in progress. (huh... what could be going on there?)
Bottom of the outboard well has been removed. Wow, what a mess of water and fuel soaked foam and rotten wood!

[Commander227]

Cuddy in progress.

[Commander227]

Tim, with a little help from Bob made pretty good progress this week.

#1. Forepeak re-cored and glassed over. Forward hatch bottom skin and core bonded in waiting for top skin.

#2. Cockpit sole re-cored and skinned.

#3. Outboard well glassed over, bottom of aft lazerette lowered to accommodate the generator.

#4. port lazerette reduction in progress.

[Lucky Dawg]

You gonna share what's going on with your laz reduction?

I'm with Carl. Ceili needs to move to MN.

[Commander227]

With the Holidays there were a few less work days to throw at #157.
Picture #1 - Bulkheads tabbed in, mast support beam consisting of three pieces of 5/4 white oak glassed in. Slightly beefier than the beam I put in The Princess.
Picture #2 - Bow sprit glassed on. Again, slightly beefier than The Princess and much stronger as it is well glassed on instead of bolted. We will put on a bob stay though I doubt it will be needed.
Pictures # 3 & 4 - Fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand,fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand, etc.
Its looking like primer in a few days.

[ebb]

Very intriguing, a second time.

Can you explain how it's done? Plywood box? Has it got foam in it. No fastenings, how do have the interface between the boat and the extension?

Looks like it could be a fiberglass 'box' which can conceivably be more of a single piece and therefor 'stronger'. Don't believe it could be lighter however.

What's the secret?
Especially as you say, it's strong enuf not to need a bobstay.

Trying to figure out if I can steal your idea for a 3ft OB sprit on the Ariel.

I have a really nice, if I can say so, aluminum tube 'triangular' sprit that would sit on the deck and extend out 3'.
But it weighs 23lbs on its own without bobstay gear,
honkin fasteners and the anchor tray, angle brackets for the two tube deck ends, etc.
I have to have a bowsprit but not at the expense of putting the bow down with all the extra weight for it alone.:confused:

Already mounted a fancy bronze bobstay fitting on the bow. Serious I am.
If you rig a bobstay the sprit becomes a compression issue, and gear weight goes up exponentially.

Need a push in the right direction. Thanks!

[Commander227]

Ebb,
The sprit on 157 is two pieces of 3/4" and one piece of 1/2" marine plywood bonded together with epoxy. It was then trimmed for a good fit to the hull and epoxied on with chop strand and milled glass filler. It was then tabbed on with heavy roving. She ain't going nowhere, we can lift the boat from it. We will not be reusing the stem fitting this time, we will just cut a slot in the sprit and use a stainless strap bolted through the original holes. I do believe that even if it were three feet long, it or the hull would fail before the joint.
Mike
C227

[Commander227]

Decks tuned up and primed with high build primer. Hull sanded, holes filled, outboard well hole filled and faired. Hull primed with high build primer. interior sanded out and ready for paint.
We'll knock down the primer, touch up here and there and be ready for topcoat. We may put off the topcoat until we get the motor in and the cuddy farther along.

[Tony G]

It looks like another land speed record-Mike style. I've said it at least a hundred times so another won't hurt. These boats are beautiful in and out of the water. Thanks for the inspiration, Mike. Your shop would be a great place to start retirement...just sayin'.

[carl291]

Tony , Start retirement? God Lord, I'd need a steroid prescription before I could go visit. They do remarkable work in the dead of Winter there for sure.

[Commander227]

#1 Hi build primer blocked out.
#2 Sealer applied. We are going with all Awl products. Not the easiest stuff to work with and defiantly not a production orientated line of products. The sealer must cure for 12 hours before top topcoat can be applied. Most sealers can be topcoated within an hour. The top coat also stays open so long a sag can develop 2 hours after application.
#3 Decks painted less nonskid. We want to get the motor and some other interior work done before we apply the nonskid.
#4 Freeboard with three coats of Awl Craft. Bob did a nice job, only 2 small sags to sand out.

[Commander227]

#1 Interior cleaned up and painted.
#2 Lead compensator (how the heck would you spell that?) ballast removed. As in #227 it was cut down the middle and removed with out disturbing the cuddy sole. 1/2 pictured.
#3 Prop aperture opened up and hole for stern tube drilled. Much easier on #157 than it was on #227 as the rudder was built with the aperture then plugged so all we had to do was remove the plug and clean things up. On #227 I had to heat and bend the shaft and reinstall after cutting out the aperture.

[Commander227]

#1 & 2 Trimming and fitting combing boards, the owner and another fellow built them and we will be fitting, finishing and installing them.
#3, 4 & 5 The motor mounts and motor install. Unit is from Electric Yachts. I'm impressed, a really nice little package.

[Commander 147]

Mike

Very interesting way of mounting the electric drive. Very easy to build and install.

What is the hole in one of the boards for power cables?

Where will the batteries go and which ones are you going with?

[Rico]

Wonderful Job!
Please keep the pictures coming!

[Lucky Dawg]

I like the beefed up, doubled coaming boards. ...oh, that and the amazing lightning speed rebirthing of half a century old boats. Cheers x 1000 Mike! I'd like to give up my career and morph mine into yours. Too dang cool for school.

[Commander227]

What is the hole in one of the boards for power cables?

Where will the batteries go and which ones are you going with?

Jerry, The hole is there simply to provide extra clearance for the lower pulley. Maybe not necessary but I thought it was too close.
We will be going with four group 27 deep cycle lead acid batteries. Not very sexy but I still believe they are the best bang for the buck.
Two will be up in the chain locker and two under the V berth afore the head; the same placement as I have in The Princess as well as in C-299 when we installed the Parsons electric outboard. I know it goes against the conventional wisdom of keeping the weight out of a boats ends but the Commander need to have her nose brought down for her to point well. I believe I have The Princess at her design attitude but don't know how to keep her there with out adding weight to the nose. We found 100 lbs or so of steel shelf dividers in the bow of #157 so right or wrong I'm not alone in my theory.

Pics 1 & 2 Non skid applied, lazerette lids installed, companion way slider on, water line painted rub rail installed as well as the port lights.
Pic 3 Here she is outside for the first time in a couple of months with Ceili in the background.
My partner at SYC also owns Tonka Bay Marina in the next bay and Skiff Craft boats. #157 is heading over to their shop to have her brite work finished and installed. They are pretty well set up for it over there given all their experience with Skiff Crafts and we need to get started on a big project on a Tartan 31.

[Commander227]

So, I may have been slacking on the updates abit and the owner of #157 is thinking I've been slacking on getting her finished up. She is all but done now but there is still a short punch list.
Pic #1 Control lazerette: from left to right,
main halyard fine tune (4:1) to replace halyard winch or Cunningham for halyard tension.
Main halyard gross
continuous line for jib outhaul/roller furling
continuous line for code zero furling.
Pic #2 Under lazerette line routing
Pic #3 Furling lines diving under decks
Pic #4 Forward cuddy line routing, Fleck line =main halyard, grey line= self tacking jib sheet, four lines on the right= furling lines.
Pic #5 Main sheet control over jib sheet control (3:1 underdecks)

[Commander227]

Pic #1 Gen set. A Honda 2000 generator to charge batteries (the owner moors on a ball in front of his house) the gen set can also run the motor if you out run the batteries.
Pic #2 Mast head. #147 style insert to replace main halyard sheave and run halyards internally. Note the tight clearance between the foil and jib halyard sheave. Had I been thinking I would have made the jib sheave 2"-3" lower which also would have helped prevent halyard wrap. I still have to put on the spin halyard extention on the top of the masthead fitting. You cannot tell from the picture but the finish on the mast is incredible. we found a powdercoat company with a 45' oven. Mast, boom, spreaders and sockets came in under $400. and wow did it turn out nice.
Pic #3 Clean decks! no halyards, sheets, blocks or any such nonsense.
Pic #4 Clean, uncluttered and sexy. Jib halyard is wire and exits the mast just above the decks there is a ball and catch like a scow so the hauling string can be removed once the sail is hoisted.
Pic #5 Maiden Voyage.

[paulsproesser]

Wonderful Job!
Please keep the pictures coming!MAN IF I COULD GET A TRAILER AND GET HER OUT FOR THE WINTER . That might not be good though because i would tear it completely back apart. Im very into the elec motor thing i used to be the energy rep for the entire dc region for a former company , if you could remove your entire main ballast and seal the walls and create your own giant glass matt batt just imagine the power plant there. just devise a way to vent the hydrogen and your good

[paulsproesser]

MAN IF I COULD GET A TRAILER AND GET HER OUT FOR THE WINTER . That might not be good though because i would tear it completely back apart. Im very into the elec motor thing i used to be the energy rep for the entire dc region for a former company , if you could remove your entire main ballast and seal the walls and create your own giant glass matt batt just imagine the power plant there. just devise a way to vent the hydrogen and your goodthe hydrogen discharge is not that critical i have been in verizon central ops bldgs with a cigarette lit surrounded by batteries and never blew up. so there is a testemonial

[Commander227]

Commander 157 at the Burton Cup, Lake Minnetonka.

[paulsproesser]

Nice! Twins. I think the flag blue makes the boats sexy and in our locations the heat factor isn't noticeable.

[Commander227]

It's a real thing. Think of the swirls on both sides of a paddle. Now think of a strong front as the paddle. I'm told this is what hit us this past weekend.
Sorry to see this happen to perhaps the prettiest Commander out there.
Speedy recovery Polaris!

[paulsproesser]

This makes me feel ill. Gonna be a bit more than a wax job Mike. Wrong place at the right time , really sorry for your dilemma. But I'm sure you have some other creative idea stirring in your craw that was just looking for an excuse to come to fruition. Get back into that state of mind.

[Lucky Dawg]

That is a horrible no good very bad Gustnado. So sorry. Is there a voodoo doll hanging around somewhere?!?

[Commander227]

This is Polaris C157, not The Princess C227. I'm just the bearer of bad news. ( and trailer loaner)
Polaris will be going back to 2/3s of the team that built her. She's in good hands.

[Bisquit]

Good luck on the repairs. It is is any consolation, getting her back up to snuff is nothing compared to all the work you have done so far.

[Commander227]

Stopped in for a visit the other day.
157 is well down the road to recovery.