Commander #65 "Lucky Dawg"

[ebb]

Can already tell Luca's got a great sense of humor...
may yer wee swob grow up to love sailing!

[commanderpete]

He'll be a sailor in no time

[Lucky Dawg]

Projects in the hopper - I'm at about 60% on the skill-cluelessness coefficients for all of them:

• re-glassing the hole I drilled in the keel at haul-out
  (this one I understand pretty completely)
• electric and manual bilge pump system
  (I have some drawings and have read a lot here about this. I'm investigating how the actual pump stays secure at the bottom of the bilge. Cutting any holes in the boat makes me nervous. Cutting the holes before I splash seems to make more safety-sense. Wish me luck)
• sealing leaky cabin windows
  (I am certain that the fix for this is on these pages. The dribbling leaks continually threaten my dashing interior cushions with mold and that isn't good.)
• fixing the two spots pictured in post #33 http://pearsonariel.org/discussion/s...8&postcount=33
  (I am a little leery on grinding/sanding these - but looking at others' overhauls points out the fact that anything can be repaired with fiberglass work. How deep, how wide, how to rematch, etc. Again the answer is here or in Don Casey literature on the shelf. The crazing evident in the pictures is fairly widespread. I'll need to figure out if that is a repainting issue or a sand the whole deck issue...)
• wiring upgrades
  (greater battery capacity, hardwired GPS, stereo, etc. AA batteries are a pain and not very environmentally sensitive. I ordered Casey's electrical systems book over the winter, but it doesn't address outboard systems - clearly anyway. I imagine I can interpolate battery issues for inboards to outboard uses.)

I am only telling you this for some external accountability to get busy! So, I am setting about making a project-completion plan and reading lots of old posts.

(p.s. After all this time, I just noticed that there is a spell-check option here. Mark Twain said something along the lines of "I can't respect a man who can't spell any word at least three different ways." Mr. Twain would have a lot of respect for me.)

[mbd]

[*]electric and manual bilge pump system
(I have some drawings and have read a lot here about this. I'm investigating how the actual pump stays secure at the bottom of the bilge.)

Kyle, my bilge pump is screwed to a small board wrapped in lead to keep it on the bottom. I like this setup because I can pull the whole mess up and out to work on it when the bilge pump starts having fits.

[Lucky Dawg]

Glorious sail today. Steady 16kts, 2-3footers on Lake Michigan - blasting along at 6kts. It was a beautiful day. Sailing at its finest. Afterwards "Hey Sadie, thanks for sailing with me today - that was great!" "Oh, I love sailing Daddy!" (I am perfectly aware that we are time limited on that exchange)
Couple pix below - first two by Sadie a) my deck is always ship shape, and b) Captain at the helm. C) is Sadie in her favorite sailing spot.

[Lucky Dawg]

Glad we sailed today... Here's tomorrow:
Monday
West storm force winds to 50 knots veering northwest gales to 45 knots. Showers and a chance of thunderstorms until midday... then showers in the afternoon. Waves 12 to 16 feet.

[mbd]

Kyle - sounds like you might have to tuck a reef in!