Commander 227

[Commander227]

So sad to call it early this year.
The Ensign in the picture, Tranquility, is my Dad's boat that he bought new in 1965 and has raced every year since. Dad worked for Honeywell as a EE and bought the boat with his overtime earnings while working on an escape system for one of the Apollo missions. ($2,200. w/o sails) the mission he worked on landed in the Sea of Tranquility on the moon, giving her her name. six of us kids learned to love sailing on this boat. Dad would let us take her out by ourselves when we turned 13 if we could pass his test. In those days before jet skis it was a thrill. Great lessons on independence and responsibility.
We had our last Ensign race last Thursday. At 85 dad no longer sails without a crew so we pulled her early as well. It was nice to get them cleaned up and put away in nice weather.
Not sure why the pictures are upside down...

[Commander 147]

Mike

I grew up in Wisconsin and moved to Florida in 1977. It is really easy for me to lose track of how short your season up there is. Here in Florida we have an official sailing season that is more like 6 months but it is possible to sail year round. You just have to live close enough to the boat to get out in the summer when the weather allows. But when Destiny goes back in the water she will stay there 9 months out of the year or the mirror opposite of your situation. We should turn into snow birds and go back and forth with the weather!!!!

[Commander227]

Finally got around to cleaning up The Princess the other day. We have had an awful and very late spring. You just gotta love that Awlgrip paint! It's been years now and look at that shine.

After leaving the marina business I am returning to the buoy I kept my Ensign on for 10 years. It is only 2 blocks from my house and a heck of a lot cheaper than a slip. I'll be setting up a generator to charge the battery bank now that I don't have shore power. If you look close you can see her twin C157 down the shore line.

It would seem that The Princess took a knock on the snout by a gravel truck over the winter. Half of her bow sprit was cracked off when I removed her cover. I built up another with MDO plywood, coated it with epoxy and reprinted. This time I installed her with epoxy and 406 filler. I had the last one thru bolted and glued on with 5200 as it was a bit of an experiment and I wasn't sure I'd keep it. Now I'm sure.
We've had one nice sail so far and are hoping for many more this summer.