Commander 227

[Commander227]

This year will certainly go down as the worst for The Princess and I.
Late start, unfinished projects, burned out motor controller, hit by free roaming sailboats...twice!

Spent the eavning of the Fourth out on the boat, good times, company,etc. after the fireworks we decided to toddle around abit. After a mile or so I smelled a little ozone and the electric inboard shut down. Luckily there was just enough breeze to sail back to the buoy. A couple days later I had time to go check it out and found that the controller was dead. Of course that one is no longer made so things had to be rewired abit for the new one. Still having problems after many frustrating hours.
There is a beautiful new Commander in my buoy field. ( it has no data tag, sail number is 44 but it has a bridge deck so it must be a higher number ) Chris, the owner, has been working on it for years after it was struck by lightning. He has done a truly beautiful job. A week or two after he splash it for the first time the anchor cable on his buoy snapped. As Red Ink drifted by The Princess her untethered buoy wound around The Princesses buoy and the two rode out the storm side by side bucking in the waves. Red Ink rides a little higher than The Princess so most of the damage was to the lovely red boat. (A week or two later her new buoy failed and she ended up against the docks of a condo association down wind. She is now at the town dock waiting for the city to replace the buoys and I think she suffered more damage in this weekends Gustnado. Poor old gal. The Princesses damage was a lot of red paint on her rubrail, some chipping on the deck and a few gouges in the free board.
Then in last weekends Gustnado a Hunter 25 broke free and spent a little time banging into The Princess before playing ping pong down the city docks. More scratches, dings, chips, crack in the recently replaced how sprit and a couple feet of rub rail knocked off. (I should be greatful it's not as bad as this weekends damage to the stunning C157, Polaris. But I'm not. )
I'm about ready to pull her out and call it a season, but Polaris is sitting on my trailer.