Commander 227

[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.

[Commander227]

Great sailing over the Forth, we are finally getting a little summer weather. We are coming off the rainiest June in history, the lakes are at record levels. As a result an emergency minimum wake rule has been set for all the Metro lakes for the last two weeks and it is expected to remain in effect thru July!!!! As you can imagine power boat traffic is down about 50% and the water is nice and flat. Super pleasant out there!

[Commander 147]

Wow, what a great shot Mike!!! The picture of The Princess is also looking pretty good. She looks almost like you just finished painting her! BTW I replied to your PM.

[Lucky Dawg]

Hey Mike,
Saw this and thought of you. Your next electric conversion. http://www.zelectricmotors.com/

[Commander227]

Forever the optimist, last fall when I Hauled out The Princess I tore out most of the interior figuring I'd have all winter to fashion something new. I also pulled the combing boards that probably should have been done last year. So... June rolls around and nothing has been touched. drats. Last time I finished the combing boards I applied 3coats of varnish and several coats of automotive clear coat. It looked good for quite a few years but holy cow was it a ***** to sand off. Not ever wanting to go thru that again I went with Cetol natural teak. Not nearly as fancy looking but the annual upkeep should be easier. We'll see.
This is the second season The Princess is moored in a buoy field instead of a dock and I've had some things to work around that I want to address with the new interior. With the electric inboard I needed to install a generator for charging. I put in a thru hull for the exhaust and welded a flare fitting on the muffler of a small Honda. I'm using a stainless gas supply line to route the exhaust. Then I wired an old landscape timer to the kill switch so I can let it run for a few hours after I leave her. My 15amp smart charger was fine when I had shore power but I don't want to run the generator for 8 hours to finish off the trickle top off. Sears had a clearance sale on good old dumb 10a/2a charges, 20 bucks a pop. I picked up four and now I can hit the bank hard for an hour and let the timer shut it down. Also works good to power along under the generator if the battery's run down. The buoy field is pretty tight but I don't think the other boats will be damaged when she burns to the waterline.
Being I have 110v available now I teed off the head inlet and ran a line to a small shallow well pump so I can more easily wash her down. Pretty great, more power than my garden hose at home.
Now I need to find more elegant mounting for the new gizmos and hammer together an interior.
Mike
C227

[carl291]

Happy Fourth Mike, Looks like a well thought out package..... right down to the protection of neighboring boats (LOL) Maybe after some trials you can figure out how many ounces of gas needs to be in the generator tank to run it dry and kill the engine. Enjoy the Summer. Carl

[Lucky Dawg]

You're supposed to be sailing Man!!!! I've been there, so I feel your pain.

[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.

[Commander 147]

Wow Mike rough year there. It has to be frustrating. And now 3 commanders with damage from the stuff happening there. So where are you going to put the Princess to work on her?

[Bisquit]

Mike,
Kyle said there is a chance you may have one of the cast aluminium cowl vents like he has on his boat. I have the deck plate and was hoping to replace the vent. Any ideas?

Phil, C-025 Bisquit

[Commander227]

O.K., here we go.
After this summers minor disasters Chris with Red Ink and The Princess and I have teamed up and rented a heated warehouse to get our boats back in order.
We both have a bunch of cosmetic work to get thru and The Princess will be repowered with a little 2 cylinder Universal diesel. I picked up the diesel last winter when I installed an electric motor in a O'Day 28. It needed a tranny rebuild, water pump and injector retipping. I got her all cleaned up and have dubbed her " the Heart of Gold" after Douglas Adams improbability driven ship.

[Lucky Dawg]

Hey Mike,
Glad to see you back!
Dissatisfied with your electric drive? Mooring vs dock driven decision?

P.s. Is Red Ink the no-eyes Commander?

[Bill]

" ( it has no data tag, sail number is 44 but it has a bridge deck so it must be a higher number )" We have her in db as number C-049, but that number was likely given to us by Chris when he registered with the association. Sometimes, hull numbers have been found written on the cabin trunk under the liner on Ariels . . .

[Commander227]

"No Eyes" is Chance's old boat Ceili. She now has the beautiful lights installed that Chance had bought for her. They were a different dimension so needed to be glassed up and recut when they painted her decks. She was only blind for a year. Rumor has it she will get her freeboard painted and a new bottom this winter. She is well loved and sails often.

I hope to get some pictures of Red Ink's Pheonix like return to this world. She had been struck by lightning and burned. As I understand it Chris replaced the entire bow section forward of the cabin.

As for The Princess's repower;
I will certain miss the ease of use. The quiet, vibration less operation. And until this summer the reliability. So why change?
The range mostly, and the decreased efficiency since moving to a buoy. The range has been fine as long as I'm not in too big a hurry. Cruising at around hull speed really eats up the juice. I'm thinking of racing The Princess regularity this summer and many times in light wind that requires motoring to and from the course which is on the other side of the lake and it's kinda tight to get there in time.
Also, my son will be moving to Door County, WI. after he graduates in the spring. (He landed a job as a Design Engineer with Marine Travel Lift) Door County has wonderful sailing grounds on Lake Michigan and I'd like to keep The Princess there part of the year. The diesel will be a more appropriate power plant for the Great Lakes and safer for my son to use on his own.