Steelin' Way

Vessel Name: Steelin' Way
Vessel Make/Model: O'day 10M ...oops I meant 10ft
Hailing Port: Lake Champlain
Crew: Scott Paulson, Barbara Smith
About: Cap'n: Water Sign - No Brainer. 1st Mate (aka) Admiral: Earth Sign...Not so much.... but willing to humor him for now.
Extra:
We are professional Musicians. We founded The Vermont Independent School of the Arts (vtisa.org). We play many instruments in different bands but play together as a Caribbean Steel Drum Duo called Island Time Steel Drums (vermonteventmusic.com). We are NOT trustifarians. We have no pensions or [...]
28 April 2013 | Bethel, VT
28 April 2013 | Bethel, VT
28 April 2013 | Bethel, VT
10 October 2012 | Bethel, VT
10 October 2012 | Silver Lake, Barnard, VT
16 April 2012 | Bethel, VT
30 September 2011 | Bethel, VT
26 August 2010 | Orwell, VT
23 August 2010 | Bethel, VT - Sunapee, NH
17 August 2010 | Newport, RI
17 August 2010 | Chittenden Reservoir
17 August 2010 | Chittenden Reservoir, VT
17 August 2010 | Mallets Bay, Colchester, VT
16 August 2010 | Bethel, VT
15 August 2010 | Chittenden Reservoir, VT
14 August 2010 | Ocracoke Island, NC
14 August 2010 | Tunbridge, VT
14 August 2010 | Bethel, VT
13 August 2010 | Bethel, VT
Recent Blog Posts
28 April 2013 | Bethel, VT

Necessity

Well with my friend's F-150 out of commission and the boat FINALLY ready to meet the water, I had a dilemma. As we know the olde saying "Necessity is a Mother" or something like that. I'm someone who likes solving puzzles. I don't mean crosswords or sodukos (I HATE those), I mean real world puzzles where people say "Oh you'll never be able to get X to do Y! ...Oh really?" I rarely give up in these situations because I like pitting my however questionable wits against conventional wisdom. Now it's no surprise that a 5 foot wide boat can't go into a 4 foot wide Van, and it wouldn't stay in there anyhow because it's much too long. Well friction is a beautiful thing in the right context. Yes the boat was in the water this day and I did it all alone. Dad: thanks for the stubbornness.

28 April 2013 | Bethel, VT

Just one more!

Couldn't resist one more picture. Yes I could have polished the aluminum rudder and keel.... but that might be considered ...obsessive??

28 April 2013 | Bethel, VT

Pretty Pan

This was the week of launch for 2012. Date of the photo was July 25th and I think she hit the water on the 30th. I guess OCD is good for some things and looking at it now I would never have believed that I could have gotten her to look this nice. I decided to move the mast to the forward "Cat Boat" position to keep things simple. In the "Lake of the Switchy Winds" having more things to deal with didn't make sense. Still at this time I didn't even know how we were going to get her there...

10 October 2012 | Bethel, VT

Helloooo Dolly

So it was almost the end of July and I was blowing lots of gelcoat dust and rubbing compound out of my nose with still no real way to get "Pan" in the water. I'd seen dollies for getting things like a Sunfish across the beach to the water ...and that got me thinking.

10 October 2012 | Silver Lake, Barnard, VT

Short Summer!

My "pre-season" jobs on "Pan" turned into more like 66% of the season. I started by grinding out the crack in the rear of the swing keel trunk. After my formal education at Youtube U, I had my first experience with fiberglass. You really do need to have all the layers cut out and ready before you mix [...]

16 April 2012 | Bethel, VT

Pan Play

Things have been moving slowly in sailboat land. I was able to get out a couple of times on "Pan" in August. Getting to the boat was a bit of a procedure. Put the kayak in my car... well its a 14.5 foot kayak so it doesn't actually go all of the way IN the car. Yes I could put the rack on the roof and [...]

Necessity

28 April 2013 | Bethel, VT
Scott
Well with my friend's F-150 out of commission and the boat FINALLY ready to meet the water, I had a dilemma. As we know the olde saying "Necessity is a Mother" or something like that. I'm someone who likes solving puzzles. I don't mean crosswords or sodukos (I HATE those), I mean real world puzzles where people say "Oh you'll never be able to get X to do Y! ...Oh really?" I rarely give up in these situations because I like pitting my however questionable wits against conventional wisdom. Now it's no surprise that a 5 foot wide boat can't go into a 4 foot wide Van, and it wouldn't stay in there anyhow because it's much too long. Well friction is a beautiful thing in the right context. Yes the boat was in the water this day and I did it all alone. Dad: thanks for the stubbornness.

Just one more!

28 April 2013 | Bethel, VT
Scott
Couldn't resist one more picture. Yes I could have polished the aluminum rudder and keel.... but that might be considered ...obsessive??

Pretty Pan

28 April 2013 | Bethel, VT
Scott
This was the week of launch for 2012. Date of the photo was July 25th and I think she hit the water on the 30th. I guess OCD is good for some things and looking at it now I would never have believed that I could have gotten her to look this nice. I decided to move the mast to the forward "Cat Boat" position to keep things simple. In the "Lake of the Switchy Winds" having more things to deal with didn't make sense. Still at this time I didn't even know how we were going to get her there...

Helloooo Dolly

10 October 2012 | Bethel, VT
Scott
So it was almost the end of July and I was blowing lots of gelcoat dust and rubbing compound out of my nose with still no real way to get "Pan" in the water. I'd seen dollies for getting things like a Sunfish across the beach to the water ...and that got me thinking.

There is no ramp at Silver lake except for a very steep and rough bank which is actually just a snowmobile access down onto the lake when it's frozen. The little "free beach" as we call it has a lot of organic obstacles (big rocks) on it to prevent people from doing precisely what we wanted to do; put boats in the water. Mind you they were trying to keep out power boats, not pretty little sailboats, but the rocks didn't seem to know the difference. Back to Youtube U I go for ideas on building a dolly. What I saw wasn't exactly what I had in mind but it was helpful, and I started searching my lumber scraps. I picked up some utility cart wheels at the local hardware. Not as light as I wanted or even water proof, but cheap compared to the others and about a foot in diameter which would give me a little ground clearance. Got the longest threaded rod they had (30 inches I think) and washers and nylock nuts. Being a newb to "handiness," it still took many hours to put it all together with the most challenging part being to try to match the angles of the contour of the hull with the 1-3s that I used that actually contacted it. Never being a math fan, and not even having a clue as to go about it, I eyeballed it as best I could, and adjusted from there. In the end it worked pretty well and then the day came....

Barb was not available so I was on my own. I phoned my friend Guy who had lent me his pickup that saved us from hurricane Irene the previous season. "It needs new brakes and won't pass inspection. You are welcome to take it but It may not stop." Hmm....

Short Summer!

10 October 2012 | Silver Lake, Barnard, VT
Scott
My "pre-season" jobs on "Pan" turned into more like 66% of the season. I started by grinding out the crack in the rear of the swing keel trunk. After my formal education at Youtube U, I had my first experience with fiberglass. You really do need to have all the layers cut out and ready before you mix the resin...really.
So after my first attempt cured I ground that out and prepared for my second attempt. Several layers of mat and woven glass followed on the underside and topside of the hole. Probably about 8-10 layers in all and then both sides were fared with structural filler. Not pretty but sound. Here's a link to pictures of the repair:

O'Day Project Pics

I was looking for oars since the boat has oarlock receivers. Nice to not be stuck out in the middle of the lake when the wind dies! Not having any luck on craigslist, I stopped in at "Waste Money," which did a very good job at living up to it's reputation. I had oars ...and a very light wallet. I fit them to the boat and all seemed right with the world. Hmm... those screws that hold the receivers to the boat are all rusty, ...off to the hardware store.

The bottom's gelcoat is so spider cracked much of it is just falling off. I figured I'd put bottom paint on it next season anyway and maybe repaint the top sides. I took out the swing keel to affect the glass repair and had to cut the cable to remove it, so I bought new cable. It's only about 3 feet long and I wanted to get stainless but the local hardware store only had galvanized. I just figured I'd replace it again if it starts to rust. Before putting the keel back in I started puttering with the gelcoat from the boot stripe up. Could 40 year old gelcoat that was a dull dusty rose be brought back to candy apple red? This began an OCD process that ate up May, June and July!!

There was a lot of back and forth between rubbing compound, "Nu-Finish," and finally going all the way back to 200 grit wet dry and running about 6 grades of sand paper, THEN buffing, Then "Nu-Finish," to get the results pictured. I took this all as skill building on this boat so I would know what I was doing on our next "bigger" boat. I'm sure the remaining gelcoat is micro-scopic in places. As part of the process and after more Youtube U, I did replace areas of gelcoat too. Now I know why so many boats are white. While I had learned earlier that gelcoat is in fact clear, White is a LOT easier to match than RED or any other color. I had varying degrees of success during which I had to recite my mantra "A man on a galloping horse will never notice," which helped correct for the OCD element.

After the before and after pictures like the one above, I started working on the port side which was a little worse than the starboard. The boat had obviously been stored turned over in the sun with the port side getting more exposure. I would take me until the end of July to work on the gelcoat and finish. Reinstall the keel and then ...I still had no trailer. Yes, I had been searching craigslist for a used trailer and I found a few. The problem is that as a not quite starving artist, I have an issue with spending more on a trailer than I spent on the boat. Anything in my price range was going to require a lot of work. How much "skill building" do I want in one year and is this boat ever going to touch water this season?

Pan Play

16 April 2012 | Bethel, VT
Scott
Things have been moving slowly in sailboat land. I was able to get out a couple of times on "Pan" in August. Getting to the boat was a bit of a procedure. Put the kayak in my car... well its a 14.5 foot kayak so it doesn't actually go all of the way IN the car. Yes I could put the rack on the roof and hoist it's 65lbs up there and then struggle with the straps, but since there are never more than two seats installed in the Odyssey because I'm always hauling music gear, and the Lake is only 5 miles away on a secondary road from my house, it's just easier to shove in the kayak, bungee the front end down and the hatch down in back, get up to the lake, drag the kayak to the water, paddle over to the boat, slither from the kayak to the boat, attach the mooring to the kayak, paddle the boat back to the shore to put the sail on it and rig it...you get the idea. Of course if it were a really nice day I would just swim to the boat, but: 1. this is Vermont and 2. I had to get to the boat every couple of days whether it was good sailing weather or not because of the afformentioned slow leak. I would say I had one really good day sailing . You know when the winds blowing 15-20 or so and your boat kicks up her heels and the keel starts singing. I did redub the previously named "Silver Lake," to "The lake of the Switchy Winds" as it sits in a bowl, and if you don't like the wind direction go about 20 feet and it will shift 90ยบ which can be a thrill. This also has the added benefit of sometimes giving you wind on the nose both leaving and returning.

Pan decided to go out without us one day. While driving by on the way to dinner with company I shot my usual glance over to the bay where the boat is moored and saw... NOTHING!? I wasn't really suspecting theft because I'm originally from New York State, so I always lock it to the mooring ...which was also missing. By the time we returned from dinner is was too dark to see anything. I loaded up the Kayak in the morning and grabbed the Binoculars. I inquired at the general store which is within easy view of where the boat had been. Nobody had seen anything. In went the kayak. After crossing half of the lake I spied it in a little bay on the far side. I paddled over. It was very happily re-moored in the center of a small cove just like it had always been there. Now how to get it back across the lake WITH the mooring?


I got into the boat and started bailing. It was about 1/3 full of water. After about a half hour I had gotten most of the water out. Now the mooring. I tried pulling it up. It's a large square cinder block and weighs about 50lbs. With me on the edge of a 10' boat and pulling up a 50lb block, It was seriously close to capsizing. Even If I could pull it up, there was no way I could get it out of the water and into the boat without really doing a number on the gel coat. I let it back down. There was a camp very near by. I scanned the area. It looked like nobody was there. The front of the camp was over the water and it's deck was only about a foot and a half above the waterline. If I could somehow get the boat over there I could climb onto the deck and pull the block up there and then put it in the boat. I managed to pull the block a couple of feet off the bottom, secure it, and paddle the whole thing over to the dock. I climbed out of the boat onto the deck. I moved over enough so I wouldn't hit the boat with the block when it came up, and started to haul it up. I almost fell forward into the lake when I heard "Good Morning!" from directly behind me. It was the lady of the camp in her bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. I decided that jumping in the lake at that point wouldn't be such a bad idea. She turned out to be very nice and offered to help me. She mentioned that the boat had shown up two days earlier. Evidently there wasn't enough scope on my ground tackle and in a gusty storm the boat had picked up it's mooring and went exploring. Camp Lady said she thought about doing something about the boat but it looked comfortable there, and figured someone would come looking for it eventually. I was thinking "you might have called the general store and asked if anyone was looking for a wayward sailboat... because you have one" but I let it go. After all, I hadn't even bothered to put my name and number anywhere on the boat. Yeah I really need to do that. Anyway, I was finally able to get the block up and into the boat without damaging anything. I thanked "camp lady" and started paddling the sailboat back across the lake towing my kayak. Luckily for me that day the "Lake of the switchy winds" wasn't living up to her reputation, and we had a nice steady breeze from aft, which gently pushed us home with almost no effort. When I got ashore I tied "Pan" to a tree and ran home to retrieve a 12 foot length of chain to add to the scope.


It was only a couple of days later that hurricane Irene was roaring up the coast and the eye was predicted to pass mere miles from here. No amount of scope was going to keep Pan from taking another joy ride with the winds they were predicting. Having no trailer and Silver lake having no boat ramp, I asked to borrow a friends pickup truck and put out for volunteers to help get Pan out of the lake and back to the house. Janine, Barb and I got her lugged out and hoisted into the truck and brought home. We put her in an area of the yard that seemed like it would be safe from trees falling if the winds were coming from the north as predicted.

The morning the storm was to hit I had a sound man gig 10 miles away. It was raining steadily but the winds were not as bad as feared. I got done with my gig and was making the last trip to the van with gear, when my cell rang. "You need to get home NOW" came Barb's voice. "I am just about to leave," I said thinking "what's the big deal it's just rain." I wouldn't see her for another 30 hours. After exhausting several routes to get home because they were under many feet of water, I made it back out across the old iron bridge in Bethel with water lapping it's underside. It that night it would be moved by debris. I made it to a friends house where we spent the night watching the water come up to, and then over the bridge near them. Tree's were launched into the very top of the structure, round bales and propane tanks exploded. If not for the railroad bed being between the river and their house it would have been flooded out. The approach to the bridge by the next morning was 12 feet lower than the bridge deck.

Anyway that was the end of sailing season 2011 for me. We managed to travel to play gigs in Florida twice since then which always keeps me thinking about sailing ....and are still working on the house.

My pre-season "Pan" project is to find the leak in the hull and repair it. I think I've found the leak, (see picture) but it is a hard spot to get to at the rear of the swing keel trunk. I've also tried a bit of gel coat repair. So gel coat I discovered isn't white? I had no idea! The entire hull is one big spider crack so what do I do about that?? How do you re-gel coat a boat?

Don't know about where we'll sail it this summer. As I mentioned the local lake is a bit of a pain, no boat ramp, the tiresome procedure to get into the boat and get sailing... the Switchy Winds ...and I have no trailer?

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