06/17/2005, Pike's Bay Marina, Apostle Islands, Lake Superior
October 2005
It's been a great summer and Take Five will be hauled during the middle of October. Once we finished up installing all of the upgrades, it was nice to just be able to use the boat. Of course, there is always something to do, but mostly minor things. One thing we did do was install new fresh water tanks, or bags, in this case. We removed the remaining plastic tank from the port side after we got tired of it leaking. The starboard side had been removed previously, so we only had ~20 gallons of fresh water. Now, with the new 20 gallon bag tanks, we have more than adequate water for a weekend. We also installed new deck fill fittings and found the deck core dry, which was a relief. This winter/next spring we're going to replace the stanchion bases, some of which I suspect are leaking.
June 2005
The weekend following Memorial Day Sid and I finished up the wiring of the stereo speakers and moving the blower, lower nav lights and cabin lights off the old panel and on to the new one. We also installed the new genoa on the furler, finishing just in time to avoid the incoming severe weather. Next day we did a preliminary mast tuning, got a pumpout and went sailing for about an hour. The weather helm was exactly as it should be, so now we can pour the Spartite. It's really nice to come to the boat and not smell the holding tank. We had been using the head since launch and this was the first pumpout.
Son Scott is is the other "legal" skipper for Take Five and he came up the the second weekend in June to get checked out on all the new toys. Since there had been so much rain lately, we were a little behind, so we had to do some work before we could go sailing. Finally, in late afternoon on Saturday, we were able to go out. It was foggy, so we practiced anchoring near the marina, then went for a short sail. Of course, Sunday morning dawned bright, clear, warm and beautiful. We poured the Spartite and, reluctantly, took off for home.
Now it's going to be the start of a busy season.
Memorial Weekend 2005
This weekend, our agenda was to connect the mast wiring and install and wire the instruments. I put ring terminals on all of the electrical wires coming out of the mast, with matching ones on the feeds from the DC panel. These were attached to terminal blocks on the forward bulkhead of the cabin under the settee. The Raymarine wind transducer box and VHF antenna coupling were also mounted there where everything is up out of the bilge.
The big radar cable had to be brought up through a separate hole drilled behind the starboard leg of the helm guard. The rest of the wiring goes up through the guard to holes drilled in it where the mounting brackets for the Edson Vision Quad.
We also brought the 1969 Evinrude 6hp outboard for the dinghy and motored around the marina. We are still working out details of how to get the dinghy cover to work with the davits.
May 2005
The Tuesday after Mother's Day, 2005, we hauled the mast up to Pike's Bay Marina near Bayfield, WI. Pike's Bay is to be the new home for Take Five. Again, we used the 5th wheel RV as a "very tall flatbed" to transport the 47' mast. The previous weekend, with the help of a local tree farmer's fork lift, we had secured the mast on top of the RV. The trip went perfectly, not a scratch on the newly painted mast. We used the yard's TravelLift to get the mast off the RV and put it on horses for final fitting of standing rigging, antenna, Windex, etc.
That same day we parked the RV at a local campground and continued our trip down to Marinette, WI, where the boat waited to be trucked to her new home. That was a 500 mile plus driving day in addition to the work to unload the mast.
The next morning my mechanic, Brad Abbott of Ames Point Boatworks, showed up at the boat for the installation of the new through-hull and holding tank. While he was doing that Sid and I finished the installation of the davits. About mid-morning, the trucker called and said that instead of picking the boat up Friday morning, he was going to be there this afternoon. Now we really had to scramble to finish the things that had to be done before launch. The trucker showed up at about 2:30 PM and we wound up finishing things while the boat sat on the trailer.
One thing that had plagued me all last season was the reverse gear. It would easily go into reverse, back to neutral and into forward when the engine was stopped. With the engine running, you could easily get it in reverse, but then it would be very difficult to get it back out again. This resulted in one good thing. I learned to maneuver and dock the boat without depending on reverse. Still, it was inconvenient and, sometimes, dangerous. I had been discussing this problem with Brad and others all winter and Brad had talked to a Volvo engine expert. Together, they came up with something we could try. Brad removed a small bolt from the top of the gear case. Under the head of the bolt there were a bunch of very thin washers - shims. He removed two of these, replaced the bolt and said that it may or may not help. The alternative is an expensive rebuild on the gear case.
The next day Sid and I left for Bayfield at about 5:30 AM and the trucker still beat us to the marina. We had them unload the boat and leave it on the cradle so we could finish up a few things before we splashed the boat. We launched later that evening and parked her in a slip close to the seawall so we would be ready for the crane to step the mast the next morning. I'm happy to say that reverse worked like the proverbial knife through butter so, hopefully, we have a reprieve from our expensive gear case rebuild. One funny thing happend at launch. After checking the boat for leaks we started the engine and backed out of the lift well. I shifted to forward to pull into the nearby slip, turned the wheel and nothing happened! What's wrong? Did we lose the rudder? I can't steer! I stopped the boat and started checking things out. I had taken the wheel home over the winter to put leather cover on it. When I removed the wheel, I had taped the Woodruff Key to the helm for safe keeping. In my hurry to get launched, I had put the wheel on the shaft without the key. I discovered this when I turned the wheel about 5 full turns in one direction without hitting a stop. I quickly found and installed the key and wheel and expertly put the boat in the slip. I can only guess what all of the yard guys were thinking about this "new guy".
Unfortunately, the crane never showed up, so I wound up taking an extra day off work so we could step the mast on Monday. We spent the off days finishing up the re-installation of the standing rigging and the radome. The mast was stepped Monday morning, with some scratching of the mast and the total destruction of my brand, new Windex by the somewhat incompetent crane operator.
We finally parked Take Five in her own slip, cleaned up, buttoned up and left for home after a long week.
The next weekend, Sid and I spent on the boat installing the new Edson Helm Guard and the rebuilt compass.
I need to put in a good word for E. S. Ritchie, Inc. here. The boat came with a Ritchie Globemaster Binnacle mount 5" compass. It was inoperable from day one. The globe was all crazed and all of the fluid had leaked out. I found the company on the web and inquired as to the possibility of repairing it. They urged me to send it to them and they would promptly tell me if it was worth fixing. A few days after I shipped it out, they emailed me and said that for something less than $300 they could repair it. A week or so later, when I opened the box, I thought a mistake had been made. This was a new compass, or so I thought. They had replaced practically everything in the compass and shined up the chrome base and the plastic cover. They did all this for about 1/3 the cost of replacing it.
Sid found a way to fill the ugly hole in the bulkhead between the port cockpit locker and the galley. There had been an inoperable microwave installed there when I bought the boat and I had removed it so we lived with that hole for the first season. It was handy, though, because we could peek in there and see the battery charger lights. Sid made a "pantry", lined with teak plywood and mounted the battery charger on the outboard side of it. The panel of the battery charger is covered by a piece of smoked Lexan so you can see the charging lights. The AC panel is just above it with a breaker dedicated to the battery charger. The pantry will hold the cookware and dishes.
Spring 2005
Sid and I went over again the weekend of April 15 to install the davits. Unfortunately, we needed to fabricate some standoffs for the rail part of the mounts in order to get the davits vertical and still clear the transom. This work, along with the final painting and wiring of the mast and boom continued through April and into May. We also met Denise and her husband from Straight Stitch for final fitting of the dodger. We were somewhat worried about boom clearance since we had no way to accurately determine where the boom would be. I also wanted the dodger to be low enough for me to be able to see over it when standing at the helm. At this time, Denise gave me some bad news. The old genoa was in pretty bad shape and she didn't think it was worth it to replace the UV cover. Now I have to think about ordering a new genoa.
I did some research and decided that my budget couldn't stand the expense of a genny from one of the "big" sailmakers. I bought a cruising genoa from AirForce Sails for about two thirds of what a UK, North, etc. would have cost. Of course, I loose the advantage of the big name and the local service, since they both have lofts in Bayfield. We'll see how it turns out. I've heard good things about AirForce, so I'm not too worried.
Fall/Winter 2005
Of course, there were many more things that I wanted to do for the boat. We had planned all along to move the boat from Green Bay to Lake Superior for the 2005 season. Bayfield, WI, gateway to the Apostle Islands has some of the best sailing in the country and is a lot closer to our home. My wife and I have designs on moving there in the not too distant future, so it is the logical place to have the boat.
Because of the nature of the area, we would be spending much more time out in the islands instead of day sailing and staying in a slip at night, so we would need to outfit the boat differently than we had it for Green Bay. It would be nice to have a dinghy so we could get into the beach when in an anchorage. I'm sold on davits rather than towing a dinghy and I don't like the idea of wrestling a dinghy up on the deck to be lashed down or deflating/inflating an inflatable every time you want to use it.
As mentioned above, we needed a new holding tank and a fresh water supply for the head and deck wash system.
The mast and boom both badly needed refinishing. I also wanted to replace the wire/rope halyards with all rope and add a spinnaker pole lift. The anchor light didn't work and the steaming light was intermittent, so I figured that I would re-wire the mast.
I had the mast un-stepped when we hauled the boat in the fall of 2004 and, with the help of the yard's forklift, hauled it home on top of my 5th wheel RV. I also removed the lifeline stanchions because they were going to be replaced.
I wanted to add a chart plotter with GPS and Radar to replace the handheld GPS that we had used the first season. The logical choice for this new equipment was, again, Raymarine. I chose the C-80 Multi-Function Display with GPS and the 18" 2kw radome.
Now the management starts. I've got a mast and boom at my home in New Richmond, WI and a boat on a cradle in Marinette, WI. I'm adding the following new equipment:
1. Raymarine C-80 MFD
2. Raymarine 18" 2 kw radome with Scanstrut mount on the mast
3. Raymarine GPS antenna
4. OGM Tri-Color LED light on top of mast
5. Steaming/deck light on mast
6. St. Croix Rotating davits for Zodiac Cadet 285 S
7. Through hull for fresh water (head and deck wash)
8. Trionic 20 gallon bow holding tank
9. New, larger Edson helm guard with Vision displays for ST-60 instruments and MFD
10. Standard Horizon Quantum VHF radio (nav station) and RAM mic (helm)
11. Harken Windward Sheeting system
12. Sony AM/FM/CD Stereo and speakers (my son talked me into this)
13. Standard Horizon hailer horn on radome strut
14. Dodger, helm, sail and dinghy covers from Straight Stitch in Menominee, MI.
15. New lifeline stanchions from Garhauer
16. New England Rope Endura 12 lifelines with C.S. Johnson fittings
17. New anchor chain and rode.
18. New main, jib and spinnaker halyards.
The refinishing of the mast and boom is another saga. It took all winter and getting the old wire and foam out of the mast is a story in itself.
Wherever possible, I'm replacing old, worn blocks and other hardware with new, usually Harken equipment.
At the Minneapolis boat show in January, 2005, I bought a Zodiac Cadet 285S inflatable dinghy. The next week I bought the St. Croix Rotating Davits. I had been buying electronics all winter - looking for deals and grabbing them when they appeared.
In late February I went over to the boat to remove the old mainsheet traveler so I could have my Harken dealer measure it and order the new Windward Sheeting System. At the same time I met with Denise, owner of Straight Stitch, and gave her a deposit on the new canvas. I also gave her my genoa so she could replace the old, black UV cover with new, Pacific Blue Sunbrella to match the new canvas.
Spring 2004
Our first season of sailing would be on Green Bay, Lake Michigan. We secured a slip at Menominee Marina in Menominee, MI. The boat needed to be transported from the parking lot next to the freeway in Neenah, WI to our launch facility, Nestegg Marine in Marinette, WI, right across the Menominee River from our new home marina. John and Sue Kukuk, owners of Nestegg, picked us up with their transport trailer in mid April of 2004 and it went off without a hitch (pun intended).
Once the boat was safely on the cradle at Nestegg, we started work on her in preparation for our early May launch. I had ordered new AC and DC electrical panels and a lot of wire. Our first priority was to mount the new panels and get at least some of the wiring replaced for critical items. We also removed the very tacky mini-blinds that were on the port lights and thoroughly cleaned the interior. I had removed the damaged and rotten teak handrails from the cabin top and took them home so I could make new ones. I removed the companionway trim, helm seat, helm table and cup holder and any other teak that I could remove. All of the teak on the boat was a very dark brown, almost black, color from not having any attention paid to it in years. All of this had been refinished over the winter, so now it had to be reinstalled.
It should be noted that we live on the opposite side of Wisconsin from where the boat was, about a 275 mile trip one way. This distance from the boat had to be considered at all times. You have to remember to bring everything to the boat, and bring things back from the boat if you want to work on them during the week. I put together a tool kit for the boat and started to accumulate small parts, sealers, fasteners, etc. which I put in tackle boxes that easily fit in the cubby holes behind the settees.
Two days before launch, we applied VC-17 bottom paint and took care of a few last minute pre-launch necessities.
Launch day went great and, after a cold, rainy couple of miles of motoring, we were in our new slip.
The work continued every weekend in May. I had ordered the Raymarine ST-60 instrument package, along with an Autohelm 4000+ Mk II wheel pilot. The instrumentation on the boat was shot and I felt that an autopilot would be very helpful for my mostly single handed sailing. The instruments got installed just before our first sail on Memorial Weekend. I had actually planned to sail the boat with a friend/helper before the big weekend, but things kept conspiring against that and we finally were able to get her out on the water with my wife, son and his fiancée aboard. The sailing was wonderful and it was really nice to get out on the water and just sail and relax instead of climb around in cockpit lockers and work all the time. One scary thing happened, though. The old main sheet traveler system on the boat turned out to be downright dangerous. Because of the way it was set up, it has a tendency to release at the most inopportune moments. We found this when it unexpectedly released and the main sheet blocks hit my son in the upper arm. It caused a nasty bruise and scratch and we decided that we would need to look for a solution for next season and be very careful for the remainder of this one.
Summer 2004
Once we got the sailing bug, there wasn't a whole lot more work done on the boat for the rest of the season. We installed a used Origo 6000 stove/oven in the space it belonged where a cheesy 110v refrigerator had been previously. We also installed a pressure water pump and some new hose to feed the galley sink.
The starboard water tank had been removed from the boat and the port one, while still operational, would need replacing soon.
There were small, enjoyable maintenance items that gradually got checked off over the course of the summer. I would usually arrive on the boat on Friday afternoon or evening, spend some time Saturday morning fiddling around with these small tasks, then go sailing Saturday afternoon.
I should interject here that my good friend Sid was invaluable in helping me with the upgrades. He also appointed himself official keeper of the boat and did a wonderful job of scrubbing off the years of accumulated grime and making the boat look very good for her age.
I had a "head disaster" in mid summer that necessitated my dismantling the whole head and hose system to the holding tank. The holding tank is the old "re-circulating" type that doesn't use a fresh water intake. After this experience, I decided that the old tank was going to go and a fresh water through-hull installed to feed the head. This could also provide water for a deck wash system.
Winter 2003/2004
When I bought my Good Old Boat, a 1977 Pearson 323, during the winter of 2003/2004, it was in pretty good shape as far as the important things were concerned, but it was woefully lacking on some of the more modern accessories that I wanted. The rigging was in great shape, the sails were good for a few years yet and all that the hull needed was a coat of bottom paint.
I am a novice sailor and my wife has no experience. As an instrument rated pilot, I believe in having all of the help that is available when you are single handed, so I wanted to have good instrumentation. I also wanted to upgrade the electrical system since I would be adding equipment that would require adequate and safe electrical power. Of course, I expected that there would be things that would need replacing just because of the age of the boat.
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11/01/2003, Menominee Marina, Menominee, MI Green Bay Lake Michigan
I first "met" 'NoETA' in mid-may of 2003. I am a contract software developer and my job had taken me to the Appleton/Neenah area of Eastern Wisconsin. As my account executive was leading me to the client's offices, we went past a couple of sailboats sitting on cradles in a parking lot adjacent to the freeway. I thought to myself "I've got to remember where this is so I can come back and look later". NoETA is a 1977 Pearson 323, hull number 77. At first I thought Noeta was a female name, but later learned that one of the previous owners is an airline pilot and named her No Estimated Time of Arrival.
My interest in sailing had recently been re-kindled when my wife and I chartered a 60 foot three-masted schooner out of Clearwater, FL. It was one of those 3-4 hour "sunset cruises". Since my wife, daughter and I were the only passengers I got to drive the boat. Unfortunately, there wasn't any wind to speak of but I happily motored around and occasionally caught enough wind to whet my appetite. My wife loved the boat and the trip. Her only objection was that it ended too quickly. The three of us jokingly talked about a "5 year plan" to get us sailing.
I had talked my two brothers into splitting the cost of a Hobie 16 back in the 80's. We bought the boat and hauled it to our lake place in Northwestern Wisconsin. I bought a book on sailing and we taught ourselves how. Actually, we probably spent more time upside down than "flying" the hull, but I thought it was great fun. Eventually, nobody would sail with me anymore and I wasn't heavy enough to right the boat by myself (Yes, I was "svelte" once), so we sold the cat.
I have had a lot of exciting "hobbies" over the years - off road racing, autocross, building and flying my own airplanes - but, as I get older, I'm looking for a more sedate pastime that still has a little "punch" to it. Sailing fits the bill, with the additional benefit of being something the whole family can enjoy with me. I talked my son Scott into taking the Sailboats, Inc. weekend charter certification course out of Bayfield, WI with me. We were scheduled for the course in late June and we both loved every minute of it. Now, I've got a "Sailing Buddy" - my own son. It doesn't get any better than that. One thing I learned the weekend of the sailing course was that a 29 foot C&C was 'way too small for my comfort. We would need something bigger.
As it turned out, the boat I had seen from the freeway was just a few blocks from the office I was working in. One day after work, I went over there and looked around. The boat had a For Sale sign on it and a phone number. I took digital stills of the sign with my video camera, as well as some overall shots of the boat as it sat on its cradle. I determined that it was a Pearson, but didn't know what size. I estimated it at between 30 and 35 feet long. At the time, I didn't know anything about the "HIN", which was right there in one of the pictures I took, or I could have found out all I needed to know.
I finally got through to the owner's answering machine and left a message that I was interested in looking closer at the boat. Eventually the owner got hold of me and we set up a date to look at her.
When I was looking at foul weather gear for my sailing course I ran into a gentleman in the BoatUS store in Appleton, WI. He was looking for parts for his boat and he turned out to be invaluable in my research of the Pearson. I asked him to come along on the "inspection" tour of NoETA and he eagerly agreed. He is the official maintenance engineer for the boat his brothers own - a beautiful 1975 Paceship PY-26. He did all of the inspection and research for the purchase of their boat, so he knows what to look for. He also steered me to an excellent marine surveyor, who I have contracted with to do the survey on NoETA.
A few days later, we met the owner at the boat. He had the ladder all set up and we took a fairly detailed tour of the boat. He explained that he had come on hard times and needed to sell "his baby". He had given me a specification sheet and list of included equipment. The price he was asking seemed pretty good, considering all of the "goodies" included. We all stood in the parking lot and talked sailing for about a half hour (I had thoughtfully brought some beer along.) It started to rain, so we grabbed the beer and went back up the ladder into the saloon. We turned on the lights and sat in the saloon drinking beer and talking sailing. Talk about a salesman! There couldn't have been a better way to sell me this boat than to sit there on the comfortable settee, with those subdued lights.
Meanwhile, I needed to find out how my wife would react to "real" sailing. She hadn't liked the Hobie at all - not since the first time I dumped her in the water under the knocked-down boat. I explained to her that this was much more civilized than the cat - that it was more like the 25 foot cruiser that a friend and I had for a couple of years on the St. Croix River - but even better because we didn't have to listen to the engine once we got the sails up. We scheduled a charter for the Labor Day weekend out of Bayfield, WI in the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior. Scott and I each chartered a boat, nearly identical C&C 30's. The weekend was a total success. My wife loved sailing, even when she got banged around a little in the three-foot chop we encountered while racing with Scott. I had been worried about her getting seasick, but she came through with flying colors. She even handled the sheets a couple of times when we tacked. The 30 was much better than the 29, but still seemed a bit cramped for my style. Of course, I had been aboard the Pearson 323 by then, a completely different style of boat, and it seemed huge by comparison.
Donna wants to do a lot more sailing. She isn't too keen on buying a boat, but I've explained that chartering will be a lot more expensive the next time because of the discount we got for our first one. We also won't be able to bring our dogs, and she wasn't too excited about using "other peoples stuff" on charter boats. NoETA is also a lot bigger than the boats we can afford to charter. The other night we happened to see a sailboat on TV. She said "Oh, I wish we could go sailing, it's only November - we have to wait 6 more months!"
I have now learned that NoETA has been owned by at least 5 people. The longest ownership was from 1983 to 2001 by a couple who kept her at Nestegg Marina in Marinette, WI. She has always been a fresh water boat. I am currently awaiting the response to the offer I made to purchase her, at which time I will have her surveyed. She appears to be basically sound, but needs some work to get her ready to be launched. She has been sitting on her cradle in the parking lot next to the freeway since October of 2002 - almost a full year now.
She needs, among other things, a new shaft seal, mast boot/wedge, batteries, bottom paint, cockpit scupper hoses and other plumbing, AC and DC rewiring, breaker boxes and panels. She also needs new wiring from the mast top to the wind instrument. Her knot/log and engine instruments are intermittent. Her topside teak needs to be stripped and re-finished and her hull needs a good buffing. The old name(s) still show in shadow on her stern and the NoETA name is in really rotten looking stuck on vinyl letters. That will change when/if I re-name her but the vinyl letters are coming off immediately so she "forgets" her name. Then she will be re-christened according to proper lore.
I made the offer on September 15, 2003. It's now October 28 and I just heard from the credit union that has repossessed the boat from the previous owner. They had it in their minds that the boat was worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000-35,000. I sent them a list of the "must do before she floats" items and it came to over $2500. I explained to them that the boats they were using as a comparison were at least two years newer and all in pristine condition, on the water and ready to sail away in. The only other 1977 model that sold recently was a boat in Racine that was extensively re-done in 2000-2001 and sold for $27,500 last summer. They then said that I should start arranging interim financing and schedule a survey because they were going to go ahead and submit my original offer of $20,000. I scheduled a survey for November 10, my oldest daughter's birthday. I'm waiting.
***********FLASH***********
October 29, 2003: I just received a call from the credit union. My offer has been accepted. I bought the boat for $20,000. Now the work begins. Of course, I still have to get through the survey and arrange financing, but the deal is done.
November 10, 2003: The survey is finished. The surveyor pronounced her a "good old boat", in need of some rework, but basically sound. The list of recommendations is actually shorter than my "must do" list.
November 24, 2003: The financing is all arranged, insurance is quoted waiting to be bound and we're waiting for the title to clear the Wisconsin DNR, so I can get the check and pay for the boat.
December 15, 2003: FINALLY!! Closed on the boat at 9:30 AM. Now the long wait for spring begins.
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