WHALEBOAT M.V. TITAN

The adventures of the Rusten family and our converted US Navy Motor Whaleboat on the Columbia River.

20 June 2011 | Scappoose, Oregon
27 November 2010 | Our Boatyard
01 October 2010 | Scappoose, Oregon
23 May 2009 | Scappoose, Oregon
22 December 2008 | Scappoose, Oregon
30 August 2008 | Scappoose Oregon
22 July 2008 | Scappoose, Oregon
22 June 2008 | Scappoose, Oregon
27 October 2007 | Scappoose, Oregon
08 October 2007 | Scappoose, Oregon
28 February 2007 | Caterpillar Island Marina
01 October 2004 | The Sailing Life - Portland,Or

Where is Spring? Will it ever arrive?

28 February 2007 | Caterpillar Island Marina
Andy


When is spring? Will it ever arrive?

Will spring every arrive? My sailboat sits at the marina, tugging at her moorings, growing vast amounts of mildew and waiting for me to arrive and take her out. She has survived the winter quite well and I cant wait to get to work on her for the season. I need to silicone all the window joints and install a new stainless steel mushroom vent in the main cabin. I finally decided to put it over the galley stove, it makes the most sense for ventilation and for cooking on the boat. It should cut the mildew way down. I definately have to start plugging up all the holes the prior owners cut all over the inside and outside of the boat. Its amazing to look at all the open bulkhead areas and try to figure out what they were doing it for.(rat killin?) Ive got a 12x25 incher in the port quarter berth for starters and I have no idea why they would do that. The bad part is that I have an identical one in the starboard cockpit area which is semi-open to the water under sail. The prevous owner just rivited a piece of aluminum over it and tossed on some siliputty to seal it..(it didnt work) AlsoI have to seal off the holes from the old engine controls in the cockpit that I removed last season and build a rubber seal around the control cables on the new one where they go thru the side and back to the engine to keep water out of the boat as well. Got some gelcoat repair on the seats and locker areas in the cockpit to do and I need to put a second ventilator in the engine locker to fill that 3" hole.. wow, thats a long list so far. The mast really needs to be taken down, replace the shives and convert to rope halyards from the wire ones which are breaking down, new coax and antenna, new wind vane, pulleys for burgee's and radar reflector, pulleys for HF antenna, topping lift,and new wire for lights . Roger found a nice asymetrical spinnaker today and also a new 135 Genoa for his Hunter 27. He had it mod'd at North Sails for his new roller fuller and finally unpacked the "mystery sail" we found on his boat in their (NS) loft only to discover it was a 165% Genoa!! It filled the floor at North Sails in three corners!! At that size, you could sneeze in the cockpit and propel the boat 2 miles up river!!! He is having it rigged for the roller furler as well. I really wish I could afford to add a furler to ours and have her rigged for single handed which really would make it easier for the whole family to use under sail instead of just me going forward to raise and lower sails each time... The Marine Exchange has a couple used ones I need to look at before she sells them off.
Comments
Vessel Name: Titan
Vessel Make/Model: '68 USN Ret MK10 Whaleboat
Hailing Port: Scappoose, Oregon
Crew: Andy & Becky Rusten
About: our dogs Shiloh and Opal bark at passers by, wag their tales and generally sleep the whole trip.
Extra: Titan is a 1968 retired USN MK10 Whaleboat built by Uniflite in Seattle and converted to a commercial fishing boat after its retirement and now joining our family as a pleasure cruiser here on the Columbia River

MV Titan Blog

Who: Andy & Becky Rusten
Port: Scappoose, Oregon