>It’s Sunday morning and it’s pouring cats and dogs.  It’s a good thing that I was able to put in a full day working on Pandora yesterday as it’s coming down to the home stretch and there is still a good amount to finish to be sure that she’s ready to go back in the water for the Summer.  When I think about the amount of time that I put into Pandora over this winter it’s quite amazing.

What brought it into perspective for me yesterday, I worked from 7:45 till 5:00 yesterday (with a bit of time out to have lunch with my Mom and Dad) was when a guy working on the boat next to me, a Cal 23, remarked about my work “so, trying to get it all done in single day?”.  He was referring to the fact that he had seen me working on the boat all day, sanding and painting the bottom and cleaning the topsides and assumed that I was rushing to get all the prep work needed to launch done in a single day.  I had never laid eyes on this guy before so I expect that it was his first day down to see his boat this Spring.  The look on his face was priceless when my reply was “actually, I have been working on the boat nearly every weekend since the second week of January”.  That’s actually painfully true with very few exceptions.  I can recall a few weekends when I had to wade through 3′ drifts to get to the boat and climb aboard.  In the interest of full disclosure, I rarely worked aboard more than one day each weekend.

The number of projects that I did over the winter, painstakingly detailed in previous posts, is my most ambitious to date.

Here’s the list., not counting the little projects.

1. Holding tanks:  Ripped up the floor so I could measure for, build and install two gelcoat lined fiberglass holding tanks,   These babies are so nice I can’ believe what we are going to be putting into them.
2. Radar arch:  While I didn’t make the arch, just installing it was a tall order.  It’s great and will make a big difference in our enjoyment of the boat.  Hey, now I can climb right into the dink even if it’s hanging from the davits.  Not sure why I would do such a thing but it’s nice to know that I could if I wanted to.  I also fished the wires for the GPS antenna, aft running light and moved radar from the backstay to it’s new home on the arch.  
3. Freezer:   Now, I can have ice cream on board, actually, make that GREEN ice cream.  No, not the kind from a Dr. Seuss book, Sam I am, but the kind powered by my solar array.  We sailors are all about being green and off the grid, right? I separated a section of the fridge and made a  freezer compartment with a dedicated cold plate and new compressor. 
4. Spice rack:  Behind the fridge in the galley I constructed a new spice rack.  I went to great pains to match the design so that it blended with the other details in the galley.
5. Salon and cockpit cushions.   I ordered new cabin cushions for the main salon and cockpit.  That wasn’t too hard as I just had to write a check.  Brenda picked the fabric and she choose well.  
6. Curtains in the salon:  Actually, they are pleated shades and really give the boat a more tailored look.  
7. AIS/VHF radio combo with a remote cockpit mike:  I installed the system but had some help from my electronics guy wiring it up and making sure that it will work as advertised.
8. Raised waterline:  With all this new “stuff” aboard, in addition to the 1,200lb keel shoe that I had installed when I took delivery of Pandora, I needed to raise the waterline by two inches.  This entailed sanding the boot top, putting on three coats of Awlgrip primer and then sanding all of it again. 

And, all of that in addition to the usual washing, cleaning, bottom painting etc.  You know, the normal sort of getting-ready-to-go-in-the-water sorts of things that happen after a long cold winter.

Speaking of cold winters.  Thank goodness that I put in an Espar heater a few years ago.  Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to reply with such enthusiasm about my work on Pandora from January on.  I do enjoy working on the boat but have to say that it was nice to just write a check and have those cushions show up magically.  Alas, I may be busy but I always seem to have more time than money.  Hmm…

Back to yesterday (Did I mention that I had lunch with my Mother?)  Yea, I thought so.   Well, I did get a lot done and Pandora is looking great.

One of my favorite parts of getting a boat ready to launch is painting the bottom.    So, you are asking yourself  “is he nuts?”.   Actually, it’s not so much the painting but the sense of accomplishment that I feel when I take off the masking tape, stand back and take a look at Pandora, so near to being launch ready.

Doesn’t she have a great bottom?  The last step in finishing the new waterline will be the installation of a 1″ white vinyl boot top, which will separate the bottom paint from the blue section.  I am a bit skeptical of this approach but he yard assures me that it will stick well.  We will see as if it doesn’t, it will be there problem to replace it next Winter.   Anyway, it will look great.

And the shine on that hull?  Not to shabby either.

Actually, that photo was taken before I sanded where I had primed the, now raised by two inches, waterline.

Down below is looking pretty snazzy too with the new cushions. I am particularly happy with the ottoman which I made out of 3/8″cherry marine plywood and oak reinforcements in the corners.  The canvas shop put a cover on it.  Now I have a place to store bulky items and a place to put up my feet.

And it fits nice and snug between the port settee and the table when it’s not in use.  Here’s what it looked like when it was “in the raw”.

Think of us over the Memorial Day weekend as we head out of Norwalk and off to Mattituck, on the North Fork of Long Island, one of our favorite places to visit to begin our much anticipated Summer aboard Pandora.  And, no I will be sure not to forget the ice cream.   Let’s hope that the sun shines plenty this summer to power all of the equipment that I have installed over the years.

That’s all for now.

>It’s hard to believe that it’s been several weeks (yes, I know that it’s actually been longer, so don’t rub it in) since my last post.  However, nearly every extra minute has been spent on trying to do the whole life-work balance thing and continue to get Pandora ready for the season of sailing.   While some of my friends are wrapping up their season in the South and heading home, us poor soles in more temperate zones are just now getting ready to head out.  As I have mentioned in past posts, we are going to keep Pandora in Mystic for part of June after launching the week prior to Memorial Day and then will head to Maine for July and August.  For a while I was uncertain if work would allow me to stay away for two months, while working remotely from the boat, but it is now looking like a visit to Maine for both months will only be interrupted by a quick trip to Las Vegas for business in late July.   It’s actually ironic to imagine leaving Maine to head to a location of such great contrast but, hey, I still have to make a living, for now, I guess.

Well, back to getting Pandora ready.   After being fabricated in Canada, Pandora’s new radar came down a few weeks ago on a truck.  To save on shipping (always looking for a way to save where I can) I arranged to meet the driver at an exit off of the NYS thruway and we made the switch.  I constructed special brackets on the roof racks to hold the arch.  It just dwarfed the car.  I was fearful that I would hit something as I drove home and later to CT where Pandora is stored, but nope, no damage.

With a little help from my friends and a lot of pushing and pulling, the arch was installed.  Beyond that I had to run wires for the radar, GPS and aft running light.  It proved to be somewhat easier than I had expected and it’s all completed now and the radar is in place.  No photo of that yet but will come soon.  In this photo the radar is still on the back stay but has now been moved to the center of the arch.   It’s now fully out of the way and securely in it’s new home.

I also put the two new holding tanks in place along with a bit of elbow skin as I pushed and pulled them into position.  In spite of the very complex looking shot of the forward tank, that one was actually the easiest to fit in place.    

While the forward tank was more straight forward, the aft tank was a bear to squeeze into it’s new home.  Hard to imagine so much work to hold a mess of S… aboard while I look for a place to pump out.

I challenge anyone to have a more solidly constructed holding tank on their boat.  However, my ulterior motive in learning to do this sort of work is to make a hard dodger for Pandora based on Bob Perry’s plans next winter.  Now, that’s a project.  And the design, that I don’t have a photo of unfortunately, really gives a muscular look to the boat.  Really impressive.   For much of the winter the boat was really torn up with all the work that I was doing was being completed.   At some points, I have to confess that I didn’t expect to ever be finished.  Take a look at this shot and you will probably agree.  What a trash heap.

Alas, as they say on the nation’s highways when the roads are all torn up, “the inconvenience is temporary, but the repairs are permanent”.  Well, it’s sort of true, as with the roads, boat projects aren’t very permanent either.  But, it does look a lot better now.   Check out the new Ultrasuede cushions.  No, I didn’t sew them.  There’s a limit to what I am willing, or should I say able to take on.  They look really great.  In 30 years of boating, no make that 40, we have never had new cushions that I didn’t make.  That’s to say, really nice ones.

With Pandora nearly ready to launch I have just a few more weeks to finish up these projects and get ready to head out for a week aboard.   We have never splashed her and immediately headed out for a week so we will have to see how that goes.  

Finally, now that we are nearly into the commissioned season, I expect to begin getting into a more or less weekly blog post.

Before I sign off, how about a sunset shot?  No, perhaps I should call it a sunrise shot.  In fact, I took this years ago when we visited St. John in the BVI.  It’s my hope that in a few short years I will see this same view, if a bit closer to the water, from aboard Pandora.  Now, that’s something to look forward to.

>With all my weekends consumed with work on Pandora over the last few months, Brenda and I decided to take a vacation to Martha’s Vineyard, to stay at a friend’s home.  As if that’s not great enough, both of our sons came and brought their significant others.   Our oldest Rob has his birthday, Chris, you youngest (I guess that’s self evident as Rob is the oldest) has his 35th birthday today, April 9th.  How is it that he’s so old and I am so young?   Lauren, Rob’s wife, also has an April birthday so we were all set to celebrate.  We’ve been to MV many times over the years, in every boat that we’ve owned, beginning in the late 70s in TAO, our 20′ Cape Cod catboat and in more recent years in Pandora.  


Coming over on the ferry the other day was a very new experience for us as we’d always visited on our own boat. It’s certainly a lot less weather dependent aboard the ferry.


While it was plenty cold, I went out on deck to watch the sights go by.  Oddly, I was the only one that wasn’t inside where it was nice and toasty.  Perhaps it was the 20kt winds and temperatures in the 40s.  Hmm…


A nice crisp afternoon in April.  That’s Naushon Island in the background as we are leaving Woods Hole. 

Just outside the inner harbor is a really nice little draw bridge.  It’s been replaced in the last few years as the old one tended to stick in the closed position when the pavement got really hot in the Summer.   This one is so  over built compared to the old one,  I’ll bet that it will function well for many decades.

This shot, taken outside of the breakwater, and heavily exposed to the northerly prevailing winds of winter, was a lone sailboat on a mooring, complete with dink tied off of the stern.  Obviously, a liveaboard I would say.  It’s hard to imagine living aboard in such an exposed place over the winter.  I can only imagine how rough it gets, not to mention cold, when the wind pipes up.  It must be even more fun getting to and from shore in that little dink. 

Inside the breakwater it was a lot calmer and there were many more boats sitting on their winter moorings.   There are a good number of wooden boats that call their home Vineyard Haven harbor and the best place for a wooden boat to spend the winter is afloat.  This harbor is a particularly good home for wooden boats because of the yard Gannon & Benjamin, a well respected wooden boat yard right on the waterfront in Vineyard Haven.   There’s a great book about the yard that’s well worth reading, Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard.  It’s the story of a classic boat and her rebuilding at the yard.


Among the many boats launched at G&B over the years is this lovely catboat, the only craft sailing the waters when we arrived.  

In front of the catboat is one of the two schooners owned by the founder of the Black Dog, a very successful business started back in the 70s here on the island.  He started the business back in 1971 as a bar but has expanded to include a bakery, two schooners for day trips as well as a store with a Black Dog line of apparel.  While the store in Vineyard Haven was the first, they have expanded and now have local operations in most major New England ports.  They even have a webcam where you can see live photos of the harbor.

It’s a real treat to be here with our family and it’s likely to be a long time until we are all away together again.  A particular goal that we have is to have them visit us when we are in the Bahamas or Caribbean.  Something to look forward to but that’s a topic for a future post.

>It’s been a very long winter and the last of the (record?) snows are now melted.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that it’s 25 degrees out and it’s 11:00.  Not what you’d expect for late March.  Alas, I digress.  The really good news is that I continue to make progress, if slow, on the projects for Pandora.  The fridge upgrade is done with a newly installed compressor and cold plate so that we will have a true freezer instead of the wimpy little box that couldn’t even hold ice cream. Can you imagine a proper vessel that doesn’t have the ability to keep ice cream? Hmm…  On the true other end of the spectrum, literally, I am also making progress on the holding tanks.   While the going is slow, with work being very busy (another good thing) there’s just not a lot of time for projects like this beyond the weekends.

One evening after work this week I did take some time to enjoy a few hours in the shop constructing the framework for an ottoman for the main salon of Pandora.  My friend Marc who lives aboard his SAGA 43, and has for many years, showed me this idea on his boat and I had to have one.  The ottoman is constructed out of 5/8 marine grade cherry plywood and is designed to have a full hight cushion that will match the new cushions being made for the main salon.  The box is lightweight but sturdy and has internal supports made out of 3/4″ oak.  The entire box is fastened with #6 pan head self tapping SS screws.

This shot shows the box in it’s rough form.  The next step will be two coats of varnish on the interior and then I will drop it off at the canvas shop to be covered with a nice contrasting cover of Ultrasuede.  The top is designed to be removable so that we can use the interior for storage.  The interior is 18″x18″x12.5″ so that’s a decent amount of space.

Before I drop it at the canvas shop, I will put a few coats of varnish on the interior.  I wouldn’t want to have those chips and cookies stored in a compartment that isn’t varnished, would I?  Only the best for Pandora’s Pringles.

As the plywood is relatively thin, I needed a structure to screw the fastenings into, so these stringers, rounded of course, will serve nicely.

The cover will have the cushion affixed to it and the interior lip will fit nicely into the base of the box.   When we are under way the ottoman will nestle between the dining table and the port settee.

While I try to do most projects myself, the new radar arch isn’t something that I can tackle on my own.  Sorry about that.  However, I could make a great looking arch out of wood.  Perhaps not.  Anyway, my arch is being made up in Canada by a terrific fabricator Klacko Marine and will be shipped down in the next two weeks.  The owner of Klako, Doug, did all of the stainless fabrication for Pandora when she was built.  Doug’s work is really first rate.  While the arch isn’t yet done, Doug sent these photos as an update on his progress. Notice that there are horizontal bars on the side of the arch that we can climb up on to escape rising waters, no make that to service the radar or other instruments.  Perhaps some will even choose to jump from the arch for a swim.

This photo isn’t of my arch, but it shows how the radar will fit on top of it once I move it from it’s current spot on the backstay.  The nice part of this is that I won’t have to purchase another mount and will just be able to  slide the Questus unit on top of the bar that will be welded directly onto the arch.

My holding tanks are progressing slowly but surely and are now ready for two coats of gelcoat to ensure that it’s not only water tight but vapor tight as well.  Black water tanks (aka: sewage) must be really well made as they tend to become stinky over time.  Now that all of the interior work is completed I will secure the lids with epoxy paste, lots of screws and several layers of fiberglass mat.  I will also cut an access port into the lid so that I can clean the tank as needed.  These tanks will be first rate, I hope.  I should note that I wouldn’t have been able to make this project happen without the help of the folks at LBI.  While their main business is doing industrial fiberglass and other fabrications for the Navy and others, the owner is an old friend of mine as he sold me and Brenda our first boat, a Legnos Mystic 20 Cape Cod Catboat.   We had a great time aboard “TAO” and cruising on that boat took us from Western Long Island Sound as far away as Nantucket.  This article from the Chesapeake Catboat Association shows photos of her sister ship Gull who was owned by our great friend Bill Hoover.  He did love that boat. Yikes, another digression, and a major one at that.  Back to LBI.  Along with the fabrication business, they have a terrific line of fiberglass and resin supplies. You can view this source to get an idea of these resin supplies.  Deb, in their customer service area, was a great help to me in making this project possible.

There are several fittings that will provide an inlet and outlet for the “stuff” to get into and out of the tank.  These fittings are fiberglass reinforced plastic and are bedded in several layers of fiberglass mat.  These guys aren’t going anywhere.

It’s good that I like this sort of work as these projects are time consuming.  However, as much as I like working on Pandora, I much prefer sailing and that’s likely to happen soon with warm weather just around the corner.

That’s all for now.

>I haven’t posted since December, first because I was so busy with the holidays, and second because I couldn’t get into the site.  Frankly, I often not sure what to writer about when Pandora’s not in the water.   Then I had password problems with the site.  I had difficulty with my password in early January there wasn’t anywhere to turn to solve the problem.  When I set this blog up 4 years ago I was using a different e-mail address which I don’t have access to anymore.  Well, tonight I was reading a friends blog (more about that later) and I decided to try and log on again.  After a few tries, I stumbled on the correct password.  I really don’t know why it didn’t work before as I thought I tried it.  However, clearly I didn’t.

Well, I’m back and I am becoming very excited about this coming sailing season aboard Pandora. For those of you who have read past posts, you are aware that I started a new business with a partner just over a year ago.  My goal was to continue to work but to be able to do so with less focus on “being in the office”.  With all the communications gear available these days, why not work aboard?

I am happy to say that things are going very well now and we are very busy.  While I fully expected year one to be really tough, and I wasn’t disappointed on that point, things have really picked up now and we are very busy.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is that it’s going to be a busy summer but at least I can continue to work aboard Pandora where I have set up an office complete with a cell booster, internet access and even a printer.

For this summer, the plan is to launch a few weeks before Memorial Day and head to Mystic CT where we have access to a mooring.  Our cruising plans through the end of June include eastern Long Island Sound, Block Island and the waters around Newport RI.    After that we will head up to Maine where we will be sailing through Labor Day.  There will probably be a few trips home to see clients, but it will mostly be a waterborne summer.  The big challenge for me will be keep up with the demands of work while being on the water.  Plenty of distractions from both, I am sure.

It’s been a busy winter or work on Pandora.  In spite of the really cold and snowy weather, I have been aboard Pandora for a day or two most weeks working on one project or another.

Here’s what I have been up to.

First.  I built a new spice rack behind the fridge.  I went to great pains to be sure that the cabinetry was exactly like what SAGA built elsewhere aboard which definitely slowed things down.  However, I am very pleased with how things came out.  This photo gives a good feel for how it’s situated.

I also purchased a new refrigeration system to augment the one that came with Pandora from the factory.  While the original unit was great for keeping food cool, it wasn’t really set up for sub-zero freezing.   This required the addition of a freezer box within the fridge compartment and a really powerful DC driven cold plate.   The system that came with the boat had three evaporator plates secured in an aluminum box (like you would expect to see in an old style small refrigerator).  In order to make the system work better for my new arrangement, I separated the plates from the box and secured them to the sides of the box.  This set up is a much more efficient use of space and will actually allow me to put more items in the fridge.  This means that we have one system for the fridge and another for the freezer compartment. Learn more about woodworking and how to get the perfect finish as the info is Continued here.

All and all, this is a much better arrangement.  You can see that the panels don’t take up much room at all.  Notice that they are secured in the top of the compartment so that they won’t come in contact with food which would cause freezer damage to delicate produce.  There’s a full foot of space below what you can see.  The good news is that SAGA put in 4 inches of insulation so I won’t be cooling the entire world when I crank this baby up.  However, this setup is still the biggest energy hog on the boat, by far. You can look at this site for more information on the procedure for insulation.

This shot shows the new freezer compartment, made of one inch of foam insulation sandwiched between two sheets of white plexiglass.  It’s just outboard from the fridge shown above.

You my be asking yourself how much power this will consume but fortunately, my solar panels put out loads of power so I expect to be able to turn things on when Pandora goes into the water and keep everything frozen all summer.  This is particularly notable given the fact that she’s always on a mooring or on the hook.  No shore power for Pandora, that’s for sure.

You can see here that the solar panels are indeed big.  At peak output I have seen 35amps.  Each panel is rated for 135 watts.  That’s 540 watts and no, I don’t understand the conversion from watts to AH into the batteries.   BTW, I have over 700AH of gel batteries so I have loads of capacity.  With the panels, I generally get over 100AH per day in northern climes which is plenty to run all the equipment on board.

We also purchased a hard bottom inflatable dink which will be somewhat heavier than our current tender so we had to have a more substantial davit system.  With this in mind, I have ordered a new radar arch/davit setup which will look like the one on Firecracker, sistership to Pandora.  You can see here that this is a much better system and one that I can operate from my electric cockpit winch when I want to put the tender into the water or pull it up.

You can see Pandora on the right and the other system on Firecracker.  The davit setup is very different and  I am very excited about this upgrade.

As they say “but wait, there’s more” as I am also making new holding tanks to replace the crummy aluminum ones that came with the boat.  I have never done fiberglass layup on a “large”, for me, project before but with good guidance I am very excited about this.  The tanks will be formed inside of melamine coated molds from 5 layers of 5oz fiberglass mat with vinylester resin coated, inside and out with two coats of gelcoat.  I am a bit anxious about the project and intend to tackle it this weekend.  Here’s one of the custom molds that I made.

Finally, I also needed a place to store cell phone, hand held VHF and my air horn so I built this nifty holder to go inside the companionway.  We will see if it gets in the way.  Time will tell on that one.

There are other projects but I will cover them later.