>I can’t believe it.  After the long cold winter Pandora is about ready to be launched in Annapolis.  Brenda and I took a long weekend in beginning Thursday evening to work on getting Pandora ready to go in the water on March 29th. 

We spent the night aboard even though the boat was up on land in the Marina for three nights while we worked on the boat.  Fortunately, the ESPAR diesel heater that I installed last winter worked well and kept us warm each night.  With the nights still getting quite cool, we were happy to have the heater humming away.

The list of chores to focus on was daunting but we managed to get most of them done prior to heading back on Sunday afternoon. 

I have been struggling with a vibration for the last two seasons in the drive train and exhausted about every option to solve the problem with the exception of having the propeller worked on.  The prop on Pandora is an elaborate feathering propeller designed to minimize drag when the boat is sailing.  Pulling it off of the boat is not a simple task and involves breaking it into it’s individual pieces prior to pulling it off of the shaft. 

I sent it back to the distributor and was distressed to learn that it needed a major overhaul. The vibration that I had was because the gears in the feathering mechanism were worn and needed to be replaced.  Now that it’s back and I see how it operates now, I can see just how worn it was.  I am really pleased with how smooth the operation is now. 

The prop is designed to engage the proper pitch, in forward or reverse and yet move into a more “slippery” feathered position when I am sailing.  The ability to feather eliminates a good deal of drag on the boat in sailing mode.  You can imagine how a prop of this size, 22″ in diameter would slow things down.

In this shot you can see how much different the profile is.  Yes, it’s much more hydrodynamic.
Now that it’s done I can only marvel at how shiny it looks.  To me it looks like gold and it should, given what it cost to repair. These pictures will only be a memory as it will tarnish right away when it hits the water.

Along with loads of big and little chores, I polished the entire hull which took hours but the results are wonderful.  You can’t tell that the boat was built in 1998.   With a shiny hull and new standing rigging plus a newly painted mast, the boat looks terrific. 

Not a speck of dirt on the hull.   Now, just a bit of touchup on the bottom paint and she will go in ready to travel.

The one bad part of the weekend is that my new holding tank leaks. Fortunately, I had the idea of putting some red dye into the tank and filled it with water.  All was well until several hours had passed and the bilge began to fill with red water.   My first thought was how much work I had put into getting that tank to fit and how difficult it would be to get it out and fixed.  My second thought was what it would have been like if we had used the tank for sewage and had it leak into the bilge. I prefer the red dye.  Well, I know what I will be doing next Saturday. Time to rip the cabin apart again. Yuck.  At least he bilge won’t stink. 

They say that yachting is fixing boats in exotic places.  Well, the marina in Annapolis isn’t exotic but fix the boat I must. 

Well, back to work again.  Monday work awaits!

>Well, I was supposed to be in Annapolis this weekend with Brenda but the weather conspired, for different reasons than excessive cold or snow, to keep us away.  It’s pouring both in NJ and down in Annapolis where Pandora is.  It’s quite amazing how much there is to get the boat ready each year and the number of upgrades are just overwhelming.  With the scheduled launch date of March 29th, I will have to be very organized to be sure that all is in order when she goes in.

Brenda and I will be headed down this coming Thursday to spend a three day weekend cleaning and doing last minute repairs and gear upgrades.

Last weekend I was there alone and put in a new holding tank, something that I have been meaning to do for several years now.  The old tank was quite small and also had seen some seepage so the bilge needed a bit of cleaning.  When I pulled it out I was stunned to see how much “soil” had accumulated under the tank in the bilge.  Now wonder that the boat had been smelling more than a bit “off” of late.  Having a good holding tank is really needed these days as the fines for not handling sewage properly can be quite painful.  No point in pumping overboard as we want to be as green as we can afford to be.

Speaking of “green” yachts, for some reason I have been getting several of those megayacht magazines sent to me at home.  I didn’t sign them up and am certainly not an owner of anything that would come close to be classified as “mega”.   Perhaps it’s my zipcode combined with a boat over 40′.  I will say that Pandora can feel pretty mega when she is being blown onto a dock and I am trying to fend her off.  Besides that, she feels decidedly un-mega. 

Anyway, I have been struck by how the editorial coverage in these magazines, and Yachting as well, has evolved since everyone has become so conscious of being environmentally correct.   Now, you can’t pick up an issue without seeing articles about yachts that are “going green” and the latest megayacht green technology.  The March issue of Show Boats International has the cover story “Top 100 Largest Yachts in the World”, and there’s even content talking about what’s in the works to make these behemoths environmentally friendly.  It’s quite amusing to imagine anyone suggesting that a boat that’s 200′ long with just a hand full of guests aboard burning tons of fuel per day could ever be green.  They write breathlessly about how how all black and grey water discharges are clean enough to drink once they go overboard.  I wonder how many tons of CO2 are being spewed out to clean up their waste.  It seems to me that the path to being more environmentally friendly should certainly include sails as opposed to engine only power.

In spite of my opinion on this I have to say that I would love to be on one of those monsters for a trip.  There I go, double standards again.  Oh well we all want to be green when it is…convenient.

Back to semi-green Pandora…

This shot is of the new custom tank and the one that it replaces.  Nice to know that we have room for a generous amount of *&%$ now. 

Once I took out the old tank I cleaned up the bilge to prepare if for the new custom built tank.  “Custom” means expensive, as seems to be the case of everything on a boat, or should I say yacht.

Here’s a shot of the new tank in place.  Now, that’s a really tight fit.  I have to say that I did loose some sleep the night before I put this tank in place as I laid awake wondering if I had tried to put in the biggest tank possible and had over done it.  Well, it fit.  However, it was a really, really tight fit and took nearly an entire day to get the hoses set and finish the installation. 

The mast is just about done now and looks just terrific.  I am particularly excited about the cell phone booster that I had installed on the top of the mast this year.  This antenna, that sits at the top of the mast will, according to the manufacturer Digital Antenna, boost my cell range up to 50 miles from a cell tower.  With our planned travels between Virginia and Eastern Maine this year, we should have good coverage most of the time.  I sure hope so as I have gone to great lengths, and mucho $$, to get this installed. 

This shot of the mast head shows just how much stuff there is up top now.  The big circle is a TV antenna.  How decadent.  We have never had access to TV on the boat before so this will be a treat.   Our plan is to spend more time aboard this year as I have left my job of 17 years and have formed a new medical education company with a partner.  While I intend to work full time, I have now set up Pandora so that I can work easily from on board and have great phone coverage.   When I have to go to appointments, I will just head home for a few days and leave Pandora where ever she is.  As things grow over time, I expect that the pull of the office will increase, but for now I am looking forward to being aboard a bit more.

All that nice shiny standing rigging.  Some of the old stuff had some rust.  Did it need to be replaced?  Who knows but a standing rig is better than a broken rig any day.  I know several friends who have lost their rigs overboard due to rigging failure and it happened in moderate conditions.  Perhaps it was reading about Jessica Watson’s knockdown and 180 capsize experience that made me decide to do the upgrade.

The rig is supposed to go back in this week so it will be fun to see how it looks when I get down on Thursday.  

As part of the rig upgrade I am putting on a running forestay to fly my storm jib.  That will involve putting a fitting a few feet back from the bow where the much smaller storm jib will be set.  Between that and my new 3rd reef, I will be able to handle winds in the 40kt range, I would think.   Let’s hope that Brenda’s not on board when the winds hit 40 as she won’t be a happy camper. She has sailed in 30kts but 40kts is a whole different ball game.

I am very hopeful that the weather will cooperate and Brenda and I will be able to get Pandora ready to splash as planned on the 29th.   We have a slip arranged up the Magothy River just north of Annapolis for the months of April and May.  From there we will head north to Mystic CT, to Wickford RI and on to Maine in August.  The plan is to bring Pandora back to Annapolis at the end of the season to begin the process all over again. 

I plan on writing about the ports that we visit and the sights along the way on a regular basis this year and will hopefully be able to provide some commentary along the way that will help you better see something in my coverage that you will find of interest and hopefully, inspire you to spend time cruising the Middle Atlantic and New England waters.

Here’s to a great summer of sailing. 

>The intrepid round the world sailor, 16 year old Jessica Watson from Australia passed the Cape of Good Hope this week to begin her final leg back to Australia. While she still has some 5,000 miles to go, passing the final cape on her voyage is a major accomplishment and one that will certainly earn her a place in nautical history as a tough young women making a round the world voyage at a young age. Jessica has been covered widely in the news and one of the more interesting videos I have seen of hers and other similar voyages by young people is worth checking out. It was posted by ESPN and is a good overview of the controversy surrounding Jessica’s voyage as well as other young people in the last several years. Normally I would inbed a video frame but for some reason ESPN has disabled that feature on YouTube. Check out the video by clicking here.  

The 33rd America’s Cup was also decided with a decisive victory for the BMW/Oracle team in a two race sweep.  Personally, I had become a bit jaded about the race given all of the legal wrangling over the last few years. However, to see these two massive boats racing was quite magnificent and worth tuning in to.  Unfortunately, the races were not broadcast on any station in the US but could be watched on the Web in streaming video.  The two videos that follow are highlights of the two races. Really interesting.

Now, back to my own, ever so humble, Pandora.

It’s just over a month until she goes back in the water and there is lots to do to get her ready.  The last few months has been particularly busy for me at work as I will soon leave a position that I have had for over 16 years as a division President at a private publishing company. Our company was sold 5 ears ago and my contract with the buyer is up as of the end of March. It has always been my dream to do something on my own and now that the new company, hard hit by the recession, has decided to sell one of my two divisions to yet another buyer, I have decided to go out on my own and form a new company.

Anyway, I have been really busy for the last few months but not so busy that I can’t think about Pandora and the coming sailing season.  However, between work and the terrible winter weather I had not even laid eyes on Pandora since leaving her at the marina dock as she was prepared to haul back in November.   My visit to Annapolis last weekend was nearly two weeks after the big snowfall with 4′ of snow dumped in the area and I didn’t know what to expect. Well, the snow didn’t disappoint as there was still plenty on the ground when I arrived. The cockpit was filled nearly to overflowing but happily everything down below was dry and snug.

I have pared down my list of major project list down to three major areas. Have the mast painted and replace all standing rigging, remove and refurbish the Max Prop and replace and enlarge the aft holding tank. I am also installing a cell phone booster to provide much more solid cell and Internet reception in areas where cell reception can be a bit spotty.  They say that this system will provide for good coverage up to 50 miles from a cell tower.  That should about cover it for the east coast of the US.  I was going to raise the waterline a bit but that will have to wait until next winter. Along with the rigging upgrade I am adding a running forestay to fly a storm jib as well as setting up the main with a 3rd reef. With my plans for more offshore work in the coming years, I needed to adjust my sail setup for more extreme wind conditions. The ESPN video I linked to above gives you an idea of how nasty conditions can become sometimes. I want to be sure that Pandora is set up for such conditions.

My to-do list for my visit last weekend was to remove a leaky holding tank so that I could have a new one made that would allow for greater capacity. While the tank is out I also needed to clean up a messy bilge from years of seepage and other lovely problems related to storing raw sewage aboard.  The bilge had gotten a bit smelly and needed attention.  The tank came out fairly easily and with a bit of work I was able to fit a cardboard template into the spot.

I have now had the flooring up several times on Pandora and fortunately, it’s pretty easy to pull up the panels and expose the bilge.  This shot is after I had cleaned things up a bit. The amount of crud under the holding tank made it really obvious why the bilge was smelling nasty.   There is still lots more cleaning left to make it presentable for the new tank which will more completely fill the space available.  By increasing the size of the tank I will have about 50% more storage.  The tank goes in the forward section ahead of the bilge pump.  

I have also had the mast painted professionally and these before and after shots show what a fabulous job they did.   Really nice work.  Lot’s of $$ going into a very nice job.

This mast is over 65′ long and it looks very big when it is on the ground. I am so glad that I decided to have the rigger handle all of the work as the job looks overwhelming to me now that I see the scope of it and think about how I was thinking of doing some of the prep work myself.  What was I thinking?

The new holding tank will be ready next week and the plan is to head back down to Annapolis on Friday afternoon to reinstall it.  The best part will be schlepping buckets of water from the yard bathroom to the boat so I can more completely clean out the bilge prior to reinstalling the tank.  I should probably replace the head hoses as well while I have everything torn up.  That’s surely going to be fun.

Our plans for sailing this summer will be April and May in Annapolis, June in Mystic CT, part of July in Wickford RI and on to Maine for August.  And, with my nifty new cell booster installed, I will have better cell coverage on board so I can spend some of my work days aboard.
 
Just a month to go. I had better stay focused on the April launch date.  Yikes!

>It’s Sunday morning and in Valencia Spain BMW/Oracle Racing is waiting to hear if the race committee is going to declare a today a race day and competition for the 2nd race of the America’s Cup.  With all of the legal wrangling it’s a bit hard to be excited about the race as it’s seemed more like a race fought in court and less about being out on the water slugging it out around the race course.

However, I have to admit that as I have watched videos of the BMW/Oracle boat and promotional information being sent out by BMW/Oracle Racing it’s become clearer just how impressive a machine that boat really is.  Until yesterday when I watched a press conference from BMW/Oracle Racing I had been focused more on the two billionaire owners sparing and didn’t appreciate that while it’s certainly that, it’s also a platform for Oracle to showcase their software and programing abilities to the world.  To listen to some of the details of just how sophisticated the boat is and the network of sensors that the boat is armed with was more than impressive.  One particular example is the ridged wing sail.  Unlike “soft” sails, this wing doesn’t show if it’s properly set because it can’t luff. The only way to tell if it’s set properly is to read the loads and wind angles as displayed from instruments and sensors placed around the boat and on the “sail” or rather wing.  The crew watches the output on “heads up” displays projected on their sunglasses.  As you watch videos of the boat note that the helmsman is wearing a backpack.  That’s where the electronics that run his display is housed, receiving data from all over the boat.  That’ boat is indeed a gigantic floating billboard for Larry Ellison and the impressive capabilities of Oracle. 

This video newscast from some months ago provides some context to how the Cup has been pursued over the years and some of the outsize egos that have pursued it.   Ellison’s legal rangling was successful and now they are in Spain and competing. 

I am hopeful that a summary video of the first race will soon be available as I did see one at the BMW/Oracle Racing site but haven’t been able to find a posting that’s available all of the time yet.  The first race was quite interesting as it showed that BMW/Oracle Racing was able to win after a really botched start that had them crossing the starting line some 3,000′ behind the Aligne and ultimately winning.  The power of the massive BMW/Oracle boat flying two of three hulls is quite something.   To get a feel for the scope of the boat, check out the specs page for the team. Be sure to click on the graphic on the specs page to see what these specs look like when shown on a drawing of the boat itself.

It’s also fascinating to watch the PR machine that this group is when you consider that they have a fully functioning video studio at their base in Valencia and you can watch the transmission over the Web as it’s happening over in Spain.  Go to this link to see what they are saying or video archives of what’s been broadcast to date.  This all-the-time availability of info controlled by the team verses occasional broadcast by a network shows how much news programing and distribution has changed over the years.

Something else that’s changed a lot is the boats themselves.  Hard to believe that less than 70 years separates the boats from the giant “J” boats from today’s.  This short video clip shows the contrast between the monstrous boats of the 30s and today’s modern machines.  What next?

It will be very interesting to see what happens in the coming week and if the America’s cup will indeed end up on American soil once again. Fingers crossed.

>As I have mentioned in past posts, I am involved, for many years, with a sailing group, The Corinthians.  This genesis of the organization was primarily about yacht owners sailing their own boats, with unpaid crew, as opposed to paid captain and crew. The organization grew out of the Great Depression as a way for owners to continue sailing under changed circmstances.  As we emerge, hopefully, from what some are calling the “great recession” what better time to celebrate our 75th anniversary and as a validation that we are as relevant now as we were at our founding 75 years ago.  And what better way to celebrate this important milestone than with an event at the New York Yacht Club on 44th street in Manhattan.

As the group’s shore activities chair, I have spent a number of years, more than I care to admit, as the one responsible for putting on events for the group such as our annual meeting, informal get-togethers in members homes and in this most recent case, a celebratory weekend in New York.

In spite of near record snowfalls in Annapolis and Philadelphia, where many of our members live, nearly 160 gathered on Friday evening to celebrate, make new friends and to reconnect with others.  We met in the model room, perhaps the most remarkable room in New York City.  Check out this panoramic view of the room.  It’s amazing.  As many of our members are also members of The New York Yacht Club, it was very fitting that we should choose to celebrate there, a place that has been a part of our group for many years.  We have traditionally held our holiday gam there, and in the same room as Friday’s event.

This year was supposed to be even better and I wanted to be sure that we were able to really do it up so I knew that it had to be more than “just another party”.  Here’s how it ended up going.

On Friday afternoon nearly 60 of us enjoyed a one hour tour, with half of us being led by the club curator, Lindsay who led us through the model room, library and dining room and did a wonderful job of helping us better understand the club and it’s rich history.

While this view isn’t of our event, it certainly speaks to the special occasion that can be had in the New York Yacht Club.

Another highlight of the event was the debut of a book written by past master Bill Thomas chronicling the 75 year history of our group.  Bill wrote and edited the entire book with design and production help from Jason Calfo. The two really out did themselves in producing a book worthy of our silver anniversary.  Due to the generous donations from many of our members, a copy will be provided to all members free of charge.  Extra copies will be available on the club website for purchase soon.

The evening’s festivities was introduced with an a men’s a capella group The Columbia University Kingsman, an amazingly talented group of 7 young men who serenaded us to kick off the event.  If you ever have an opportunity to see and hear them in concert or hire them for your event, I highly recommend it.  They were just wonderful.

The evening was wonderful, with a 7 piece dance band and great fellowship, food and drink.

On Saturday morning nearly 60 members, met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a guided tour of selected nautical works. What a great job our guide did as she ran us from one end of the museum to the other, her enthusiasm and tremendous knowledge of the what the Met has to offer was clearly obvious for all to see. If you have never thought of having a special tour at the Met, I encourage you to consider one.  For a group of 16 or more the museum will put together a custom tour just for you.  The fees are very reasonable and it’s just a wonderful experience.  Here’s a link that provides details on guided tours.

After our visit to the Met, thanks to a fellow member Robin, a long time friend of our hosts, we moved about 10 blocks south for an afternoon tea with all the fixings at a private home with a truly remarkable collection of British Marine Art.  Our host and hostess, Tom and Letty who contributed the complete spread of food, beautifully presented, graciously shared their knowledge and home.  Their collection was wonderfully described in American Heritage Magazine and I encourage you to check out the article.   Believe me, as great as the description is, to see the collection is to truly appreciate what a well intentioned and educated collector can assemble when given the opportunity.  Our hosts are perhaps better described as British marine art scholars as to refer to them as just collectors doesn’t begin to do justice to their depth of knowledge.  Seeing the pieces was a remarkable experience but hearing of how Tom and Letty went about assembling their collection, the thought behind each piece and why it was there, added immeasurably to the afternoon.

I have often said that I give my time to The Corinthians because of getting so many nice notes and comments I get, perhaps the best “attaboy” I have gotten so far, was the special citation from Past Master Bob Ebin with whom I have worked for the last two years, when he recognized me with a special citation award on Friday at the event, in front of all of our guests.

As if that wasn’t enough, I was stunned to be recognized with a second recognition, the “Keel Bolt” award,  from the membership and awards committee for my years of work on events as well.   This award has been presented yearly since 1971 and is constructed from a section of a keel bolt from the Yacht America, the yacht from which the Americas Cup was named.  What a thrill it is to have a piece of history in my home for the next year and to be recognized by The Corinthians, that has been such an important group to me over the years.

After all the planning with considerable help from others there comes the inevitable “morning after” when it’s time to get back into real life.  It’s a quiet Sunday at home and I will now refocus my energies on the day to day and begin to think about getting Pandora back in the water.  With less than two months till splash time, there’s lots to do.  Now if the snow in Annapolis will just melt.