It’s about this time every year that I being thinking in earnest about what our cruising plans will be like for the coming winter season.\u00a0 In past years the question was easily answered as we had new areas to visit and a pretty clear idea of what the coming months would bring.<\/p>\n
So, as I sit here, in my office, on the 4th of July, arguably one of the busiest boating weeks of the summer, I really have no clear idea of what’s coming this fall.<\/p>\n
The problem is the classic problem of, “life gets in the way” with multiple “events” coming our way that will make it hard to know what’s in store.<\/p>\n
The good news is that our son and his wife are expecting twins, perhaps at nearly any time now, and anyone who’s spent time cruising and had grandchildren, especially the “new” kind, know that their arrival on the scene can be really disruptive to the “cruising lifestyle”.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Brenda’s been working on a book for some years now and feels that it’s “high time” that she get it off of her plate and off to the publisher.\u00a0 \u00a0 The good news is that she has a publisher and knows what has to be done.\u00a0 The bad news is that some of the materials that she really needs to complete it are not under her control so it’s tough to say exactly how long it will be until she can finally get what she needs and get the project done.<\/p>\n
One thing for sure is that the publisher’s next deadline to receive the completed manuscript is this coming March.\u00a0 So, if you do the math, you’ll see that this falls smack dab in the middle of the winter cruising season.<\/p>\n
And, as I sit here on July 4th, it’s hard to say, what we will be doing this coming winter season.\u00a0 I can say for sure that winter in freezing New England and winterizing Pandora leaves me “cold”, but I guess we will have to just wait and see how things develop.<\/p>\n
In the mean time, after months of deliberation on when and where, I have arranged to have Pandora’s hull painted and she will be going into the paint shed by mid July.\u00a0 I’ll be pulling her mast for a rigging inspection close to home in the next week or so and then will take her to a yard in Stratford CT for paint.<\/p>\n
The most complex part of the job will be dealing with the rub rail which is wood and wasn’t ever properly prepared to hold a finish.\u00a0 As a result, the paint on the rail has badly peeled, something that I am hoping to avoid going forward.\u00a0 That part of the job, as minor as it appears is a big part of the overall cost.<\/p>\n
The crew will also sand and paint the bottom, a treat for me as I have never hired anyone for this messy job and have always dealt with bottom paint since my very first boat back in the late 70s.\u00a0 \u00a0What a luxury.<\/p>\n
Someone once told me that there are two colors for boats, “white and stupid”.\u00a0 And, with Pandora’s dark hull, some think she’s black, she’s about as stupid as possible.\u00a0 And, in spite of the fact that most boats are white, I don’t think that Pandora will look good at all with a white hull.\u00a0 However, we do need to come up with an alternative as the dark hull color is tough to live with under the tropical sun and not only does it get hot down below, but the paint has not held up well since being painted less than five years ago.\u00a0 Additionally, a dark hull shows every scuff and scratch, much more than a light hull and with a boat that’s used as much as Pandora is, she has plenty of “battle scars”.<\/p>\n
Last winter, in Marigot St Lucia, we spied this lovely yacht Elfjie, owned by Wendy Schmidt, wife of Google’s chairman.\u00a0 \u00a0I mention this yacht as she’s painted a light grey, Columbia Grey, an unusual color for a yacht.\u00a0 Most large sailing yachts tend to be painted dark blue or black so she really stands out.\u00a0\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/IMG_9341.jpg\")
Here’s a shot of her with Pandora in the background.\u00a0 I wonder if in grey, Pandora would look like Elfjie in Columbia grey?\u00a0 Probably not\u00a0 but the color is\u00a0 still nice.\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/IMG_9378.jpg\")
The key will be to choose a color that will be light enough to stay fairly cool and yet still provide enough of a contrast to Pandora’s white decks to retain her sleek look.\u00a0 \u00a0We are thinking that medium grey might work.<\/p>\n
We’ll also want to revisit her name graphics which were designed for us years ago when we owned our last Pandora.\u00a0 \u00a0As this shot shows, or doesn’t, it’s hard to make out her name from any distance.\u00a0 There’s just not enough contrast and it looks fussy to me in any event.\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/7-31-16a-049.jpg\")
On “old” Pandora we had a drop shadow on the name and I’m thinking that we should loose that affectation on the new color hull.\u00a0 This is a number of options the designer suggested, shown on a grey background.\u00a0 Which do you like?\u00a0 None of the above?![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Pandora-logo-treatments.jpg\"){kind=logo}
One of the problems with graphics location and scale on the hull, is that we have a hefty rub-rail.\u00a0 That’s good for tangling with docks and pilings but not so great for fitting graphics.\u00a0 I am also wondering if we should have the graphics sized so that the “tail” on the D goes above the rub-rail.\u00a0 I also wonder about the “stars”.<\/p>\n
One reality is that the aft portion of the hull curves under the transom so putting the logo down lower may not work as well as these treatments might suggest.\u00a0 I plan on photographing the prep and painting process over the time she’s being worked on and will be posting photos of the progress.\u00a0 It will be nice to see the job progress without me doing the heavy lifting personally.<\/p>\n When she leaves the shed in late August the season here will be just about over so I sure hope that my next step won’t be to book winter storage in the northeast.<\/p>\n Well, as they say, “sometimes life gets in the way” and I guess all of that will just have to play out.<\/p>\n One way or the other, I’ll let you know…<\/p>\n P.S.\u00a0 Almost forgot.\u00a0 The reason that I am sitting around doing posts today and not working on that bath remodeling project is that yesterday when I was doing the demo and breaking up the cast iron tub with a sledge hammer, I was hit in the face by a good sized errant piece of cast iron, try 8″,\u00a0 that flew up after I slammed the sledge hammer on it.\u00a0 It struck me just under the right eye and gave me quite a cut, right down to the cheek bone.\u00a0 \u00a0 Good news, the bone didn’t break.<\/p>\n After a few hours visiting my doctor and then off to a plastic surgeon I’m all stitched up but it will be a week until I can resume my project.\u00a0 This delay, and it could have been a lot worse, will also keep me from dealing with Pandora’s mast removal.<\/p>\n When the surgeon asked me how it happened, and I told him, he said that I really needed to come up with a better story.\u00a0 Well, I could call it “domestic violence”, and yet another part of life that gets in the way, I guess.\u00a0 \u00a0So, more time for blog posts, for now…<\/p>\n Any ideas?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s about this time every year that I being thinking in earnest about what our cruising plans will be like for the coming winter season.\u00a0 In past years the question was easily answered as we had new areas to visit and a pretty clear idea of what the coming months would bring. So, as I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8988"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8998,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8988\/revisions\/8998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pandora-on-a-grey-hull.jpg\")
Well, there’s lots to think about as I prepare Pandora to head into the paint shed.\u00a0 The good news is that she will be there for about five weeks so there’s plenty of time to think about color and graphics.\u00a0 \u00a0As we think about the proper color of grey, I’d be interested in what color you’d choose.\u00a0 From our way of thinking, the lighter the better.\u00a0 We are also probably going to have them use a\u00a0 product called Alexseal<\/a>, it’s commonly used in large yachts as it is easier to fix scratches and dings than on a hull painted with Awlgrip.\u00a0 The bad news is that it’s not quite as hard a finish as Awlgrip.\u00a0 \u00a0 Here’s a link to the color chart<\/a>.<\/p>\n