I've been slacking off of late so I better got on it with some more fascinating stuff for you. After all these years I know that if it interests me it interests you.
Kathy O sent this one to me, it needs no explanation, this guys has his priorities right. This looks like Pat and Risa's triple.
Some of you know the funny looking white fuzzy faced guy, Gary Cull. The other funny looking dark fuzzy faced guy is his son, Brian and they're standing on the pointy back end of a hull of Brian's 40 foot Wharram catamaran. This doesn't strike me as a good place to steer a boat from but what do I know.
Here's the same boat with a trained monkey up the mast; actually I think it's Brian's boss up there. He's probably a brilliant and reasonable guy but he was with the Cull boys when I met him so he seemed as nutty as they are. I think the story is that Brian's going to quit his good job and sail off around the world or at least to the Bahamas.
My fast commuter, "Lurlyne" isn't back in the water yet but soon so I needed to give Helen Marie her once a year fill up. I loaded up a bunch of wild Philadelphia people (Rosie and girlfriend) and Phil and headed out for the fuel dock and water front bar. Steve and Kayak Kathy weren't interested in a slow trip so they took his little 14 ft skiff and met us there. Kathy took this picture of the sunset the way it's suppose to be seen.
Kathy and Lance, you can see the kind of people I seem to attract; I'm the only normal one in the bunch. That's a scary thought isn't it?
For all of you who want to get an old boat and fix it up let this be a lesson to you. Johnny Mack should have known better but any of us would have been fooled by this one. Nice looking boat isn't it.
Look what was under the floor. 30 year old water logged foam and rotten wooden stringers. Closed cell foam is about 97% water proof but after that long being constantly wet that other 3% will catch up. This wasn't even the worst part he says; the wood inside of the aluminum transom was as bad as this stuff and to get to any of it he had to take the whole boat apart. He tells me that he's right at the point where selling it as clean scrap alum is looking pretty good.
John also warned me about some problems he was having with the new EPA mandated fuel vent system. It's basically a one way vent, it lets air in but not out till the pressure in the tank exceeds something like 5 pounds; makes for some funny looking tanks and problems. Howard had just put new fuel lines on his boat and this is what you get, as well as the new universal tank fitting. On the first trip out with this new system the motor stalled under a bridge in a strong current and got slammed into the pilings. The motor wouldn't restart till the cap was loosened and the pressure released. I can't say for sure that this new vent was the culprit, maybe the sea gods just wanted to screw with him for using bad language.
Irwin Schuster took this picture at the New Bedford whaling museum of a Portuguese sail boat. He offers no explanation for the sail arrangement. It's just as fine looking a boat as John Eastman's steam launch isn't it.
Richard up in Apollo Beach says that this is a Sneak Box; looks more like a gold mine mock up to practice in or a covered race track. The creeper is the only way he can get in underneath the deck to work. I think it's going to have a cabin and head and motor. I really have to see this one finished to have any idea of what he's thinking of or what it'll look like. I introduced Richard to Washington Dan up in AlmostCanada and they have become pin palls comparing the strange stuff they come up with.
Here's a picture of Gene's old, old Windjammer that we rescued from becoming part of a landscape nursery. I've found a good home for it in Charleston S. C. with Capt Dave Jackson. He once had a boat like this and is really interested in restoring it back it's glory. I bet it looks great with it's topsail up and pulling.
This is a utube video that Barry Long made of a sailing trip he took in the Chesapeake Bay.
And here's some shots that Simon Lew got down in Pine Island Sound with the trailer sailors.
One more of some old timers singing God Bless America.
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