Plastic Classic Forum

Well now. This tends to put a bit of a damper on spring preparation plans.

April 5, 2007

You said it. I think it was several inches here in Montreal last night. It's not melting very fast this morning, either.

3/8 of a yard in my yard in Portland. (13.5 inches!) Edit: I just heard that the official total for Portland was 14 inches. Not very often that the official total matches so closely to what I actually see in my yard.

We got it to.... not to the extent that you guys did, but we still woke up with ^%$#@!# snow on the ground. YUK!

It's supposed to get into the 30's here tonight. That's nuts.

No snow here, but enough of a damp cold wind that my mast assembly yesterday only made it as far as the anemometer cable and the jumpers before I came to my senses and retired to indoor pursuits.
A lot of boats with covers still down at the 'yard. By appearances, one would never guess that the first launch is two weeks away.

Gee - I had to mow my knee high grass yesterday...

The joys of living in "The Great White North"...

Earlier in the week I was glassing over the engine beds and the temperature under the tarp was 92 degrees. It was a lot of material to put down and I had to work fast! A few days later, 20 degrees and we have a dusting of snow which is sort of rare for Virginia this time of year.

Spring takes another hit.

Only 5-6" this time; things are looking up.

April 13, 2007

This weather is seriously hindering preparations for a May 11 launch.

National Weather Service wrote:434 AM EDT FRI APR 13 2007

...A POTENTIAL MAJOR COASTAL STORM MAY AFFECT THE ENTIRE AREA
SUNDAY THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK...

LATEST INDICATIONS ARE SHOWING A GROWING POTENTIAL FOR A MAJOR
NOREASTER TO DEVELOP AND INTENSIFY ALONG OR OFF THE MID ATLANTIC
COAST ON SUNDAY AND THEN STALL OFF THE SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND COAST
EARLY NEXT WEEK.

IF THIS OCCURS THE POTENTIAL FOR COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF SNOW OR RAIN
EXIST. VERY STRONG WINDS WOULD ALSO ACCOMPANY THIS STORM.

ALONG THE COAST COASTAL FLOODING AND BEACH EROSION MAY OCCUR DUE
TO THE POTENTIAL COMBINATION OF STRONG ONSHORE WINDS AND
ASTRONOMICAL HIGH TIDES EARLY NEXT WEEK.

MARINERS SHOULD ALSO TAKE NOTE AND BE PREPARED TO HEAD TO PORT AND
TAKE THE APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS.

THIS IS A STORM THAT WILL NEED TO BE MONITORED VERY CLOSELY DUE TO
ITS POTENTIAL SIZE AND INTENSITY. ALL INTERESTS ARE ADVISED TO
KEEP ABREAST OF THE LATEST STATEMENTS ON THIS DEVELOPING SITUATION
SINCE IT IS STILL SEVERAL DAYS AWAY.

This weather is seriously hindering preparations for an April 20 launch!

Shed or no shed, bad painting weather is bad painting weather and I still have primed patches on my topsides. Weather for the next week will be consistently cool and damp. Fan-freakin-tastic.

I've probably said it before, but now I'm saying it again. I've lost my tolerance for this "discounted price, but you MUST launch on this day" system. This supposedly laid-back "hobby" becomes the most stressful thing in my life for 6 weeks of the year.
I think next year I may winter at a yard that hauls and launches at (something approximating) my convenience.

Figment wrote:I've lost my tolerance for this "discounted price, but you MUST launch on this day" system. This supposedly laid-back "hobby" becomes the most stressful thing in my life for 6 weeks of the year.

I've often wondered why you always had these really early launch dates planned!

You're on your own property...why can't you schedule a truck anytime you want? Discounts aren't worth it if the timing isn't good.

Yes, I CAN schedule the launch any time I want, but the costs double or triple.... yeah, roughly on level with what the cost would be at a pretty nice normal travelift yard.

Brownell doesn't run empty from Mattapoisett for free, of course. If I go when they're in town to do the other deep-draft boats of the club, the deadhead fee gets split between 6 or 8 of us, and it works out to be a very economical deal. If all you're doing is storing for the winter and refreshing the bottom paint in the spring, it's a no-brainer.
For the past two years I've had to wave-off the club launch day. The Brownell folks are fantastic to deal with and were kind enough to alert me when they were passing through town on the way to or from another load (albeit weeks or months later) so that they didn't have to spank me with the full force of the deadhead fee, but it still cost plenty.

Of course this unpleasant situation is entirely of my own creation. I've no one to blame but myself, so of course I'm jumping at the opportunity to blame mother nature!

Is Brownell the only game in town? Up here we have scores of independant haulers... Competition = good!

They're the only game I'm willing to consider. They've totally spoiled me and ruined me for any future competition.

Most of the haulers around here are oriented to the "express cruiser" crowd. There are only two semi-locals (that I'm aware of) with swimming trailers that can accommodate a 4' draft, and they're still on the steep part of the learning curve when it comes to sailboat hullforms.

Brownell also brings the crane truck, so the stepping of the mast is hassle-free. Otherwise I need to float the mast on two dinghies (yes, a sight to behold) upriver to the nearest crane, which is yet more expense, etc.

Figment wrote:I think next year I may winter at a yard that hauls and launches at (something approximating) my convenience.

Heaven help you if you are blocking someone who needs to go in before you. Usually the yards will try and schedule this in advance, but most yards will charge you extra to move you again.

This usually happens when in the fall, one is optomistic in how quickly the winter worklist will go, the schedule is trashed by the weather, and the guy in front with the double-wide houseboat has slapped on his bottom paint during the last snowstorm and wants you to move so he can launch on time.

Figment wrote:I've no one to blame but myself, so of course I'm jumping at the opportunity to blame mother nature!

So what we haven't actually heard directly of late is whether you're going to be ready for your launch date later this week.

Well, I just drilled a new 2" hole in the bottom yesterday. What does that tell you?

(sink drain seacock just arrived Friday)

She'll be ready to FLOAT, but that's about it.
Coamings won't be on, so can't really go sailing. That's ok because the new main won't be ready for a couple of weeks yet. That's ok because I assume I'll need to do a bit of engine tuning after all the odd bits I've done to it over the winter.
And that's all really ok because I haven't yet installed the lids on the cockpit lockers.

I DID however manage to paint those topsides patches in the surprisingly good weather yesterday. Preval sprayer rocks. Only problem now is that these patches look better than the rest of the hull!

I also managed to convince myself that the latest coat on the new bootstripe could serve as the Final Coat, which removes a big weather-dependent chunk of "create no dust" time from the work schedule.

The list for today is short but meaningful.
1. Install aforementioned seacock. Yes, perfectly flush and fair. I make nothing easy.
2. Test-fire engine. I am SERIOUSLY curious to hear the Waterlift Difference.

Is Brownell the only game in town?

They're the only game I'm willing to consider. They've totally spoiled me and ruined me for any future competition.

Fig, I have a suggestion for you, you could launch wherever you want whenever you want:

http://www.brownellboattrailers.com

or you could move to mattapoisett

We sure could use a little snow around here. It's been at least four days now, and I'm starting to see a little bare ground...

:-P

Ceasar Choppy wrote: Heaven help you if you are blocking someone who needs to go in before you.

Something occurred to me. Is that Dasein blocked in behind Glissando?
That's one way to ensure that you have a helper for spring commissioning work!

Figment wrote:Something occurred to me. Is that Dasein blocked in behind Glissando?

No, that's Dorothy G behind.

So, Tim, nathan

How bad was the storm. NECN paints a bit of a horror story - did you get rain or snow, or a mix ?

Hope you and your families are OK.

Indeed.
Yesterday in the boatshed, with the incredible noise of the rain and wind, and a river of water flowing across the back corner, it did cross my mind to be thankful that this one storm was NOT snow at my latitude.

The Tardy Winter. Sounds like a John Irving novel. Tim could be the bear.

I think it depends where you were.

This was a coastal storm, so naturally the coast received the brunt of the winds. The winds on the coast in southern and midcoast Maine were brutal--I saw 81 knots recorded in one place--and there has been a lot of wind and water-related damage in those areas--building damage, trees and power lines down, road flooding, and wave damage at some exposed coastal communities. Nothing we haven't seen before, not that we like it.

Some boats wintering at marinas in Portland sank, and I'm sure there was other damage that didn't make the news. Considering the best-protected marina in Portland was the one with the newsworthy sunk boats, I expect that there were other issues at the other marinas, all of which are less protected.

Here in Whitefield, about 30+ miles from the coast, we had strong, gusty winds and heavy rain, but nothing like those seen on the coast.

I can't speak for anywhere but here, but we lost power at 4AM yesterday, but it was back on before 5AM--just in time to get up--and has remained on since. There are a lot of power outages on the southern coast, though. The shop was warm and dry and relatively quiet, since it's sheltered from the worst winds in this case. The boats outside faired just fine, though with the soft ground the tent stakes holding the tarps tended to pull out. But the tarps stayed on with no problems. It was a normal workday for me.

We started with a bit of snow (1/2") Sunday evening, but it quickly changed to rain.

The storm was significant and plenty bad, but the media will make it look even worse than it was, as they always do. We're pretty hardy and self-sufficient up here, and things are--and will be--just fine. I'm not aware of any particularly widespread tragic circumstances caused by this storm. Things will be back to normal quickly.

I don't mean to minimize the effect that this might have had on anyone who suffered damage or lost something, but in general the situation is not particularly dire, and people here are proactive and prone to helping each other, and don't sit around whining about their bad luck and waiting for help.

Here along the coast, this was probably one of the worst storms we've seen in a very long time in terms of wind-ralated issues. It was extrememly windy (for the region) here with sustained winds in 40s and regular gusts to the 50s and 60s for about 18 hours, I guess. Tons of downed limbs and whole trees (the ground was already saturated, then add the heavy rain and strong winds...)

Widespread coastal power outages and flooding both of the rivers and streams due to the 5-6 inches of rain plus the esnuing rapid snow melt as well as coastal flooding due to relatively high astronimical tides plus storm surge. The local B and C bouys just outside the islands in Casco Bay were reporting 25 foot seas.

I've been without power since sometime yesterday (we weren't here when it went out) and it's still out today (thankfully, the coffee shop has power! I'd be mighty cranky otherwise). The power company is reporting something in the neighborhood of 100K outages, which isn't the worst we've seen in this state, but its fairly significant. They expect it will be several days before power is fully restored.

I'd say this storm was at least on par with the the hurricanes that have come through in my lifetime (Bob, and Gloria, notably) if not a bit worse.

That said, it was nothing compared to, say, a full-fledged hurricane. And Tim's right: even though it was bad (and much worse here on the coast than he saw in Whitefield) you would think it was Katrina up here to listen to the stupid news anchors.

but in general the situation is not particularly dire, and people here are proactive and prone to helping each other, and don't sit around whining about their bad luck and waiting for help.

That must be nice.

you would think it was Katrina up here to listen to the stupid news anchors.

If you go looting, could you pick me up some spin sheets and maybe some shackles?

--In all seriousness, that's some wild weather. I'm glad to hear that none of you sustained major damage.

Sadly, I missed the best looting hours.

Update: 4 boats sank at the marina, not two.

I followed the storm via posts and messages from sailors all the way from Belize through the Bahamas, Florida, NYC, and now Maine. Pretty neat, made it more bearable, and I'm glad to hear things weren't as bad as they might have been.

Figment wrote:...it did cross my mind to be thankful that this one storm was NOT snow at my latitude.

But it's snowing again here in Montreal this morning, which makes it the fourth of fifth day it has snowed in the past week. If they can put floats on planes, maybe I can put skiis on my boat?

dasein668 wrote:Update: 4 boats sank at the marina, not two.

Ah ! Salvage material, I'll expect to see them outside Tims shop within the week.


Seriously though, that's too bad, boats can be such an emotonal tie.

Spring - GRRRRR

I have water in my basement again. My yard is well graded but the soil is so wet it seems to be forcing itself in between the concrete 'walls' and the concrete "slab". Its a 10ft section of wall behind my ood rack. In fact I found some caulk type material at the join so it must have been a DPO problem too.

I am torn between opening up the seam and stuffing it with hydraulic cement and cutting a french drain on the inside of the basement wall and filling with gravel and then ltting the bilge pump (sorry - sump pump) handle it.

I think I am tempted to the latter.

Spring - AAAAHHHHHHHHH

Gotta love an overnight 40-degree temperature swing.
I still have the sun and windburn from launch day, and today was the day to swap the soft-top back onto the jeep. and then drive around topless.

Love it.

(of course, I have no basement. all neighbors with basements are still pumping)

::sigh::

Well, I finally got the cover off the boat. However there was a nasty gift from the big Northeaster we just had waiting for me when I got on board.



So, ripping out the old cabin sole and replacing with new is now on the docket for spring.

More info at dasein668.com

Are you nuts?
You don't think you can get it clean and dry enough to get you through the summer at least?

Bummer Nathan! I was fortunate enough to make it through without any water, but Spring had another surprise for me. I was greeted by a huge mess when I went below - and a family of squirrels. When making her nest, the mother chewed some access panels, t-shirt rags, plastic bags, anything that was down there, and in the process dragged my oil changing kit across the cabin - not sure why she wanted that! But what a mess!

She's probably pumping milk.
Squirrels want all the conveniences of modern life these days!

Figment wrote:Are you nuts?
You don't think you can get it clean and dry enough to get you through the summer at least?

Nuts? Yes.

As to your other question, I don't really want to even try. Some of the laminate came up, and the thing is completely saturated with nasty oily bilge-ness. I'm not sure where it came from, but there must have been 2 or 3 ounces or more of dielsel and/or oil mixed in with the water. Yuck.

The sole was already so spongy under foot that I was afraid I'd go through it sometimes. It's tiime to just get it out. Even if I budget a full day to remove, a full day to install the floors, two full days to install the plywood and planking, and a full day of extra, that's only a week.

Nooooo problem! ;-P

Besides, I know myself: if I can get it "good enough" for the summer, it'll probably stay there for two or three more years. Best to just be done with it!

I'd like to state for the official record that I had absolutely nothing to do with Nathan's decision to remove the cabin sole. I hereby absolve myself publicly of all blame, should an attempt be made in the future to somehow implicate me. (Not that such a thing is beyond me, of course.)

That said, I quickly became head cheerleader for the project. Nathan deserves a nice cabin sole now, and this offers as good an excuse as he's ever likely to have!

dasein668 wrote:Besides, I know myself: if I can get it "good enough" for the summer, it'll probably stay there for two or three more years.

Kind of like your icebox...?

Tim wrote:Kind of like your icebox...?

I told you to go ahead and finish it if it bothers you so much!

Gee, any chance my bilge might be bothering you too? If so...