Spring has Sprung... Right Into Summer Pt. 1

        "This heat has got right out of hand..."
                                        -Bananarama



    * I started writing this post on May 30th....how the HELL did it become the end of June????

      Spring has sprung...

      ...  and then  more Summer came along and kicked it's ass.

    Check this- May 13th, we had sun, rain and temps around 15 degrees on the c scale.
                        May 14th, we had 30 knot winds and 6 degree temps.
                        May 15th, we had snow on the Dock.

                       SNOW.

                       Note that I did not opt to do any boatwork on those days.  Nope, not me.  I had a list of things to do but...


                       I opted out.  I called it on account of weather.

       SWMBO and I got a lot done in the weeks prior to splash, including, new carpet, new foam for the cabin cushions, and a new Low-Buck swim platform...

Karma hit the water on the first Friday of May, one of our earliest launches ever....

...and  she promptly decided to start to sink.

I was toiling away at my day job, making local businesses locally famous, so SWMBO was supervising the launch solo.  As I was on my way to the boatyard, toiling completed, I received a cryptic text message:

"Water"

 Hmmm...
Is SWMBO thirsty?
Is  she telling me that the boat is now in the water?
Or...is she telling me that the water is now in the boat?

Then, I received another cryptic text message:

"Hurry"

So, I hurried.

I got to the yard, and spied SWMBO in Karma's cockpit, pumping away.  Turns out, "water" was , in deed, coming into the boat.... at a worrisome rate. "Hurry" was appropriate, as the sole was awash, and SWMBO was usunre where the water was coming from.  I hurried down the companionway ladder, tore open access panels,  checked the stuffing box (fine) and then the raw water strainer (decidedly unfine, water streaming from the top of the reservoir).

     I closed the seacock so the water stopped hurrying into the boat and  removed the strainer and found that the o-ring seal was no longer sealing.

    It's Friday, it's after 5, nothing is open that is going to have the part that will solve this problem.  As I was pondering the paucity of options, Skipper Andy wanders past, headed to Cyclone, docked at the Bridge yachts yard this season.  I yell, enquiring rather loudly whether he may have any sealant materials aboard.

   Turns out he does-  and it is appropriately named:

  a strip of caulk later, and we're back in business, leak free.

  Thanks, Skipper!!

   It turns out that the water strainer seal has likely been quietly leaking, unseen, for several years-   the strainer is located in a corner of the engine bay and the leak was  not visible.  But, that unseen unknown leak meant that we had to be vigilant to pump our smallish bilge ever 3-4 days.   Since  resealing, we now pump our bilge every 7- 10 days, with little to show for the effort.

  So, boat no longer sinking,  we fire up the trusty Yanmar YSM-8 and set off downriver and around the corner to the marina, and we survey what's new on the Dock.

   Turns out, quite a bit.

    More to come  in Pt. 2.



Thanks for stopping by.  Please "Talk the Dock!" and pass the word.

Toronto Boat Show 2013, Part 1: It was Fun.

"Four kids on the corner, trying to bring you up..."
                            -Creedence Clearwater Revival



  The opening riff of this post pretty much summed up the "Sail Fest" section of the Toronto International Boat Show this year.  More on that later.

   I've spent the last week or so working to organize my thoughts and impressions of the show this year, trying to separate the quantitative from the qualitative, sussing out feedback from other attendees, attempting to figure out whether my initial impressions of this year's Show are accurate.

   We had great fun with great friends who attended, but the mix of craft on display and the vendor mix in the Marketplace was... underwhelming.  Prices on (almost) everything were up.  In some cases WAY up.  More on that later, too.


   Somebody in the Show's head office must have lost their mind, because this year I was issued press credentials.

   Minor gripe:  Reading the back of the badge, it looks like the badge is also my ticket. Woohoo!  Free admission!

However, to get my badge I had to go to the Press Office...

Which is inside the Show, which requires a ticket to enter.

No biggie, SWMBO and I had already bought our tickets online.



 Friday night, Hilary and Deb and SWMBO and I checked into the Westin, and Saturday morning offered us a spectacular view:

  After a quick breakfast, we caught the shuttle bus to the Show.

 I snapped a shot as we walked in the gate, to try to capture  the scope of the event:

   I got about half of one building in this shot.  There are still two more buildings and a hockey arena converted to an indoor lake.  It is a BIG show, area-wise.

   The first impression I had when we entered was that there were fewer seven-figure big pimpin' moneyboats than last year. In past years,  there were always a half dozen or more  50+ foot power cruisers in the center of the room.  This year it looked like the number had been cut in half.  Still, there were some interesting big boats, like this hardtop express:

 


  While the hedge-fund and gold chain crowd was underserved, it seems like there were a slew more wakeboats and  pontoon boats than in years past.  Some ideas stood out, like this pontoon boat manufacturer who seems to understand the best uses for a pontoon boat:

  A floating bar!

And...

  A floating waterpark!

Some of the wakeboard boats were beautifully finished:

  with bow styling that looks familiar...

   Where have I seen that before?

   Ah!  I remember!  Bertone did it in 1953.

     While some wakeboat styling cues worked well,
others... maybe not so much.

 MasterCraft  had a large display of boats, and I noticed that they sported the mother of all wakeboard towers.








Look at that bad boy!  Cast, jointed, cantilevered and articulated!  Hell, it even has a shock on each side!  Now THAT is bad ass!

  "Er, why?" some of you might be asking.

   I wondered too, so I asked one of the MasterCraft reps what the shocks actually did.

  "They make it easier to raise and lower the tower for storage and transport."
 
    That's it.

  Looks trick, though.


     One of the better changes at the show this year was that the large sailboats were all accessed from one platform.

     That's the good news.

     The bad news is that this was possible because there were fewer large sailboats this year.

     And fewer midsize sailboats this year.

     And fewer small sailboats this year.

     Fewer boats, by fewer manufacturers, represented by fewer dealers.

     Sigh.

   
  This pic captured almost  half of the 30'+ LOA sailboats on display.

   Hunter, Beneteau, Jeanneau, Bavaria, J Boats, Hanse, Dufour and TES all had boats on display, but Catalina really came out to play, with a full handful of boats available for a walk through.

This year there were no powersailers.  No McGregor 26M, no Hunter Edge.  That may be good news or bad news, depending upon your point of view.  Frankly, I figure fewer boats of any sort is bad news.

Some hits and misses from the sailboats on display:

Hit:
Bavaria's stern rail cushions, as demonstrated by Deb:

Hit:
Catalina's cavernous cockpit lockers, and the clever trashbin access:

 Miss:
  Dufour  445 chartplotter location:

 
    Impossible to see from the wheel.  Because Catalina got it right, and because of the quality of the brightwork finish, Catalina gets a...

   Hit:
     Catalina 445 cockpit stack:

     The cockpit table sports the best brightwork finish I have ever seen on a production boat, the chartplotter is well located and it's nice to see somebody put the engine instruments in front of the helm, but not at the front of the cockpit!

Hit/Miss:

Catalina 445 hard-top dodger:

    I like the idea of a hard top dodger, and the handholds are well integrated, however the hardtop's curve is just a little too bowed compared to the cabinhouse top, and the whole thing a few inches too tall to really integrate well with the rest of the boat.

   Still, it's a hell of a package if you've got near on $400 000 to spend.

  Hit:
   Hanse 445 cockpit cushions:

 

    Miss:
      Gemini Catamarans.
     Gemini had a broker, pamphlets and a video on a small TV to show off their new Legacy catamaran.  I know the companyy has seen some upheaval recently, but come on,  this is not how to debut a new boat.

 For the first time in years there was no cruising catamaran at the show.


Stay tuned for our next exciting adventure, as we pick up the pace and go shopping!



"Talk the Dock!"

Squared Away

     "Baby, everything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight..."
                                                                   -Stevie Wonder




     Confession time:

     I am a slob...

    ...On the hard.

     In our dirt-home, my desk is a mess, I have a stack of books teetering on my bedside table, and the floor of my car is carpeted with receipts, napkins and bagel wrappers...  straight-up Oscar Madison.

   ... All of which I cannot stand onboard.  When I step onto the Dock, I turn into a compulsive neatnik. Everything on our boats has a place, and if it doesn't have a place then a) it leaves the boat in shame or b) I build a place for it, and then that thing had better be in it's damn place, dammit!  I become Felix Unger in Topsiders.

   (Hey, I think I may have discovered a new psychological ailment-  Nautical Unger-Madison Disorder.  I wonder if I can get a grant to do a long-term study?)

    Therefore, it is not enough to simply have a boat in the water and sails on the spars.  Nay, nay, we are not ready to sail until everything that came off the boat in the fall is loaded back onto the boat, back into it's designated spot, or the new spot created for it, or off-loaded when it is realized that it is redundant.  Said redundant item will then be reloaded again as a "spare"  to be off-loaded again later in the season when it is realized that is is, indeed, well and truly redundant...
    ... Which is usually three days before  I will suddenly find a use for it.  Right now.  In the middle of the lake.

     Maybe my nautical neatness fetish developed from a subconcious belief that lives may depend on it, but I don't think it is really that deep.  Instead I think the fastidious fixation is directly related to the diminutive quarters aboard our boats.  I can be a slob on the dirt, where there is the room to step around things, and I can close the door on clutter when guests arrive at stately Jones manor.  Those luxuries do not exist on the Dock.  The main cabin of Whiskeyjack, for example,  is all of 6' wide by 6' in length. In that 36 square feet is packed a galley, a berth and a dinette that seats 3-4, the space functioning as kitchen, bar, navigation station, dining room, living room, game room, closet and kennel, often simultaneously.  If one is constantly having to move items to get to other items, or if items move of their own volition when the boat leaves level, one's enjoyment of one's nautical home diminishes rapidly.
    In other words, if you are going to be a slob, size matters.

     Sunday dawned grey and damp, but by noon the sun had broken through and the humidity had started to climb. The grass needed mowing (again),  the gardens needed weeding (again), the house could use a vaccuuming (again),   but the boat needed to be rigged and loaded.  I discussed it with SWMBO, and the decision was made to flip a coin.  Heads we do house crap, tails we head to the Dock.

     We were already gathering sailbags and cushions before the coin hit the floor.

SWMBO and I filled Lady Liberty from windshield to hatch, floor to ceiling  with boatstuffs and headed to the Dock.   A few hours later, with storm clouds threatening and thunder rolling in the distance, we relaxed in our squared away surroundings.

   During the last couple of rainy days, SWMBO had been toiling over a set of fitted sheets for the v-berth, and was now able to nap-test her efforts:

    (btw, SWMBO has dubbed the v-berth, with her ever-apt logic, the "nap station."  After all, if a boat has a nav station which is used for navigation, then shouldn't the place where one snoozes also have a moniker?)

   I survey the salon and call it good.

    The low-buck spice rack has been repurposed as a low-buck binoc rack, and needs to be installed, but as the cabin stands now, nothing is going to crash from gunwale to gunwale on a 20 degree heel.

  The cheap magnetic spice rack, seen above, fit the space better.

     It's a fine line indeed  between "cramped" and "cozy,"  but I think we're staying on the right side of it.



    Thanks for taking the time to check us out.  Feel free to "Talk the Dock!"  Link us, follow us, or simply tell your friends.

Dock Six 2011 Starting Lineup Announced!

     "Well, beat the drum and hold the phone, the sun came out today!"
                                                                                      -John Fogerty






      As the Dock's Opening Day nears (16 more sleeps!), this season's roster is firming up, subject to last minute contract negotiations and/or trades.  After last year's stellar season, culminating in a solid run of weather through Halloween,  this year's  Dock Six team  shows some serious staying power, with veterans returning and some promising new talent  filling key positions.  It looks like we might be able to take it all the way again this year!

     Jim and Jill have been tweaking "Carpe Diem",  getting ready to lap the bases, Jim and Marianne have been spending a lot of time in the bullpen with "Cranky",  James assures us that "George Too" will be hitting for the fence as usual...with less time on the DL than last season.  Our switch hitter Jack is on the bench, but so far hasn't revealed which bat he is going to swing. Gavin and Sylvia are pitching and catching on "Persephone" (ahem), and Hilary will once again be our utility man in the outfield.  Last years rookie, Jordan, looks to be seasoning into a solid designated hitter with Saphira, while "Whiskeyjack" is going to imporve over last year's record stats and "Legacy" will pinch hit.

    Roster changes:  Steve has been traded to the American League.  He'll be sailing out of Erie, but "Drifter" might remain on the Dock, leaving the possibility open for a mid-season trade.   Called up from the Pittock Lake minors is solid prospect Eric with his DS 20, "After School":

     Welcome aboard, "School's Out"!

       There are a number of seats still open- hopefully we'll have a solid bench before the All-Star break.  As the players are announced, you'll get all the stats and positions here.  Stay tuned.






     Thanks for taking the time to join us, and I hope you had fun.  Please feel free to "Talk the Dock"- follow us, link us, and pass us along to your friends.