Commander #65 "Lucky Dawg"

[commanderpete]

Sounds like you're well on the way Kyle.

If you sign up for Netflix, they have a number of sailing DVDs. There is a 5 disc set of the Annapolis Book of Seamanship. One disc is on heavy weather.

There is another disc called "Sailing in Heavy Weather" that was pretty good.

I've watched all of the boating videos on Netflix. Most of them are really bad, truly awful. But, it's something to do over the Winter

[Lucky Dawg]

Thanks Man. I appreciate the encouragement. Great idea re the videos. I'll need a fix... or twelve over the winter on the hard.
Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased that LD is more competent than I. Just want to do her proud - sinking her would not do so! It might be something about my psyche and limits in general - I felt compelled to run several Half Iron Man races in college - mostly out of curiosity. Was just curious about what my limits were (I discovered them.) I seem to need to know ranges to get a good feel for things. Monday of this week being one of them... 8-10s will be a limit at/above which I'll defer to the little lake for a while!
On a related note, reading Treacherous Waters - Tom Lochhaas, ed. http://mhprofessional.com/product.ph...at=&promocode= Before I buy the farm, I may need to sail the Screaming 50's - with a learned companion...

[Lucky Dawg]

Tried again today to sail LD south to Grand Haven for storage. Terrific sail, but big waves from WSW made for an exhilarating sail into and away from them, but notsomuch headed south with biggun's from abeam. Bagged the 12 miles southward for another day. I must say, she's a great little surfer! 37* sailing is better than no sailing.

Upon my return to Torresen's, by chance, I'm lined up with a couple kissin' cousins, I think. The first is an O'Day Tempest - hump on the lazarette being the give-away. I think the second is a Rhodes, but I'm not sure of the make, and LD is next. A couple nice old gals in a row. Not sure how their genes intermingle, but they certainly seem related.

Lucky Dawg is one of 4 boats left in the water. If she can't make it south this weekend, after what will be the 5th attempt, I'm taking the hint and keeping her where she is.

[Lucky Dawg]

Caught the Dawgs live in Athens last weekend. Nothing like 4th row seats and 92,746 screaming Georgia Bulldogs sharing a beautiful Athens afternoon.

Segue being, Lucky Dawg's namesake and doppelganger...

[Lucky Dawg]

Delivered LD to Grand Haven finally yesterday. Sailed out in a cool ice fog. Picture below from shore - you can just make out the Muskegon Lighthouse in the lower left corner. Light wind on my nose for most of the trip made for a slow go of it, but it was a beautiful day.

Passed my father-in-law in his little Hatteras dingy making the reverse transit to his winter storage - that's usually part of son-in-law duty, but I was otherwise occupied. Res Ispa ain't got nothin' on the Dawg... except another 38 tons of displacement. Luckily he didn't nail the twin 650 diesels till well astern.

[Lucky Dawg]

I'd asked some time ago if anyone knew what exactly about a green painted boat (or blue too apparently) was unlucky...

Answer to my own question from http://www.answers.com/topic/unlucky-colors:

Old superstition limits choice of boat colors

Superstition has always played a large role in sailors’ lives, and no doubt always will. There is still so much about the sea, its moods, and its inhabitants that is unexplained or incomprehensible that even today it would seem foolish, if not irresponsible, to ignore the superstitious practices of our forebears. That’s why it’s considered unlucky to paint a boat blue or green, the colors of the sea. In ancient times, boats were believed to have their own souls (inherited, incidentally, from human sacrifices) and could not presume to identify themselves with the sea or any of the gods who managed its affairs. Punishment would surely follow any boat discovered to have been masquerading under false colors. Modern skeptics will no doubt scoff at such patent nonsense, but there will always be many sailors who will abide by old superstitions—if only to quell those primordial feelings of un-ease. And why not? Sailors need all the luck they can get at sea, and heeding the time-honored warnings of yore seems a reasonably convenient way to earn it— and score points for the black box.See also Black Box Theory; Figureheads; Sailing on Friday; Unlucky Names.

On a similar note, hopefully "Lucky" Dawg isn't causing ire in the depths:

"Beware of naming your boat after fearsome creatures

Just as there are unlucky colors, there are also unlucky names for boats. A vessel with a name that is too presumptuous has long been believed to attract bad luck. Presumptuous names are those that challenge the sea or the wind, especially those that boast about beating the elements and surviving their meanest blows. To call a boat Sea Conqueror or Hurricane Tamer is to tempt the fates. The gods of the wind and sea are all-powerful, and they like boat names to be suitably humble. You may recall from Greek mythology that the most important of the Titans, the vengeful Kronos, cut off his father’s genitals with a sickle and threw them into the sea. You can probably imagine how Neptune, god the sea, felt about that. Yet, in 1912, the British White Star steamship company was foolish enough to name its new Atlantic liner Titanic. Not only that, but it claimed she was unsinkable, and it launched her without a proper naming ceremony, thus depriving the gods of their share of the usual libation. Little wonder she was doomed. In the 2001 edition of The Mariner’s Book of Days, author Peter Spectre says the all-time favorite names for ships are Mary and Elizabeth. He warns that to avoid bad luck, you shouldn’t name a vessel after any of the following:

• storms: Hurricane, Gale, Cyclone
• fearsome creatures of the deep: Kraken, Octopus, Serpent
• cataclysms: Quake, Eruption, Big Bang
• evil characters: Judas, Brutus, Pilate

[Lucky Dawg]

Lucky Dawg has new crew! Please welcome Lucas Irwin Williams! Born 3/5/08.

8lbs and 3oz of future Commander sailor.

[ebb]

Can already tell Luca's got a great sense of humor...
may yer wee swob grow up to love sailing!

[commanderpete]

He'll be a sailor in no time

[Lucky Dawg]

Projects in the hopper - I'm at about 60% on the skill-cluelessness coefficients for all of them:

• re-glassing the hole I drilled in the keel at haul-out
  (this one I understand pretty completely)
• electric and manual bilge pump system
  (I have some drawings and have read a lot here about this. I'm investigating how the actual pump stays secure at the bottom of the bilge. Cutting any holes in the boat makes me nervous. Cutting the holes before I splash seems to make more safety-sense. Wish me luck)
• sealing leaky cabin windows
  (I am certain that the fix for this is on these pages. The dribbling leaks continually threaten my dashing interior cushions with mold and that isn't good.)
• fixing the two spots pictured in post #33 http://pearsonariel.org/discussion/s...8&postcount=33
  (I am a little leery on grinding/sanding these - but looking at others' overhauls points out the fact that anything can be repaired with fiberglass work. How deep, how wide, how to rematch, etc. Again the answer is here or in Don Casey literature on the shelf. The crazing evident in the pictures is fairly widespread. I'll need to figure out if that is a repainting issue or a sand the whole deck issue...)
• wiring upgrades
  (greater battery capacity, hardwired GPS, stereo, etc. AA batteries are a pain and not very environmentally sensitive. I ordered Casey's electrical systems book over the winter, but it doesn't address outboard systems - clearly anyway. I imagine I can interpolate battery issues for inboards to outboard uses.)

I am only telling you this for some external accountability to get busy! So, I am setting about making a project-completion plan and reading lots of old posts.

(p.s. After all this time, I just noticed that there is a spell-check option here. Mark Twain said something along the lines of "I can't respect a man who can't spell any word at least three different ways." Mr. Twain would have a lot of respect for me.)

[mbd]

[*]electric and manual bilge pump system
(I have some drawings and have read a lot here about this. I'm investigating how the actual pump stays secure at the bottom of the bilge.)

Kyle, my bilge pump is screwed to a small board wrapped in lead to keep it on the bottom. I like this setup because I can pull the whole mess up and out to work on it when the bilge pump starts having fits.

[Lucky Dawg]

Great thought. I had imagined sticking it down with epoxy or wedging a board in. Does the lead wrapped board deteriorate sloshing around in the bilge water?

[mbd]

Yeah, but it's removed each season and in and out of there a lot during the season, so there are plenty of opportunities to inspect it.

All you'd really need is something to attach the pump to and heavy enough to sink it. I wonder what the smart guys/gals on the forum do with theirs? I suppose the search button would turn up a lot of alternatives, but I'm at work, so I suppose I should get back to it.

[Westgate]

Kyle,

On Arthur we have a manual pump who's hose goes to the deepest part of the bilge just aft of the keel void. I pump this out by hand when needed which up to now has only been after the ice melt from the fridge has drained out. It is a Titan whale gusher and can really move a lot of water in a hurry. Just to see what it could do I filled the bilge up with water and had it pumped dry in under two minutes.

http://images.westmarine.com/full/03525_f.jpg

We also have an electric bilge pump (Rule 2000 I think) mounted into the floor of the bilge using 3/16" SS screws. It sits below the sole access panel closest to the companionway. Does a Commander have two access hatches? The glass is thick enough there that 3/16" does not penetrate through and beside all you would go into would be the keel void which is dry as a bone right . Remember to mount the switch higher than the pump which is easy since the bilge floor slopes up fast right there.

I like this system because the electric pump stays high and dry 99% of the time but is there if needed. It is also easy to get to for inspection and cleaning. I have not measured exactly how much water has to be present to turn the bilge pump on but I ran a hose into the bilge after initial set up and I took a minute or two to "fill" the aft bilge to the turn on level. Some say you need two pumps, some more. I think that the important thing is to have at least one manual and one electric and of course one bucket .


Sounds like your windows need rebedding. We did it last year and it was a messy but straight forward job. Took all day to do the first two but an hour to do the last two! We bought a big 'ol piece of 1/2" Lexan from the local glass house and I cut the panes using the old ones as templates. I cut them out over-sized and did final shaping using my table top sander. Follow Lackey's advice and use longer screws and nuts during the initial set-up. Makes life a lot easier. I recommend using butyl I got mine at ACE. If you have time fill in the void between the inner and outer skins using the techniques described by Ebb. Makes for a tigher, cleaner final product. I remember the hardest part of the job was cleaning all the junk (Silicon 5200 buytl) off the old frames. Finally ended up using a wire wheel on my drill. Took it off pretty fast

Andrew

[Lucky Dawg]

Thanks Andrew. Great info. My bilge system - like you describe on Arthur - is based on the recommendations in the extensive bilge discussion at http://pearsonariel.org/discussion/s...ighlight=bilge

And I think there is a "Silicone is Pure Evil" (!) discussion too.

I'm similar to you - dreadfully slow start (all day for the first pair, and two hours for the other), and once I figure it out it seems like cake. Just have to get my hands in it. Kinesthetic learning I think they call it. I want to come hang out with some of you and watch your handywork!