Far too often I read about people who buy boats, fix them up, and lose touch with common sense so the project becomes a quest for yacht perfection or, as we call it here on "So It Goes", building a shrine.
Fact is, seagoing shrines are somewhat problematic as well as expensive. We're more about good enough and functional because it's always worked for us.
I mention this because I have to buy some stainless steel for a new windvane. I was recently cautioned that neither 316 or 304 schedule 40 stainless pipe would be up to the task and I should invest in a much more exotic stainless alloy, carbon fiber, or even titanium.
Now, as it happens, the main rudder on our CAL 34 has a 304 stainless steel pipe rudder shaft which is quite long in the tooth (the boat was built/launched in 1969). It has held up quite well and, while I think it is prudent to build a new main rudder sooner rather than later, the fact that the 304 rudder post has done a pretty awesome job for over forty years tells me that 304 is certainly up to the job. The downside being 304 is somewhat pedestrian, unimpressive, and not exactly shrine material.
So, as far as I'm concerned, 304 or 316 is also a great choice for the rudder shaft on the new self-steering and, compared to more exotic alloys and composites, it's also a LOT cheaper.
What works well makes sense...
By the way, you might want to check out Page Two which is an excellent blog currently concerned with a sensible and workmanlike refit of the non-shrine variety and well worth a read.
What does captian kurt, popeye, captain hook and tommy lee have in
common? They are all bad ass people. Why? Because they were all in
command of ships. You should be in command of a ship. You should buy my
boat.
I can offer you the opportunity to be in command of this Catalina 27
sailing ship for about the cost of a lot of the stupid stuff you bought,
buy or are thinking about buying. I present the following:
Malls & Nipple Milk
I can tell you this; the boat I am selling is less than the cost of that
couch you bought at Pottery Barn* after spending 3 weeks researching it
on Google**. I don't care if your favorite mall doesn't have a roof on
it and has a theme. You should be ashamed of half of the mall things
you spent hard earned cash money and time on. None of it will take you
across oceans and it will not get you a buffaloes milk at Two Harbors
(or a nimby cup). Not even close. Do you want your only source of
alcohol laden milk to be your pregnant girlfriends nipple because I
guarantee it doesn't have 8 types of rum and 4 types of artificial
sweetener in it. If it does muchacho then you should be hanging out with
jcvd on a regular basis and won't be needing this said boat. Back to
your mall things.. If you add up the cost of your bed frame, mattress,
headboard, box spring, stupid fancy pillows from Target, decorative
duvet cover with a cool pattern from ikea and your designer pajamas it
probably costs as much as I'm asking and you can have a f*$king BOAT of
which can sleep 5 people and will guarantee you more bidness. You won't
find that guarantee in the bedding department at Macy's. Note: your
lame duvet made from rare dead birds is always on sale, you did not hit
the Macy's Bed Bath and Beyond jackpot and score a 300 feather count for
35% off, everyone did and just because you laughed at some actor making
fun of Bed, Bath and Beyond doesn't give you a pass for going there or
not going there. And are you really spending your miniscule amount of
free time on Earth counting feathers or laughing at jokes about retail
stores? And by the way, if you are the type of person who covers your
bed with any amount of (especially more than two) decorative pillows,
please do not call about my Boat. I am not interested in selling this
to a decorative pillow type which is too bad because you my friend are
the type that needs this boat more than anyone.
Recreation, Drinking and Sea Monkeys
I understand you have many options on how to spend your free time. How
you choose to recreate says a lot about a human being. What I am
offering you is the open Pacific Ocean, fishing, going to islands,
breathing salty air at sea, breathing atomic four gas powered exhaust
fumes, drinking rum, drinking whiskey, drinking cheap beer, drinking
expensive beer, drinking the dead sea monkeys floating in the drink that
your friend backwashed, spear fishing anything that moves, endless
supply of gold colored fish to make into tacos, trapping crabs, getting
crabs, free membership to hbyc, a money pit, a fist pumping teeth
grinding laser eating dance platform, a new kitchen, a boom that might
hit you in the head, a $270 slip fee, the ability to t-bone a stand up
paddle boarder, the ability to bbq a t-bone steak, the ability to bone
in the v-birth, the chance to see whales, the improved chance to bring a
whale out of najas and tying knots. These are fine things. These are
gentlemanly things. They certainly beat sitting in car traffic towing
your sand rail or three wheeler past a bunch of meth labs to glamis or
driving a boat in circles in the std filled cess pool commonly referred
to as "the river" or any other so called lake. Does a real man or woman
want to recreate in a standing pool of "fresh water" or in a hot desert
with a bunch of drunk yahoos with engines strapped to their backs?
Fast Transport
This boat travels as fast as your Audi on the 405. 6 knots at best.
And you spent over $30K. Way more than a domestic car just because of
the cool logo, neat ads and foreignness of it. Not to mention the way
it makes you feel when you look at it after you park it. You could have
got a Ford, a 3 wheeler, a sand rail and this boats for the same price.
Enough said.
360 Degree Ocean View and the Mexican Navy
Always wanted an ocean view? See above description of how lucky you
are. This boat comes with an ocean view of your damn choosing! Imagine
a house that could do that. Those creepy realtor types would be
drooling all the way to the bank. (Please no inquiries if your picture
is on your business card). For the price of a ocean front strand house
you could buy a boat like this every month of the year. In fact for
$3,000,000 (reasonable price for a strand house) you could buy 600 boats
like this. That's more than the entire navy of Mexico. What would you
do with that many boats? You could tie them together end to end and
stretch them from Manhattan Beach pier to Hermosa Beach pier 1.7 times.
Toss in a few more and you could have a two way sailboat highway
spanning the two piers. This would be enough to move the annual 6 man
party to sea and save the fun in a town loosing its charm faster than
antartica is loosing glacial ice. Everyone would be happy because the
kids could again dress up, beam each other with volleyballs and drink
booze in the open sun on a WEEKEND. You would be the damn Kevin Bacon
of the beach area. People would make movies of how you returned the joy
to such an under privileged area of LA. (Math: 1.8 miles between piers
= 9504' / 27' boat length = 352 boats required for a one way span.)
Screen World or Water World?
Each day the average person spends ?? hours staring at a computer
screen, ?? watching a television screen, and ?? hours looking at a smart
phone screen. (You do the math). The hope is that eventually there
will be enough devices "invented" whereby 24 hours of your day is spent
looking at a radiation emitting electronic display screens. These
devices with clever names starting with i will range in size to span
every increment of that Home Depot tape measure you never use. This will
be toped by the inevitable invention of a gigantic screen that allows
up to three people to be imbedded in, is only 2 microns thick, is named
after a fruit and hurtles through outer space endlessly. I have good
news for you my screen collecting swollen eyeball friend. This boat
comes with an lcd tv screen and there is cell service all the way to
Catalina Island! So you don't have to skip the pirate dress up wine
mixer because you are worried about missing all those great things
happening on social media and on dvd.
Boat Includes
-- 4 sails
-- Atomic four engine
-- Mast
-- Boom
-- Hull
-- Rudder
-- Tiller
-- The book sailing for Dummies (You must have an IQ of at least 30 to learn how to sail)
-- A bow with no arrows
-- A bunch of life vests
Attention Doomsday Preppers
If you are a doomsday prepper then you have just hit the powerball
lottery scratch off confetti falls out of the sky jackpot. Feel free to
go into one of those evangelist religious on stage convulsions right
now because when shit hits the fan in L.A. (and it will) do you want to
be on the roof of your liqour store with a high powered riffle or in the
open ocean reading moby dick with a milky rum drink in your skilled
knot tieing hands?
In Summary
This boat is cheap, it gives you access to buffaloes milk, it is more
fun than your current hobbies, it is fast enough, it has an ocean view,
it comes with a TV, comes with everything you need and it might be
helpful in case of a disaster. Most importantly it puts you in command
of a ship. Go ahead break a bottle of Champagne over the bow, leave
your mall things on land and grab the tiller.
I've been following a cruising blog recently from some folks off the main track and maybe you should too... It's nice to see someone not doing the same old same and sharing information of the process.
Lots to catch up on and as I can see the sun for the first time in a week I should get to doing...
Apparently not everyone who works in a bank is a crook or getting rich, something that might make your head explode, and why does this not surprise me...
It's raining...
The problem is I have a bunch of stuff I want to do on the boat, a good portion of it wood butchery, and it just keeps raining. Worse, I have a new toybrand new circular saw I really want to try out as well.
This caught my attention, an interesting fact you might be unaware of about a sailing rally, and, speaking of sailing rallies, Attainable Adventure Cruising does the rant thang makes a LOT of sense...
Obviously a daysailer/weekender for protected waters but a hull form and rig that makes a lot more sense that a lot of people think. I bet Tad would love to design something along the same idea for real cruising...
While we lived in Paris, one of the designs on our short list for what was to become the first Loose Moose was a plywood 9-meter junk design by Dimitri Le Forestier and Jean-Pierre Villenave...
The new issue of Practical Boat Owner came out yesterday (I have a digital subscription) and, as usual, it made me wonder how much we don't get in the American yachting press...
For instance, when was the last time you came across an article in Cruising World or Sail about how to actually fix or build something? Or, for that matter, when did they test something with a real test and came to a conclusion that might have pissed off a sponsor?
The fact is, PBO is an expensive subscription as it costs more than Sail and Cruising World combined, but as far as I can see, it's the only cruising-oriented magazine I pay for that actually delivers value that is really useful.
It's been a while since I've had a note from Eric Henseval but he just dropped me a line with a few of his recent designs...
Now I admit I'm not a big fan of metal boats but I do know that if I were to get a metal boat the hull would be built by META using their Strongall aluminum method. Otherwise, why bother?
So, I was very interested to see that Eric's new Territoire 11.80 design is being built by META in Strongall...
What a bombproof Aluminum sailboat looks like under construction
Not a bad boat as you can see...
Eric has a lot more information on his site about the Territoire 11.80 and it is well worth reading whether you're looking for a go-anywhere aluminum boat or not.
The other day I overheard some advice from one guy to another that to be happy on a boat you need at least a 6KW genset and a 3KW inverter...
One of my current projects is ripping out a few no longer needed or used AC outlets and it got me thinking just how the electrical side of things on "So It Goes" has evolved.
For instance, we used to have a big 2000-watt inverter/charger which was heavy, expensive, and didn't work very well. Down the line when we realized we never ever ran anything anywhere near 2000 watts (the couple times we did I nearly fainted when I saw the numbers on our amp-meter) we replaced it with a better working, cheaper, and lighter 600-watt inverter and a separate charger which seemed to make a lot more sense.
We realized that it had been over a year since we even used the inverter. Other than tools which run off the generator, we seem to have evolved out of AC power use on the boat.
This does not mean we're camping and not using electronics or computers and suchlike, just that we've finally been able to get the various systems to work on 12-volts which is a much more boat-friendly voltage and gets away from the power loss of having to bump voltage up or down to make things work.
Of course, evolution is an ongoing affair. I'd like to add a couple of 50-watt solar panels (which would bring the grand total up to 350 watts of solar) which, with our frugal usage of power would make us 100% free of ever having to run the generator for shipboard and lifestyle systems.
That said, I'm still working on a cunning plan for the whole tool thang.
I'm never sure whether to describe myself as a film maker who sails or a sailor/boatbuilder who makes films...Either way I'm a pretty happy camper when all is said and done.
