Spring Break .... Prep time

Winter is over. This weekend I managed to get the ice boat put up and visited the marina for a couple of quarts of bottom paint and a few other odds and ends.

Tuesday I took the kiddo to daycare and headed for the marina. A gloomy looking day but a day on the boat none the less.

The cover has held up very well through the winter and the boat looks to be clean and dry. I've been on and off the boat a few times to knock the snow off the cover and I cracked the front hatch to allow for a bit more air flow late last fall when I installed the keep charged solar panel.


Aboard the boat for the first day I started with a simple quick wipe down of the interior. Everything is off the boat so this is the perfect time to clean down the walls and floor. While I was working below the sky outside began to get darker. Lucky I thought ahead and brought my spot light. Then the winds picked up and the lightning started. I decided this would be a good time to take a break and headed into the marina for a few minutes just as I scanned my card and entered the back door the rain started rushing down. By the time I had made it down the stairs and to the front counter it was hailing outside.

So What do I do now? I can't really paint the bottom of the boat or pull the cover off in this weather. I decide it is as good a day as any to get started on refinishing the interior. A can of teak sealer a few pieces of sand paper and a foam brush later and I'm back out on the boat sanding the wood work. In two day I have sanded and sealed all of the teak except for the two floor panels.



Thursday remains a wet day only it is now 38 degrees and to cold to finish the teak flooring. So I have turned my attention to other things. Like washing the sheet lines and paying those pesky bills that keep showing up.

A few days later. Today I started a little project. I painted the toe rails on the boat black.




Saturday props to my brother Tim. This weekend he helped me rebed the bow pulpit, and and the life line stanchions.

Sunday The boats new name is ordered. Just waiting for the stickers to get here. Time to take of the old name by by "Accord" Hello...." " well guess you will have to wait to see.

Golf Balls and Glowing Strings, Batman!

To preface this post has been wrote over several weeks. The season is over for me. The boat was hauled out a bit on the early side this year but with work and the baby I didn't think I'd get much use out of it. I also wanted to give my self some extra time to look the boat over and winterize it this year.
With the A4 Engine drained and anti-freezed, oil changed, and new spark plugs put in for next season it looks clean and ready to go for next year's start up. I RV anti-freezed the head and sink drain. Pulled all the Cushions off the boat then the sails off also. Our guest bedroom has become even more of a sail loft that it was this summer with the boats full complement of 12 sails. BB says I should re-think the off season sail storage plans so I have started clearing space in the basement. As soon as I get the ice boat off the back wall I'll move the some of the sail downstairs. I started sanding the railing last week with hopes to paint it before tarping off the boat for the winter but the weather this weekend is not looking good with and 80 % chance of rain all day Saturday.

Myles has been sick the last two weekend so we've been pretty busy. I'll have to finish sanding and painting the railing next spring. I spent Sunday afternoon framing the boat up with pvc and 2x4's. Then I covered it with clear plastic that I had lying around. In the magazine "Good Old Boat" I read and article about tarping off and using golf balls to add additional points for tie downs. This appears to have worked pretty well. I Placed several of these in the plastic and tied them off with ... wait for it..... GLOW IN THE DARK LINE. Hey what can I say it was on sale at Harbor Freight so I picked up 200ft. I hope this style of framing and tarping will allow me access to the boat through out the winter months. I'm not sure what I'll be doing on the boat in January but you can always keep reading here and find out.





























One good thing comes of winter it will soon be ice boating season. =-) Now I have to go dig out my DN.

Ying Yang Last Outing of the Season

Are last night out for the season was fun and we had a lot happen. The wind was up and it was a nice night for sailing. But we were sloppy sailors this evening. We made it out of the harbor pulled the main sail up. Well pulled it up most of the way we never did crank up the last 2 inches. The traveler never moved all night and the sail trimming was minimal. We never did get around to setting a jib. A few minutes after the main was up we set the auto pilot and that was about it for the evening with regards to any actual sailing. We were clearly the sloppiest sailed boat out on the lake.

BB and I stopped and took some time to feed Myles. Myles had been down to the boat probably once or twice a week all summer with me for lunch but tonight he had his first solid food out on the boat oat cereal. It was an interesting adventure as the boat rocked back and forth and Myles continually tried to eat his life jacket.


It was really a good night for sailing but we just were out bobbing around on the lake. When my dock partner came sailing by so we snapped a few pictures of him sailing on his Catalina.















Finally we decided it was time to head back into the harbor. As we began to line up the boat for the final entry into the channel another sailboat,that was motoring in ahead of us had their engine fail. They were just to the south of the channel adrift and signaling for assistance. Luckily Myles had gone to sleep by this point. BB and I started our motor rounded up and pulled down the main sail. A few minutes later we were near by. It took us three tries but we finally caught their line and secured it to one of the starboard rear cleat. We towed them all the way back to Tower Marine. It took us about and hour but the motor ran well. I constantly was checking the temperature and oil pressure gauges. I was quite impressed to find out the boat we towed back weighed 14,000 LBS. Almost twice the weight of our Chaser 29.

The Ying Yang of the season. The 1st day of the season we were towed back in. The last day of the season we were the one's doing the towing. As I clasped the lock onto the boat that night I was quite happy. It seemed a fitting way to round out the season and I can hardly wait for the spring.

1st family aquatic slumber party

Last weekend we did our first family overnight on the boat. Labor day weekend. Their was a party at Tower Marina so we decided to make it a family outing. First we went for a swim then we got cleaned up and went to the party. We laid out on the grass and ate some great chicken and sweet corn. As it was getting dark we decided hey why don't we stay on the boat tonight. We made a quick run home for the dog and to get warmer cloths for the baby (Myles). By the end of the night we had Myles completely wrapped in everything we had brought with us and moved him up into the V berth with us. To bad at the time we didn't have the awesome looking hot pepper blanket. I'm sure it would have kept us all warm. Regardless it was a fun night just next time we'd be well served to bring a space heater for the little ones comfort. After all if he's not comfy no one is sleeping much.

Chaser 29 sailboat projects this season.

Since the beginning of the sailing season I have started a few projects on board the boat. One of them I mentioned in an earlier post. Completing the V-berth. When I purchased my Chaser 29 it slept 3. Two berths along side the cabin entry and a third in the bow of the boat.

At the beginning of the season this layout worked well for my family but over the last two month Myles has started to become more and more mobile. First it started with little scotches. Then he was spinning himself around in circles. It was decided that the quarter berths were no longer sufficient to hold him so I started to frame in V-berth. The photos below show the evolution of the V berth project. At this point I still need to get cushions and finish the wood work but I'm very happy with the directions things are headed.

Other little projects included mounting the anchor on the bow and doing a little re-bedding of various deck fittings nothing to big.






V Berth before + a little framing done but you get the idea.



V Berth forward of the baby stay. I have cut a little notch in the second piece of plywood and put a pull pin in place of the bolt holding the baby stay. This allows the baby stay to be easily removed if two adults were to be sleeping forward.




V Berth framed and plywood laid. Just need to paint it and get some cushions.




As you can see the little one has moved in already and the cushions aren't even made yet.



Little guy sleeping CSI style.

August 16th Chaser 29

This weekend Adam came out to sail. We had a great time out on the lake. About 5 hours of sailing around the bay. By the time we got back we looked a bit redder than when we left even with sunscreen. Today the redness is gone but my lips are sun burnt guess I need to get some spf chap stick for next time.

The Lake was really nice 2-3 ft waves with a steady breeze all day. The GPS shows a max speed of 7.6 knots while we were heading to weather! We were having quite a good time sailing with the 150 genoa. At the end of the day our average speed was 5.5 knots which isn't to shabby seems we did a bit of floating around under main sail only as we tried to sort out the rigging of the spinnaker. We did finally get the light weight chute up. However that was after we dropped it into the lake and tried to use it as a fishing net. Mental note if their is wind out on the lake it takes more than two people to handle the spinnaker. We managed to sail about halfway to Holland when we decided it was a good idea to peel the spinnaker back down and head back to the south. After all we weren't interested in beating ourselves up to much and the wind was coming from the southwest. A few short tacks and we were back in front of the Kalamazoo River. From there on out we just zig zagged around a bit. We sailed up the river as two other boats were sailing out. Then we headed back in to the marina to take a quick dip in the pool before grabbing a hot dog and heading home.

August 4th Tuesday timing is everything on a busy channel

What a night for sailing we got under way around 7:30 last night. We negotiated our way out of the channel slipping just in front of the chain ferry and out of the river smooth as could be. The wind was up and coming from the North. Exiting the channel we were looking at 2-3ft waves. As we set the main the fore deck crew realized we had a twist in it so it had to come back down but after a few moments of jiggling around. We were under way and a few minutes later we set the 120% Genoa. I love having all these sail choices. We sailed steadily out into the lake due west. Tacked as the sun began to set in a fiery ball of red and pink haze. As we neared the channel I could see the river boat red paddles heading back up the river. The last few times out I have been just in front of him or just behind him forcing me to make a course correction but not tonight. The river boat was well ahead of us tonight. To finish off the evening we sailed the boat straight back up into the harbor under full sail dropping the 120 in the channel and the main further up the river.