Mechanical Inspection - Why was it so hard

 I'm a bit behind but let's just say this little act caused a lot of drama.  All was good after our survey.  Strangely enough the sellers broker offered to negotiate on price after the survey and after a little back and fourth we agreed on a price that was within a few thousand of what I had hoped to buy the boat for.  My plan was to wait for all of the inspections to be completed before opening up the negations but who am I to complain when someone offers to lower the price which might have given me another chance to beat them down should something come of the next inspection.  Anyway next up was the mechanical inspection.  The mechanic I had called about 3-4 weeks prior decided he was too busy and canceled.  This sent the sellers broker into a tissy.  To this point we still had been working on good faith but when I told him we were not closing until the mechanical inspection was done he decided to create a lot of drama.  From what I can tell all the childish nonsense came directly from him and not his buyers that he was representing.  It was weird.  Anyway long story short we gave him a 10% deposit on the boat and now had 20 days to get the inspection or the boat would be back on the market.  Lucky we were able to get Cummins to come inspect both engines (generator & main engine) within 14 days of calling them.  They were going to cost me about 3x more then the local mechanic but after talking with several other diesel mechanics all told me it was worth the money and the right thing to do with an engine that had over 6000hrs on it.

The mechanic showed up, we took the boat out ran it at various speeds for a bit, asked a number of questions.  Overall everything looked good from his perspective.  Turned out the low oil pressure light was coming on because the idle was not set high enough and he adjusted it when we got in.  It appeared the person maintaining the boat had changed the oil early in the spring when we looked at the boat the first time so I did not have much hope for a oil analysis.  I suspect the same guy had changed the oil again prior to this inspection but insisted it just ran really clean.  The tech took an oil sample anyway and surprise surprise it came back clean.  The engine sounds good, starts easy, and neither the tech or I noticed any leaking so I decided to take the risk add the cost of an engine rebuild to the emergency kitty and move on with the sale.  Bottom line we really didn't have much choice at this point.  There were not many other boats for sale in our area that were close to what we were looking for and I think the guy maintaining the boat just really wanted it to show at its best.  Hopefully this is true & everything will run fine for us!

Survey Day!

We had our survey the other day.  We were lucky enough to find a surveyor that seemed to be reputable and had surveyed this boat at least two other times.  When he came he brought the previous survey's and owners rep agreed it was ok to share he was kind enough to let me read through the previous issues that had been identified over the years.  Fortunately the issues had been pretty minor  which told us that the boat had been well cared for over the years.  This also gave him possible problem areas to check on this time ensuring they had been addressed correctly.   Unfortunately it was raining on the day of our survey and the surveyor didn't want to do any of the outside stuff, instead just focusing on the inside parts.  He elected to come back the next day to do the outside parts like deck soundings, testing the AC units, generator capacity, lights, etc.  This worked in our favor as the boat was out of the water when he arrived and being right before the holiday weekend the yard was busy putting boats in and would not have time to get the boat back in the water until that evening.  It was also nice that we had a very steady rain that day which allow us to look for active leaking around the windows.  For the most part there were few leaks.  We found one on the main hatch which the owners rep fixed right away with a new o ring.  Then both of the windows on the teak doors were leaking slightly.  This will be a bigger fix as some of the wood around the window might be bad but still not something I considered as major.  I'm sure I can reseal the windows for now to stop the leak and then replace the wood when we get back and can take the doors off and work on them in the garage at home.

The good news is that the boat looked really clean out of the water.  The zinks looked new, bottom paint looked good, and we did not see any signs of significant damage in the past.  It was also nice to be able to walk around the boat seeing it up close vs only seeing the boat from the dock.  Both the rudder and prop shaft seemed good.  It was interesting to see that they had designed the keel to fill with water for ballast.  The surveyor questioned if this was a mistake in the build or a design feature?  Seems the previous owner had drilled a hole and put a plug in it that would allow the keel to be drained but this was not included in the original design.  This was only the 4th 42ft Nordic Tug built so there might have been a running change in the design later?  I'll have to ask some other owners about that sometime.  I've heard of using water for ballast but am not sure of the pros and cons of it.

After the first day of the survey we were still excited about our choice and talked about all the things we had both noticed since first seeing the boat on our two hour drive home.  I had also taken the time to stick my head in about every nook and cranny on the boat that I could and came away pretty happy.  So far the only things we had seen were cosmetic issues that we wanted to change vs things worn out or used up like the green carpet that while not warn out felt really dated and who puts carpet in a boat where it will get wet?  The other big unknown at this point is what exactly will come with the boat.  The owners have not cleaned the boat out of their personal stuff and the broker was not sure what would stay and what would go.  I guess I'm not to worried about it but it would be nice to get things like the Magma Grill, the charts, guide books, fenders, anchors, etc.  Looking back as I write this I should have specified what we wanted to stay establishing some sort of inventory vs assuming most of it would stay since we were told the current owners were done with boating and moving on to RV adventures.

We got up early and drove the 2hrs north back to the boat for the second part of the survey.  It was a really nice day, the boat was back in the water, and overall it went pretty well.  The surveyor found some moisture in the swim platform and around the top deck where it joins with the pilot house.  Walking on it we did not feel any soft spots so for now its something to keep an eye on and ensure the seam is caulked well.  He also found a few other really minor things like no trap in the sink plumbing, no pressure gauge on the propane tank and he did not like that the propane tank locker was vented.  All of these are really small items and we did not see them as deal breakers.

After the survey was done the owners broker asked what we thought and I pitched a new price at him due to the findings and valuation the surveyor was going to put on the boat.  Up until this point we had not negotiated on price.  With the market as hot as it is right now I figured we needed to get it "under contract" and I would have better luck with negotiating a better price once once we had a survey.  Up until this point we still had done this deal on a hand shake and no contract had been drawn up or deposit provided.  After a little back and fourth we agreed on a new price which was much closer to what we thought the boat was worth in this over priced market.  Even though the boat is a 1997 I'm sure it will still depreciate more and in any other market we probably would have been able to get it for 25k less but the markets hot right now so I guess we will roll the dice and see how we come out in the end.  Bottom line the boat met most of our requirements, is really clean, well cared for, and close to home.  We believe it will pretty much be a turn key boat for us.  I'm sure we will run into some issues along the way but in its current condition we can leave for the loop today and deal with the rest as it comes.

As part of the sale we asked for a mechanical inspection and contacted a local mechanic that was supposed to come look at the engine the next week.  So we agreed to close on the boat that next Monday after the mechanical inspection.  I don't expect any issues and am hoping everything goes well with that this week.  When we took it out that first night an oil pressure light had been going off so I would like to figure out what the story is with that!

We joined the Americas Great Loop Crusing Association

 I have been following the Facebook group on the great loop for a couple years now but we decided to finally commit and spend the money to join the AGLCA for two years.  I was pretty excited to get the bugie in the mail today, I think Amy is starting to realize our timeline is real and we need to get moving to get our land lives wrapped up so we can start our boat life.  I think we have less then 90 days.. yikes!  It's starting to feel like this adventure may really happen as each piece starts to fall in place.

Now we just need to get a boat to hang this flag on!

Boat work

 While we wait to get our survey and inspections completed on the Nordic Tug.  We still have a lot to do to get our current sail boat ready for the season.  This weekend we joined our cruising club at Middle Bass Island for the annual Commodores Tea.  Luckly there was no wind so no one was really disappointed that we still did not have sails on our boat yet.  Worse yet our boat has been sitting unloved and unused in its slip for the last month and was in desperate need of some cleaning.  I drove up on Friday night, got some of the canvas up, did an oil change, got the AC going, filled a couple of the water tanks, and spent 3.5hrs scrubbing the outside of it the next morning before Amy and the kids got there.  After a long wait on the cause way to get into Cedar Point Amy finally made it and we took off in trawler mode.  We had a good time with the club and it was nice to catch up with everyone.  Sunday we managed to get the main sail on and then headed back.  Unfortunately last year when it was time to take the sails down for winter we found that the car that pulls the head sail up our roller furling was stuck at the top.  I had gone up the mast and beat on it a bit with a big wrench and sprayed it with WD-40 and still no luck.  It appeared that maybe one of the set screws that holds the foils together had backed out inside the car allowing it to only move about an inch up or down.  I decided to pull the pin to drop the sail and would deal with it in the spring.

Unfortunately ignoring it all winter and spring so far did not seem to help matters as the car was still stuck at the top of the mast.  I even called a rigger which came out climbed the mast to confirm what I suspected.. He declared the set screw had backed out inside the car and then told me I would need to drop the mast to fix it but had no suggestions other then a really large hammer to fix it.  After a little drinking one night with one of my fellow sailors we decided that maybe if I went up the mast I could put the pin back in but run the line directly downward to a block to pull the car down.  So Monday as I was getting ready to take on this project Max asked if he could be the one that went up the mast.  I was amazed as this kid is really afraid of heights but sure kid if you want to get hauled up there no problem I'm happy to let you go!  I'm happy to report he did a great job and did not appear to scared at all!

I'm also really happy to report that the idea worked.  With a lot of wenching I was able to get the car pulled half way down at which point I then changed the angle to the back side of the car and was able to continue pulling the car down much easier.  Once the car was down I could indeed see that the screw was stuck in there and that my pulling had destroyed the rubber seal in the top of the car.  Now time to figure out how to order a new car and install it on there.  I sure hope I don't have to pull it off the top of the rig.  I have this fear if I take my mast down I won't get any sailing in this season!  So my goal is to get this working without pulling the mast down.  Hopefully I can disconnect the roller furling and slide the car off the bottom somehow and put the new one on.  For now everyone was hot, tired and ready to head home after a long weekend on the boat.  I'll have to do some googling when I get home to figure out my next step but I'm thinking if I pull the seal out it should work fine for now then I can drop the mast at the end of the season and replace the car then.  Hopefully without the seal it won't rattle to much?  

More to come on this project in the coming weeks :)

Got a call back

After calling on 10 different boats the other day I pretty much wrote off doing anymore boat shopping in this market and decided we needed to love the one we were with.  However, we got a call back that the deal fell through on a 42 foot Nordic Tug we wanted to see.  It's funny because when I saw this listing pop up on yacht world something told me this might be the boat and we both had been eager to see it.  We made our appointment to see it at the end of the week hoping that it would not be sold in the 4 days leading up to our visit.  As much as we hated the idea of having to decide on the spot we talked a lot about having to make a yes or no decision on it really quickly during the 2 hour drive up to see it and unfortunately we have not seen many different types of boats yet.  Worse yet we have not been out on any power boats yet to see how they ride and what some of the fancy things like stabilizers or twin engines might do.

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived to see how clean the boat was.  When we boarded the boat we saw it was named The Wright Choice.  Maybe that's the first sign?  After looking around it for more then an hour we both liked it despite the fact that the interior was a bit dated and for some reason it had carpet laid inside?  I can't imagine trying to keep carpet from molding on a boat.  Seems like a bad idea to me but it was original and in good shape so must be possible?  The broker representing the boat had also been the main care taker of the boat for the last 15 years or so and had a very intimate knowledge of all the systems and design of the boat.  He was kind enough to take us out on it, play around a bit with it on Lake Huron, and even let me dock it.  Can't say it was a docking job I'm exactly proud of but I did manage to get it in the first time.  I'm not sure how other trawlers turn but this one is really slow and the prop walk seems much stronger then what I'm used to in a sail boat... I'm sure that has something to do with the much larger prop and smaller rudder.  Needless to say I was reminded of Austin Powers trying to turn that golf cart around when attempting to maneuver this boat in the Port Huron River where it was docked.  I was also very surprise how little the bow thruster really helped?  It seemed to work well to keep the boat pointed the right direction while waiting for the bridge to open but when it came to turning or docking really was very little help.

Bottom line after having dinner that night and talking about it we both decided that we would like to see some other boats and while we might be interested in this boat it was not love at first sight.  However if we were lucky enough to see a few more boats we both thought we would probably come back to this one or at least something along the lines of this design.  We also know the market and know this one will be gone by the time we would be able to shop around more.  Amy thinks the Tug look is cute.  I really liked the pilot house, visibility at the helm, the full keel, skeg mounted rudder, and the fact there was a crane to put the dingy up top and out of the way.  I was disappointed that it did not have a fly bridge, a washer and dryer (there is a hook up for one though), and I'm not sure what to think of the fact that is has over 6400 hours on the engine. After a bit of exploring on the internet there seems to be a pretty good following for this type of boat so it should make resale easy when the time comes.  We decided to follow the sign on the back of the boat and called to make the Wright Choice the next day putting the boat under contract. Now to get a survey and mechanical inspection lined up to get some idea of what we might be in for with this boat. Looks like we might have found ourselves a Great Loop boat. Hope this little Nordic Tug surveys well as time is running out to find anything else!

Completly frustrated!

 I called on 10 boats the other day trying to get appointments set up for the weekend.  All ten were either sold, under contract, or this is a new one.. the broker already showed it to enough folks and is awaiting the offers to come in.. Seems the boat market has gone crazy much like the housing market this spring.  Not one of the ten boats were available to be seen.

I'm completely frustrated!  We still don't really know what we want but are starting to establish what we don't want.  I can't imagine spending a huge amount of money on something I don't even have time to think about because there is a line of folks behind me that want to buy something and are willing to inflate the prices.  Starting to think I'm too conservative to play in this market and maybe we need to love the one we are with?

For now we got our boat in the water and moved over to Cedar Point.  I look forward to some sailing soon!

First boat show during COVID

We have been busy and have not had much time to check out boats the couple of weeks.  We decided to visit the Catawba Island Boat Show.  It seems that COVID restrictions have just been loosened and 98% of folks decided to make this a mask free event.  It felt a bit weird with folks walking around like we used to.  I embraced it but Amy was a bit uncomfortable with the idea that enough had changed to all the sudden be mask free in a large group of people.  Either way it was a fantastic day out and we were both excited to get to see a lot of different boats in one place.  We got on a number of what I'll call large speed boats.  Even though they were 40-60ft they seemed built to party on vs a family to live on.  They were missing things like ovens, food storage, large refrigerators, and sensible anchors.  We did get to experience a gyro stabilization system.  It was really impressive how level the boat stayed with all kinds of folks jumping on and off it.  But I suppose it should be for a 60k option.  We also checked out a couple of 40-50ft Teras and a MJM.  Both were nice but geared more to a couple going out for a couple weeks.  I really liked the MJM but they did not have any that meet our 3 stateroom requirement or my budget.

After the boat show we went out for lunch and decided to rule out the speed boat category focusing on trawlers, Carvers/Silverton's/or the like, and look for a semi displacement to go out on.  We were also much more interested in boats with stabilization.  I'm not sure what's next but I saw a Nordic Tug pop up on Yacht World I would like to see while waiting for our bill.

For now its back to working on our own boat to get it waxed, bottom painted, and ready to go in the water before the end of April.  If we don't find what we are looking for we will make our current boat work.

Hey I finally found a good use for that mask we have had to wear for the last year :)

Boat Shopping

 

I'll start by saying I like almost every boat so narrowing one down might be hard.  I think they are all sexy in their own way.  I'm not sure what it is but since I was a kid helping my dad wax his boat I've been in love with the idea of boats and the adventures one could take with them.  My dad had a 20ft Sea Ray for almost 20 years and we took that boat a lot of places.  It seemed like I must have water skied about a million miles behind that boat while growing up.  

After clicking though every boat on the east coast of the United States at least a few times over the period of a couple of weeks we finally decided it was time to go see a couple near us.  We decided to pick a Hatteras & a Azimut to get an idea of two different types of boats to start with.  Both boats seemed to check a lot of boxes with the most important being the 3 staterooms & livability factor.

The first boat we saw was a 53 Hatteras.  It seemed like a huge floating apartment.  The owners had updated it but had managed to loose the nautical or ship like feeling with the updates instead turning it into a high end apartment.  It seemed weird to me that there was a lot of port lights but none of them were clear, it felt dark down below, the engines were huge and frankly a bit intimidating to someone used to a 50hp diesel in my sailboat, while I loved the livability of the back deck I could not envision how one would get from the boat to the dock to deal with lines when coming or going.  It did have a boarding ramp but that seemed like a pain but would make it easier to bringing groceries back while at the dock.  I have no idea how owners might do this from a dingy and having to climb that ladder in the back while the boat is rolling around at anchor?  While a very nice boat, this was not a model I thought I could fall in love with and I'm still perplexed at how the heck a couple might dock this boat on their own?

While visiting the 53 we found out the Hatteras Convertable right beside it was for sale and also happened to meet most of our requirements.  Unlike the previous one that had spent the majority of its time on the Great Lakes this one had spent many years in salt water.  Even though it had been painted you could really tell the toll the salt water had taken.  It was much less roomy inside than the other one but I liked the layout a lot more and could envision a way to jump off the back of it onto a dock when coming in.  This one had not seen many updates over the years but the asking price was about 50k less.  It had a decent sized galley, the fly bridge had room for folks to sit in front of the Captain rather than behind so they might be better engage in the conversation.  Between the two I liked this boat a lot better but it didn't excite Amy in the least.  She missed the safety rails going all the way around, the comforts of the other, and felt this one might be too much of a project in the time we had.  So off to the next one.

As we were walking over to see the Azimut the broker got a call from the owner saying he was not ready to show it yet and wanted to clean it up more.  I attempted to convince him to let us see it anyway but it was not until a few weeks later that the broker called back saying the owner was finally ready to show it.  We did walk by it in the storage barn but Amy has never really been a fan of planeing boats in general so we decided to skip it for now.  Two weeks later we found out it was under contract and did not survey very well.  For almost twice as much as the Hatteras we saw we were not very excited about it and hope its the right boat for someone else.

What did we learn?  

1. I don't think I want a 1980's era boat
2. I think a fresh water boat will be a better value & will most likely will have aged better than a salt water boat
3. Apparently you can put residential furniture in a boat without nailing it down.  Seems all these power boats have sectional couches, end tables, and picture frames setup.  I can't imagine they leave the dock much or go out in the same conditions we go sailing in.
4. I don't want a boat so high I can't easily get to the dock.  I really don't want to have to climb a ladder or deal with stairs/boarding ramp everywhere we go.

In the future we would like to see some Carvers.  They make me think of an RV on a lake.  Amy has never been on a trawler and I would like to go out on some of the hybrid semi displacement hauls like the newer Grand Banks or Katie Krogen Express (Saw a couple of these in Cape Coral this winter and loved the idea of them).  Bottom line we didn't fall in love and want to check out some other options.

Should we consider a different boat for the Great Loop?

Let me start with the fact that we love our Beneteau 473.  It is almost everything we could want in a sail boat for the Great Lakes and even for ocean sailing (I think).  One downside for our family is that we only have 2 staterooms and our kids can't seem to figure out how to share a room with a king bed.  Long gone are the fond memories of them sharing a small V berth in our Allmond 31 wanting to hold hands with each other to fall asleep.  

Looking at our boat we decided that our two stateroom sail boat would not be ideal for our family to live on for a year and do the loop in for a number of reasons:  

1. There is not going to be much sailing on the loop route (though I would love to once we get to the Bahamas) 
2. We will have to ship the mast for the western part of the trip from Chicago to the Gulf & then again going through the Erie Canal system.
3. Teenage kids need a bit of their own space so we really want something with 3 cabins
4. Amy requested a Washer/Dryer
5. We don't currently have a great place to store a dingy other then on deck and in the way of things
6. We don't have a cockpit enclosure

Personally I would prefer to take our boat and address the above issues but unfortunately if we want to squeeze in a major family adventure together before Annabelle goes to collage we needed to do it this year as she really wants to be back for her Senior year.  While I think I could get all of the above addressed as well as a number of other projects between May and August it would be tight.  Not to mention all of the other stuff going on in our lives plus the addition of the two exchange students we have living with us this year doing all their senior activities and other stuff they would like to see/do before heading home in July.

This means that we need to buy a different boat, get it to our area of the Great Lakes, make any updates/modifications, and leave by August so hopefully we are off of Lake Michigan by the end of August or early September.  Lucky for us we live between Detroit and Sandusky so there should be lots of boats within a few hours drive to look at.  Hopefully we can look at boats around our area to help narrow down what we like and don't like and maybe even get it down to a certain model/year then expand the area to find the perfect boat!  

So what do we want?  It seems we are going to transition to the dark side and consider a power boat in an attempt to have a smaller draft and more comfort.  I would like a fly bridge and a pilot house to navigate from.  We would like diesels, a generator, and a place to store the dingy.  The kids both requested their own space which means we need something with 3 cabins.  Amy requested a washer/dryer and a big refrigerator.  Unfortunately, as we started digging though yacht world we found that to get 3 staterooms in a power boat put us into something in the 50+ foot range more often than not.  Seems when you get to that size then hight also becomes an issue as the lowest bridge we can't avoid is 19ft.. Ideally we would like something that will get under 17 or even 15.5ft bridges which would allow us to take the boat though downtown Chicago and the full length of the Erie Canal (If Canada does not open next year).  I suspect we will end up with a trawler of some sort but I'm sure we will look at a lot before we narrow it down as Amy has not been on a lot of boats and like I said before we both really like our sail boat.

We need a new adventure.. Should we do the Great Loop?

This winter I found myself pretty burned out with my job.  Maybe its a side effect of not getting out enough due to COVID?  Anyway I started day dreaming about how we might realistically do the World ARC as a family.  If you're not familiar with it the World ARC is an around the world sail boat rally done over about 18 months leaving from St Lucia.  A few years ago long before COVID we were at the Annapolis Boat Show and were invited to attend a seminar on the World ARC where we had the chance to meet a few couples that had completed the adventure. It sounds like an amazing adventure and Amy really liked that the company provided structure, guidance, and a degree of safety due to the large number of boats traveling together. When we left we both felt it was defiantly something we were interested in sometime down the road...

Well after watching a LOT of YouTube couples and families make sailing around the world look easy and fun I started really thinking about how to get my family out there before Annabelle got too old and want to leave for college in two years. After talking about it a lot as a family it became clear Max was with me and all for the adventure but Annabelle wanted nothing to do with it. Amy was somewhere in the middle with this nasty habit of looking at reality.  She kept pointing out little things like how the heck are we going to home school two teenagers that are not used to that kind of environment while traveling the world without a consistent internet connection and balancing that with good weather windows and a major lack of experience.  After more discussion we started talking about doing other things.. An RV trip across the county came up and was pretty quickly ruled out.  The possibility of taking the boat on the Great Loop came up.  Instead of two years traveling the world this trip would keep us stateside with a possible side trip to the Bahamas (if they open the boarders) and might only take a year.  Giving us some quality time together as a family and some much needed time away from work for me.

We had talked about doing the Great Loop more than 20 years ago before kids.  One weekend when I was stuck in Portland Maine for work I found a book written by a couple that had done this seemly great sounding stateside adventure.  Reading that book made it sound like it was  low risk and could be done pretty easily.  The hardest part was having both the money to afford the trip and the time required at the same time.  Needless to say I had gotten really excited about the possibilities that weekend after a few months even had Amy on board for the adventure.  Shortly after that trip we started looking at boats and eventually saw our first Allmond on Lake Norman when we lived in Charlotte.  Fun fact we almost bought that boat but could not find a dock to keep it at back then.  It only took about 10 more years before we found another one just like it that we ended up purchasing.

So now we are seriously considering taking a year as a family to travel some of our countries best waterways and possibly the Bahamas.  We spent much of February & March talking about how we might make this trip happen.  Do I try to work along the way keeping my IT job?  How do we educate the kids?  Is our current boat the right one for the purpose?  What do we do with our house, cars, and land life commitments.  I don't know the answers to any of these questions but would like to document our decision process and eventually our adventure as we go.

Still not a blogger but maybe the 3rd time is charm!

Seems blogging has not become a habit for me.  But I find myself thinking about it a lot this month and want to give it another shot as we are starting to consider our next adventure.  Will this be the end our sailing adventures?

 

We bought a Beneteau 473

We have had our 1980 Allmand 31 for a few years now.  We all really enjoyed this boat, it was safe, forgiving, roomy, easy to handle, and always got us home.  We learned a lot about boats with it but had decided that we wanted a few more creature comforts then it offered and that meant looking for a bigger boat.  We had attended the 2016 Annapolis boat show and after looking at all shapes and sizes of sail boats were thinking something in the 36-38ft range was what we should be looking at and that we would start looking for our next diamond in the rough during the winter of 2018 after one more summer with the Allmand.  Going in we had 4 things we really wanted our Allmand did not provide:

1.  Swim platform, personally I never liked climbing up that ladder but it also made it really hard to get the dog on board should she decide to go swimming. 
2. A bed we would not have to climb over each other to get in or out of as we never go to sleep at the same time its always awkward when the second person is stepping on the others head climbing into bed at night. 
3. Three cabins (one for each kid and one for us) 
4. We really wanted a much newer fresh water only boat.  Salt water can be hard on things and we figured it would be worth the extra premium a fresh water only boat usually gets.

Our Beneteau 473 soon to be named Escape Plan B

Well we nearly made it.  After a fun summer of mainly long weekend trips we were on what had become our traditional end of summer adventure.  This usually involved a 30 mile evening sail from Gibraltar, MI to an anchorage near Put-in-Bay, then on to Sandusky the next morning for a couple nights at Cedar Point.  All had gone well but the day we wanted to leave the weather was not in our favor so we decided to spend an extra night.  While the kids were enjoying early ride times I wondered down to check out the boats they were bringing in for the boat show that weekend.  One of the dealers had brought over a Catalina 35 I was interested in as I had been looking at Yacht World most the summer and was really starting to focus my search on the Catalina 38's.  Another dealer had brought over a couple of Jeanneau's with duel helms that had a ton a cockpit space that were beautiful but no where near our price range.  Lunch time rolled around and I brought Amy over to walk by them knowing we were not in the market for something new.  While we were there another dealer brought in a large Beneteau, being a lover of all boats I of course had to walk down and check it out.  Turns out the salesman was there and invited us on board to see it, I think to avoid having to work on the booth for a bit :).  Seemed they were a power boat dealer that had taken it in on trade, not really knowing anything about sail boats they simply hoped to flip it quickly.  This was the cleanest used boat I have ever seen, it showed like a new, the sails had been recently replaced, heck even the anchor locker had been scrubbed perfectly clean.  Once on board we saw it had a similar  layout as our Allmand we loved just bigger.  It had duel helms which provided a huge cockpit. Did I say boat showed well?  The AC felt great and it had lots of gadgets that our older boat didn't like refrigeration, wind instruments, invertor, and more but was huge.  Who the heck needed a 47ft boat in the Great Lakes.  It was nice to see and we walked away.

After going back to the park for some more rides it was still sticking in our head so we took the kids back to see it that afternoon where the dealer gave us a buy it now price hoping to get it out the door before the show which would allow him to fit in several other power boats in its place.

This price put it a bit over the top of our price range but really only a bit more then our overall purchase budget (price of the boat, survey, transportation or trip back, and fixing/replacing some stuff) making it only a bit more then some of the nicer used 38's I had been scoping out.  Additionally they had already repaired or replaced everything identified in a recent survey (battery, invertor, lights, etc).  We decided to sleep on it and in the morning after lots of googling boats like it that night for known issues, slip fees, maintenance costs and everything else I could think of we both looked at each other and decided to pull the trigger.  The dealer immediately sent us out on a sea trail which happened to be a near perfect sailing day and we were instantly in love with this enormous boat after getting the sails up.

Under sail

After motoring it out into Sandusky bay, Amy quickly pulled the sails out, killed the motor and attempted to burry the rail in the water.  While the captain attempted to smile, I think it was his first time under sail and he really was not ready for a boat to heel :).  Amy was so in love that she wanted to leave our Allmand there and finish rest the trip with this one.  Turned out paper work takes some time so we left a deposit with plans to pick the boat up the next weekend.  We were now the proud owners of a Beneteau 473.  We headed back down the dock to our old boat and off to Put-in-Bay to finish the rest of our vacation on our much smaller, less shinny, gadget free Allmand 31.  It was a nice sail over and we enjoyed rest the weekend as well as the return trip home with the excitement of a new adventure on the horizon all while scratching our head over what we had just done realizing we were now fleet owners.

Turns out selling the Allmand was pretty easy.  I priced it fairly, provided pictures that showed it in its best light, listed it on a few free sites like Craigslist and sailboatlistings and it sold within a month or so.  I had been worried about selling it in the fall but seems like lots of folks are going to boat shows around that time and are excited to buy a boat or want the winter to work on a project or two.  Its still in our local boat yard for the winter before the new owner takes her to Lake St Clair this spring. I have driven by it a few times to see how she is holding up and fondly think of all the good times our family had on her but so far no regrets.

Seems I'm not a Blogger... Yet :)

It seems I'm not much for documenting our many adventures here but I do enjoy reading about them :).  Originally I started this as a way to help market our photography business but we closed that business when we moved from Charlotte, NC to Detroit back in 2006.  Then we bought a boat and it seemed like a good place to keep a ships log, documenting our growth as sailors, and at the time I had not seen much out there around folks adventures though the Erie Canal.  Well both of those efforts don't seem to have taken flight.  Last fall we bought a new boat and sold our beloved Almond shortly after so thinking I'll give this another go attempting to document our big boat adventures.

Bottom paint day ;(

Bottom paint has to be one of my least favorite tasks when it comes to boat maintenance. Well its now done and hopefully I don't have to think about that sticky nasty stuff for another 2-3yrs! One step closer to getting it in the water this year!

Here is the after.  I really like the way the previous owner did two coats one blue and one black.  When the blue shows though as above you know its time to touch up.

Getting ready for summer

Wow I forgot about this blog until I got a comment on it the other day..

Well things with the boat are still going well.  Last year we replaced the three main hatches, one set of windows, 2 port lights, and rebuilt the mast step.  Unfortunately we did not use the boat much.. the day we were getting ready to leave for our 2 week summer trip I was getting some of our gear out of the attic and knocked over a flash light that fell all the way down cutting my 4yr old sons middle toe off.  That pretty much wrecked any water based plans we had for rest of the summer while waiting for it heal up.

This year we pulled the motor to check the seals, replace the hoses, and replace the transmission.  Since we bought the boat we have had a fuel smell that gets stronger the more we run it.  I figured its a really small leak somewhere that I would try to track down while we had the motor out to replace the transmission.  When we bought the boat I noticed there was something wrong with the trans but kept telling myself it was not that bad.  By the end of last year it was getting pretty bad.  Shifting into forward took about 15-20 seconds to engage which as anyone knows backing out of a dock can get a bit nerve racking as the boat behind you seems to come up really quick  It also meant I got pretty good at docking as when coming in the most I could do was shift to reverse as going into forward would take too much time.  Anyway I started this project in April and unfortunately it took me over a month to track down the right transmission and dampener plate for the motor (it didn't help that I was traveling for work 4 of the 5 weeks either).  While I had the motor out I got it cleaned up, partially repainted, replaced a few seals, rebuilt the mount for heat exchanger, reworked most the wiring to the motor, and replaced the motor mounts.  I hope the sum of all this gets us a much better ride under power.  I'm hoping tomorrow night to have the motor back in and maybe Friday to get the shaft lined up correctly?  Once that's done just need to repainted the bottom and it should be ready to go in for the season.

Once the boats in the water I want to start my next project of replacing the front bulkhead as it was pretty water damaged when we got the boat due to a couple leaks.  Our forward shroud is mounted to it and I've been a bit worried about it for a couple years now.  I really hope I can get the old one out in good enough shape to use it as a template for the new one making it an easy project?

Well the snow has finally thawed here in MI and summer seems to have arrived quickly this year. Wensday after many hours of painful waxing, buffing, and cleaning we finally put her in the water! As you can see she now has a new name thanks to the folks at West Shore Signs I think it came out great!

After running her for about five minutes at the dock I decided to take a quick ride out and see what the lake looked like. About a mile away from the marina the engine overheated. Thinking its got to be something wrong with the impellor I had just been messing with I played with that let it cool down a bit and tried again, sure enough overheated again.. No problem, it must be the thermostat, take that out & still overheating. Well after the fourth try and several hours out on the water with no cold beer, I saw another boat getting towed in and resigned to the fact that I may have to call the tow boat. I decided to try out the BoatUS towing service sure enough they came right out and took me back to the marina where she sat over the long holiday weekend patiently awaiting someone who knows what they are doing to take a look at her and let me know if I need to buy a new water pump or heat exchanger? Best thing that $358 towing charge was covered in the $58 membership we had, guess that was well worth it!

Looks like we now have an extra week or two to get those sails cleaned & start working on other projects like our leaky hatches and new canvas?

So its winter now...

So apparently we have not done so well with keeping this updated with our first year experience?

Bottom line we had a great summer. My wife & I loved every minute on the water... The kids however felt a bit differently. Belle was ok with it but never excited & pretty much was just happy playing video games down below when we went out. Max was a different story as it seemed every time we got the boat out of the dock he was ready for a nap and was a bit small to take a nap without rolling around a lot which meant no sleeping and one of us was generally stuck holding/managing a frustrated kid.

I'm hoping the 2010 season goes better but I don't see the kids getting excited about it until they are big enough to actually help out more. For now we are planning a two week boat trip this summer. I would like to make Mackinaw Island but doubt we will make it that far with the family?

We still have a number of projects & am planning to replace all three of the large hatches this year, replace the headliner, and reseal all of the windows before putting the boat back in the water this year. Additionally I'm hoping to get the current name off the boat & a new name made to put on as well. Any wagers on how many of these will actually happen?

Day 16: The last day

We woke up at 6:30 and had the boat at the fuel dock when they opened at 7. We did not have much of an idea how long it would take us to get home but guessed it would be 6 or 7hrs.

Belle woke up just as I had filled the tank and was not quite out of bed before we were ready to leave so once again the poor kid got shafted and would have to wait until we got home before she could get off the boat. I should add that the time keeper (my wife) would not allow us to look for a breakfast as we had to hurry up and get home… So I had what I hoped would be the last pop tart I would see for a very long time and we were off.

We lucked out with another nice day and some nice breezes and were once again motor sailing our way back home. Once we got to the mouth of the Detroit River it got pretty shallow and I’m pretty sure we were kicking up mud as we went. Unless you are in the big channel it is really shallow around there, luckily the lake is unusually high this year or we probably would have been calling sea tow several times prior to getting to the marina. At long last we had finally made it home. When I pulled into the marina it seamed much smaller then it looked from land. We saw our slip and attempted docking. Well apparently I turned a bit late and missed our slip. I was pretty impressed that I was able to do some maneuvering and got the boat turned around but as soon as I did the wind came by and blew us right into the dock beside us. Luckily both boats were out for the day as we were now sideways filing up both of their slips! Fortunately our new neighbors came over to help with a bit of coaching on the helm controls and then helped us walk the boat into the slip. Crisis averted. We got the boat tied up, bumpers out, stepped off the boat and our ride was there to take us home where Max was quickly dropped off and the grandparents ran away quickly for vacation!

We had spent the last 18 days living aboard our new to us Allmand 31ft sail boat. We completed a trip that was over 1000 miles going across the New York Harbor, up the Hudson River, across the Erie Canal, did our first overnight sail (38hrs on Lake Erie without stopping) and made it home to Detroit. We were first time boaters, with very little actual boating experience prior, traveling on a 30 year old boat that we had purchased on a snowy day in NJ nothing other then a surveyors report to go by, all while traveling with a 4yr old. Our friends, family, and co-workers thought we were crazy to even try such an adventure as new boaters but it turned out to be a great experience for the 3 of us and we are now looking forward to when Max gets a little older and we can start taking some trips as a family. The dream of taking a year off of work to spend it sailing up to Maine and then over to the Caribbean does not seem that far off any more!

Things that were great to have on the tip: A hand held radio, seems on most sail boats the radio is down in the living area which is hard to get to and probably even worse when someone is trying to hail you on the radio. I purchased a floating ICOM that worked great and rarely needed charging. Binoculars: Having owned a photography studio all our equipment had been Nikon and I knew the value of paying for good glass. The waterproof Nikon binoculars we bought worked great and actually made it easier to see in the dark then just my eyes alone. A nice chart plotter: We bought a Garmin 540s the day before the trip (I was going to try it without GPS going on charts alone but West Marine had a sale and my wife seemed to think it was not a bad idea to have one). The plotter was very easy to use and was great for all except the last couple days on the canal where the markers become unmarked and it did not even show that we were in water. It turned out to be great for trying to navigate at night, around Put-in-Bay (again at night), the Hudson River, and the Detroit area. A toaster oven (only worked when we had shore power): But worked out well for making pizza, toast, cookies, and other hot foods as our stove on board the boat is not currently in working order. Finally the Leapster & portable DVD player were great for keeping my daughter entertained as playing I Spy & all the other car games we played with our parents as kids on car tips does get old after a number of continues days ..

The only thing I wish we had on the trip was some way to have 110 power while underway. We had brought a little inverter with us but it was not much good other then to charge the DVD player, ipod or laptop while underway and with that the alternator was not really strong enough to recharge the house battery in any kind of reasonable amount of time after charging two devices. For our next trip we will have the propane stove fixed (it appears to be a smashed copper line not letting the gas though at the moment) and we are planning to buy one of the quiet Honda generators to take with us to top off batteries and provide limited power when anchored out.

Day 14 & 15: Lake Erie

It was official we had finished the Erie Canal and we had survived the Hudson River with no real issues. We had looked at the map and hoped to spend the next night in Erie Pennsylvania. While Amy and Belle took showers that morning I decided to have my first look at the chart and finally realized just how big Lake Erie is. We were now on what seemed like a hopeless time table and were starting to wonder what we were going to do as it was Friday and I was not sure we would make it back home by Sunday. Grandma had been watching our 1yr old (Max) while we were on this adventure and had planned to leave for vacation Saturday. We were already late getting back and needed to be at work on Monday. At this point we considered trying to get to Cleveland the second day and leaving the boat there to rent a car to go home until we could get another free weekend to bring the boat the rest of the way home.

Well it turns out we were all exhausted and ended up sleeping in, unfortunately we got out of the marina a bit later then we wanted to at about 9:30am and set out on the lake. It turned out to be a great day after the fog cleared from the storm the previous night. We decided to put the sails up and actually try doing some sailing, it was great! We quickly realized that it would be pretty late by the time we made Erie PA so we decided that we had been pretty luckily so far with the boat and we would try sailing though the night to see how much closer we could get to Detroit. We spent the rest of the day motor sailing though the middle of Lake Erie. At this point I should mention that we did not think to bring passports and were a bit afraid of going into Canadian waters without them so we were taking a slightly longer way across the lake to avoid any issues.

We decided to take shifts at the wheel, Amy put Belle to bed around 8 and soon after went to sleep in the cockpit with me with the agreement I would wake her up when I was ready. Sailing at night was one of the best experiences I have ever had; we had a completely clear night and great weather. Being able to look up and see all the stars reminded me of some of the time I had spent up in Maine as we never see that many stars living in the city. We had a fair breeze most the night and it helped us make an extra knot or two over the night. At about 3:30 I woke Amy up and took her place in the sleeping bag.

The next day we past Cleveland (we were maybe 10-15 miles out) and we decided to just keep going as it appeared our luck with the weather was going to hold out. The downside is that we had now been motoring for the last 30hrs and while I thought we might be able to make it to Detroit without stopping for fuel, I knew we would be coming in on fumes and did not want to risk it so we decided to target put-in-bay. We arrived in put-in-bay at about 12:30 on a Saturday night, I really had no idea what the lay out was or where to go so we went to the only dock that our charts listed as having fuel and it happened to be right in the hot spot with all the bars. Needless to say when we finally got off the boat after 38hrs of motor sailing Lake Erie our sea legs blended right in with the drunks wobbling about and we had no problems finding an open pizza place.

We both took turns wondering around a bit as Belle was still asleep on the boat. We noticed that they had a festival planed for kids the next day and it appeared they had another great play ground. Once again Belle was going to get shafted because of our time schedule but I figured if she woke up early enough I would take her over to play for a while and maybe we could get a hot breakfast as I was really getting tired of peanut butter and pop tarts.

Day 13: Raising the mast

We all slept in and by the time we finally got Belle dressed and ready the crane operator was there and ready to get our mast up, so Amy & Belle left for some much anticipated Mickey D’s (They also had a play land which was nice for Belle after being cooped up on the boat for the last few days in a row).

If you have been reading this you know by now that this is our first boat and we are completely new to sailing. With that said I went about putting the mast up. I had planned to rewire the mast, put a new radio antenna on it, and replace a few lights prior to putting it up but I did not realize how difficult it was going to be to work on the mast while it was on the boat so none of this got done. If I had planned a bit better I would have called ahead and had Wardell’s order the parts I wanted and been ready… Oh well, they did offer light bulbs but when I looked at mine the bulbs appeared to be undamaged so I assume I simply have some wiring issues, more stuff for the fix it list. I decided to go ahead and put the mast back up without doing any of the above mentioned work. Our survey indicated that we needed to rebuild our mast step in the next few years and our local yard has a crane so I’ll take that opportunity to replace the lights, wind indicator, and antenna next year.

When I had called the day before I had stressed that we were not very experienced with out boat and would need some help with the mast & rigging the fellow on the phone told us no problem they get folks like us all the time.. We would be well taken care of. Well they really did not know or care to know much about sail boats so once he lifted the mast up I was on my own. I went about the task of figuring out where all the rigging went, put up the sails, and tried to guess how tight to make the stays. Overall Wardell’s was a pretty hand’s off operation. After about 4hrs of messing around I managed to get the boat back together pretty well and felt fairly confident about my work.

It was now a little past lunch time Amy and Belle had visited both museums (they really liked the carousal museum and said the staff was very friendly & knowledgeable) and were now hungry. I met them in town; we got some lunch and ice cream once again then headed back to the boat. Amy took a look at my work and seemed pretty happy with everything but the lazy jacks that I somehow had managed to twist up a bit but that was easily fixed. We made a few attempts at trying to find a good location to put the supports that had been built to hold the mast somewhere on the boat but decided in the end that they would just be in the way and if we ran into any bad weather would probably be more of a liability then an asset later on so we left them at Wardell’s where I’m sure he will be happy to sell them to the next guy that comes though looking for supports.

We decided that even though it was supposed to rain soon it was time to head out. We really did not want to spend another night at Wardell’s and wanted to stay somewhere that we could get right out to Lake Erie the next day. We traveled up the river & though the next few locks & various swing bridges then found a nice marina to tie up to that night. This was the first time I had attempted to pull into an actual boat slip rather then a wall and we were a bit nervous. It did not help that the finger piers were about 3-4 feet higher then the deck of our boat. Needless to say I botched it and did not give the boat enough power to get into the slip and with the rain and height of the doc Amy had a few problems getting the bow line tied up and we ended up sideways in the slip (luckily no one else was near us and we were in the last slip next to the wall). Fortunately the owner of the boat on the other side of us heard our struggling and came out in the rain to help. He turned out to be a really friendly fellow that was very into racing. I wish it would not have been raining as I’m sure he would have loved to have taken us out and provided a few sailing lessons while answering with some of my rigging questions.

We had hoped to get another hot meal but decided to skip trekking anywhere in the rain and settled for some Romen noodles on the boat that night.

Day 12: We made it out of the Erie Canal!

We went though a number of lift bridges today, it amazes me that these are cost effective to build and staff? Seems all the bridge operators run at least two and sometimes three bridges. We were pretty lucky as there were not many boats out and did not have to worry about timing these bridges when the operator was at the far bridge. We finally went though our last set of locks on the canal today. They were a set of double locks where one opens right into another, it was neat. We entered these locks with a tourist boat. Apparently the previous lock had radioed ahead and they had held them in the lock until we arrived. Needless to say there were 10-15 folks that video taped us coming in and going up in the lock. Luckily we managed these both pretty well and hopefully won’t be seeing ourselves on Americas Funniest Home Videos any time soon. I wish we would have had time to stop that the museum at the last set of locks to learn more about the history of the canal but once again the time keeper kept pushing us on.

We called Wardell’s ahead of time and planed to spend the night there and put the mast up in the morning. We got in around 6 and were really ready for some food and a walk on land. We found a few nearby restraints and a Dairy Queen, both were welcomed by everyone on board. Belle & I had really been craving some ice cream!

Wardell’s was not the best place to spend the night as they are right on the river and immediately after the last bridge you go under before one can put the mast back up so you hear both bridge and boat traffic all night. They did not have shower facilities, the light was out in the only bathroom & the only power they offered was a 110 extension cord but it was better then nothing and we plugged our battery charger and several other devices in to charge up while we were there. Next time I would look to spend the night at the city dock/wall or possibly another marina with a stepping facilities.

Day 11: The last night on the canal

We got a bit of a late start today as we decided to take advantage of the free pump out facilities in Holly. This was my first time doing it myself but we did not run into any issues. It’s amazing how stinky that thing gets. For some reason our tank does not empty all the way so I tried filling it and emptying it several times, this & cleaning the bilge has really seemed to help a lot with the smell on-board.

Today we passed by a number of nice little towns along the way. Most look fairly depressed but do seem to have a town restraint, bar, and a few junk shops (my enduring term for antique or collectible stores). Our last few locks tonight we amazing, the sun was just right for the perfect evening light, a number of the flowering trees had dropped their peddles and it truly felt like we were in a Japanese style painting. I attempted to get some pictures but have not looked at the camera yet. For now like rest of the pictures I will upload a bad cell phone picture that will not do the scene justice at all. We ended the day tied up to a lock wall; looks like it will be a short day tomorrow?

Day 10: Lift bridge day

We got a late start out of Fairport today, leaving around noon due to some bilge issues the day before. I really can’t wait to get home and replace both pumps with a system I understand rather then putting band aids on top of the band aids to try and keep our current solutions working. We went by several towns that offered free pump outs, power and water today and decided to spend the night in the town of Holly. Unfortunately we only got 8 hours in today and the time keeper (Amy) aboard was not very happy about that but when you leave at 12:30 it was the best we could do. Holly offered a free tie up, shower, power, and pump out. We took advantage of all of them! They had a very nice park by the tie up wall but Belle had slept in that morning so we decided not to wake her though I’m sure she would have loved some time to run around and play.

Today was our second experience with lift bridges; we ran into one in Fairport but went though about 8 of them today. Most these bridges are about 3-5 feet off the water and everyone other then a kayaker has to call ahead to get them to open for them. Most the bridge masters run two bridges so they will typically ask how far you’re going then drive to the next one to let you though. Some are as close together as 100ft it seemed. They are cute but seem like an expensive way make/maintain a bridge.

We are hoping to make it to Tonawonda tomorrow where we can have our Mast put back up transforming ourselves back into a real sailboat, then head out into Lake Erie the next day. I am getting tired of the canals and would like a chance to put the sails up! I am guessing it should only be a 8-9hr day depending on bridges and the last few locks?

Day 9: Fairport

We had been on the canal for 8hrs and decided it was time to stop for fuel & a shower. So far it had been a long trip with little or no sight seeing and I was ready to get off the boat so after much pleading Belle & I convinced Amy we needed a short day so we pulled in early (4pm) to Fairport for the night. Note: Fairport does not sell gas you need to stop at the marina about a mile prior to getting to Fairport. We were all in need of a shower and this was a very nice town to stay at. Once we got in and tied up it started to rain, about this time Amy noticed that the bilge was filling up. Of course neither of our bilge pumps were working at this point so we had to figure out where the water was coming from and how to get it out of the boat. After searching for any water shut off we could find and closing all the sea cocks we felt comfortable little if any additional water was coming in. We later found out that the hot water hose had popped off & it was the water pump sending all our fresh water to the bilge. With the immediate issue solved we headed in to look for a bilge pump & a shower. Unfortunately none of the local shops carried marine parts, Amy was hungry so we headed out for some Mexican food. Dinner was good & I had never seen Mexican food presented as if one would expect in a high end restraint, the meal was expensive but cured my craving for Mexican. On the way back to the boat Amy stopped by the auto shop and asked if they had a loaner car we could rent unfortunately they didn’t but one of the mechanics was nice enough to loan us his car for the night. Amy headed to Wal-Mart to get supplies and to find something that might get the water out of our boat while Belle and I headed to the laundry. Amy found a little hand held electric pump and the next day we found batteries for it and pumped 8-10 gal of water out of the bilge. After playing with the water a bit more we determined that the water was coming from the hot water tank & the other source was from the drain in the ice box going to the bilge. After washing out the bilge a bit we decided to head over to the ice cream shop for a treat and then head out for the day.

Up until now we had spent a lot of time in the wetlands area of the canal and we were now starting to see civilization. It was nice to be reminded of life outside the boat again.

Day 8: Still on the canal

I just noticed that we apparently never finished updating this log. I am attaching our logs for rest of the trip & maybe summer today.


We are all starting to get restless aboard the boat, we only have a babysitter until Friday for our youngest Max (1yr old) that we left at home and we have been pulling some very long days with very few breaks along the way. I think all of us could really use a day off. Unfortunately that will not come until we get to Buffalo when we have the mast put up. We are hoping to get one more long day in today and then a much shorter day on Wed