On Tue, 11 Nov 2014 09:14:13 -0800 (PST), Jens Christensen
wrote:

On Tuesday, 11 November 2014 17:43:48 UTC+1, Sir Gregory Hall, Esq. wrote:
On Tue, 11 Nov 2014 07:29:43 -0800 (PST), Jens Christensen
wrote:

On Sunday, 9 November 2014 21:19:41 UTC+1, Flying Pig wrote:
Whole lotta shakin' goin' on revisited, part 6

Well, because it's been more than a year since our last log from Cumberland
Island and St. Marys GA, there are those among you who probably thought that
one of our gamestoppers, as seen in prior parts of this extended log, was
that we sank.

No, not that dramatic, though there WAS one failure, if the bilge alarm John
Gamble (svhotwire.com) built for us during our first refit (2004-2007) hadn't
kicked on, alerting us to it, that could have, eventually, sunk us.

This has been the story of shakedown interruptus.

At every move of our home, at the end, there was something which stopped us
from going further. We set out on January 26, 2013, for a shakedown
following our nearly-two-year refit. Before we even got out of the launch
slip, our start battery failed. Not when we were restarting off somewhere
in the middle of nowhere. Right there, where we could borrow a car, fetch
out our old, and buy and install a new, battery - and off we went. That was
followed, after we came south, by my noticing, in my preparation for raising
the sails, the problem with our genoa which would be addressed later, but
which prevented our using it for our first several trips. We made do with
our new staysail, much larger than the previous one, and able to provide
some drive under sail.

All of our moves, whether passages or mere daytrips, as seen in the previous
installments of "Whole lotta shakin' goin' on," have been successful. We've
been blessed with all of our failures occurring such that we weren't
hindered by them at the time, and such that safety was not an issue.

Our trips (the only ones in this series you've not yet seen) from Fernandina
Beach to Saint Augustine in October, and then to Vero Beach, on Christmas
Day 2013, were romps. Legs of the second trip can be seen in our shakedown
gallery by clicking the gallery link below. That the first trip was a real
nail-biter in the beginning was washed out by the fantastic sail which
followed the inauspicious start in the windy, rainy, darkness.

However, about the paucity of logs, to shorten the tale, while our shakedown
seems overwhelmingly long, there have been multiple month-long trips to
visit family, as well as a couple of excursions related to my
national-championship Freshman (Marietta College, Ohio) crew (rowing) in
between repairs. So, we weren't stuck ALL of the time!

In addition, this year, Lydia's mother moved from the home of a friend to a
retirement center, both in Vero Beach. That's a significant portion of the
reason for our current length of time in Vero, though there have been
several game-stoppers which happened here, too. It seemed that as soon as we
got one addressed, another arose.

In the nearly 11 years we've owned Flying Pig, the cumulative time we've
spent working on our boat in a boatyard environment amounts to several
years. Even when temperatures occasionally exceeded 100° F, it was
manageable. This summer, where we were hanging on a mooring ball in Vero
Beach, the temperatures rarely exceeded the mid 90's. Yet, it was by far
the worst summer we've ever had aboard, from heat to bugs and beyond. At
that, we're still aboard, though, for a moment, Lydia was ready to throw in
the sweat-soaked towel. Despite Lydia's desire to be closer to her mother,
who used to live in England, we are unwilling to chance repeating the
experience. So...

Cruisers know that, in addition to "You plan, God laughs," there is that
cruising plans are rarely cast in sand, let alone more firmly. With that
hovering in the back of our minds, we are going to try cruising (Bahamas and
maybe further East) in the spring and summer and sticking to a ball in Vero
Beach in the fall and winter.

While Flying Pig is on the mooring ball, a third of the time in those cooler
months will involve travel to our rapidly expanding families (geographic -
Atlanta and North Georgia, Sarasota and Vero Beach Florida, Charleston South
Carolina and Holland Michigan, and personnel - Lydia's just had her 3rd,
bringing us to a total of 13 grandchildren). In between, we might get jobs
(those 6 months are the snowbird season, and there are lots of short-term
jobs available at minimum wage or thereabouts) to try to rebuild the boat
kitty, as our refits have sucked up all the rest!

A propos of the above ground travel comments, at this time, we're on yet
another swing, initiated by the birth of Lydia's 3rd grandson (I have 10,
mixed), and won't be back in Vero until sometime in November. As I write
this, I'm in Michigan while Lydia plays slave to the new parents and revels
in her new grandson in Atlanta. Perhaps we'll be back in Vero Beach in time
for the amazing cruisers' Thanksgiving the city sponsors each year...

So, anyway, over the last 20 months, while we weren't traveling as above, we've
accomplished what amounts to a major refit in the water, occasioned, for the
most part, by failures which occurred during the shakedown following some
serious work in a boatyard. The list is huge - if you're either a masochist,
or looking for a reason why you don't REALLY want to sell your home and give
away all your stuff and move aboard a boat, or prepping yourself for your
own chore of the same nature, this will suit - over 40 significant items can
be seen in the shakedown gallery, some of which galleries include several
sub-galleries due to the complexity of the given repairs or upgrades. Those
of you who have been with us for a few years know that this was preceded by
a major refit in Riverside Marina in Ft. Pierce, FL, so the refit gallery
extends the number of items we've upgraded or addressed aboard since March
of 2011.

In the meantime, we've enjoyed our several locales as we visited, sometimes
to fetch parts, and others as mere tourists. These are shown in the
Anchorages thumbnail and their sub-galleries. In nearly every case, at each
locale, we've met cruisers we have known during our ACTUAL cruising times,
and met others with whom we've become fast friends. Some of them we even
provided crew, encouraging them to venture out and explore. As much as we've
been stuck, many of these folks' adventures had us drooling and twitching to
get back out there.

Passages in the shakedown gallery will show you some pictures under way, as
well as screenshots of our SPOT locator beacon, available at (no leading
www) tinyurl.com/FlyingPigSpotwalla. That allows one to go back more than
the only-a-week of SPOT's page. If you're interested in where we've been on
our various passages and trips (it's been quite a while since we moved the
boat!), you can see all the way back for several years by adjusting the date
range at the box on the left.

We expect to be back on the water (as in, cruising/shaking down, yet again)
around the first of the year, more or less. Our to-do list here on the
water, as is the case for most cruisers, expanded nearly daily in the
beginning. However, it's down to niggling stuff, some of which has been
there for years, due to the "blah" nature of both the chore and the
significance of not addressing it right now. When we get back, I'll button
up the navigation suite, which includes removal of some equipment no longer
used, a chartplotter which has had a display screen service call, a
resolution of obtaining a location fix over the three computer-based
navigation programs we have, a nearly total rewiring of the various
connections of the navigation instrumentation, one of which solved a very
significant and safety-related problem we'd had, and, finally, a resolution
to our GPS issues. After that, I'll address the two forward bilge pumps,
and, if we don't get another surprise, we'll be ready to go.

So, thank the Lord for our protections in all of our failures, and the
directed activities which helped, or protected, or merely identified, our
many issues aboard.

We'll be back at it soon. Stay Tuned!

L8R


Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing about in
boats-or *with* boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's
the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

Hi Skip

I have been missing your stories about you and your boat. Have followed your posts for years and have learned a lot from your good and bad times on board.

Do not take the following as critique of you or your boat in any way. But reading all the repairs people have on their boats and the eternal "boat repairs in exotic places" have convinced me to not upgrade anything at all on my boat.

I have an Albin Viggen a 24 foot boat built in 1974. Its similar to the Albin Vega which i think is better known. In the beginning I wanted to upgrade everything on that boat. New sails, roller furling, self tailing winches, new NMEA navigation system, wind gauges everything new and a lot of new equipment.
But reading all those repair stories made me realise that if I actually wanted to sail and not spending to much time with hazzles of systems I would have to find simpler solutions for everything.

So for almost 5 years I have sailied here in Denmark/Sweden during summers without upgrading anything at all.

Kept the old sails, they work fine and after cleaning they look fine also. New sails would only mean 0,5-1 extra knot of speed.
Kept the old hank on system for jib/genua. Its a hazzle yes, but it works and never jams. Have added a downhaul so i can lower sail from the cockpit.
Kept the old winches, they work and will most likely work for 10-20 more years.
Skipped all advanced systems. Have an old Furuno gps that came with the boat. Mostly I use my iphone with Navionics. Never failed me. Dont need to measure the wind speed. If it blows 7,1 or 7,5 knots dont mean anything in real life to me. The boat will move at the speed it will move.

I use a simple portapotti for toilet. Costs only 60USD, any problems with it and I will replace it immediately at a cost of another 60USD. Pocket money.
For refrigeration i used a 12v cooling box. Think the price was around 500USD. Will just replace it in case of problems after the warranty is out.

Furthermore the outboard engine is about 7 years old. Will replace it with a new one at around 2000 usd at first sign of serious problems. I perform normal service on it yearly and never spend anymore time on it.

Every spring the boat is on land 2-3 days where I polish the entire boat and paint the bottom. I like my boat shining and clean all over.

I guess my point is this: im not against anything new and clever when it comes to boats. But I have seen so many people(not pointing fingers at Skip) spend tons of money and time and they actually sail very little. Because its difficult with big boats and they are tired after repairs and hazzles. For many people I think that they should only rent a boat for those 1-2 months they actually sail every year. Most people here in Denmark infact only manage to make time for 1 maybe 2 weeks a year. Many people sail 0 times in a year.

"Keep it simple, go now and keep going all summer" is my version of the Pardeys qoute ;-)

I hope that you get back out there sailing Skip, keep the good and the bad stories coming :-)



You and I share a similar philosophy. It's all about priorities.

FIRST, IT'S A SAILBOAT!!!

That simple thought should always be kept in mind, especially when
considering systems and upgrades. "Is any of the *fluff* really
necessary and will it really allow me to sail more and/or safer?

Never even drill a hole anywhere in a boat without first asking
yourself, "Do I really need whatever it is I want to drill holes
to mount?" Probably not. And, if there's any doubt, use hook
and loop fasteners instead. Don't mar the vessel.

Outboard motors are way less trouble than inboards. Way cheaper,
too. You are more likely to sail than to motor than with an
inboard.

Hank-on sails are basic, trouble-free and economical. They actually
provide better lift than a roll-up.

Poor Skippy has fallen completely into the trap I attempted, years
ago, to warn him about. He's totally encumbered. First, he's
encumbered by marriage. Second, he followed suit and encumbered
himself with too large a boat and he crammed it full of unnecessary
objects that he's forced to look after. This is a prescription for
stay-at-home-sailors. And, he doesn't even enjoy living aboard as
the distaff side has turned him into a baby sitter of sorts for all
the relatives. It seems to me the wife actually works hard keeping
Skippy away from that boat. I just hope she doesn't snicker about it
to her friends.

No man should be pussy whipped - willingly or otherwise. Likewise,
no man should be boat whipped. The man should own the boat. The
boat should not ever ever own the man.

Skippy has two owners - Lydia and the Flying Pig. He'll never be
free.

--
Sir Gregory

I read somewhere that boats are relatively hazzle free the first 5 years of lifetime, after that the projects starts to build up. And the costs too.

Some time ago I watched the videos of a german girl that bought a project boat in Panama. A large steel hull boat that was in effect derelict and should have been trashed.
But she continues for 9 months and actually manages to get it at the least in a temporary semi-good condition. But it took 9 long months and I guess a huge amount of cash. Her videos can be seen on Youtube. They are all numbered, start with #1 and watch the projectboat horror begin:
https://www.youtube.com/user/WhiteSpotPirates/videos

She would have been much better of if she had bought a older,smaller boat in near perfect condition in Florida for 10.000USD or less.
She would have saved a lot of money and gotten 9 more months of sailing.

Also this couple of LeaLea is worth watching on Youtube. They sail in a old Albin Vega 27 feet. They have crossed from Hawaii to US several times and are now in Canada. They also keep the projects and the complexety down to a minimum:
https://www.youtube.com/user/vega1860/videos

It is my impression that they havent had many breakdowns in their many years of sailing full time. Only bad forecasts stop them.

The idea is(I think), get a brand new boat with all the bells and whistles AND a warranty that covers it all. Sell the boat after 5 years when the projects starts. Just my 2 cents.


There is something that should be considered that is often not
considered. That is the personality of the sailor. Some people
are builders and tinkerers at heart and an old, beat-up sailboat
might, indeed, be the perfect venue for such as these.

The builder/tinkerer is rarely happy when the project if complete.
He is often bored with sailing. The builder/tinkerer derives his
satisfaction from his friends patting him on the back and telling
him how industrious and competent he is. When it comes to sailing
these personalities are pretty much lost.

This may be the case with Skippy. Perhaps he's never been keen on
sailing but sailing was simply a means to an end for him - being
able to build, tinker and hang around boats talking up a good
game. His prolific posts and forum contributions might bear out
this theory.

But, if this should be the case, then Skippy should just admit
that he's finally gotten his fill of building/tinkering and
talking about it and has discovered he's bored with sailing for
sailing sake and announce he's retiring from the boat business.

This would surely make his wife and thus his life a whole lot
simpler.

--
Sir Gregory