On Mar 31, 10:37 am, Don W
wrote:

Now that you've discovered the wonders of epoxy,
and how easy it is to repair plastic boats, there
will be no holding you back.

Also, after that experience of pounding on the
reef for a while with all sorts of dreadful
conclusions going through your head, I'll bet you
never touch ground accidentally again ;-)

Don W.

Hi, Don, and List,

Heh. I already knew about epoxy from the massive blister job we did
last summer. What I hadn't known about, and as glad to learn, was
about polyester, the material used to rebuild our boat before the
epoxy barrier coat went on over the repairs. However, you're right
about no holding us back. As dismaying as being uninsurable is on
first thought, we realize that short of a whale getting angry at us,
it's unlikely we'll hit anything hard enough to hole our boat - and if
it ain't got a hole in it, it won't sink. And, if we manage to get
banged up, however it happens, we can fix it. Gloriously, fiberglass
and resin (of whatever sort) is relatively cheap, and if we continue
to maintain a large reserve, as well as - if we can - continue to
build the boat kitty by watching our pennies, we should be all right
in any eventuality.

As to never accidentally touching ground again, if you define ground
as stuff which isn't usually wet, I think you're right about that.
However, I fully expect we'll not only touch bottom again, there may
even be times we'll have to get pulled off, or wait a long time to
float off. Any sailor who sez they've never been aground hasn't left
the dock, or started yesterday :{)) Over in the Island Packet list
there's a thread about how the extremely well experienced and, of
course, highly qualified, captain of the QEII ran her aground at full
throttle near Boston. One of Nigel Calder's seminars features his
comments and observations on how many times he's gone aground (and how
he's gotten off, pertinent to his topic). I figure that if the QEII
captain and Nigel can admit to going aground, I won't be embarrassed
to doing so once in a while. Besides, rather than have the travel
lift pull us up, or us dig out under it, the bottom of the keel isn't
well painted. Gotta polish it every so often :{))

Thanks for your interest...

L8R

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