All Blog Posts (165)

Boat Show

Went to the LA boat show in Marina Del Rey a couple weekends ago to check out current doodads and gewgaws on recent boats. Love the newer pushbutton locker latches that pop out and become handles when unlocked. So Nice is getting some of those!

Also pleased to see that some of my 'original' ideas for handling airflow in storage lockers and such have been embraced on a few the boats we saw.

Was amused at how…

The Enterprise (Hull # 99) is on a trip down the ICW from Scituate MA and was just hauled in Oriental NC for the holidays and our 50th wedding anniversary. You can track our progress at our website http://geocav111-enterprise.com/.

Hi Everybody........Thank you for inviting me into your community.....My name is Charles Thompson and I am the proud Canadian owner of  # 14   a 1956 Newporter..".Rubaiyat "and live on Saltspring Island...one of the Canadian Gulf Islands and a great stop-over for the Alaska run up the inside passage.  I have had my boat for a few years now,purchasing it in California and bringing it north. I found her on the internet,went south to look at her and  I was immiediatly   struck by her apparent…

So we have a friend visiting from Seattle for a bit under two weeks, having something of a working vacation. Our best choice for a day to go sailing, between her arrival and departure, my work schedule and her activities while in town was this last Saturday.

We had watched the weather predictions and it looked like it was going to be a brisk day - 10-15 kts through the afternoon. I was excited about the prospect of a good strong blow to carry us along... but as the weather picked up…

Drawing up the cockpit redesign.



I'd mused on it before and have since mused extensively, measuring and remeasuring and laying down, pretending it's already there, imagining the repositioning and enlarging of storage, visualizing where the support structures need to be inside, figuring where the hatches should be... Basically, joining the side benches in the cockpit all the way back to the Cleopatra, making them slightly deeper (and trapezoidal - tapering towards…

For those of you who haven't ventured into northern British Columbia waters as yet...come soon, while the whales are still visiting!  There is no experience that quite compares with sailing through the spectacular archiplelagos of our inside passage and finding massive marine mammals rising beside your boat for a breath of air!

The downside of the inside passage is that there are two wind directions and they're always against you.  You've got to be prepared for a lot of motoring if…

Thanks for all the personal, non-sailing support folks! Knowing people are rooting for me and that others have gone before me (thanks for sharing that, Paul - the words I've gotten from friends and acquaintances, sometimes people that I have known personally but never knew their story, have been some of the most encouraging even when it's "Yep. Happened to me. I'm ok. You'll be ok, too.")



I'm halfway through my radiotherapy now, so far side effects have been manageable (some nausea,…

• Build settee berths with a slight hollow, and 1in fall outboards. This will do wonders to keep the tired mariner off the cabin sole. William Garden
• For cabin ventilation, the total intake area in square inches = beam x waterline length (in feet). Rod Stephens
• The cramping of hatches, skylights and companionways only tend to emphasize the smallness of one's craft, whereas if these openings are held to comfortable proportions or even…

A few weeks ago, I woke up sick. I didn't know quite what was wrong - abdominal pain... maybe I ate something that disagreed with me. By the next morning, I knew I needed to get to a doctor as it had localized and was very severe.

So I went to the ER. There were some tests to determine if it was something demanding emergency surgery. A sonogram indicated one testicle was apparently enlarged and had an internal mass of some sort. So, I was referred to a urologist. I was told that I…

It's been some time since we've posted here and I have to admit that we shamelessly abandoned our Newporter to go live like landlubbers for the better part of a year, looking after a pretty nice house for some friends.  Of course, we intended to use the time to do all of the really dirty work that needed doing on Viajador, but somehow, the weather was never quite right when we had the time, etc., etc.

Just to bring you all up to date on our boat woes, the last trip we made ended up…

This was mentioned somewhere in one of my posts about SPREADERS, and was illustrated for Bob (via email) with a cropped picture of the spreaders and spreader lifts which he recently posted.  To illustrate the need for high resolution for pictures being posted, compare these two pictures of the Sultana:…

Anyone know where I can find an exhaust manifold for the Ford 172 diesel engine, mine is shot I have tried to find one up here in the Northwest to no avail, thanks  Mike.

Between the lazzerette deck blocking post and this one about cockpit layout I've been obsessing over a cockpit remodel. I noticed, for the first time, that the side benches on mine aren't the same height. The portside bench is roughly an inch taller: nobody notices it until…

I still have many parts to Hull #12 if anyone is interested, to include two Kenyon Aluminum masts, sheets, Spinaker pole and sail, etc.  Pulled off everything from stem to stern except for keel (and spare rudder/batteries/solid stainless steel bowsprit, which were stolen by the yard).  You can contact me at eric_brockmyre2004@hotmail.com or 305.731-4983 after July 1

Functionally repaired (finally) the step down into the cabin. The bulkhead had been modified for the new engine and I've had a temporary fix in place for a while. Tore out the temp fix and rebuilt it to be more sturdy and permanent. I have some of the new cosmetic face for it finished, hopefully will be able to finish that next Saturday. Soon... New floors. Not sure exactly when I'll tackle that. But soon!

Waiting on some parts for the RGB LED strip lighting. They should be in this…

So I've been working on refinishing the exterior wood. It's looking good - I have another weekend worth of work and a few mornings during the week of laying up lacquer, then a day of touching up the paint and that will be finished. Since I work full time, I have to squeeze it in where I can so it could be a few weeks before that gets finished.

One thing that I can do in the evenings is work on the lighting. I've been installing RGB LED strips in recesses and behind coves. You…

We had a great sail on Memorial Day. Ended up having exactly a dozen, as predicted - plenty of room for everyone to relax and enjoy themselves. Considering that most weren't experienced sailors, I think having only two people get ill was a pretty good record.

The weather was really perfect - warm, good breeze all day, calm seas (2 ft wind waves, 2-4 ft swells, long period)... We sailed North for a few hours, then south for a few, then back in. Nothing special.…

Adjusting and Repacking the Shaft’s Packing Box

There are (were, when I last had anything to do with them) several types of packing boxes (glands, or some other name) but they usually had much in common. Their purpose is to prevent water from entering the boat through the shaft tube. Repacking is best done with the boat out of the water because in repacking you need to take all of the old packing out before you put the new in. Adding a ring or two of packing can be…