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Wishing all of you on the Lake Happy Canada Day. It's been a while since I donated Wind Horse to Doctors Without Borders, but I miss her and the fleet. My best to you all. Keep the 27s sailing!
Mike
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Been thinking about you all since the beginning of fall and hoped that all of you and your boats survived the recent bad weather in the north east. Keep on sailing. I'll get back to it someday. For the time being I'm still out on the motorcycle. In the mean time if any of you see my boat bobbing around out there let me know...
Best,
mike
Ex of SV Wind Horse
C&C 27 Hull 375
Well guys, it's been several months since I donated Wind Horse to Doctors Without Borders. She has a new home somewhere in Louisiana and a new skipper who came and sailed her off without a second thought. And me... I'm back to racing motorcycles.
Anyway, I was just dropping by to wish my old internet friends a happy sailing season. Texas has had good winds, but high temperatures so far this year. I understand that the lakes may have had some rainier weather.
You sail a very special boat. Take care of them.
Mike M
Galveston
Late of 375 "Wind Horse"
Wind Horse has been sold. My thanks to all the good members of the Association for sound advice and good comradery all of these years. The resource this group provides is priceless.
My best to all the members of the forum.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Wind Horse (MKII) has an over the counter power boat dodger with a few modifications. Spefically, the back frame has been cut to aid getting it around the backstay during assembly. A fitting holds the two ends together. Also the bimini has been cut to fit the stay.
As for the traveller, if it is the small type that fits between the seat, it can be moved to the front of the cockpit. WH was originally set up that way to accomodate a wheel that was never installed. In either case you will have to move the traveller, or come up with another method like double tackles attached to pad eyes on the cabin top. Otherwise you will have the dodger only covering half of the cockpit. Since you are cruising I would suggest you conside the double tackle method since it is easy to convert back to a standard vang/mainsheet setup if you do decide to race. A lot of what you do will be determined on your boom and if you want to put a bail in it.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Well guys, I've made this threat before, but sadly this time it is true, Wind Horse will be for sale (MKII). I started a new business in March and it looks like I'm going to have even less time for the boat in the coming year or two.
I wanted to give members of the Association and followers of the list advanced notice of the sale. In the coming weeks I will be putting Wind Horse on eBay with little or no reserve to make sure she sells.
The boat sails well, has had all new hoses and much of the wiring replaced. She has a 2gm and a PSS shaft seal that works flawlessly.
Cosmetically she is rough and has a soft spot near the bow. I kept meaning to fix then pain the boat, but every time I made it down to the marina with epoxy I ended up sailing.
If anyone is interested I can be reached at fairmail53atyahoo (make the obvious changes). I would rather have a C&C lover get the boat than otherwise so make an offer.
The boat is on Galveston Bay.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
I've long considered the idea of chopping out the old ice box and setting up a space to hold an Engle refrigerator. If doing an installation like this it might be prudent to make the space large enough to hold a standard sized cooler as well. That way the refrigerator could be removed if the boat was ever sold.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
You may want to track down Mike Lohr who posted here some time ago. He pulled his keel as part of some restoration work. Sadly it was stolen and sold for scrap. He may be able to provide you with some information.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
I race Wind Horse once or twice a year, generally at the marina get togethers with a couple of old guys from the docks for crew. I always hold my own, finishing ahead of much larger boats. That I write off to the boat, not my skills. (You could pick any five association members at random and expect me to come in sixth against them.) My point is, that even the old MKIs and MKIIs can hold their own and sail fast. Just keep a lot of jib up.
The real difference in the older boats is the off balance rudder, not the length or the materials. It takes a really good sailor to make those extra 6 inches count.
If you are going to cruise, consider the older boats. They can often be had at a savings, especilly over the V. And that is extra money for new sails, etc.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Wind Horse has the same kind of boom and two things to keep in mind. First is that the orginal outhaul would have to work in a way that did not interfere with the reefing system. On my boat that means that the outhaul is not very complex and contained almost entirely on the outer end of the boom where you can't get at it most of the time. There is no wire anywhere that I recall.
The next thing is that owners down through the years may have modified your boom. 27 sailors are an industrious lot. Besides David's example there is a good write-up in black arts on outhauls.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Ralph may chime in here. He has a Standard Hoizon 175 mounted on the port. I plan to do the same with mine which is now located on a board that fits in the companionway. The location works fine for me. I have made a teak pad to mount mine on the bulkhead as well. Someday I'll install it... someday.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
I'll take a look and see if I can find it.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Zaphod has a 27? Really cool frood!
(Many people get custom shirts for their boat crew... I bought towels.)
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
What else would he sail? Morever, it's improbably fast. I hope you bought your crew each 6 pints of bitter along with the towels to cushion the transition. - Admin
I think that some where up under the floor of Wind Horse is the sending unit from the old knot meter. Find out which one you have and post the brand. Assumming that my old one is still there and the two are the same, I'll send it to you for the cost of shipping.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Agreed, and I regret that I might sound like I was on the attack when I'm not. I bought Wind Horse in 2004 and that was the last time I put fuel in her. I'm surprised that she still runs on the old fuel, but it's about a mile from the slip to the bay so how much can I burn? The state just sold off shore wind rights which my birdwatching wife assures me will kill a lot of birds that winter in Mexico and summer in Canada. The only real solution is conservation.
best
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
I looked into electric motors and could not find one that had a reasonable combination of price, power and durablility. I think Lagoon tried a generator electric, but it was an expensive addition to an already expensive boat. If I try to go even more green than a sailboat I think the solution is to put bio-diesel in my existing yanmar 2GM. Fortunately Willie Nelson is spending some of this music earnings by sponsoring a bio-deisel refinery near Houston. I'm still running on a tank of fuel that I put in several years ago.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
A group 27 spins my little Yanmar admirably so I no longer make a distinction between starting and house batteries.
One thing that might be worth consideration, especially since much of the fleet will be returning to the water soon, is to remove and throughly check your main battery switch. When I purchased Wind Horse, I found that the switch "leaked" a lot of current in the off position. Replacing the switch added a lot to battery life.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
I run flat webbing from a ring (staysail) in the center of the foredeck back to the toerail on each side. The boat came with cable but it was hard to walk on while underway. Mount a D ring in the cockpit to teather to at the helm and you are set.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Doug,
Good message. I have some particularly gory photos of a boat that went aground on Nekker Island a few years back when the skipper was sailing waypoint to waypoint by GPS and autopilot. Even when the plotter/GPS is right, the underlying chart can be wrong. I'm a big fan of chart plotters because I sail single handed, but I don't trust them any more than my DR skills. Nothing beats a set of eyes looking forward.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
I have a blue hull with similar problems. I have found that Woody Wax Ultragloss Fiberglass Restoring Compound will work great if you follow the directions exactly. Second the buffer.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Wind Horse has a 6 watt Siemans charging two group 27s. In the winter the results are a little weak. In the spring, summer and fall it will overcharge the batteries. I need to find a better charge controller than the inexpensive one I bought at West Marine.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
David has a good point that applies to both diesels and A4s and that it routine maintenance. I'm generally a "go with what ya got" guy and know a lot of guys with well maintained A4s that never have any problems. One advantage of a diesel is weight. A yanmar 2gm is about 60 pounds lighter than a A4 and that is about three cases of beer for the crew. Seriously though, if you do go with a diesel consider finding a rebuild instead of a new one. In a second of searching I found a rebuilt 2GM20F for $3850US + core. That gives you some money left over for the extras.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
I was discussing this very topic a year or so ago and one thing that has really brought the middle class into sailing in the first place was the rise of reasonably priced used sailboats. Frankly, you can get a good crew on a new racing boat to beat a MKI - MKIV, but a fair sailor who is seriously trying, can give much bigger boats a run for their money on a C&C 27.
In keeping with the financial/Douglas Adams references (but moving on to Dirk Gently) in 1985 a Jag XJ6 was $32,000 US and today an XJ runs $67,000. Not nearly the gain that Sailboats have seen. Used, with no rust, the '85 cost about $5500 today. But to David's point, I don't think that Jaguar has as much resin as a sailboat. As for Jaguar's new owner Tata, they will be on our shores with a car in 2011 or so. Since my old Saturn is going to bite the dust soon, I can't wait to visit a showroom full of Tatas.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
When my boat was shipped to Texas in early 1974 the price was $12,048 US plus shipping from Ontario. At that time median household income in the state was $13,924. Today the median is $57,511 so a new boat of similar build would work out to about $50K US. I've pretty much quit reading most of the sailing magazines because the articles no longer speak to the average sailor. Boat US, GOB and Practicle Sailor are the only three I still take.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx
Doug, Anything beats freezing!
Alan, If the guy's name was Bubba then that was my ex brother in law. (I know, I know, but I was young and she was really stunning!) If you get a chance research Okie Noodling.
Mike M
SV Wind Horse
#375
Galveston, Tx