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I was at a board meeting of our club's sailing school last night, and as usual boat stuff other than teaching sailing came up. One of our board members is a yacht broker who is refurbishing a C&C 30 on the side (technically, at the side of his house). There's an old atomic in it which is trash-pile worthy. He said he was replacing it with a diesel. He felt you could find a rebuilt diesel of 12-hp for 2-3,000. That was his plan, anyway. Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
I dropped in on the boat show in Toronto, which I haven't done in a couple years. I was quite struck by the number of Toronto-area clubs with displays, looking for members. I know this has gone on for years, and I don't know if that represents genuine need for fresh blood or not. The Georgian Bay marinas up where I sail also had booths, but many frankly had no available slips: everything was already booked solid.
Demand for slips in southeastern Georgian Bay has remained so fierce that local marinas took one look at the global economic meltdown last year and with the exception of Doral Marine, which held the line on rates, punched through another round of increases for 2009, generally 3 to 6 percent. I haven't surveyed them all this year, and there may have been more holding the line. I belong to Midland Bay S.C., which is a self-help club where total membership costs are probably less than half of a commercial marina. (Granted we don't have a diningroom, swimming pool or any other doo-dads, but the place is well run.) We now have a healthy membership waiting list, where only a couple seasons ago we would have been able to figure out how to squeeze in a small keelboat.
I've thought a lot about when boating will get to the tipping point where I live and boat: the point at which powerboaters especially look at increasing storage and dock costs and fuel bills and decide it's just too much. But so long as people are asking $1,000-$2,000 a week to rent their cottage, a boat, even if it hardly ever leaves the dock, continues to look like a vacation bargain. One thing stopping a mass exodus is that the resale market for powerboats is so horrible that people can't part with their investments. I don't see it rebounding any time soon. We set an attendance record in our club sailing school last summer, and demand for our adult LTS program has also never been higher.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Bingo. Found it: CoRoT-7b. It's the smallest planet and the most like Earth that astronomers have found to date. Surface temp of 3600F may be a problem. If I start walking now I could be there by the time our sun explodes.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Mike: I'm sitting at my computer reading your message, looking out the window at frozen-solid Georgian Bay. I no longer take winter in stride. I spend most every day from haulout (October) to spring launch (early May) wondering when it will end. I don't ski like I used to, and snowmobiling holds no interest for me. I'm going to head on over to Google Earth and look for places that seem warmer but not completely out of the question where health care coverage is concerned...Toronto boat show is on. I have to drive some urchins to Toronto on Sunday to take the train back to university, and I may drop in (haven't for a few years) and think nautical thoughts. Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
I installed the wireless windspeed thingie last May. For the most part it has given me reliable service. I found one really oddball problem of losing the signal, three different times, when I was sailing to the lee of Beausoleil Island in southeastern Georgian Bay. A Tacktick rep in the US phoned me promptly when I reported it and it was a head-scratcher. There were no obvious sources of signal interference, although I think the channel can be interfered with by radio-control toys. The rep told me they'd had some issues in San Diego where there was interference from naval operations, but he couldn't think of a reason for why I was having such a locally specific problem. We'll see what it's like in 2010.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Bwahahahahah
Well played.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
OK, but I didn't mention that during those 2 weeks I twice had to pick up a rattlesnake to scare away a bear.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
I'd like to see the pics of the curtain replacement. Our door slides on a track as well. A heavy, spring-loaded thingie that occasionally traps people. Would be nice to get rid of it. Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Mike, I'm confoozed about your adding a holding tank to the head. Wasn't there a holding tank there before? Or did the head drain straight to the bilge?
Speaking of doors, my wife can't stand the bifold door that separates the V-berth from the head. I lowered it to get more ventilation into the berth, and thought of replacing it with a curtain, but the curved headliner defeated my efforts to come up with a solution.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
David is exaggerating about the weather up here, of course. Why, this year, summer showed up in mid-August and hung around all the way to Labour Day.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
For the last 15 years, I've been watching zebra mussels steadily colonize Georgian Bay. Coincidentally, club haulout this year was the first time I'd really noticed zebra mussels attached to members' boats, mainly on outboards on small keelboats, but also around the sterns and rudder posts of boats whose owners were a little too casual with applying a biocide bottom paint. I have heard tell of zebra mussels doing a pretty thorough job of colonizing outboard and outdrive legs, but so far haven't lost too much sleep about them getting inside my atomic 4. I'm not sure what they can handle in the way of heat, and the veligers would have to get past the water pump first. Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
I'd appreciate knowing too. As I said it's turned into a chronic problem. Just lowering the sail can force the extrusions apart and then you've got a sticky situation. I found a lovely blade jib (Charlie Smith Sails!) in the inventory of my sail locker that I don't think has ever been used and at some point had a luff tape sewn onto it. I want to start using it instead of the rolled 150 or 135 when it's breezy, but right now the foil problems discourage me from sail changes. I really suspect I may have to go the route of drilling through into the extrusions when they're in the right position, tapping the hole, and screwing them securely into place.
Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Thanks for the note of support. Since I stand 5'6" (and my wife is about 5'3") I've always said that scalewise a C&C 27 feels to us like a 30-footer does to people 6 ft tall, so why shouldn't we be happy...Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
My main problem has been slippage in the foil sections. There's a lot of weight in all that aluminum extrusion bearing down on the retainer screws in the drum, and I've had slippage that caused a gap to open and the sail luff tape to jam. This has been a problem the past two seasons and I'm not quite sure what the answer is beyond doing something scary like tapping holes in the extrusions and having them firmly screwed in place within the drum. But otherwise, yes, mine has worked quite nicely.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
My 1971 27 has one of Heider Funck's super-funky UltraFurls. (At least I think it is. The label's getting pretty pale.) Were I buying another one (and I don't need to) a priority would be if possible an ability to actually take the thing apart and service it without having to disconnect the forestay. You can do this with Heider's design, and it has saved me from trips to the club mast crane when I've had to deal with some slippage in the foil sections. I don't know how common or even available that is on new systems.
Incidentally, I don't need a pulley to direct the halyard away from the foil and avoid snarls. The solution to this with my furler is to have a leader from the head (wire inside a length of luff tape) on the #2 and blade that makes sure most of the foil is occupied as with the #1. A sailmaker can sew one up for you. You need one for each sail without full hoist.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Glad to be of help, and as you say, you can always switch back. I confess as well that I did an end run around Harken's lazyjack "kit" (more than $200) by just downloading their installation pdf to get basic placement dimensions for my mainsail. I bought a package of coated clothesline wire instead of white coated aircraft grade wire (about 1/8 the cost), a couple Harken bullet blocks, and with some spare line, a swager and a minor assortment of fittings (some of which were in hand) did the whole job comfortably within 2 figures. I gambled on the clothesline wire because if I messed up it would be cheap to replace. The system works perfectly.
Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
[While it's true that some people are so insanely busy that kits for this and that make sense, it's always struck me that reliance on labour-saving shortcuts is selling the sailing/boat-owning experience short. One of the pleasures of owning a boat is really delving into it, understanding it and making it your own by doing things in ways that you've thought through and then done as you feel they ought to be done. You only have to learn to splice or swage once, for instance, but thereafter all your eyes are perfectly sized, instead of pre-spliced compromises. - Admin]
Some additional comments on a single-line system, as I'm not sure why a whole kit from Harken is required.
My line is dead-ended at the end of the boom at some convenient spot. Don't overdo the line diameter, as that's an invitation to the friction problems I mentioned. The reef line passes up through the clew reef cringle. then down to a cheek block on the side of the boom. Make sure the dead-end point and the cheek block are positioned sufficiently aft that they're exerting a pull that is back as well as down, to get decent foot tension. Then the line runs all way forward (mine passes inside the lazyjacks to avoid drooping) to a ball-bearing block hanging on a eyestrap on the mast at boom level. Line goes up from the block, through the tack reef cringle, then all the way down to the foot of the mast, through another block hung on the bail at the aft end of the mast step. From there, it's through a deck organizer to a rope clutch.
If you minimize friction and keep the line diameter smallish (3/8 should be loads), reefing is very simple matter of easing the halyard (and don't forget to release the vang), pulling on the single line, making sure both reef points are pulled down to the boom, then reapplying halyard tension. The whole job takes a minute or less and can be done without leaving the cockpit.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
I have a Mk 1 (#93, 1971) that I reef a fair bit. It didn't have any reefing (except for the roller boom that lacked the handle) when I bought her a couple seasons ago. I have a single line system leading back to a rope clutch. It works absolutely fine. The enemy of the single line system is friction, which can cause the tack reef to be pulled down to the boom before the clew reef has been snugged up. But I don't see any reason to complicate life with a two-line system on a boat of this size.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Thanks Marcus. I do have a grease cup and it seemed to pretty loaded, but I haven't topped it up. It makes sense as you say to drop the thing this fall, give it a cleaning, and reload the grease cup.
Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
I have an Edson pedestal on my Mk1. One issue I've had with it in almost 4 years of ownership is that somewhere in the system there's a very slight gronking noise (maybe around the shaft or in the cockpit floor) when I'm in waves and not necessarily even in much wind. It sometimes occurs just when slopping in powerboat wake. I've crawled around underneath to see if anything's amiss, even had a swim with mask and given the rudder a good shake and push, but I can't detect any untoward movement. I was sailing with Bill Goman (ex-C&C and Goman/Express Yachts) the other day and he suggested maybe I want to drop the rudder in the off season and have a good look. I don't know if anyone else with an Edson and a vintage scimitar rudder ever hears noises.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Good debate here. Like David, I've always been leery of preventers. My vang has a snap shackle release that will allow it to be moved to the toerail as a preventer, but I've never done so, as I always worry about an accidental gybe that might pin the main on the wrong side and knock us down before I can scramble to the clutch and release the vang. As I'm cruising under white sail, I generally avoid by-the-lee anyway, sailing to 160-170 true except when it's light and I wing-and-wing. But on Sunday I was doing just that when I was surprised by a shift (and I have a wireless tacktic that lets me keep a close eye on wind direction, at least on apparent). Once the boom started crossing it was best just to let it go. On my boat, which has wheel steering and a traveller just in front of the binnacle, that still means a mess of 4:1 mainsheet sweeping across the cockpit and trying to hook people's heads as well as grab my gps plotter on the binnacle and throw it overboard. Waves on Georgian Bay can also give the boom enough momentum in lighter winds to do the same thing. I haven't made my mind up about rigging a preventer. This gives me more to think about over the (don't say it) off-season.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Further to the comments about Evergreen and Yacht Design Explained (and nothing to do with refrigeration) I was sailing with Steve Killing last night on his custom 50-foot design for John Daniells. Pics of that machine can be seen at http://www.stevekilling.com/daniells50.htmDoug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Further to my posts on galley recombobulation, I just completed the most dead-simple mod/improvement. I'll take some pictures, but for now let me astonish you with my parsimonious ingenuity. I've added a removeable counter inboard of the icebox. It's a 5/8-thick piece of stock shelving, 12 inches wide, 24 inches long, that I cut down to 22.5 inches. There's now a fiddle under the counter that runs beneath the companionway, and another fiddle that runs along the bulkhead divider that provides the backrest to the seat ahead of the icebox. The shelf drops into place flush against the counter unit with the icebox, and hey presto, two more square feet (or so) of instant counter that can hold two dinner plates or whatever you're fishing out of the icebox. The shelf unit lifts out to provide instant unfettered access to the engine/battery compartment and can otherwise be stored while underway. Total project cost: $10 for the shelf. Fiddle material and screws were already in hand.Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Is there any other Doug Hunter worth mentioning?
Glad everyone likes the books. Now get out there and buy the paperback of God's Mercies and the hardcover of Half Moon, which is officially published on September 1!Doug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com
Marcus: glad you have the book. I think Don's autograph is worth a lot more than mine.
I've considered the Origo double-burner, but for me it really has come down to counterspace. We only seem to cook on a single burner (plus a bbq when at anchor). But I'm also planning a flip-up counter over the stbd berth/bench to extend counter space, so who knows, maybe I'll end up with the double anyway. I've heard about the gimbaled single you mention, but I'd probably set my hair on fire with it...
I was down at the boat yesterday, looking at the icebox and the possibility of relocating it as I described previously, and the project started to take on more complications than US healthcare reform. So my eyes wandered forward and settled on the big amorphous space called the hanging locker, which in my boat is a disorganized dump zone for pfds, cockpit canvas, and who knows what else. Now there's a space that invites serious reform.
cheerDoug Hunter
Diva
C&C 27 Mk1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
www.sweetwatercruising.com