Archive for the 'news!' Category
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
*%$@! Again!
I really do have the best luck. All of the rain these past couple of days made the footings under the scafolding kind of well… mushy. Combine that with 1 guy in a hurry who tends to jump from the boat the scafolding and you get… 1 guy who lands on his ass and sprains his ankle really bad after the scafolding collapses.
I tried to ignore it and took a break and then went back to work but it wasn’t happening. Quite quickly I found myself unable to walk on my left foot (it was the right one last year) and had to quit. With a small tear in my eye I hobbled to the car and went home. Fearing a moron bone break I had an x-ray done and thankfully, just a sprain.
Well, I guess I have to take a look at it this way; at least it gives me a chance to blow a ton of money on the parts that I’m missing… *sigh*
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Unwrapping after a long winter slumber
Sometimes you just have to say “I’m sorry, but I have to go work on my boat”. I’m way, way over due to be back on the job so I finally just quit it all and moved back to NJ (sorry NYC). My Dad was just as eager as I was to unwrap the boat so he came along for the trip. I also too some time to to a quick code re-write to the blog, I figured it was all in the spirit of “spring cleaning” (even though it’s almost summer…) .
Still standing, thats a good sign…
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Warming up.
Not just the weather, It’s high time I got back on the [important] job. I had planned on going to see the site today but the soggy conditions today and the prediction of all day rain tomorrow made me think otherwise. Whats a boat guy to do on a rainy day away from the site? Simple, kit out!
First order of business, a new respirator. All last year I used a 3M 7000 series half mask. At the time I thought it was great, comfortable, adjustable, cheap… until I started working in sweltering heat with a grinder inside the cabin. Misery, pure and simple. The mask wasn’t designed for constant work in hot conditions with a pair of goggles. The mask would slip, the goggles would fog, eyes would be sore, kind of a mess. This year (May is my boat-work New Years) I’m going with a full face.
My uncle works in the chemical industry and told me to look at masks that are designed for the working professional not the hobbyist. Originally I dismissed this because he’s a bit of an equipment freak but now I can see what he was talking about. If you are working 8 hours a day, 6-7 days a week for 6 months you’re pretty much performing a full-time job in a mask! I looked at 3M’s full faced offerings but wasn’t impressed with their cartridges anyway and wanted a change.
Monday, November 19th, 2007
M4-30 Road trip! (Part 2)
Remember that trip I took to get the boat stands? Well the trip to Virgina was the direct opposite; no moments of severe indecision, no lonely grueling hours through rainy weather, no busted transmissions… you know, the little things.
The trip started off at 10 am with Yinna and I traveling from NY to NJ to pick up my car, pack some snacks and haul butt down the highway. Sadly due to over confidence in both of our abilities to actually get to places on time, the departure time was eventually moved to 11 am. We then spent almost another hour fiddling with the GPS. Final departure time: 12 noon. I really didn’t mind except that we would be traveling over the amazing Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel at night instead of the day. Bummer.
The ride down was entirely uneventful except for watching of increasing fuel prices through the states. It became a fascination of mine to keep track of the prices and compare them to the prices of the next state and ponder as to why the prices differed. The only one that really stumps me is the lack of a price gap between full and self service stations. Not only do self service stations not exist in NJ (*turns off car and sits wondering why no one is coming around to ask what kind and of how much gass I wanted*) but it seems that they make a ton more sense! Pump your own gas and leave, no waiting for the attendant to service the other 5 cars before coming back to you. NJ is weird sometimes.
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
M4-30 Road trip!
Well, after talking with Duff about his M4-30, I’ve decided that it’s worth the 800 mile trip to Norfolk, Virginia to pick it up. Even better, It just happens that my friend Nikki lives just outside of Norfolk and it’s her birthday! I don’t think I could have planned it better if I tried. Yinna will be coming with me for this trip and we’ll be leaving on Friday. If all goes well (and it will), I’ll have a 24 hp fresh water cooled diesel by next Monday! Yay!
Monday, November 12th, 2007
Duh… craigslist
The title pretty much sums up the way I feel. Here I am wracking my brains looking all over the place for an engine and I’ve been neglecting one of the most scrounge worthy web sites ever made; CRAIGSLIST ! How someone who lived in NYC for years and practically used it as a way of surviving in the land of high rents and finding crazy people who throw away valuable stuff for free if completely inexcusable. Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday, October 11th, 2007
*Special Report*
We arrived early on Sunday so that we could get a jump on the heat and hopefully the crowds (not to mention there is a lot to see and I’m on crutches… [yes, in the picture below, I’m cheating])
Just like last year we’re going to take the $10 parking shuttle bus combo from the Navy stadium. As we pass the parking attendant Dad leans out the window and says “I’ve got a handicap here can I get a close spot to the buses.” Well, I guess you have to take what little advantage you can of the situation, now if only they had a handicap special on new diesel engines. The other handicap advantage was since I had my hands full, all of the images on this page were taken by my Dad.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sunday, September 16th, 2007
Regatta! 5 kts of wind…
Sometimes you’re flush and sometimes you’re bust. Today was some of the most excrutiating sailing imaginable with wind speeds hanging in the 5-10 kt range and staying toward the lower end. Circuit Breaker is a big boat and it takes quite a bit to get her going so needless to say, it wasn’t really our day. Despite it all, we managed to take second in the A1 class (top class).
Saturday, September 15th, 2007
Regatta! 30 kts of wind! Diaper?
We had a blast today in 30 kts of wind out in the bay. It was so windy that we only sailed 2 races for fear of boats getting damaged (people too…). Circuit Breaker and crew managed to pull off a win and a second place in those two races to give us a nice first day. Sadly we were so busy keeping everything in check that I didn’t really get a chance to take any pictures except for one, but let me just say that I finally know what “sailing on your ear means”. That one picture is of the “diaper”. The sails on Circuit Breaker are largely second hand so there are all kinds of oddities. One of the spinnaker chutes is called the Diaper, for well, here’s the pictures.
Let’s just say that these stains aren’t coming out in the wash (because they’re diesel…). There’s also a huge black spinnaker that the crew calls “The DeathStar” because things never go well at all when its in the air.
Friday, August 24th, 2007
Ode to cardboard and reconstruction
Today I came to the realization that I need to plan out my new interior before I can start knocking out any more liners. Some of the liners are serving as hull supports so I need to put in new supports before I can start taking more out. I took all of the tools and supplies out of the cabin and hosed down the whole area so that I could work in a “clean” cabin (note: clean is a subjective term here, even with the scubbing if you lay down on a berth you are going to get up with fiberglass in your back…).
In preparation for this I went out and bought a bunch of corrugated cardboard sheets for templates. When I lived in NYC, finding cardboard was a matter of calling up a props place but in NJ things get interesting. I called up probably 15 different places, either they wouldn’t sell me sheets because I didn’t want enough or they would refer me to someone who bought in bulk and “might” sell me some. Well, sure they’d sell me some, for $8 a sheet and they weren’t even the exact right size! This is cardboard, not masonite or plywood. Finally I got a call back from the good people at Hillside Paper in Elizabeth NJ. For the price of $3.50 I could have as many sheets of 4′x6′ as I wanted, heck, the more I bought the cheaper it got.
As for reconstruction I’ve been trying decide if I want go all out and radically change the interior of the boat. I could go modern like Hallberg-Rassy . What sparked my interest with the HR’s was the way they handled the aft section of the boat on the HR 31 (check out the 360º VR gallery of the 31 MKIII here to see what I mean). I like the idea of converting one of the quarter berths into a cabin and converting the rest of the area into semi enclosed storage space. Keep in mind that the HR 31 has a foot and a half more beam to here (mostly in the aft) but I think it’s doable.
The other option is to keep it open and just make it more livable. Right now the quarter berths are just a could of inches longer than I am tall, and just about exactly the width of my shoulder. When I lay down an arm hangs over the edge. Good thing I got the cardboard.