Update!
Okay, so it's been looooong time!

That's what happens when you forget the password to the blog site! Anyways, I've been pretty busy getting some things done. I have been racked with guilt for not doing everything "right" before putting the boat in the water. By that, I really should have chased some of the long overlooked maintenance items. For example, all of the items attached to the boat, such as toe rails, hand rails, etc sit on a bed of flexible caulking that helps keep the water out of the boat. Also, teak is a very high maintenance wood. I wanted something that looked good and that did not require high maintenance. I settle on Sikkens CETOL marine varnish. It does a nice job, as is evidenced below.

First thing that I was concerned about were the toe rails. Unfortunately, I broke one an Robert neglected to notice one sitting on the tailgate of the truck when he took the truck, sacrificing it to the lords of traffic. A quick trip to visit my friend Rudy at D&R and I had a couple of suitable, albeit pricey, replacements. I also had the opportunity to use my table saw, router table and Fosner bits.


You can see the comparison of the old teak on the right and the new teak hatch retain boards on the left (okay, port!). I also used some Starboard to make a new Compass mounting board.

When I bought the boat, the previous owner had the compass mounted on a piece of treated lumber that he had cut out. The idea was to have the compass removable to keep it from freezing in the winter. He was a little embarrassed with the appearance and I made a feeble attempt at hiding it's poor workmanship by painting it last year.




You can see the crappy piece of wood. Not a long term solution!

And here's the compass installed for fit. I might want to put in exterior grade electrical switch on the panel to turn the compass light on, but come on....it's not like I can step inside and flip the switch from inside!

Getting back to the rails, Here's a picture of the rails, the last one being installed. I drilled the previous screw holes, filled with thickened epoxy and then re-bedded the rails with 3M 101. I would make sure to use masking tape a little more liberally, since the caulking makes quite the mess. I would suggest fitting the item, then taping around it with Blue Tape, tape your teak items that you want to keep clean, then bed the item.




So, with a wonderful rare day off on Friday, I poked and messed around and got the teak in! I still have to glue the bungs in and trim them up. That'll be another post!

The Renaming Ceremony and the Launch of EVERLONG

We returned from the final leg of our vacation travel plans on Tuesday night. I woke up on August 1st with the burning desire to get the boat in the water by Friday. With that, there were the "little" things to take care of, the little lists you've put to paper and then promised yourself you would act on before the launch. There were a bunch of those things and just about all of them entailed me getting in the car and chasing down a line, a screw or a nut.

I worked through Thursday night and before we went to bed, I sent Rob out for a bottle of rum, we were going to have a renaming ceremony.

The purpose of the renaming ceremony is to pay respect to the previous owner and the name the vessel sailed under and to rechristen the boat under her new name.....Everlong. A little splash of rum, with all participants getting a taste, we ceremoniously burned the remnants of the old boat, all documents which bore her name.

We had a little fire in a coffee can in front of Everlong before the launch.



A little denatured alcohol....and Everlong was christened anew.

Friday morning we loaded up and headed to Stanley's boat yard. They got the boat in the Travel Lift and stepped the mast. The riggers spent about an hour going over my sheets and rigging the boat checked out fine.















We had a chance to paint the dagger board and the few spots where the boat sat in the cradle. Here she is just prior to the launch.


Everlong at the dock, wet for the first time in many a year...and not a leak to be found!



Rob sitting forward as we head down the Barrington river, heading towards the bay. Note the nifty hat he's wearing....he would soon loose it in a fairly stiff blow!


Under sail, the wind was blowing 16 knots and the sun was baking us. It was 95 degrees ashore and we were going through the ice water! The boat handled like a champ and I would recommend her to anyone that wants a dry, comfortable and forgiving vessel.















This is a picture of our beach where we have Everlong moored.
And a close up of the little lady moored.



Of course, my little wife has no interest in the boat, just the creatures she can put in here marinara sauce!












....and when a man looses a hat in your service, you owe him a hat. Rob in his new cruising hat. I think I will be moving to something with a larger brim since a ball cap will help your forehead, but boy did my neck burn!








So, that's it folks. We're in the water and loving the boat. I'll throw some pictures from any changes and improvements in the future, but I will probably use the site to keep everyone abreast of what is going on in the family. Until next time, fair winds and following seas!

...Portland and Lake Compounce



It's been a couple of weeks, so I wanted to post a couple of more pictures about our trip and getting the boat launched.

As previously mentioned, we had a great visit with Guy and Flo, with a little detour to the Presque Isle Fair. Flo must have a picture in the attic since she is looking younger and younger..and Pat is looking pretty good too!

On Monday, we met up with the Parkhills, Chris, Dawna and Madeline.....what a dynamo!
We spent the day wandering in Portland, which was a little disappointing since their waterfront is really nothing to talk about....hopefully we'll able to take them to a trip to Newport...or Bristol, even!





















Chris and Maddy

Dawna, looking great.

Okay, I'm not big on babies, but this is a cute kid!


It was a very nice visit with Chris, Dawna and Maddy......and we were off for home.

Tuesday, we met up with Dora, Anna and the kids at Lake Compounce. Nathan had stayed at Bob and Dora's for the week and he seemed to have a good time. Unfortunately, Bob, Aaron and Bobby didn't get a chance to come down, but we had a great time. We've made the visit to the Lake and annual event and it's nice to just get to hang out.



Dora and Jake enjoying the fine pizza the Lake offers....man was it hot out!!












Here's my little niece Anna, all trim and ready for the rides!!


To the left, Charlotte, and to the right, Nate and Michelle.




















Danny enjoying his icee and Mark coming back from checking out the babes at the pirate ship!














All in all, we had a great time. Same time next year, guys!

Time for A long entry!

We have certainly had a busy 3 weeks or so, we celebrated Pat's birthday, Pat and I headed up to Caribou Maine for my 30th class reunion, Nathan spent a week at Dora's house after which we picked him up at Lake Compounce. Then yesterday, we launched Everlong, after a very poignant renaming ceremony, and Rob, Jake and I sailed her around a got her moored in her spot on the Kicky.

First, Pat's birthday, here's my lovely wife with her lovely gifts, a weedwacker and a Laura Bush biography called "The Perfect Wife". Hope she gets some tips out of that one!


My little domestic diva!

Next, we were fortunate enough to get a chance to head up for our reunion, where we hooked up with Guy and Flo, Fred and Peggy Bell, Randy and Joanne and Phil Denfeld. Great fun:


Fred and Peggy...and Peggy better start remembering her cheers! (Peg, practice with Beth!)











Randy and Jo....my brother that married my little sister!






My little queen and I. Good thing you can't see my high school picture...pretty goofy (put long hair on the above pumpkin and you'll get the idea!)

On Saturday, we went to see my folks and my big sister's grave site for the first time. We ran into an old family friend and it was very pleasant. I certainly miss the folks, but I'm sure they are in a better place. Love you guys!



















On Sunday, we caught up with Guy and Flo and since the Presque Isle Fair was in town, we decided to take it in. A little scaled down from what I remember, but the did have a few items that brought back memories. One being an exhibition of potato equipment.

Everyone in my family, all my friends and relatives were expected to work the harvest season...to "pick potatoes!". We would be given a section, fairly small, say 15 to 20 feet long for little kids, to the old Canadian Woman 15 to 20 yards! (Not nationalistic here, it was a widely held belief that Canadian women could out hustle anyone in picking potatoes...100 barrel days were the norm, where as I don't recall ever moving past 75 barrels a day, even when I was a teenager. The concept was that you would fill a basket and dump them in the barrels. You had a ticket identifying your barrel and a truck would hoist the barrel and dump the potatoes in the potato house. Here's a couple of pictures from the exhibit which shows the truck, the hoisting mechanism and a neat synopsis of the "Ticket".














































This activity is no longer being performed in this manner. Large harvesting machines, costing in the neighborhood of a half million dollars take up the potatoes and deposit them directly onto a potato truck. Unfortunately, you can not have a small farm, say 100 acres or so, supporting that type of capital outlay. Due to the requirement of scale, you really need to have a 1,000 acres or so.

While this may bring efficiency to the harvesting process, I know I learned many a life lesson and I see it in everyone that grew up in the county. This includes, that you pick your section. If you are too lazy to pick what you are given, part of your section will be taken away. If you do very good, you get more section and of course more money! If folks are behind, you help them, but you put your ticket on the barrels you picked. You never put your ticket on someone else's barrel. This was a serious violation and the mere suspicion of it would be dealt with immediately. Finally, no one left the fields until all the potatoes were off the ground. If you had a slow picker, you just helped.

Now I remember being picked up at 6 in the morning and working until 6 at night, at times. This lasted for approximately 3 weeks, and if your farmer finished his fields, you looked for another farmer to help out. Money? The first time I went out, I was in kinder garden and I spent about 2 hours pulling tops for my brother and sisters. I wanted to go home and for the next year, dispersions were cast on my character since I was not seen fit to carry out a full season's work in the fields....I worked in the fields from 1st grade on, and even picked a couple of weeks in1978 with Flo's family.....what a ball. I think when I was a kid, we made about 30 to 35 cents a barrel, but by 1978, it was up to 75 or 80 cents. Someone can correct me, it's been awhile.


If I ever got a tattoo, it would have to be of a ticketed barrel with hoist on it. The sound of that
metal hitting the barrel and hoisting it up is one that I'll bet everyone north of Houlton remembers well.


Finally, this is not so much a potato picture, but I thought you folks would like to see 3 manure spreaders in one picture!


I have a ton of pictures and stories to put up, but I'll try to post again tonight. We still have pictures from our visit with Chris, Dawna and Maddy, our trip to Lake Compounce, the renaming ceremony and our launching and sailing of Everlong. Enjoy the pictures and thanks to everyone we had a chance to visit with the last couple of weeks.

A promised Long Post

So it's been a while since I posted a really long post. It's pretty hot and humid out, so I'm taking a break to throw some pictures up and document some of the fixes I've done since last summer.

I suppose the first thing I should talk about is the upgrade to the ugly little yellow table I had in there. (Scroll down to see the hideous color). I was fortunate enough to have a cabinet maker friend, John, offer to redo the table top. The table was pretty rough at the hinges and he striped it, put new backing on and did a great job on the Formica application. (Of course, I was hoping to put on a real nice veneer, but the piece of flamed maple I've had for awhile was just a bit too small).

I got the table top and I looked at the support that was bolted to the wall. It was oak and split. I had some scrap mahogany and decided to cut one, router the edges and using the fosner bits by brother Randy talked me into buying, made a new support. (See picture on left, the bottom one is the one I made....small but I got a kick out of doing it.) Picture on right shows the support
mounted on the bulkhead.

In case I decide to make a catalog with the support, I have included my double ZZ Top
pose. I don't remember how I clicked the camera (nose maybe?)













Ahh, the hinges go on...but not "normal" hinges but hinges you buy at the boat store that sell for $25 a pair and 50 cents a screw. Man, I hate fighting the salt air!

Here's the table in the up position. Note the date....not bad looking for a ne'er 50 year old, eh?




The table is down and ready for some "yo, ho, ho and a bottle of .....spring water?"

Anyway, thanks to Jake for helping me and for John for the great job on the refinishing. Great job, John. Highly recommended, folks!

Couple of pictures, of a newer date. I have some concerns about the weak gudgeon (what the pintels on the rudder slide in to). On O'days of this vintage, they were welded and they had a habit of breaking under heavy stress. The solution is to replace them with a much heavier one piece design. I replaced both of these and backed them with stainless plate. I should not have any issues with these. I also had to replace the outboard bracket, on the starboard (right side) of the stern. The fiberglass mounting block was actually refinished and I attached these with stainless bolts, again with stainless mounting plates. I still my strengthen this with additional fiberglass, but I think I'll be okay. I'm only running a 7.5 hp Honda 4 stroke, but I planning on keeping an eye for stress cracks.





Note the swim ladder on the left, half up. Also, note the house ladder on the right!









Below is the boat with it's bottom paint put on. (2 coats and we scrubbed her pretty good, so I'm hoping barnacle clean up will be good in the fall).




Finally, the driveway, which really delayed everything this year, but It's really nice and it drains nice. Should be nice for shoveling this winter.





Well, I'm hoping for a launch this week with pix from the trip and the mooring. We'll see if the pez dispenser of a job will allow me to get some time off this summer!