Off-season boat work...

For those in the Northern Hemisphere, and far south enough that your boat isn't covered in snow, what sort of work do you do in the off-season to get ready for the first race of the year?

I spent the last couple of days taking parts off for cleaning and lube, and out-of-the-sun storage. I also put on fresh bungee, a new main halyard, and replaced a spin block. I think I'd like to replace some dyneema bits, maybe a new spin halyard and bridles.

Of course, the full yard cover is all buttoned up, too, with chocks strategically placed on the tramp to prevent puddles.

What's your routine?

my off season maintenance revolves around my tri. I would love to be around my blade for a good week or so to get that back into shape, but when I am in Fl I would rather be sailing.

I am in the process of refinishing the rudder on my 31. Inspired by Amador's finish on his F16 Trident- he used Interlux Perfection paint instead of gelcoating- I am going to give that a try. Was thinking about learning how to shoot gelcoat but seems too painful. Of course I am discovering how painful it is getting a good finish without spraying. Not to mention the fumes of the primer- I can feel the neurons fading...

I had hoped to give the 20 a new bottom and add line 'n cleat adjustable diamond wire tension to the a-cat - but delays in getting Garage Mahal wired, plumbed, and fenced are precluding that. In the meantime, I'll tackle some smaller issues on the A-cat - a daggerboard trunk that is leaking water into the hull, fairing both daggerboards, and some minor repairs/replacements to some worn hardware before heading to Islamorada in January. The 20 is in pretty good shape with the re-rigging done to it last spring though it may see a couple of simple rigging changes focused toward buoy racing (since that's what he's slated for in the next couple of months).

The F16 and the HT are in pretty good shape, I've got the all the foils in the shop for ding repair. The ARC 22 is getting a new fwd(not main)beam, and and spin pole, both out of carbon. New paint job(fleet colors!) if time allows. Flight Risk made it thru the season without a single breakage, a first! I've got the big landsailer in the shop repainting the springboard, relocating the mast rotation limiter cleat, and measuring for a cover so I can leave it on the ice(should we get anything usable). Oh yeah, and varnishing a couple of badly neglected paddles. Plenty to do!

Dave

I used to just throw a cheap tarp over it. Had to remember to brush off the snow to avoid ripping the tarp (especially with 10 or more inches at a time).

Last few years, skipped the tarp. Only "damage" was excess exposure to sun, really ruined the black anodizing.

Boatless for the moment, so I don't need to worry about it this year.

Mike

Off season jobs;
Wax race skis - check;
wax training skis - check;
wax teaching skis - check;
Wax playing skis - check;
Buy pair of GS skis - fail.....

Good point scooby. I have tons of opportunities to do frostbiting RC, but I'd much rather go sledding with my 4-year old (actually, he was a riot at age 3).

Mike

I'll be skiing with the whole family; and racing (hopefully) with my 9yo son :-)

Installing new foot straps and new downhaul system. Making new rudder stops and trying to get to the weekly series at Redwood City atleast once a month.

Here in Austin our off season boat work consists of sailing Which we do anytime the air temp is > 40 deg F. Which is most of the time thank goodness!

What off season???

I've jumped onto my friends ol' Cal 25 (and I do mean old) and we are doing AYC's (Annapolis Yacht Club's) fall frostbite series .... last Sunday, 34-36deg, winds +25-30kts and +3ft waves on the Severn River at the Naval Academy!!!! I spent more time standing on the sides of the **** vs standing on the floor of the ****!!!! But she is a webble-wabble as she goes to approx 60deg list and no more ....

Then it is lunch in AYC's clubhouse .... shwanky!!!!

(I make sure to wear a catamaran event shirt, under my outer gear so that they know that I'm from the DARK SIDE and a MULTIHULLER when I take my gear off!!!!)

Harry Murphey

Good for you Harry! We used to have monthly Hobie Cat races over the Fall, Winter, and Spring called the "Nutfreezer", later changed to the "Penguin" series. The scores were compiled over the series and the winners determined for the season. Only times the races were cancelled, were due to the Lakes being frozen over. We even had a "Sea and Ski" Event with lake sailing on one day, and NASTAR downhill runs on the following day at a nearby ski area. Combined scores determined winners. But, alias, the current generation of sailors has not carried on this tradition.
Caleb

I just purchased an Inter/NACRA 20 that is in need of some TLC. It was just dropped it off with a guy that use to work at Performance Catamaran to have some ding repairs to the hulls and get them buffed out. Normally this is something I would do, but with time not being my side and him coming highly recommended from some folks at Mission Bay YC I thought I would give him a shot. That said, I have a lot of other work to do; paint the mast, replace the rigging and some parts, and get the boat back together. Hoping to have it ready to go after the Christmas break which will be in time for some "Nut Freezing" sailing in Ventura.

As for the "Nut Freezer" we did a few of those back in my Force 5/Sunfish days when I lived in PA. We were sailing the day after Christmas @ Marsh Creek in a Loyd Bridges - Sea Hunt style wet suit with all kinds of zippers. The ranger had to come get us off the water as the sun was going down, for as cold as it was, it was one of our great days of sailing with a good consistent wind.

One time we went skiing at Gore Mt/NY on Saturday and white water rafting on the Upper Hudson on Sunday ..... the neat part was the slide down through the trees to the river to launch the raft .... but that water was Cooooollldddddd.

To Ventucky- So you are a "Pennsyl-tuckyen" ... Don't you just miss a GOooooD cheese steak ... on a real Philly roll???? I happen to live 10-15m from Marsh Creek and started sailing there on a Sunfish (in 81-82') before I purchased a H16 ... we may have met years ago ....

Harry

Don't torture me with remembrances of cheese steaks... I used to work at 14th and Walnut, and the guy on the corner made the best in the world... never have had anything to compare since. I've stopped ordering them in restaurants, even the ones that say they're authentic. They lie.

Did you get 'dem wit? or witout?

It's the bread !!!! There is nothing like a fresh Philly Italian roll ....

Of course "wit" onions ....

Now the cheese ... must be Square American ... Provalone ... or Mozzarella .... cheese-wiz is for the tourists that go to Pat's Steaks ... Bob Flay and I, we go to Tony Lukes!!!!

John, I'll just have to have a juicy, glutenous cheese steak "wit" for lunch tomorrow .... now if your stomach starts to rumble say 9-10 o'clock (west coast time) ... it's me sending telopathic "yummy" messages to it ....

Harry

I never went to Pat's or Geno's. The whole Cheez Whiz thing was gross, IMO. I like 'em with provolone, mushrooms, salt and pepper - no sauce, no processed cheese food, no veggies...

Cook the steak with the cheese and the mushrooms, dash of S&P, slap it on an Amoroso roll... It was a lunch fit for a king at $1.25. I had a two-year love/hate relationship with Philly.

John,

A mushroom cheesesteak on a Amoroso roll it is ....

... can I have it "wit" some fried onions ... if chopped finely enough???

Harry

I was there in 94 for a semester off campus in college and remember the place you are talking about. I went "off reservation" one time and tried the chicken with some hot peppers.... and was taught my lesson when I was somehow nearly blinded by a pepper swinging on a piece of cheese going straight into my eye. Holy crap that hurt....

Holy crap is that funny!

Karl,

Have you ever been to Philly and had a real honest-to-goodness Philly Cheese Steak????

Jerod doesn't know what he's talking about ... a "Subway" usually lasts ... oh, maybe several months around here then goes out of business

And I haven't even mentioned ... the real South Philly "secret" ... a roast pork sandwich w/ broccolirob & sharp provolone cheese on a Philly roll ....

Oh my .... are they all good ....

Harry

Did you skip dinner?

No, but I'll skip breakfast tomorrow morning and have a empty stomach for my delicious, juicy, MUSHROOM CHEESE STEAK!!!!!

Now I worked at 123 South Broad St for 18 months .... that's Sansom and (14th)Broad St ... was that place on the northeast corner of Broad and Walnut??? If so I ate there often .... ever go to McGillans for a brew???

Grew up in Devon. Our farm is now a condo complex. Best Cheese Steak back then was Theressa's Luncheonette on Lancaster Pike in Devon just across form the where the Courtyard is. Not there anymore. There was a place in Paoli that was not half bad either that was across form where the train station is.

Yeup did a lot of sailing at Marsh Creek - missed you by about three years; moved to California in 78.



John - when were you in Philadelphia? You ever make it up here we'll hook up with a local guy that is having the Rolls & Cheese sent out every week and there is a place in Huntington Beach that is doing the same. I'll get back to you on that one.

What I really miss in the Habbersett Scrapple, best food for a hangover - ever! Not that I can personally speak to this!!!!!!

Just reading that label makes me feel like I need to take a dump... I'll be right back.

I am still confused by this "off-season". When it is 31 or 32 degrees celsius all year (variance depends on cloud cover) with 24 degree celsius water, the season never ends.

Mmmmm scrapple!

Laugh it up fuzzball.

There's already fish houses up on the local lakes. Does it matter how cold the water is if it's solid?

Solid water= Ice Boating .

Fred Smith

Dear Ventuckey,

I came down to the kitchen this morning and before I turned on the computer, I put the "Wagner" Cast Iron Skillet on the stove and heated it up for .... (you guessed it) a couple of pieces of Habbersetts SCRAPPLE!!! There is nothing better then a cast iron skillet for scrapple ... nicely browned w/ a little ketchup (Hienz of course) ...

Now I can't fill up on Scrapple this morning since I have to have a MUSHROOM CHEESE STEAK for lunch just for JW .... the things I suffer through for my fellow multihullers ......

What day do the rolls fly in from Philly???? That's the day to go ..... MMmmmmmmm a fresh Philly Italian Roll .....

Harry

Just taking in a few quick things...

1. Harry used to sail Sunfish.

2. Harry used to sail H16.

3. Harry has an insatiable appetite for cheese steaks.

4. Harry no longer sails H16.

Could there be a connection here?

Mike

Now there's a case of the pot calling the kettle black if I ever saw one.

I also know now why my father (who was born and raised in Philly) liked scrapple for breakfast. "Everything but the Oink" Nasty, nasty stuff.

Now Mike,

When I sailed a sunfish and later a H16 I hit a high wieght of approx 225lbs ...

Then I purchased a TheMightyHobie18 .....
.... and now my wieght is currently 185-188lbs.

And I haven't had a Philly Cheese Steak in the last week .... maybe two weeks.

So I'm due for my Cheese Steak fix .... which is better for my Type ll Diabetes then ... the Chinese food I love ... or the (2) slices of pizza that I eat usually for lunch when working ...or the McDonalds/Wendys/BurgerKing fastfood w/ all the sodium/calories .... and note that(2) slices (w/beverage)/fastfood lunch is up to $7.50-8.00 .... a cheese steak is also about $7.00-8.00 but is much more filling ...

Moderation, my friend, moderation ....

Smaller portions and no seconds at dinner ....less beer(shudder) ... more Diet Ice Tea/Ice Water ... and veggies ...

... but who has ever heard of a "Philly Veggie Platter" ....

Harry

Now Matt,

Have you ever eaten any type of sausage/kielbosi/bratwurst ... or lunch meat .... it's all the same. But scrapple is cooked twice, first when it's made and then in the frying pan (hopefully a cast iron one!!!)... so it has less fats/grease then bacon/sausage does ... and it's usually about 40% corn meal too.

Though the best is a nice piece of lean ham, browned in a skillet ... yum yum ......

Harry

And your point is...

How else would I have so easily recognized the pattern?

Harry, who the hell said anything about drinking less beer??? That came out of left field and has no place on a sailor forum!

EDIT: BTW, congrats on the 185. There's a number I haven't seen in many, many moons...

Mike

Hi Mike,

I was down to 165-170lbs about 3-4yrs ago but caught colds and had no strength/energy .... I would like to be 175-180lbs idealy. It seems 185ish is my natural healthy wieght.

Of course w/ the TheMightyHobie18 class weight at 295 and the boat performs well up to approx 320lbs total crew wieght or even slightly higher ... that gives me a range of 110-135lbs for the ideal crew wieght ...

... which is possible to find.

Harry

Now that you mention it, Hunter and I are now at perfect H16 racing weight. Of course, he's 4 years old and wouldn't be overly helpful on a boat for 6 hours at a stretch...

Mike

I always had trouble finding a 60 pounder that could bench press 500 pounds.

While looking for the photograph I found that I can order it and have it shipped anywhere in the US. So I pulled the trigger and and have 10 lbs on the way.

I'll be thinking of ya when I am sitting on my patio in shorts and a t-shirt, picking oranges off my tree for the fresh juice and enjoying my oven broiled scrapple in January.

Habersetts is good, but it doesn't beat the stuff you can get at the Reading Terminal that comes in the tins.

I'll make it a point to hook up with you when I get back there in the spring.

John

Those Lancaster county farmers/venders at the Reading Market are great!!!

I'm not sure what Reading Terminal vender it is exactly ....(Nick's???) that makes a Roast Pork w/ broccolirob & sharp provolone cheese sandwiches ... they have been voted "Best of Philly" for many years now ...

Now I was talking to someone at the bank today ... and he has been to San Diego ... he claims that there is a place called: Bryn Mawr Steak Shop, on El Camino Blvd, in San Diego that flyes rolls in to make "REAL" Philly Cheese Steaks ... the owners are from ... Bryn Mawr!!!!

... there must be a plane w/ "Amorrosso" painted on it ....

Harry

Well,

this is all good,

But I like one of my specialties:

'Cajun Fried Turkey'!!

The one at T-day came out awesome. If you're not familiar with it, google it. It's a whole turkey, injected all thru with whatever seasoning you want to, and then deep fried whole in 10% peanut oil. You'd think that was as petroleum product- the price per gallon has over tripled in the last 15 years! It's NEVER greasy.

If you haven't tried it, you're missing something really good.

One Fried turkey?? that's it? We did two on T-day then 4 more on Friday and couldn't do the 15lb breast we still had cause we ran out of propane. That's about 75lbs of bird. We did ours Cajun and it was wonderful. The best part was we did it while camping on an island with a bunch of friends.

Yo JW ....

Now I forgot to eat lunch ..... but did your stomach just start to grumble and growl????

You know what I have right here in front of me for dinner???

Of course you do .....

Now let's see ... a little fresh cracked pepper ....

Oh, Oh got to pour a nice cold beer into my frosted mug ....

Here I go ... w/ the first bite .....

MMmmmmm Mmmmmm .... Mmmm got mmm to mmm go .....

Harry

The only place I know in San Diego is The Philadelphia Sandwich Company. They too get the stuff shipped in.

Fried one, cooked the other in a Cajun Microwave. Doesn't get much better than that. BTW, everything I cook is Cajun...

C

Don't know about that. I had a TurDucHen this Thanksgiving with some Boudin Balls as an appetiser. One year we did both the TurDucHen and the fried Turkey.

Damnit ya'll are making me hungry and we are not leaving for Lafayette until the 20th. On the other hand, I still have some of moms left over gumbo that she froze in the condo Freezer. Might have to take that down to the Steeplechase depending on how much is there.

So basically ,all of you guys off season boatwork consists of eating. Or was this a monumental hijack?

Yes. No.

I think the secondary discussion was regarding balast.

Getting ready for those rolling tacks?

We had a few winter training sessions until a few weeks ago, before it started freezing quite heavily.
This Sunday there is a theoretical catsailing clinic given by a former F18 WC organised by our national F18 and sailing associations (dutch equivelant of US Sailing).
(There is some video of the training sessions, I will dig them up if anyone is interested.)

How 'bout do a video of the clinic?

Is it better than your's?
I seriously doubt it.

Went from boat work to nut freeze sailing to eating. Trust me when I tell you you'll do some eating after being on the water for the better part of the day where the air temp in in the high 30s and the water temp ain't far behind it.

I just got to call Todd's bluff ....since I'm sailing w/ the same guys who Todd sails w/ on Triple Threat .....

(we are slum-ing on a "monomaran" to keep in race tune ...)

Todd .... when you gonna come up and sail on Joe's Cal25' ... and have lunch at AYC .....

we drink while racing for warmth ... Hot Chocolate w/ Bailey's ...

Correction ...for you, Todd ... w/Rum!!!!!

We race on Sundays ... New Year's day is a big event .... you'll need to bring your own insulated mug ...

Harry

Correct! Hot food and drink was part of the program, after we finished sailing, of course.

The theoretical part is in Dutch, maybe I will post a short summary of that next week.

Here is a training video shot a few weeks ago, it was about rounding the top mark.
Part 1 (deel 1) demonstrates the advantage of having the skipper in trapeze as long as possible,
if done right you can gain a lot of meters that way.

Part 2 is about the crew going in at the wrong time, one of the boats almosts pitchpoles
because the crew comes in just when a gust hits.

Part 3 i will have to fill in later because I'm typing this from my phone and cant watch it right now

The week after we had a training about calling laylines, nine out of ten times you make the call based on the boats ahead of you (will they make it or not?),
It was good to make those decisions without that

To be Truthful ....

What I'm actually working on the most .... is making contacts, trying to solicit a invitation to (one of) the local Junior Olympics Festival to include a Youth Multihull Class!!!

Is that considered "boat work"???

The Sunday Sailing/Eating/Beverage is just to keep my sailing skills sharp ... but dang it these monomarans lean so much my hot chocolate spills, so its one race ... into the clubhouse for a hot chocolate and food ... then out for the second race ....

Harry

catman,

I usually do 2-4 at a time. As you know, they cook so fast, it's easy. I did 4 different recipes last winter at CRAW's winter party.

I'm keeping my pot of peanut oil full now in my garage, it's n the 30's in my garage, and I'll do some more for my friends and me soon.

Jesus is getting after it!!!!

As mentioned earlier I had given the hulls to a guy that use to work for Performance Catamaran to fix a few dings and polish them up. His buddy Rafael sent these over the other day. This is way more work that I had asked him to do, and he refused to let it go at that.

Few half butt repairs getting redone







Lots of little dents



Another half butt repair getting redone

if I tried to redo all my half assed repairs it would be a never ending circle. repair the repair (repeat as necessary)

That's how it is anytime you start a project like yours.
It starts out fixing a couple dents. Then you find there's a lot more than you think. Next thing you know you spent a $1000 on materials and 100 hours of your time.
Then after all that there's a spot or two that didn't come out well and it drives you crazy even though no one esle sees them.
Then you go sailing for the first time and capsize and while righting the boat you slip on that just polished hull landing hard on the hull with your knee leading the way. Crunch,Dent.

The guy doing my work speaks very little English and I very little Spanish. When his buddy called to discuss what was going on he had mentioned that while he was fixing the stuff I had asked to have done it was only a few more hours and few more bucks for materials to fix the other stuff.

I figured this guy has had his hands on just about every Inter/NACRA 20 out there may as well let him have it.