Progress Report Part 1…Electronics

On May 22nd, 2010 Published By B.J.

So there is a LOT going on with Evenstar.  The two largest projects are the electronics upgrade and the bottom refinishing.  I’ll address the latter with a later post.

And I promise pictures of the new equipment installs as soon as I’ve vacuumed up all the little bits of snipped wire and insulation and wiped up all the dust.  For now I won’t bore you with pictures of gear from manufacturer’s web sites, you can find them on your own if you are dying to know what an MFD 12 looks like.  OK…I’ll give you links.

The Great Electronics Upgrade Debacle of 2010 is progressing nicely.  Not as fast as I hoped but not as slow as I feared.  At this point we have:

  • Two functioning Furuno Multi Function Displays (MFD); an MFD8 at the nav station and an MFD12 in the cockpit under the dodger.  This is a departure from the original plan of the MFD8 at the helm and the MFD12 on the nav station.  Simply put – too many wires in the binnacle and not enough holes.  My desire for an MFD within reach of the wheel is lower than my desire to not take the binnacle off and take a hole saw through the deck into the engine room to make more room for cables.  These are talking to the NMEA network and each other.
  • FA30 AIS Receiver is installed and probably functional.  It turns on and does not produce errors and the MFD’s can see it.  But I can’t see any ships, probably because I do not have a decent antenna installed on the boat until the rig goes back in and the nearest things likely to be broadcasting an AIS signal are too far away to pick up.  This installation involved installing a new back to the unit from Furuno that splits and shares the VHF antenna with the ships radio.  But I’m pretty sure it works.
  • New VHF antenna installed on the mast.
  • Wires for wind instruments run through mast and boat.
  • Speed/depth/temp transducer is run through the boat, though it’s new thru-hull isn’t installed.
  • NMEA 2000 network backbone is in place and functional.  GPS and speed/depth information are viewable, I have no other transducers handy.
  • Four FI50 displays are installed, Wind, Digital Data and Multi in the cockpit under the dodger and a Multi on the nav station.
  • Functioning ICOM M604 VHF radio.  A radio check was successfully conducted, albeit with someone under a mile away.  But since the VHF is hooked to a tiny emergency antenna instead of the big one on the mast I’ll take it – it works.
  • ICOM Command Mic III remote radio handset is wired and working but not quite permanently installed.
  • Actisense NGW-1NMEA2000 to NMEA 0183 gateway installed and working with the VHF.  Small glitch in the date shown by the VHF to be resolved.
  • One FAP-5011A autopilot control head is installed over the companionway and it’s wires are run.  No autopilot brain to plug into yet though.
  • Two new stereos are installed and speakers are rewired properly.
  • With the exception of one of the old autopilots all of the old electronics are uninstalled.  Most are off the boat and sold on E-Bay already, though I’ve got a few things to take off still.  If anyone wants a deal on an Anritsu-Simrad open array radar on a huge stern tower send me an e-mail, I don’t think I can ship it!
  • The old Seatalk network has been reconfigured to contain a fluxgate compass, an autopilot course computer, and some autopilot control panels.  This still needs to be rewired for a new power source.  The old install had a switch between AP 1 and AP 2, the new setup will have separate power supplies for the new Furuno system and the old backup.
  • New back stay is installed on the rig.  This new back stay raises the insulated section about fifteen feet higher above the deck, not only to avoid interference with the radar but for safety.

Good progress, but there is a lot to do still. Outstanding tasks include:

  • Radar installation.  The rig needs to be up for this since we are moving to a backstay mount.  A Power Supply Unit (PSU) needs to be installed (this is optional, but I am doing it to allow the Radar to be independently powered from the MFD’s so I don’t have it on all the time drawing power).  Holes must be drilled in the deck and a cable snaked to the PSU from the stern of the boat.
  • Navpilot 511 autopilot installation.  This includes the autopilot course computer, the rudder reference unit, and a new fluxgate compass.  The fluxgate compass will also be used with the AIS system to plot collision avoidance.
  • New SSB back stay wire.  Not a huge project but something I need to do before the rig goes up; this connects the new back stay as the antenna for the SSB radio.
  • GPS antenna needs permanent mounting.  This involves putting a plug (already cut) over the hole where the radar tower was and running a cable through it to the aft rail.
  • Wave WiFi “Rogue Wave”  antenna/router installation.  Not top priority, but the cable is already run aft for the antenna so I will install the antenna at least when the GPS goes on.
  • Maretron DSM 250 installation.  This is going in the aft cabin, it will be part of the night watch alarm system and will allow me to monitor conditions from the cabin.  Hopefully it will wake me up if the boat moves.  It’s installation location is temporary as there really is no good place to put it in the cabin where 1) I can reach and see it and 2) it doesn’t block any cabinets or storage places.  I am holding out for when Furuno releases the RD-33 in the states, it can also preform the alarm functions but will install in a spot near my head then the DSM 250 will move to either the nav station of the cockpit.
  • NMEA 2000 Battery Monitor.
  • Completion of NMEA backbone.

At this point, assuming the untestable things (VHF, AIS, Wind instruments) all work and I get the GPS receiver installed we are “usable” in that we can navigate with the gear.  It’s not complete, far from it, but we are close.  If I don’t get the radar in…there will be fog.  If I DO get the radar on I do not expect to see for for at least a year…things just work that way.

Of course everything needs to be wire tied down, tacked up, screwed together and tightened.  Much of this process is follows the following methodology:

  1. Read the instructions.  Really, I do this.  This stuff is too complex not to.
  2. Daydream about how cool this doodad will be when it works.
  3. Plug it in to something; jury rig the plugs and wires until it connects.
  4. Turn it on and test it with all the other gear installed to date.
  5. Stop and play with the MFD’s a bit because they are too cool not to play with if they are turned on.
  6. If it works, decide where it’s going then hunt around in the packing mess for the installation hardware you’ve lost.
  7. Run the cables so they are hidden.  This can take a while and be a dirty job.
  8. Screw it down where it belongs and leave the wires laying there.
  9. Repeat for next gew-gaw.
  10. Go back and move it three inches to the left because something else’s cable or hardware is in the way
  11. Some day go back and clean up all the wires and cable tie them together neatly

In practice it’s not so linear since I’m more like a sugar addled attention deficient hyperactive five year old on Christmas morning bouncing from box to box and seeing what it all will do and how cool it is.  Some people would kindly call this “parallel processing” or “multitasking”.  Most would call it “all over the road.”

But I am progressing.

And unlike the Teak Project from Hell which was mindless drudgery for 99% of the work this stuff is really, really cool and pretty fun to work on.

Posted in Cool Gear, Electronics, projects | Comments Off on Progress Report Part 1…Electronics

Butt Naked

On Apr 29th, 2010 Published By B.J.
“Look ma, no paint”

Boy does Evenstar’s bottom look right nekkid about now.  The soda blasting is done and she’s pretty stripped.  Though, as always, it wasn’t 100% smooth.  A couple of gotchas on this job that we are sorting out.

The first is the whole “layer of fine white crap on every flat surface inside the boat” problem.  I am hoping it is just soda, and not a fine layer of soda and toxic paint dust.  But apparently the cotton plug the soda blasters put in the speedometer through hull wasn’t enough.  I don’t think they were aware that it was open to the air since I pulled the speedo.  Fortunately almost every floor panel, ceiling panel, closet door and storage space on half the boat was open so we were able to coat all over deep in the boat, not just the surfaces.  I’m thinking there were some serious communication issues between the soda blasting contractor, the yard, and myself.

The second issue is one of barrier coating.  Or rather the presence of an “epoxy primer” which according to the fellow from Hallberg-Rassy I finally got an answer from is the barrier coat they apply at the factory.  Of course the whole reason we were soda blasting was to remove the lousy paint and get the boat clear for an eventual barrier coating since we didn’t realize there was one.  As it turns out there was, albeit one not quite as tough as one might expect since it came off with soda blasting.  Hallberg-Rassy strongly recommends you barrier coat, and since we had one we really are put in the position where we should put it back again.  Oh joy, we’d hoped to not spend that money for a little while.  Oh, and we need to sand the remnants of the old barrier off before we re-coat; I’m hoping the bottom sanding fairies hit that for me one night while they are visiting boats in the yard but I’m not holding my breath.

Third issue…holes. Little ones, lots of them.  They really are minor – probably caused by some air bubbles trapped between the resin and the gelcoat in the original hull layup.  They shouldn’t have been there, but stuff happens.  These will need to be filled.  They an be filled with an epoxy filler and a putty knife.  Hopefully if we can find a barrier coat which is thick and gooey enough we can just push that in and get a full, saving a step.

We’re hoping to find a way to barrier coat that takes only two coats instead of six.  That’s one of the reasons for the high expense – six coats of paint applied, with three or more cans of barrier coat at over $200/gallon adds up.  With any luck and a little help from Interlux we’ve hit on a way to get the same coverage for two coats.  We’ll see.

Posted in bottom paint | Comments Off on Butt Naked

Hold Music…

On Apr 23rd, 2010 Published By B.J.

So I show up at the yard today with some more Furuno boxes, whistling a happy tune and thinking maybe I can screw something down on the boat instead of ripping something out for a change.

Did I mention the window leaks?  The ones that drip right on my wife’s head when it rains?  Clearly a repair priority…I pulled the windows off last week.  The window gaskets I need to put the windows back in are back ordered while Lewmar is off hunting whatever wild and mystical beast they need to catch on the Northern Moors in England to produce a new gasket.  How else can it take 4-6 weeks to make a new roll of gasket when you run out?  But I digress…but it is important to remember that a couple of windows are no longer actually installed on the boat.

This morning it’s a beautiful day and I have installation in my heart.  I know in the back of my mind of course that the Soda Blasters were supposed to come last week, but the yard told me of course I could keep working up on the boat under the winter cover since they are blasting the BOTTOM, not the deck.

So driving up to the boat I fail to see it…or at least I fail to see what I expect to see, which is a boat with a largish winter cover on it.  Maybe Evenstar is next to the big uncovered boat which wasn’t next to her yesterday…

SURPRISE!  The soda blasting guys are here today, and they’ve already cut the winter cover off and disposed of it!  No matter that several of the windows are in the back of my car and it is supposed to rain later.  Or that the cockpit is full of all sorts of random electronic gear, the binnacle is ripped apart and the “dashboard” under the dodger is laying wide open.  So much for my plan to leave the cover on for another week or two to give myself some leeway to get the cockpit and windows squared away.

To their credit the Soda Blasting guys did an admirable job taping over the windows and moving all the sensitive gear and tools down below.  So then they explain to me that no, I probably actually can’t work up on the boat while they work down below since my ladder and their covers are not too compatible.  Oh, I can work up there so long as I have no intention of coming down all day…not a really good plan for someone that goes through about a gallon of coffee every day with a boat on the hard (read: no functional plumbing).  Really, really not practical.

Oh, and by the way it will take us all day Thursday just to drape the boat, and probably all day Friday and into Saturday to actually blast all the bottom paint off.  I guess I missed that memo too, I sort of figured they’d bang it all out in a day.

So I find myself with two days where I’d planned to work on the boat in a caffeine addled frenzy for every waking moment…and I can’t.  Of course I’ve got a million other things to do, not the least of which is wrapping up the marketing materials for the major new feature release of my iPhone App, keep cleaning up the yard since the house is technically now back on the market and the yard still looks like we just drove off the double-wide after we finally got the truck off the blocks.  And getting ready to leave town for the weekend on top of it all.

I’ll find something to fill my day tomorrow.  It just won’t involve boats.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Hold Music…

I’ve got music at least…

On Apr 17th, 2010 Published By B.J.

And I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

So I figured I’d do my first “putting new stuff in” on something REALLY easy.  Take a swing at a softball, grab the low hanging fruit and all that to get my confidence up.

What can be easier than a new stereo? Millions of landlubbers install those things in their cars, and those can’t even sink.

We decided to add those in as an afterthought – the existing stereos (yes, there are two) had several problems.  The main unit was a JVC with a snazzy 12 CD changer.  I found this exciting, I’ve never had anything with a changer on my home stereo, just in the car.  But there were two problems.  Somebody (who shall remain nameless) installed one of those CAR stereo units with the removable face plates.  I guess I figured he could take it with him on the dinghy so no one would steal the stereo while he was gone or something.

Anyway, this nice JVC stereo had a removable faceplate, and the person that installed it did a rather poor job of it and did it loosely and broke some of the snaps that hold it in.  So the face plate would randomly fall off or pop loose…ending all music.  At one point there was a remote for this thing so you might have been able to at least turn it down from the cockpit, but it was line of sight IR only so you had to be in the companionway with it – that got lost pretty fast.  Add this to the fact that the 12 CD player actually didn’t seem to be able to read many CD’s and spent most of it’s time chugging up and down the CD bays looking for one it could read you get a system which was basically useless.

The stereo in the Master Stateroom didn’t have much wrong with it except it had 1) no CD player and 2) no AUX line jack on the front.  The only way to listen to something other than the radio or a tape (which we don’t have any of any more I think) was to use one of those cassette shaped inserts with a wire you plug in to your auxiliary device.  Noisy, and in this case also ineffective since the tape player insisted on reversing directions every few seconds, interrupting the sound.

So I picked out a couple of stereos – Jensens; not top of the line but both with features I wanted including an optional iPod/iPhone dock and the ability to add satellite radio at a later day.  We’re hardly audiophiles and there really isn’t room to be on a boat anyway.  No way a sub woofer is fitting anywhere.  But I did order a larger, more expensive and powerful unit for the main saloon stereo since it would be running speakers in the saloon and the cockpit, and a smaller one for the aft cabin.

So of course when I went to install this I found that it fit very nicely in the slot that was already cut.  However the front face was so large that it bumped the drawer below it.  Outside of looking really stupid and huge where I was planning to install it, I would have had to start sawing up mahogany to move it away from the drawer.

As I sat there on the cabin floor with a coping saw and a stencil trying to figure out how I can cut 1/4″ off the top of the hole and nail/glue it to the bottom of the hole again it finally dawned on my what a profoundly stupid idea this was.

So naturally I grabbed the other radio, which though it came in a monstrous box is in fact a smaller unit about the size of your typical car stereo.  Hooking it up was pretty easy, I had the wires from the old JVC there and it was all labeled.  All went well until I turned the power on to test it. 

Pop…the small sound of a breaker resetting in the main panel.  A little twitch under my finger is the only clue about what is happening.

The long and short of it – radio #2 is dead; stone dead.  So dead that apparently it is shorting right back to the breaker and blowing it.  A few phone calls later and I’ve confirmed it’s demise, or more appropriately it’s still birth.

0 for 2…so much for the low hanging fruit.

So a trip to Defender to return them and get a new pair of the MSR3007 (small) radios and we’re good to go.  Both are now installed, pending installation of the optional iPod cable and wire tying it all together.  Of course the antenna connection will need to be redone later, but for now at least I will at least be able to have reliable music while I work.

Tomorrow’s Adventure (weather permitting): removing the old VHF/Cell/TV/FM/AM/Smoke Signal/SSB/Weather Fax cables from the rig and replacing them with a single VHF cable and antenna to be used for VHF, AIS reception and FM radio only.

Posted in Electronics | Comments Off on I’ve got music at least…

Ripped!

On Apr 16th, 2010 Published By B.J.

No, unfortunately I am not talking about my abs or my pecs.  Rather I am talking about the state of affairs on board Evenstar.

The electronics installation has finally commenced; better late than never.  Delayed several weeks by (planned) vacations, (unplanned) floods and (unplanned) children’s illnesses I’ve final started in earnest.  Although perhaps de-installation is more appropriate for now.

There is a LOT of wiring on this boat.  The initial steps of this process are to:

  1. Trace back what goes where currently so I can
  2. Figure out how to snake the new wires through the boat then
  3. Rip all the old stuff out while not destroying it before I
  4. Finally get to play with the new toys.

Why not just cut it all out and junk it?  Well I am hosting a massive yard sale over on Ebay hoping to recoup some of the money we’re sinking in to this project.  So I’m trying to take as much out intact as I can.  So far so good but it is a bit slower.

So that’s what I am doing.  Just figuring out how the wires get from the cockpit to the nav station was an adventure, never mind trying to trace out the nests of Seatalk cabling and other stuff.  I’ve developed a fairly strong idea that the prior owner had a tendency to install new things without first removing the old things – I’ve come across more than a couple of “cables to nowhere” buried in the bowels of the boat.

And ‘bowels of the boat’ is where we are at here.  Floor panels are up, doors are off, ceiling panels are down, cushions are up and in general it looks like the boat was in the aftermath of one of those “someone was looking for something” scenes you see in police shows.  The only thing missing is feathers from the pillows and mattress fluff everywhere.

To add to the mayhem it occurred to me that while the boat is covered still is an excellent time to address several leaky windows.  Since one of them tends to leak right on my wife’s forehead when it rains when we are lying in bed this seems a priority.  Of course it appears I have to send to Sweden for the right gasket…

Posted in Electronics, hard to find parts | 4 Comments

Soda Blast!

On Apr 2nd, 2010 Published By B.J.

Sounds like a cool experiment on MythBusters, no?  Kari Byron with a red umbrella in FHM…you know what I’m talking about.

Well, no, not exactly in this case.  Not when the bottom paint is falling off in chunks.

Not very large chunks, but there some patches the size of my hand exposed, and there are definitely places where you can peel it off with your finger nail and see gel coat.  Hmm…and I thought all along the boat had an Epoxy barrier coat under there.  Problem #2.

Problem numero uno of course is the chunks of paint.  There are a lot at the waterline which is to be expected, but a few more on the hull and some places where this has clearly happened before and been painted over.

There are a few questions to be answered – such as why is the bottom paint falling off, and how to address it.

There are a couple of possible reasons.  The first one that came to my mind was the bottom paint used by the prior owner.  When I asked him what it was he said it was an “experimental paint” he got from someone trying to bring it to market.  That was about as much information as I had to go on, he never did come up with an actual brand or name.  So, given my cash situation at the time we were buying this boat (as in: None Left) painting over it with quality paint seemed the best alternative.  So that is what we did.

The yard I am working with now is pretty certain though that the paint the prior owner got off the back of a truck from some guy isn’t the problem.  More likely there was wax left in a few spots on the hull when it was new for the below the waterline issues, and the waterline issues are typical.  The paint dipping in the water and drying out tends to get flaky.

So there are a few approaches to fixing it.

  1. Strip the whole bottom…hence the “Soda Blasting”, barrier coat it and paint it.  Serious cash in a year when I’ve already put out serious cash on electronics and have still not given up hope on getting a new sailing dink past the Finance Committee.
  2. Sand all the rough spots out then paint over it all again.  Not something I’ve got time or inclination to do myself, I will still be sanding in August if I don’t actually kill myself inhaling paint.
  3. Strip the whole bottom, and put a couple of coats of new paint on it.

The last option isn’t as crazy as it sounds.  I’ve put in a request to Hallberg-Rassy for clarification on why a barrier coat isn’t necessary on their boats and it may well be that I would be wasting my money on it.  Which would make me happy.  Second, if we go two seasons on this new paint job it will be mostly gone the next time the boat is pulled so cleaning the last of it off and adding a barrier coat then – when we’ve planned to spend the money – will not be unmanageable.

I will keep both of you posted as this develops; I am sure you are on the edge of your seats waiting for me to come back with pictures of crumbling bottom paint.  However, I suspect we are 90% likely to go with option #3.  Especially if Hallberg Rassy recommends against the Epoxy coating.

Posted in bottom paint, maintenance | 1 Comment

Baby Steps

On Mar 11th, 2010 Published By B.J.

So tomorrow I official start my first steps in the Great Electronics Overhaul of 2010 (or the Great Furuno Debacle of 2010…depending on your perspective).

Running a cable for the new wind transducer.

Well, pulling the old cable OUT, that’s really the scary part.  Putting the new cable in isn’t all that intimidating.  In fact looking closely at how it’s all set up it shouldn’t be that tough (knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder…any other suggestions?).

What I find most disconcerting is that on a conceptual level when I start pulling stuff out I’ve reached a certain point of no return.  Presently most of the stuff well, works, most of the time.  It’s not great, it’s not reliable or state of the art – but the radar has gotten me home through the fog and the wind arrow mostly points where the wind feels like it’s coming from on my face.

Of course there’s a lot that’s not so good – like the complete failure of all the electronics – for a little while – when we were leaving Cuttyhunk to head to Provincetown last summer.  Or the autpilot’s inability to steer in a straight line or steer period when the boat is under sail.  Or the lack of a cockpit repeater for the Radar that supplies a coherent image, or boat speed, or a chart plotter I don’t have to hold in my hand.  The list goes on.

But we used this stuff to get the boat around New England, and even back from Florida, over the last four years.

But once I start ripping stuff out – well then it no longer even works poorly.  THEN I have to actually put the new stuff in and make it work.

Tomorrow’s task is pretty easy – pull the cable for the old ST80 wind transducer out of the mast and pull through the cable for the new one, then take off the old mounting bracket and stick on a new one.  The mast is lying on saw horses and I can’t even test it since the mast is a few hundred feet from the boat.  Not that there is anything installed on the boat that could supply power or talk to the thing anyway.

There really is only one task in this project the must be done before the boat goes in the water, and two more to do before the rig goes on.  The rest is all internal – wiring runs and installing boxes and switches and routers and so forth.  But I need to replace a through hull – again something I am loath to rip out because well, the boat floats the way it is now and there is no guarantee it still will once I’ve have at it.

But each little step boosts my confidence a bit in this whole project.  And it’s a big one.  Shortly I’ll be enumerating what was in that big “holy crap” pile of electronics I ordered last fall and what I’m going to do with it.

But for now I think I will pull my wire and do my best to see if there is any way I can get out of making a bigger hole in the bottom of my boat.

Posted in Electronics, Upgrades | Comments Off on Baby Steps

Shameless Self Promotion

On Mar 10th, 2010 Published By B.J.

Or…one excuse of many why I haven’t updated this thing in six months…

I’ve taken up a new avocation in the off season to make use of my formerly sharp technical skills…and that avocation is iPhone App developer.

Having gotten an iPhone last fall, I realized it was a pretty slick little platform with a lot of useful stuff.  App development is hyped as being “easy” (which it is not) and a good way to make some money.  In theory that is true – you’ve got a built in distribution channel and if you can hit a home run you could, in theory make some extra scratch.

Of course, you have to hit a home run…I’m happy to hit a single for now if I can.

So, shamelessly plugging my own product…here is R/C Assist for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  In short it is a countdown timer for race starts – a pretty simple application that will make the visual cues and sounds you need to properly time one of several different race sequences.

The premise is pretty simple – instead of cheat sheets and stop watches a Race Committee can run this app.  And if you plug your iPhone into your boat’s stereo or loudhailer or into a bullhorn you can run the whole sequence without using air horns or external sound signals.

All this for $4.99.

Buy a copy for the whole family.

All the details…

Posted in iPhone, R/C Assist | Comments Off on Shameless Self Promotion

Blind Squirrels…or

On Nov 8th, 2009 Published By B.J.

“The most fun an adult can have wearing a hermetically sealed rubber suit.”

The first day of Laser frostbiting was today. It was 50 degrees and sunny, with winds at 5-10 knots. Beautiful conditions.

As mentioned in my last entry I expected to go out on my first real day of Laser racing and get, well, humiliated. Shockingly it didn’t happen. In fact I am somewhat at a loss to explain how I actually managed to put up what would be a reasonably good day for an experienced Laser sailor. For me it was nothing short of miraculous.

What a blast it was though. I’ve not taken the helm in a race since 2005 and back then I had a small army of people on the boat with me. Including people to help me with basic things like setting up a start so the boat ends up in an advantageous position at the beginning of a race instead of buried under everyone’s foul air with nowhere to go and timing the tacks to the wind shifts so we’d sail the shortest way to the marks. Today…no Tactician calling the start or the tacks…just me looking around and saying “huh…looks like time to tack”.

The cool thing was I didn’t suck as fiercely as I thought I would. In fact I did pretty well for a rank newbie and even led the fleet for a little bit. And I don’t think it ever felt any better when I had ten other people on board helping to make it happen on the big keel boat.

I’m certainly not claiming any Mad Sailing Skilz or much of anything but blind luck on a light air day. The race I was first to the mark, well, that was because I screwed up the start so badly I could only sail the other direction away from everyone else because I put myself in such a deep hole. Away from the fleet…and right into an awesome wind shift that lifted me in front of everyone else until I got greedy and pinched my way into a mark. Cost me two boats but I didn’t care at that point I was so happy not to be last. So a lot of beginners luck and not having to pay too badly for my sloppy tacks and poor boat handling made for a fun day on the water.

Only six more days until the next race!

Posted in Laser | Comments Off on Blind Squirrels…or

Humility Lessons

On Nov 4th, 2009 Published By B.J.

So we added a few more boats to the family fleet.

It started so innocuously – my son outgrew his Opti. The decision was that he would start sailing Lasers next year and an opportunity to pick up a very lightly used boat from the Laser Worlds presented itself.

Well, I took a look at that boat and thought “gee, I’ve lost enough weight so I bet I could sail it too.” Of course that wouldn’t be as much fun as sailing a Laser with him. So after some discussion my wife relented and agreed that I too could pick up a Laser (albeit a much older and more used one) so I could learn to sail it and also do some Frostbite sailing this winter.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of “Frostbiting”, well it may be as dumb an idea as it sounds. Basically you get a small boat and race it. In the winter, when it is cold, snowing, icy, etc. This is New England, not the Bahamas…it gets cold here in the winter and we are sailing in December and January. So you get a dry suit (shown above), wear a lot of long underwear and layers and try not to fall off the boat too often.

Now, unlike my son who has been sailing small boats since he was eight or so and is now a perfectly competent dinghy skipper I never sailed as a kid. I used to race, but competitive sailing is not something I took up until well into my thirties. And I’ve never raced Dinghies.


A Laser is a small boat, about 14′ long and weighing around 125 pounds. I used to say that I didn’t “sail any boat that weighs less than me”, however I’ve changed my tune since losing enough weight to get onto one of these little things. This is a boat designed for “an athletic 175 pound man” which I was at one point in my life. I’m close enough now that I can get on it and sail it without falling off all that often.

It is a very different experience than sailing a keel boat. Keel boats like like the old Weeble toys – they wobble, but they don’t fall down. So we can bury the rail in the water on the big boat and nothing happens – you just can’t flip the thing, it always comes back up. On the Laser, well it flips over if you do that too much. It flips over if you do any number of things wrong. I am fairly certain I will discover every one of them this fall.

In some ways it is like learning to sail all over again. This little boat is so much more sensitive and responsive than anything I’ve ever sailed that it takes relearning some of my worst habits. So far I’ve only dumped myself in the water once – and it wasn’t that bad. I got the boat right back up and got right back in it and kept going. Not even an ego bruise really; I expected to capsize more often than I have been so far and I expected to have a lot more trouble getting back in the boat. Last time I sailed a boat this size I turtled it (turned it completely upside down) a mile off shore in the water in front of my house and couldn’t get back on. It must of looked like the poor boat was being assaulted by some stricken pinniped as I kept trying to lunge back on board like an exhausted seal trying to beach itself on the rocks to no avail. With the Laser, well it came right back upright and I climbed right in it and sailed off.

This coming Saturday is the first day of racing, the day the reality check happens. I can tack the boat, I can jibe the boat and I can sail around a mark without hitting it. Of course I tend to get my feet tangled in the sheet and hit myself in the head a lot and my tacks and jibes are not what anyone would describe as “graceful” or “fast”. What remains to be seen is how well I can put my minimal boat handling skills together with all that I’ve forgotten about racing over the last few years and not completely humiliate myself this week.

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Posted in Jr. Sailing, Laser | 6 Comments