Wednesday is PHOTO DAY!

[Dave-Gibson]

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Here are the "rules", practically the same as before. Photos can be of anything boating related. You, your boat, your dog on your boat, Polynesian women wearing coconut bras and paddling dugout canoes, whatever. Let us know what part of the US, or the world, the photo was taken. Those of us from afar would appreciate it.

For you Photo Day newbies, to post a photo it needs to reside on a web server somewhere. If you don't have server space with your ISP (check with them) you can attach it in an email to me and I'll stick it on my server and return email you the URL. Click the “Img” button and then copy and paste the URL I send you after the . Then hit “alt” and “p” on your keyboard. You should get something that looks like this BUT WITHOUT THE QUOTES:

[img]"http://www.fultoncomputer.com/cwbb/Hotspur.jpg"

Hit the preview button. If the photo displays, you did it right. If it doesn’t, you didn’t.

The new CW format likes photos no wider than 640 pixels, so please try to keep your images no larger than that. Otherwise, the rest of us will have to scroll left and right to read all the posts.

There are commercial photo hosting sites available too, such as Snapfish.com and PhotoJerk.com, where you can upload photos to an online album. Do not copy and paste the URL of the webpage itself to link to a photo. Display your photo on Snapfish, right click on the photo, click on “properties”, and copy and paste that address into the optional image URL box. Don’t forget to preview your post to make sure the photo displays.

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I know I'm a little early, but today is an exciting day. Hotspur finally splashed. The boat is a filthy mess both above and below

http://www.fultoncomputer.com/cwbb/HotspurInterior.jpg

but it's floating.

http://www.fultoncomputer.com/cwbb/DaveGibson_Hotspur.jpg

The powerboat has been hauled out for the season, and next year we'll let our daughter use it.

But back to Hotspur. He's beautiful. Some things are just worth waiting for, and except for the aggravation and heartburn, this certainly is.

Excuse me for posting several photos, but I'm just so darn happy, I can't help myself. Here is a photo that shows the new mahogany cockpit, with the old teak lazerette cover aft. The next photo shows the lazerette cover I made a couple of winters ago, for those with really good memories.

http://www.fultoncomputer.com/cwbb/DaveGibson_cockpit2.jpg

http://www.fultoncomputer.com/cwbb/DaveGibson_cockpit3.jpg


The boat isn't done. We have a bit of varnishing to do, like the aft end of the cabin. We'll tint the varnish to match the new red mahogany.

http://www.fultoncomputer.com/cwbb/DaveGibson_cockpit1.jpg

Not only that, but you all aren't going to believe this. I had a yacht club meeting tonight, and during it, a member announced that Jahnn (my wife) had an article published in the August issue of Latitudes & Attitudes, on page 103. She had sent it in long ago, and I didn't know what it was about. When I got home tonight, I opened the magazine and there it was. It's the story of when we bought Hotspur, and delivered it from Rowayton Connecticut to upstate New York back in 1998, and the joy and excitement she felt.

I know it's not CW (sorry Herb) but it's a great read, especially since you guys all know the rest of the story.

It must be a sign from someone. Higher up. Hopefully, a good sign.

[Saorsa]

Leaving the cove

http://files.photojerk.com/briangrant/Leavingthecove.jpg

[Rick Beddoe]

Dave, you have good reason to be proud. She is a BEAUTY!

"Now vit my lazerbeam eyez I vill make you danz. DANZ YOU CRAZY HUMAN, DANZ!"

http://sail2live.com/images/DSCF0060.JPG

****

sorry for posting all those pics. I'll save them for later. :wink:

[jib]

I don't know the rest of the story, Dave, but she is a beautiful boat.

[Ken R.]

...from a trip a couple of years ago - we met a family cruising whose kids had attached a talisman on the pulpit.

http://www.raley.com/kook/cabo_to_pv/godzilla_vs_cabo.jpg

[pmislinski]

Dave,

Hotspur looks AWESOME. I'm excited for you. The Mistral-O-Meter must be pegged at 100%.

I was out shooting the other day for a client and got a different view of a place I regularly sail right past just outside the surf break. A surfer is just starting to duck dive below the breaking wave (no it's not open ocean). I figured it's related to this board because I just sailed past this spot a few days before the helicopter ride.

http://www.pmimage.com/nssurf/f10.jpg

[Dave-Gibson]

I don't know the rest of the story, Dave, but she is a beautiful boat.

The rest of the story is that the boat was damaged a couple of winters ago due to improper blocking by the yard. Hotspur has been at Scarano's Boatbuilding in Albany being repaired and, since it was there, having some restoration work done. The full story of the damage can be seen here at http://www.classic-hrs.com/HotspurDamage.htm

A year ago, Jahnn and I bought a 28' Pacemaker motorboat and have been using that for a year. Now we're sailors again. :D

[Tom Young]

Way to go Dave, it could have gone the other way, Hotspur as scrap.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeofej4/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/morningmast.jpg[/img]

[Tom Young]

Ed will pick Christmas up at 6:30 am tomorrow. Our small public boat landing in Rockport Maine is also used by lobstermen. The early hour is to allow us to get through the parking area with the travel lift without moving alot of stinky(bait!) trucks.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeofej4/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/landing.jpg

[RB]

goes it with the yard and their insurance company??? :shock:

[Dave Gibson]

What was the final cost, and how goes it with the yard and their insurance company??? :shock:

Well, this is a touchy subject with me. Initially, two years ago, we had hired a guy to restore Hotspur's cockpit for about $4k. Then we found the damage.

It looks like the damage is going to come in somewhere around $15k. So long as the boat was at Scarano's , we had them finish the cockpit and replace the entire toerail, as well as install new deck drains, lifelines, and an additional fresh water tank. That was about $40k.

Luckily, the divinycell cored deck did NOT delaminate. It's heavy 1 1/2" layup is most likely what saved the boat. If that fractured, which was what I really feared, the boat would have been a total loss.

Now, I know many of you will say that I could have just scrapped the boat and bought another. With the purchase price of the boat ($22.5k) and how much I spent on it up to this restoration (about $25k) and then this restoration ($55k), I could have bought a number of nice boats for $100k. Heck, a Mistral in nice shape sells for $40k to $60k, depending on condition, and I could have just bought another and used this one for parts. However, once I get Hotspur's hull professionally done over, this good old boat will be better than new. Well, except for the old Perkins 4-108 engine and Hurth tranny. These run fine, but are about 20 years old.

So, I guess I now have the dubious honor of owning the world's most expensive Hallberg-Rassy Mistral. :oops:

But if you read Jahnn's article on page 103 of August's Lats&Atts and you will know why I had to fix this boat. It's not just our sailboat, it's what we've staked our dreams on. When the boat was crushed, so were our dreams. I did the only thing I could do.

The yard has been very cool and aloof, but they understand what is at stake for them. Although they have the only yard on the lake that can handle sailboats over 25', there were many friends waiting and watching what they would do.

I haven't contacted the insurance company yet. I paid Bob Perry's $500 lifetime-of-consultation fee, and Bob just reviewed all the reports and data. Gleefully, Bob agrees that the damage was caused by improper blocking, not old age. I'm awaiting his written report which I will send on to my insurance company. If they don't pay for the $15k in damages, I'll take it the next step.

[Bob Fortunato]

Congratulations Dave... Hotspur looks beautiful, I'm sure she will give you another 30 years of service. The boat yard did a great job...

Bob

[sded]

When I am out cruising the coast, I try to keep up with the BB and even posted a photo from Catalina just before the 4th of July. But I am typically on a 14.4kbps cell phone link, and just don't have the bandwidth to either download and respond or download to check that my picture came out ok if I need to download all of the photos at once. :( With the old format, I just got the headers, compressed my own image way down, and things worked pretty well, since I only had to deal with a single photo at a time. Terrible format for the bandwidth deprived, and I don't see what to do about it except let all the slow dialup people cease participating. Anything doable to help? Or just all post on CS-BB instead? :roll:

[Rick Beddoe]

Tom, I've admired Christmas since the first time I've seen pictures of her. What kind of boat is she? Can you tell us a little more about her?

[Jan]

http://ysail.homestead.com/files/WinterludeHalfMoonCayeWeb.jpg

[Michael s/v Sannyasin]

http://www.greatsoftware.net/sailing/Sannyasin1S.jpg

[Rick Beddoe]

Gaff-rigged Westsail 32? now THAT is cool! Something about it just screams 'Here we go!'

[Tom Young]

built in 1961. About 50 of these yawls were built, Aldens first fiberlgass boats. CCA racing was the thing, Challengers, like many boats of the time were designed to kill Concordias.

In the transisition(wood to glass) period, the hulls and decks were built of fiberglass at the Halmatic yard in England. Most were then shipped to the Molich yard in Denmark with a set a blue prints(all still available at the Alden office in Boston) to build the rest of the boat out of wood. A few were finished elsewhere, Derector, LeComte etc. No two are alike.

38' x11' x 4'/8'(bronze centerboard) 15,000disp 650'SA 27'WL

Huge cockpit and decks, bright airy cabin with enormous glass ports, lots of stowage space, the boat has proven to be a wonderful coastal cruiser on the coast of Maine and New England for us.

These boats are not particularly expensive up front but you either know how and take care of it yourself(no small task) or you pay through the nose(at todays yard rates) to have someone else do it. Their value is based on their maintainence.