Vlog of my SS1000 Iron Butt Ride

I put together a short video of my ride over on YouTube. My absolute favorite section was the dawn. I really do love riding early, early morning and seeing the sun rise and on this morning it was beautiful, which the camera can't fully capture.
Another note I forgot on the video, Mt Katahdin is the norther end of the Katahdin Trail. Looks like those hikers could get a grand vista finish reward!
Summer Solstice Iron Butt SS1000 in Maine

The Wayfarer is no more....

My Southern Fleet is gone. Ray sold the Wayfarer for a tidy profit so I'm not complaining. Actually it's a great thing when you can flip a boat/car/MC and actually be a few shekels ahead!  Also the boat sold locally and the good news is it's staying at Lake Eustis Sailing Club expanding the Wayfarer racing fleet. 

Well half the fun is searching and buying the next boat.

IronButt Saddle Sore 1000 completed.

A nice sense of satisfaction. After hours and hours of repairs and upgrades to my 1981 BMW R100RT I made the Summer Solstice ride. It was an IronButt Association Saddle Sore 1000 miles in less then 24hours, done on the Sumer Solstice and in a Single State(Maine).

Home again, FINISHED 8:33PM

Start at 2:16am Belfast Maine Circle K about 13 miles from home.

Finished at 8:05PM about 18miles from home.

I departed my home about 01:50 and returned at 20:33 on June 21,2017 after 1022 miles of official SaddleSore 1000 riding. Then add in about 31 miles to/from my official start and finish made for a long day!

First my strategy of starting time based on my biphasic sleep cycle, i.e. about 4hrs of sleep get up and go. I've discovered that when I do this I can have the following awake period, about 20hrs in this case, of No sleepiness. This contrast to just getting up an couple hours early or trying to shift my bedtime. But boy do I sleep hard when I finally hit the sack 😻

Next adding a 4 gallon Aux tank to my beefed up rear rack worked like a charm. When riding very early morning in norther Maine gassing up can be dicey. But really the freedom when you have well over 350miles in range is wonderful. I could make my fuel stops quick and my rest stops restful. I usually only added 2 to 3 gallons to the aux tank, then I'd burn the aux tank out before switching to that wonderfully big 6.3gallon main. Even so my longest refuel period was 320miles from Caribou to Kennebunk. Also IronButt requires Business Dated Receipts no greater then 350miles.

Added two 90deg angle aluminum verticals and a cross from the luggage racks to add support to the basic trail rack that is attached to the seat cowling.

I used the same angle aluminum to locate the tank and a ratchet strap to secure the tank.

I also added a piece of ply wood to give the tank full support under. And the extra support for the rack is easily removed with two bolts. 

Finally the R100RT is a great long distance runner. With the windshield at its lowest I can see clearly over it and have enough wind to keep my face shield rain free. Then add that great RT fairing design and a quite calm pocket and this machine is made to cruise. Granted this old girl can't compare to my last Goldwing GL1800 with it's turbine like motor and power this and that, I still would rate this RT about 90 on a 100 scale where the GL is 100.

Funny thing, I spend several hours wiring up my old AutoCom wired intercom w/audio input. I really wanted to have my Podcasts. I'd saved 4-5hours of my favorites plus many hours of my 60-70 era music. But I did not turn it on once.

But I'm not a full on luddite so I did have an IPad2 running tracking SW which then is used for IronButt validation. But is was just stuck in the tank bag and forgotten. Here is the track, BMWSailor I also used a Garmin eTrex 20 GPS for mileage and found out my odometer reads about 1% low! Every other Car/Bike I've ever seen has read high. But the Speedometer is spot on, not the usual 5-10% over that I've seen.

So after such a great result I'm already thinking ahead to the Fall Equinox 😼 But now it time for some quality wife time, she has been hugely supportive and never complained about the many, many hours and dollars spent on and with this Green Machine

Something Different, my other passion :)

Mechanical passion, my wife is first naturally :)

Half a boat this time.

The guy, Ray, that I crew for on a Flying Scot and I bought a rough 1974 Wayfarer 16'. The idea is to fix it up and then flip it, but also so I can get some helm time during off FS race weekends. 

While it's a pretty ugly boat with a sloppy amateur paint job pealing away, it is solid and set up for racing.  Even so, some old hardware, most of the control lines and sails need replacing. 

After a few hours of fixing we floated her and ran in 3 races. I crewed on two and helmed the last, which to my ego stroke we were closest to the fleet and not last :) But really it was just learning the boat. 

Then Saturday I raced her solo.  Wow was I busy and still found another list of "fixes". First was storage of the whisker and spinnaker poles, twice while climbing to windward after a tack I slipped on those poles and hurt delicate body parts.  But it was a good first day out, wind was gusty from flat to hiked out burying the rail and with only a couple tel-tales on the jib to help the wind was also swinging through about 30degs while slowly backing N to NW over a 3 hour period. 

I'm hoping to find some low hour 2nd sails during the Wayfarer Mid-Winters Championship Regatta this coming weekend. If not, I'll bite the bullet and buy some new sails. I'll never know how good I can be with old bedsheets, New or very new sails are a must otherwise "my old sails" are the built in failure excuse. 

Now here is how a somewhat serious racing Wayfarer is rigged. 

Finally the Luger holds it's own weight!

With all the distractions this season my only real goal for the Luger was to get the hull strong enough to hold it's own weight before the winter non-building season set in. Made it with a few days to spare. Originally I was thinking of just two fore/aft stringers but the point load when I lowered it on to the flat trailer still caused the centerboard area to hogged inward. So I added (6) six inch long diagonal stringers, one aft and two forward of the CB slot each side. This works fine. Eventually a couple full and partial bulkheads will be added and the hull will be plenty strong. But for now she is in winter storage waiting for spring. 

Looking at slightly bigger boats :)

My wife and I took 2 week vacation to England ostensibly to deliver our niece to a semester at Pendle College at Lancaster University. Our niece is majoring in Statistics, she is one smart cookie!

These boats were a wee-bit to big to get into the overhead racks on the airplane.

1860, HMS WARRIOR iron-sides. 

WW1 HMS M.33'S PEOPLE in original Dazzle paint scheme.

This English ship should need no introduction!

New camera is pretty good. But the Crazing is awful.

I received my new to me, i.e. refurbished, Nikon S6800 today and had a little time to see how it worked. First it takes great macro pictures. This pic shows the extensive crazing on the topsides of the Luger. Every square inch of the topsides and transom are crazed like this but not the bottom or deck. I can only guess the parts were manufactured on either a Monday or Friday. Traditionally these days for car builds were bad due to workers being either hungover or distracted looking forward to the weekend. Well except for cars built between about 1973 and the late 1980s, they where all pretty much junk. I suppose this applies to many manufacturing industries. I don't think Luger would have been skimping on resin or gelcoat on a kit boat built in 1969, prior to the Arab oil embargo. 

Then I tried a short video mainly to check the microphone. On the S6200 they were located on the top, on this one they are located on the front. Seems to work fine and the zoom is nice and smooth. 

The stringers aren't glassed in. :( Turned out I had much less of the 6inch wide tape then I thought. It'll be a few weeks to get back to the boat though due to travel and house projects. Gotta knock out some house chores to keep my wonderful wife happy. But really I have nothing to complain about since she is super supportive of my addiction. :) 

The part I hate the most in boat building, GRINDING

With the Luger slung from the overhead to allow the hull shape to return to normal it was time for strengthening/stiffening the hull. First step is to tent and set up a dust containment/collection system. A simple box fan with furnace filter, shop-vac, and plastic did a pretty decent job keeping dust in check. But eventually common sense(my wife's) got me to lower the boat and move outside to finish up the grinding. 

My major mistake was not putting on a Tyvek suit anyway.  My arms were itching so much I had to stop after only on side and take a shower. 

Also I'm changing the stringer configuration. The originals were wood laminated in with CSM(Chopped Strand Mat) laid out diagonally to the centerline of the boat. I've changed to longitudinal(front to back) stingers made with foam forms but the strength is from Stitched Biaxial-1708 fiberglass tape. I've used Raka.com for my glassing supplies for several years but I have no financial ties to them, just a happy customer. 

My nice Nikon S6200 died after only 4 years so I used my 8 year old Kodak C613 which for the time had great high res(not)  VGA mode.  So here is a low res walk about the boat update. 

Luger Leeward Rebuild part 1

I spent a few hours with an old but sharpened wood chisel and a cheap dead blow hammer and began attacking the loose hull stiffeners. I learned quick enough to wear gloves as the fiberglass edges are knife sharp and pointed. I suppose I'm a slow learner since I been cutting myself with fiberglass scraps for a few decades.

Another interesting find in the paperwork folder was the original invoice for the boat($799.20), trailer kit($155.70) and other items to build and go sailing for a grand total of $1116 in 1969 dollars. Of course the investor side of me immediately checked the devaluation, aka inflation, since 1969 to 2016, so you would need $6662 today. Yes you can thank the Federal Reserve and congress.

Anyway back to boat work. The biggest problem so far seems to be where the bow was never competed when a tree fall caused damaged. I think the topsides and transom were "off" a bit because I have a gap between the deck and the topsides bow when they are pulled together.

Back in the paperwork folder I found the this  two page ad in the Luger catalogue for the Leeward. It show a 400lb ready to sail weight, but on sailboatdata they show 650lbs. My guess is that from 1962 - 1969 the Leeward used plain steel plate for the centerboard and rudder blade. My boat came with a very warped steel CB which probably weighed about 45lbs, I did not weigh it but picked it up once. I have the steel rudder blade and cast aluminum rudder head which weighs in at about 25lbs. In 1970 it appears they changed to (cheaper) marine plywood for the CB and rudder but that difference alone certainly doesn't account for the 150lb difference. Maybe Luger had one of those special dieters light weight scales back then. :)  

When cars had Character!

I found this in the paper work that came with the new to me Luger Leeward 16.  It dates back to a time when cars had character. Looks like a 2 year old 1968 Dodge Charger.  

This is the catalog that the Leeward was advertised in and this sweet Charger with Lugers "Sunfish like" sailboat, called the Flying Cloud. 

It's sad that a company once proclaiming itself the "World's Largest Manufacturer of Kit Boats" is just a distant memory of so few people today. Until I saw this Leeward in Bob's back yard I'd never heard of Luger Boats. 

The newest addition to the ST Norther Fleet has made it home. This kit was bought from Luger Industries back in 1970 and partially completed. The owner Bob G. then sat it aside to raise a family and battle the Evil Empire in the Cold War. The boat sat in the back yard all those years, but being fiberglass she is still here while two nearby wood dinghies are in the dumpster. The cool part is NOS sails and rigging, much wood and SS was kept in the basement.
Here is a video and talk. 

Luger Leeward Intro

Here is one of our security cameras catching me in the act :)



Now I need to come up with a cool name to connect the boat to that that classic German firearm.

Dec 5th LESC Hartge series race.

Here is what I do when it's snowing in Maine......Go sailing in Florida!

Freedom?

Once I got home from the gym this morning I decided to surf the web for a motorcycle. I've put several hundred thousand miles on bikes since I got my first little KD100 dirt bike when I was about 12year old. I sold my last bike about 3 years ago, a nice 2002 GL1800ABS and have had this itch for a couple years now.
So back to the web, I found a beautiful 1998 HD Springer Softail. Oh man what memories came flooding through my mind. Young guy with a ratty bike some cash in my pocket and nothing to lose. Suddenly I had that leaky tent strapped to the back, bugs in the teeth. YES I'm FREE, FREEDOM.......really?

Oh wait I'm in North Dakota and that little square sticker on the little rectangular piece of sheet metal embossed with some numbers on the back of my bike is about to expire. The thugs demanding payment are a 1000 miles behind me. And I just know there is a local revenue collector with his gun in the next town. If he forces me to stop then demands to see that I've paid tribute to the thugs back east and I don't have them it's jail time for me or at the very least my only mode of transport will be my two feet.

Yep Freedom is just an illusion. I'm free to ride my bike only if I have paid all the taxes(called registration, excise fee, title fee, license fee, insurance fee, inspection fee) and have the little stickers and pieces of paper in the "proper" place.

Janis sang "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose". In a way that's very true because if you defy the thugs and don't pay tribute you'll soon find out you don't really own much of anything.

Even my house, my castle, I can't just say NO I WILL NOT, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! Because before long there will be a revenue collector with his gun standing before "my" home and selling(renting really because there is no ownership) it to some stranger.

Mast raising and lowering, on my Siren

I decided to make my first youtube video to demonstrate how easy and quickly it is to raise or lower a Siren 17 mast. I have been seeing numerous threads and videos of very complicated contraptions and 3 people to do this job. Well here is a video of a past middle aged man doing it solo:)

I probably raised and lowered the mast a half dozen times this morning while trying to get decent footage:)

My Siren 17 getting some love:)

We plan to take the Siren 17 out lake sailing Sunday so today I decided to fix a main sheeting issue that drove me crazy last year. The old block at the cam cleat was corroded and wouldn't move inline with the sheet.

This is the main sheet overview, here is a closeup of the problem. The toggle point, just below the where the line goes thru the block, is seized up hard!

The line rubs against the shoulders of the block, not only here but on the double block on the boom. Also the trail end is tied to a pad loop and crosses over the sheet where it exits the block.

Then when tacking to port a real tangle occurs. I had a couple blocks on hand so after drilling out and manhandling the old block things looked much better.

IIRC a Harken Air Carbo 40mm Swivel

Next I got at the boom end block, turned out it was missing a toggle so the lines again were rubbing on the shoulders of the block.

Not a real good pic but the lines are rubbing. The problem is a missing toggle where the block and carabiner clip.  I didn't have a toggle to fit so I'm using the block off Phoenix until I need it back on the Triton.

Now I have a smooth running main sheet, yeah!  But not done, after supporting a Triathlon tomorrow I'll get back to work hope to get a tiller extension and tiller tamer installed, a real outhaul, reefing point, Cunningham and a symmetrical spinnaker(200sqft off a Flying Scott)! With that and a new Main and Genny sail this boat might actually sail have way decent:)

Getting the Rigging up to spec:)

We got back home a couple weeks ago and have had a chance to get some work done on Phoenix.  First I stripped to old lines off the mast and boom, measured and ready to by replacements. The old lines were washed and retired to support roles around the house or other projects. Next I started checking out the standing rigging and came across an odd setup. There are 3 shrouds on each side, but there are only two chainplates! After much searching on the net I found from the Alberg site that early East Coast Tritons, up to at least hull #192 only had 2 shrouds, hence two chainplates.

The P.O. had simply used a toggle to allow the cap upper/top shroud(not cap as the shroud attaches at the level of the fore stay) and a lower shroud to share the chainplate that is inline with the mast. Not really a good idea and the old silicon-bronze(?) chainplate was worn about the clevis pin hole. Next when I pulled a the bolts on snapped off with very little torque.

So that made me abandon my initial plan to reuse the existing chainplates. Now I have a local machine shop making six new 1"x 3/16"x9.5" SS316L chainplates. I'll install the extra forward of the mast line an distance  equal to the aft chainplate offset.
Hope to have the new plates in hand by next week! I also talked with the machinist about building a tabernacle but he is really busy this time of year so I'll just use a A-frame to hoist the mast into place. The Westsail 32 service manual has a good writeup on using the tabernacle.

2015 Season starting from afar....

There is still three feet of snow on the ground but work on Phoenix is occurring either in Connecticut or Sri Lanka! I placed an order for a new Mainsail and a #2 (135%) Genoa with North Sails through local guy, Eric in Freeport Maine.

I'm having the mainsail built with 2 reef points, 4 leech battens, cunningham, foot skirt, triton insignia, sail number #190, and 3 draft stripes.
The genoa is being built with spreader patches, stanchion patches, 1 tell-tail window, sail number, and 3 draft stripes.

What finally got me going was while I'm wintering in Florida I gotten involved with the Lake Eustis Sailing Club racing on a Flying Scot 19. The Flying Scot is what they call a One-Design race boat. So we race against a fleet of between 12 and 24 other Flying Scots. I was lucky enough to team up with the local....I don't know what you call the local routinely fastest sailor so I'll just call him the "hot shoe". A term from auto racing.
I've found I really enjoy this kind of sailboat racing. We race twice monthly on weekends at LESC and Ray and I are also doing the Wednesday night, 6:25pm, racing with the Lake Monroe Sailing Association. We've also done a couple of regattas.

Returning with broken rudder after leading through leg 4 of 5 leg race:(

The LMSA racing is not One-Design however. At LMSA there are a variety of small sailboats, the largest I've seen is a Precision 27 this past Wed. They handicap the boats using the Portsmouth Rating The idea of handicapping is so very dissimilar sailboat can race competitively. We haven't done as well in the Wednesday night Rum Race series at LMSA with a 7th and 3rd.

But it's been so much fun that I've decided to race Phoenix this summer!!! 

I'll be racing with local yacht club, Northport Yacht Club, in Maine and they only do about 7 races but it's a start. This is also handicapped racing but under PHRF(Performance Handicap Racing Fleet) More on my rational for racing a 55 year old full keel Triton later:) Now just wishing the warmest winter globally on record would warm up Maine!

Another year of little work:(

This was not a boating year and now the season is basically over:( We got back to Maine in April. But then we’ve had several trips south and to the midwest. Next I was building a Sunroom on the house and a dozen other “home” projects. So here we are end of season and Phoenix was seriously neglected all year.

I wish I could say this 15-18 inches of snow on Nov 2nd was a “freak” but in 2011 we had a 15 inch snow on Oct 30th! The first snow over an inch is our cue it’s time to prepare to bug out.

But on a positive note I did get some lake sailing in on my latest addition to the fleet, a 1985 Siren 17 “Spray”.

This is what occupied much free time.

End Of Season

I build a boat cover framework out of 2"x2" pine lumber then covered with 3 or 4 large blue tarps. I have no idea if this will survive the winter but the first big snow, about 5inches, had no accumulation on the cover. So off to a good start. 

But before the basement got too cold I did clean up all the wood from the cockpit that I removed. The cockpit coaming were in pretty rough shape, but some sanding, epoxy and varnish and they are pretty again. I also put the lazarette cover in clamps to straighten it out. I don't have a steamer but I wetted it then clamped and epoxied, so hoping it keeps flat after 4 months in clamps. 

Here's hoping everyone has a great winter season, and hoping for an early snow melt:) The Winter solstice is tomorrow, then longer days YEAH!!!!