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Sailing Events Page, 17 December 2008
We have cut the deck and installed the house on our current Com-Pac 16 Trawler. This boat will be similar to our first trawler 16, but it will have some additional features like bunks and a head. We also hope to reduce the cost of construction and make a better boat with better materials. The boat on the trailer will still go through a 7-foot garage door and will have the good looks of the original boat. We think this boat is going to have a blue hull with a cream colored top. With a new trailer and controls, it should sell for about $12K
We put her in the water and she looks good. I'm pleased with the hull extension and the house. The little boat will have sleeping accommodations for 2, a head and 2 sets of controls. The tiller in the cockpit with engine controls will be the solution to single handed docking. I like to look good when I dock a boat. The tiller will act as a vertical flagstaff when not being used for steering. The primary set of controls featuring a wood spoke wheel will be inside the house. The engine installation is almost complete and we should be doing sea trials soon. Some of the furniture in the cabin needs to be installed to balance the boat. We are currently a little bow up. The battery will be installed in the bow.
Two exceptional long distance sailors have their stories listed on the left. The stories are Herb Lincoln's Log-Book and Richard Summers Cruise of the Harriet II. Both sailors used Com-Pac Yachts and Yanmar diesels to cover lots of miles. I sailed with Richard from Annapolis, MD to Cape May, NJ and loved every minute. It was exciting going down the Delaware Bay with the current and wind at our back. We were really fast and sailed most of the way. I have one picture that Herb made as he sailed by the Statue of Liberty. It shows the people waiting in line to go up the Statue and they were all looking at Herb. They are two sailors that had great adventures.
Com-Pac has made a big improvement in their Web site. The Web site now shows videos of the Com-Pac boats sailing on your computer screen. In most cases, the boats are rigged, launched and sailed in the videos. Technology sure is wonderful. Click on the bottom link on the left to see the Com-Pacs in action.
You will have to pay an additional 3.5 % over retail for a new Com-Pac sailboat and it may take 2 months to have one built. The price of oil has come down, but the price of resin has gone up. Maybe the situation will improve soon. We can hope. Com-Pac wants to return to the old lower prices as soon as possible.
We have purchased our first diesel engine from Vetus Marine. We plan on installing diesel engines on small sailboats that currently have outboard motors. We will do the design work and installation on our yard in Richlands. Some small sailboats can't be repowered, but most of them can be converted. A diesel sailboat puts the ballast where it belongs and the new engines are smooth and make very little noise. You can talk in the cockpit and forget about all those outboard problems. You may be able to get by with 3 gallons of diesel fuel for a whole year of use. You may have a problem with fuel because you don't use enough fuel and the fuel may get old in the tank. That's a good problem to have with the current price of fuel. The 11-hp Vetus engine will work on most sailboats up to 23 feet. We hope to do an installation on most small sailboats for about $8,000.
It took the wholesale houses until now to go up on their prices. I think they have been waiting for the fuel prices to go down and that didn't happen. Everyone's transportation prices are higher and its going to cost us more for everything we need and use in boating. (Example: transporting a 35-foot sailboat cross-country in the 90s cost $4K and today it's $40K) As sailors, we have always been a little on the conservative side. Some people use the word cheap. I think the conservative trait in all of us might mean that we will be keeping our boats a little longer and doing more to keep them looking good.
Com-Pac has raised the price of new boats by 2.5 %. They hope to reduce the price by the same amount when the price of fuel goes down. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
Sergeant Major (Retired) John Holmes is on his way to Parris Island, SC from his home base of Jacksonville, NC. His mode of transportation is a Com-Pac Legacy. John is a teacher in the Jacksonville area and this is vacation time for him. He should have a good story to tell when he gets home.
The bimini on the Com-Pac 16, 19 and 23 has always been hard to store on the boat. As you can see from the picture below, the high 19 mast gallows works really well as a storage device. It can also provide enough room for cabin access when the mast is rigged for travel. That's a nice feature for a boat that lives on a trailer. When the mast is in the step position (second picture down), it's ready to go under a bridge or to make a short haul to a launching ramp. The sail is on the boom and it stays that way during both modes of travel. One person can raise the mast by standing on top of the cabin and facing aft. You plant your feet in front of hatch, bend your legs, grab the mast and move backwards as the mast goes up. An old 71-year man can do it without any help (several times in 1 day). Make sure you leave the boom on the hatch. You don't want to raise the boom, sail and sailcover until the mast is up and pinned. This modification looks like a winner.
The Sailboat Company has reconfigured the standing rigging on a Com-Pac 19 with some good results. We eliminated the backstay and moved the uppers to a new location for a new configuration. This makes lifting the mast easy for one person. The boom tender system leaves the sail on the boom and makes launching much faster. The mast gallows stores the mast at a better angle for raising and rides down the road in that position. This modification and the new longer trailer have really improved launching.
This is really looking like a great year for new sailboats. Back in the early 80s, a demand for sailboats came along at about the same time that we were going through a gasoline shortage for our cars. The 80s turned out to be a really big boom time for new sailboats. The majority of sailboats we see in the water today were built back in those boom days. The current cost of gasoline may start a new boom time for sailboats. We all need to save some money somewhere and you can't do it with a powerboat. Com-Pac is currently building 2 Com-Pac 27s, 12 Com-Pac Sun Cats and 18 Com-Pac Picnic Cats. They have their hands full and business is good.
Hunter Marine has canceled their plans to sell certified used boats. The new boat business is good enough to stay with new boats and I think good used boats may be hard to find.
We had great weather for the show in Raleigh with 3 warm days, some modest crowds and some good-looking boats. We talked with the Volkswagen Diesel people about their motors. They have a nice 75-hp model for boats. The "C Dory" dealer had 2 boats in the show with the sailboats. That's a good idea because most "C Dory" owners appear to be sailboat people. Gary Sigvaldsen attended all 3 days. He is the past Commodore of the CPYANC and originated the club back in the 80s. We talked sailing stories for 3 days. He is currently looking for a used Boston Whaler. Let me know if someone has one for sale. We really enjoyed talking to our old customers and we are looking forward to the boat show next year.
Changing the draft of a large sailboat isn't easy. The draft of this sailboat changed from 5 feet 2 inches to 3 feet 10 inches. The same amount of ballast missing from the keel is going to go inside the boat using lead pigs. The boat should sail about the same, but it may not point as high as it did when it had the deep draft. Deep draft boats don't work that well in coastal North Carolina.
We plan on using a ballast technique used on water ballast boats. They make their ballast tanks as wide as possible so they can lift the water in the tank on the high side when they heel. Keeping our lead ballast low while also moving it as far outboard as possible will give us the same results. The distance (arm) between the ballast on the sides of the boat and the centerline will increase its effectiveness when we heel. Lifting some of our ballast above the surface should compensate for the lost ballast at the bottom of the keel.
I just came back from the Com-Pac Factory and I had a good talk with Gerry and Richard Hutchins. Com-Pac currently has a load of boats on order and they are currently building Sun Cat hull number 300. The Sun Cat has continued to be a very popular boat. They are talking about making a version of the Sun Cat into a sloop for sailors that have less wind. The sloop version would have additional sail area for low wind locations. They also mentioned that a powerboat version of the Horizon Cat could be on the horizon. I think a trawler version of the Horizon Cat would be a great boat. I guess I had better start saving my money.
What's hot and what's not. Hot: Restored sailboats with new paint (green and blue hulls) that go on trailers. Mast raising systems for the 16, 19 and 23. Major maintenance on damaged boats because late model sailboats are really worth repairing, no matter what the damage and clean used sailboats continue to be hot items. Not: Most new boats went up 5% in 2007 and we didn't need a price increase for increased sales. Old ugly sailboats that are too big for a trailer and large used sailboats. The large boats may have slip problems because renting a slip is not easy in North Carolina.
2007 was a better year than 2006 and 2008 is looking pretty good. I have been talking to lots of powerboat people that can't afford the current gas price. They are thinking that sailboats might be a nice change.
The Creek behind the house is empty. The New River down the road is mostly salt water and the lakes around Raleigh are really low. You need water to go sailing and some sailors are waiting on a good rain to help the situation. The weatherman says our drought is going to continue into next year. This will gives us some time to get ready for the good sailing season next year. Maybe some heavy April showers will correct the problem.