What is a blog without photo's?

Here is ECHO. She is an Ericon 46. I have been working on her on and off for years. It it time to finish this project--part of the reason I'm moving aboard. It will get done quicker.

You can see the two cockpit hatches in the front of the cockpit. This is how my dog will get in and out.

Sailing with a Water Dog

One of me concerns is sailing with my dog. While I feel fine with her on the boat it does raise a few issues. First, how will she get around the boat? I'm thinking she can get up and out the cockpit hatches once I rebuild the two aft staterooms. Climbing the ladder will be difficult for her. I'll have to study that more as we spend more time on the boat. Perhaps a temporary ladder for the cockpit hatch and a bed for her down below will be best for now. That will have to be a priority for the short term.

My other issue is peeps and poops. She can hold her water 10-12 hours--I'm amazed actually, so peeps are not a problem. Poops will be when we are underway. So I need to train her to so somewhere. The best option is the cockpit sole. I have a shower setup that I just bought to help clean up. I am thinking about buying some fake grass and putting grass clipping on it to train her that it is ok to go there, and later I can remove the grass clippings and then the mat.

Anchoring

My boat is a racing boat--or was. It has no windlass. I bought a new one,but it will be difficult to fit it. My plan is a pair of anchors on the bow with some chain and the two handed "Arm" windlass for now. I'm strong enough to handle these anchors by myself. I've hauled up all chain anchors by myself in the past. So I need two mounts, two rodes, and some chain. I will get a big Delta and a bigger Rocna or equivalent. I plan to supersize the Rocna by two over the recommended, and buy a Delta, probably one size larger than recommended, and use the Delta most of the time. I have a massive Danforth, that I will find a way to mount on the stern. The Danforth would be the best for soft mud but it is so hard to stow that I hate it actually. I'm debating cutting a well in the deck near the gunwhale and fabricating a place to store this anchor, with a drain--right there, like the J-44's have. It reduces weight on the bow and gets it out of the way, and aft. That will take some time and is not a priority, unless I can find a pre-made Danforth locker I can purchase and glass in easily. Is this enough anchors? Three is minimum. I would not mind four. ECHO is rather heavy, and the penalty is not that great for carrying extra weight. I can always move the anchors below and aft when sailing on the ocean.

Auto-Pilot ideas

I am leaning towards a Simrad auto-pilot at the moment. I prefer hydraulic, but electric (linear drives) are cheaper. My rudder is not well balanced. I think hydraulic will work and last--two requirements. It would be nice to have an auto pilot when I head south. Getting down the Jersey coast to the Delaware Bay and up and through the C&D canal would be difficult to do by myself, even with an auto pilot, unless I heave-to offshore somewhere and time it well with the weather.

The best auto-pilot is a balanced boat sailing upwind.

Moving aboard full time...

I will be moving aboard full time soon. Now the the weather is a bit cooler. In part because I want to refinish the floor in my bedroom and in part because I will get more work done on it if I am living in that space. My goal is to sail south this winter to find cheaper labor for some things like welding. I have about 2.5 months to get going.

Bottom Cleaning Done

After some arm twisting I got the fellow who cleans my boat bottom to show up and clean it. He has been really late and unreliable, even though I begged him to keep it clean for me. In any case it is done, and will last for a while, although I plan to haul the boat out and sand and repaint the bottom soon. My zincs are in good condition, so it seems my isolation transformer, coupled with my current location have reduced stray currents and minimized the needs for zincs. This is a big change from my last location where I burned though zincs somewhat rapidly.

Starting this up again

Well it was operator error. I was trying to click on the wrong link and was unable to post. I still don't know why that link is not working but here I am.

Lots has happened in the last few years. I suddenly found myself guardian to a teenage girl and my life was wrapped around that and still is. My niece has now graduated high school and I bought her a car which is needs only minor work to get fully mission capable.

I the last few years my fleet has grown. I found that working on ECHO was stalled by lack of money, and I was distracted by other boat work. I have two photo albums of ECHO prior to the start of this blog, and a few for my 30' boat HOOT, and several more on two or three of my seven dinghy's. I'll have to migrate those over here somehow. And now might be a good idea as I have some time on my hands.

The other big thing in my life is I have split with my partner of 6 years and plan to move aboard soon. I have two options-move on ECHO or move on a new bigger boat. I'm leaning towards getting a good turn key charter boat so I can get more money rolling in to throw at ECHO. I've decided working on boats all by myself is too time consuming and takes away from sailing time. I need a helper and have three or four possibilities in the local kids. I also plan to put up a help wanted advertisement on Craigslist and the local store.

I'm also working on refinancing my house to a lower rate and taking some cash out. I'm luck in that my houses are not inside out like many other people's.

For a bigger boat, it would be easier to find another US Hull so that it can be US Documented. I'd like to find one that is, or can be inspected. So far I've only seen one boat on the market in my price range, and I feel it is way over priced as a wooden schooner. I wrote the owner and have not heard from him. I wanted to come and work on the boat and then I'd consider buying it or leasing it.

I would prefer to run a charter operation here in Long Island Sound in the Summers with voyages to Nova Scotia and down the east coast, with Winters in the Caribbean working the USVI, BVI and SVI.

I've found two other boats--both of which I like. each have issue with cracked plexiglass windows that may be crazy expensive to fix. I'd like to put them both into charter. While I'd like to buy them, I'm thinking of lease with purchase options might enable me to get my hands on both of them. As a professional Captain, I know plenty of people I can use to run the second boat if it is crewed.

So, I need to gather more information, work on my financing, and get my paperwork in order.

My last issue has been delay after delay from the USCG on renewing my license. I forgot to fill out three sections of the medical forms, and the USCG lost on of the 53 pages I submitted. Not that it matters too much while I'm wearing a cast.