Com-Pac Yacht Owners Association

Hi All,
I haven't posted on here for some time now, because a couple of years ago I sold my little 16 and move up(?) to a Catalina 22 so I could transport the whole family.  Several time since I have regretted that, and missed my little boat and the adventures we had in the short time that she owned me.  Well, fate played out her hand this past week, and she came back to me.  I'm not going to let her go again.  I might still have a bigger boat to get more folks aboard, (maybe a Compac 23) but this little boat will be mine alone to sail by myself and enjoy in a way that not too many people have the privilege of knowing. I finally named her the "Sprite" and will be putting her name on her real soon.  I have stayed abreast of what has been going on in this site over the past couple of years because as far as I'm concerned it's the best site on the internet.  Anyway I'll be posting again from time to time and sending out some pics.  Consider me back.

BobD (the other Bob)

Welcome back Bob!  When I saw the title "fate" and saw your name, the idea of your old restoration sailing back into your life popped in my head as a possible theme to this post.  Well, indeed it is!

Yep, bet you never let her go again.

If my old 16 ever comes up for sale, I might just have to do the same.

I love happy endings! :) Congratulations.
Jill

+ good karma is yours to be sure!

Fate? "Is but a plank between a sailor and eternity."

I always liked that quip.

skip.

Glad to have you back.   After all the work you did to that 16 you must think of her as family.

Mike and Brenda

Bob:
   Nice that your are back. The other day, I was remembering some of the names from the past that no longer hang out here...one wonders where they are? Quite a treat that your "lost" 16 found her way back to you. Funny how boats do that, eh?
   "Sprite". Is this your personal water sports car like the Austin Healy Sprite? I'm sure the Compac 16's are just a tad more dependable but just as fun! So, maybe you'll move up to a 23
for the family, and the 16 for you...nice to have 2 Compacs!
Bob23 (the other other Bob)
(I forget just now...where are your home waters?)

Whoa there,  >:( Big Boy Bob!,

My '67 AH Sprite MK-IV is very reliable & simple, too, for an automobile in this day and age.  Why, it even has heat, roll up windows, and gets 40MPG!  Gets to 60 in three afternoons, and takes 90^ corners at 30MPH :o.  Goes fast slowly!  I'm sure it's as exciting to drive as a 16 is to sail.

I've owned it for 37 years.  I've only had to restore it twice, but the engine and transmission are the original, albeit rebuilt a couple of times.  I drove it daily for many years, and have rolled the 100K odometer three times.

Cast not insults on this fine specimen of British Engineering.  How many Fiats that age do you see?  Almost none! Because they rust away in two or three afternoons.

Spritely espoused,

TG

Bob, glad you and your boat were reunited.  Had to happen, you had too much sweat equity in that vessel.  You still in Tenn?  We need to see about a Mid-South ron-day-voo.

Tim, I had one of those fiats about the size of a pregnant roller skate.  Bought it worn out, decided to overhaul the engine, had to go to the local lawn and garden service store to borrow a ridge reamer and cylinder hone, the cylinders were so small.  After the overhaul, compression improved and it no longer burned a quart of oil an hour, but never could get the end rockerarm stud to stay in that aluminum head.  Finally ran out of space for the successively larger threaded inserts.  Sold it to a guy who was going to make a dirt track class racer out of it.  Said they are great, roll over and get on their feet better than a VW bug, and if they end up turtle, one guy can turn it back over. :)

   It's true that the old cars were simple. I really loved my old VW's...owned 14 aircooled ones over the years....spent lots of time cursing back then. My Toyotas allow me to live a more righteous life!
   Point well taken about the Fiats. But the old 124 Sports Spiders were a great car. So what if it rusted out...everything back then did.
Brack:
    Must've been an old Fiat 850..with a whopping 817CC displacement....pistons the size of bathroom dixie cups! But fun and Hades to drive!
Bob23 (2001 Tundra SR5)

Thanks for the well wishes everyone, there were a few times that I looked at the pics of my little 16 and sincerely regretted turning loose of her.  I think the new owner realized that, and when it came time to give her up, made sure I got her back.  I'll be forever grateful to him for that.  At one time just a few weeks ago, I had 4 sailboats and a bass boat out in the back yard, then the Admiral said that if I brought another one home before I got rid of some of them, I was going to wind up living on one of them.  Soooooo, I got rid of two of them so far and looking to unload 2 more then go looking for a 23.  I do have a replica of the dragon class racing sloops of Olympic racing fame, that I want to see go to a good home for restoration.  My brother in law and his brother built it by hand and it's a real beauty, but is going to take more money, time and talent than I currently possess.  If in our little circle of sailors you know of someone who might be interested in that, let me know.  Bob23 , I don't know how I hit on the name "Sprite", but it ran through my head the day I was driving her back down here, and seemed so right.  My home waters here is Kentucky Lake, and I sail out of Paris Landing Marina in Tennessee.  It is a wonderful state run marina with a campground attached, and the nice part is that if you get a campsite for the night, they give you the slip at half price.  It's a real good deal, and the people who run it are real people and service oriented.  I would like to host a rendezvous here, and have been tossing several ideas around in my head to maybe make that happen, but have just recently changed employments and am going to be tied up for several months now.  As soon as I can maybe put something together I'll send out a post.  One that I haven't seen on here lately is Different Drummer.  He hailed from Douglas Lake over east of Knoxville.  I wonder if he's still sailing his 16.  As far as having a little speedster, that little 16 foot MFG Sidewinder was the screamer, but it was hard on an old man's butt and back.  And you couldn't take it out in the cooler weather without getting wet, or get below when a storm popped up.  Mike, I have you and Brenda's blog posted in my favorites and go there regularly to follow your adventures and see what you've done with Wrinkles.

Bob,

One more welcome back to owning a Com-Pac.  I know it was fate that brought me to my CP-16.  I also have more boats than a sane person should own.  I know that my CP-16 will be the last to go for me when it is time.  I sail on KY Lake several times a year.  I usually put in around Little Bear Ck. And sail from the Dam down to Aurora.  I have seen Paris landing and State Park on the map.  I will try to make a trip down there when things worm back up.

Rich

   Let me dispell this myth about "too many boats". I recently have discovered that it is completely normal for men to own what women call "too many boats." As I explained it to my Commanding Officer, "One wife- many boats". She didn't argue with that one.
   Bob: My go fast boat is a AMF Force 5...lots of strings, way over canvassed for the winds we get around here but a lot of fun.
  Again, welcome back.
Bob23
 

Hi Bob!  I know you have a lot on your mind today, but...

             I am a woman.... can one ever have too many boats?  I think not!

Be safe.   Jill

Where do you sail out of Jill?

Jill:
   Glad we see eye to eye on the boat count. Maybe one can have too many boats if one stops playing with them. Kinda like when we were kids...our moms gave away the toys that we stopped playing with...although I still have Legos and some really cool wooden blocks that I fiddle with while talking on the phone.  Quite possibly 200 year old Jersey White Cedar.
Bob:
   That boat wanted you back and was going to go to any extremes to get her way. That's just how it works. I'm convinced that my 23 planned the whole thing and even set up the "blind date". It was love at first sight!
Bob23

Bob23 writes above; " Must've been an old Fiat 850..with a whopping 817CC displacement....pistons the size of bathroom Dixie cups! "

That got me to thinking. One of my model R/C aeroplane engines is a Rossi ABC [Aluminium-Brass-Chrome] ringless piston. The piston is hand lapped and fits so tight that it is very hard to turn the engine over with an 10 inch-5 pitch prop. Once the 10% nitro ignites she screams to life making an incredible 3/4 hp from a measly 0.40 cubic inch displacement at about 14,000 rpm. Now that's booking!

I see where Ford Motor Company has a production turbo charged three cylinder engine...a screaming machine that luv's to spin and make power yet sip fuel. Developed in Partnership with Yamaha.

You mentioned Dixie Cups. An invention put on public transportation street cars during the horrendous influenza virus where from 1918 to 1933 almost 2/3 of the world's population scummed to 'The Deadliest Plague In History'. Strangely enough in the book the very street I lived on in Lincoln, Illinois when attending college was mentioned. The gist was, in the morning so and so walked past a certain house on Keokuk Street. And on the way back from school two more Black Bows were were tied on the railing of the front porch. Two more deaths attributed to this pandemic.

skip.

   Eons ago, my sister owned a Fiat 850 Sport Spider. I used to love racing my friends in that thing...8500 redline, if I remember correctly. That sucker seemed to have power all the way up. Not bad for a pre-VVT, carbureted, naturally aspirated engine. Rear engine, rear wheel drive. I used to routinely beat my buddies Triumph S*itfire easily.
   You lived on Keokuk St.? That must have been eerie...seeing your street mentioned in the book. What a horrible time that was to be living in.
bob23

I felt the need to chime in.   I'm mostly a lurker on this fine forum but Healey bashing gets mee blood boiling.   Well, not really but I have to say that I love my ComPac 16, I loved my Sprites and MG's and I love my Healey 100.  Not necessarily in that order.

Anybody want to talk about the most advanced cars ever?  Lets start with the first modern automobile, the '35 Citroen, the first successful mass produced front wheel drive, in production until '57 when an American  automotive journalist noted that it was more advanced than anything built in this country that year.  Then the '55 - 75 DS 21 Citroen.  It got 36 mpg and had a cruising speed over 100mph with safety features to match.  It had 59 advanced features including self correcting steering. Ever blow a front tire? Sitting on you hands at 100mph you can stop, straight line, just by applying the brakes.    Another feature was mandated for all cars sold in this country this year; the current version is called electronic stability control.  It prevents overcorrection accidents that kill 2 out of 3 on American roads. The DS did it with proper design and hydraulic computers.  Self leveling suspension with an override to change tires or pick up a trailer hitch.  Three point suspension with four wheels, ever have two flats?  Charles De Gaul and his wife were driven to safety at over 60 mph after an ambush shot out both tires on one side. (See "Day of the Jackal" for a rendition of that event.)  The list goes on and on.  The current Citroen top model is so advanced it takes a serious study to " get it all". The C1 economy model get 63mpg.  The bigger Cits, the C5 and C6, change their suspension springs and dampeners at 5 thousands of a second in response to changing road conditions and driver input.  I will get of my soap box for now . . .  I may actually launch my C16 for the first time tomorrow before the cold front arrives in Central Virginia.  If not it may be a very long winter.

Citroen/Dave

Are Citroen's still sold in the US?
bob23

Dave, Where are you going to launch?
TG

Quote from: Bob23 on November 12, 2012, 04:27:52 AM
Are Citroen's still sold in the US?
bob23


Bob,

Citroens were last sold in the US in 1972. My last good Citroen, a '70 DS21 came with the original bill of sale from Paris.  The car was sold to the service man from whom I purchased it.  He paid $2,200 and had it shipped over for about $900.  The company and France at that time did not know the real value of their products.  If Citroen had priced the DS like Mercedes did their cars, three times the European cost, Citroen probably would still be in this country.  The official reason Citroen left is that they would not redesign a 17 year old design for a 5mph bumper.  That would have interfeared with their energy absorption frame that was saving lives during front and rear end collisions.  [Mercedes gets to claim they invented that frame structure, but the DS in secret development had it around 1946.  The design or the DS started in 1938 to replace the 1935 car.]  The DS had a 4mph front bumper; one simply loosened the slide bumper-mount and pulled it forward after a mild front accident.  The CX Citroen came out in 1975, followed by other industry changing automobiles like the XM.  If you get to France or any of the other civilized countries, rent a C5, or a C6 luxury Citroen to see where automotive design is these days.  US and other manufacturers have about caught up to the 1975 DS except for the hydraulic suspension with nitrogen gas springs. I know one does not often cross a plowed field at 60mph or hit a curb a 60 but the 1955 Citroen can with no damage and no discomfort. My current sailboat hauler all but requires a road side rescue to just change a tire: the DS does not even use a jack!. The safety margins of the larger Citroens are phenomenal. How many decades will it take to catch to the C6?

Dave

Quote from: Tim Gardner on November 12, 2012, 07:34:52 AM
Dave, Where are you going to launch?
TG
[Tim,

My favorite launch site is Belle Haven Marina [ correction: Lake Haven Marina] near the Smith Mountain Lake State Park. It caters to sailers and it is ususally protected from high winds on the lake, plus it has two launch pads, one shallow and one steep.  When I had a Rhodes designed, Picnic 17, I would launch on a Friday afternoon, eat at Lake Haven's Irish Pub, sleep at the transent dock, sail early and all day Saturday, sleep while the transient big sail boat crews partied at the Pub Saturday night, sail on an empty lake again early in the morning and pull out before the afternoon crowds hit the lake.  All for $4.00.  I live in Lynchburg, so the north side of the lake is the closest side for me.

Yesterday, I made the decision not to take my first mate out for the first sail. Conditions were deteriating during my anticipated sailing time and I did not want to subject her or me to possible desasters in an untried boat, even though I have the greatest confidence in the design.  I noticed, too, that the lake was devoid of boats should I have had to ask for help.

Where do you sail?  I found another C16 owned by Dave Smith(?) near Monetia]

Dave

Dave:
   Didn't realize the genuis behind Citroen...thanks for the enlightenment. I've always liked them for thier quirkiness but wasn't aware of the advanced technology behind the car. Ashamed that I didn't know they hadn't been sold here since 72. I guess I'm a bit outa touch!
bob23