Motivated! Spring work is almost done

[philb Junkie19]

Charlie,
Yeh, I know, I have family with a place in Atlantic Beach who call and always seem to ask about the weather up here and a best friend in Northport Fl who tags every email with "Where forty is freezing and 70 is cold not old."  Year round sailing would be a joyous thing but I do get to sail in one of the finest cruising grounds, in and around Penobscot Bay. Rather then fans and air conditioning my old Vega had a little Dickenson solid fuel stove and I just got a Little Buddy heater for the CP. Sailing is very fine here in September and early October.
Phil

[Mas]

Must admit, given the work we do here on our little farm, help run a brewery here, and general activities of life, we agreed when we got back into sailing that we would be wiling to pay for certain tasks on the boat and bottom painting is one of them. We live three hours from her so can't just drive over to the boat when i wish. Our little 16 is dry sailed and only is in the water at the floating dock when we are down there, pulled back out when we leave and then brought home for the winter. She has never had any bottom paint. Interlude on the other hand cost the equivalent of $70 bucks a month for the year to have me call them and say haul her. They haul her, power wash her put her on the hard for winter storage (free if you let them paint), sand the hull, paint it, and put her back in her slip in the spring. For $70 a month, you bet Ill find a way to either save $70 or make it. She is about 12,000 lbs of I just don't wanna do it!

For those of you who hate it, it's gotta cost even less than our boat to let someone else do. I used to change the oil in all of our cars and equipment.......used to. 

Just trying to help get you all in the water earlier!

[HeaveToo]

12X70=840.  Interesting.  What is slip for the year?  Add taxes and then other maintenance costs.  Finally add the necessary upgrades for the year. 

You can see how boat ownership really adds up.

Here is what my expenses look like:
Slip fee = $80 a month for 5 months.  $400
Trailer Tax = $8 a year (no boat tax in Prince William County).  $8
Bottom Paint and stuff to do it = Approx $200

That is not taking into account the upgrades that I may have to do during the year.  This year it was cheap because I just did an anchor light and I had other parts handy for it.

Still, this is just fractions of the budget for the Catalina 30. 

[Mas]

Oh no doubt a 23 is gunna cost less in all areas than a 31 foot anything, though high quality build does generally mean lower ownership costs whether a boat, car or home! It is also a fact that size does matter as our mainsail alone, for example, will cost more some day than an entire suit of sails for a 23. Remember our situation is a bit different. Firstly we are in a different place in our lives with no boat ownership costs for the past 26 years prior to last year and now have both the time and resources as a result to own one now. Mostly the big difference from our 23 is that Interlude is also our home there. A 23 just cannot be, which is why even though I loved her, No Mas had to find a new home. You may recall we had talked about renting an apartment or something down there and keeping No Mas but those same monies got us Interlude, put her in a slip, and paid her taxes and insurance. Said it before, you can sleep on your boat but ya can't sail an apartment. It also provides some tax benefit as she truly is our second home. There is no way to financially justify ownership of any boat that is not used for your work. I jus don't do bottom painting anymore kinda like I jus don't do oil changes. Would rather save it or earn it!

Do have sore arms from hours of "wax on, wax off" over the past few days! Still like to do that!

[Mas]

Ya know spring chores are mostly the reason have not been to the boat in over a week. It's what i get for ignoring chores on the ole homestead with this whirlwind return to boat ownership.  One boat in water the other still watching me do first field cut of season. Every so often Susan and I look at each other and wonder what living in a micro space would be like. Every time you bring something new aboard, something old's gotta go. There is really little accumulation space.

Bottom line.....still doing chores, not sailing yet. It does put a smile on my face knowing some of you are out sailing even as i type this!

[Gerry]

I too have finished the spring work on the "Wyatt C".  Last projects were to bottom paint the rudder because the boat stays in the water all summer, and I built a new companion way hatch.  Now if Green Bay (the body of water) warms up, the winds die down, the clouds dissipate and the temps hit 60...I will launch.

Happy Spring,
Gerry

[HeaveToo]

I made it to the water, cleaned the boat, organized the cabin, and did a few other tasks.  I am still waiting to sail but it blew hard the last few days and sailing in gusts to 40knots just doesn't sound like fun!

[BruceW]

I go to my boat tomorrow; weekend cruise. I have some more things to take to it and remove from it, some more hull cleanup, deck cleanup again, etc. The hull still needs the barnacle residue dissolved, and I may not get that done this trip, due to rain on Friday.

Next thing I will hopefully do will be deckpipe, but again, not this trip.

Some time in the summer, I need to take the sliding cover off and re-glass under it to strengthen it where there were some cracks put there somehow by a PO). That's been waiting for 3 years, haha.

We'll see.