Greetings from a new Com-Pac 23 owner in Asheville, NC

[Mountain Sailor]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading and enjoying the forum for a couple of months — and have learned SO much. What you folks have done both individually and collectively with this forum is truly remarkable — thank you one and all!

After sailing most of my life on other people's boats, including my Dad's Venture 17, Helms 25, Ericson 27 and Catalina 30; cruising the entire coast of Maine, up to New Brunswick and over to Nova Scotia and back on both a Cape Dory 27 and a home-built, cold-molded 39' trimaran; as well as delivering a 50' Catalina from Ft. Lauderdale to NYC — I built my own wooden sailboat: a Penobscot 14 named Sweet Dreams and launched her in July of 2017. Check her out in the YouTube links in my signature.

And, man do I love that boat — I had no experience building boats when I started but she turned out better than I ever expected, and heads turn everywhere she goes. I've had people honk as they pass by on the Interstate, pointing to her and giving me a thumbs up, talk to me at gas stations and rest areas: "I saw your boat, and just had to come over — did you build her?", and almost every time I launch.

I've towed Sweet Dreams to Florida twice, Illinois three times to sail in company with a fellow Penobscot 14 builder, and Lake Hartwell and Lake Jocassee in SC and won wooden boat shows in St Michaels, Maryland and Wilmington, NC. We visited Oriental (here's looking at you @CrazyCarl) in March, but it turned out to be too cold and too windy to venture out in my little daysailer.

I even towed her to Maine in the summer of 2018 and sailed Eggemoggin Reach, and on to Mecca: the harbor at the WoodenBoat School and Center Harbor.

As much as I enjoy being on board a boat I built myself, I found myself wanting more: more room for guests, more length and beam for higher winds (without concerns of capsizing) and a cabin or cockpit to spend the night at anchor.

I have found all of that — and so much more — in a Com-Pac 23 IV (#650) that now sits in my front yard.

She was originally ordered from the factory in 2010 with nearly every bell and whistle Hutchins offers. I found the factory invoice in my paperwork: over $40k! The older couple who placed the original order didn't use her much on a freshwater lake and sold her in 2016. The guy I bought her from didn't use her much either, but had a custom trailer built by Sail Trailers, LLC in 2020. He kept her on Lake Keowee, SC for a few years, then towed her to Florida for two weeks last fall and after returning, she's been on the hard since. 

Overall, she's in great shape, and I could have just launched her and been reasonably happy. But I towed her to my home in Asheville to solve the leaking portlights, fix blisters, and paint the bottom. In addition to those mundane, but important items, I have a number of more exciting projects in mind, with the aim to splash her sometime this fall.

You might think me quite mad, but I happen to really like varnishing. However, that's only true because of an exquisite, sanding-optional varnish from France: Le Tonkinois. So, with that in mind, and with my background building Sweet Dreams, I'm actually looking to ADD wood to my 23.

Since I have her sitting here in my yard (and I have Sweet Dreams to satisfy the sailing siren song) I'm working on things that benefit from the close proximity to my shop. For example:

Sanding and varnishing the exterior teak, the cabin sole and oiling the interior
Wooden fuel locker cover (thanks for the inspiration, @Brackish)
Cockpit table (or adapting the current table for use outside)
Cherry badges fore and aft, bracketing a beautiful navy blue cove stripe using paint from System Three (to correspond to the walnut badges and navy blue cove stripe on Sweet Dreams, donchaknow) underpinned with a strip of cypress
New boot stripe
Cypress cockpit grate that when raised becomes a platform for sleeping under the stars
Cypress treads on the swim ladder
Adding teak to the coamings and the aft end of the companionway hatch
Painting the white non-skid with Total Tread Sand Beige from Jamestown Distributors.
Adding a depth sounder, compass and other instruments (interestingly enough, she has no instruments whatsoever — go figure)
Rigging a system to step the mast (thanks again, @Brackish)
Compounding the deck
Compounding, polishing and waxing the hull

I bought a Sailrite sewing machine to sew the lugsail on Sweet Dreams, so this winter I plan to turn my living room into a sail loft and recanvas the bimini, dodger, mainsail cover, and leech/foot sun protection on the 135 genoa from a brown that does nothing for me to Captain Navy Sunbrella.

As she and I get more familiar with each other and I continue to work, dream and brainstorm, I'll bring questions to the group, as well as add anything I can that might be helpful to others.

I'm sure the itch to take Passionate Spirit on the road will hit soon. Who knows, I might be in your neck of the woods someday: CLR? BBB? Apostle Islands? Maybe an Outer Banks meetup — what do you say @CrazyCarl, @Wes, @Al, @deisher6 and others? In the meantime, I'll be keeping her at the Western Carolina Sailing Club on Lake Hartwell, SC. With 962 miles of shoreline, Hartwell has plenty of room to sail and explore the numerous islands as well as plenty of coves to drop the hook. I sailed these same waters extensively in the 70's and 80's and am very excited to be back — with my own boats, this time.

Here's to boat projects and the exquisite line of Com-Pac yachts!

John

PS @Bob23, PM me your address, so I can mail you the $5k I owe as a new member. I'm not happy about it, but I'm sure it will be well worth it in the long run. Alternatively, I'm really good at varnishing — so, just send me your tiller this winter, and I'll give it a $5k varnish job and we'll call it even...

[Cruzin]

Congratulations and welcome! Can't wait to see your boat photos, Enjoy the adventure with your new Compac!

Dale

[crazycarl]

Welcome aboard! 
I bought the build plans for a Penobscot 14 back in the 90s and had a lengthy phone conversation with Arch Davis about the build.  However, like many things, I never started the build.  As for sailing the Outer Banks, there is the Pirates of NC sail.  Traditionally in late September, they sail from Beaufort to Cape Lookout. 
www.enctrader.com/ncsail/

[brackish]

Welcome aboard John!  Glad you got some good out of some of my projects, if you need any specific information on anything feel free to PM me.  I did that table thing too, had to make one, the previous owners of my 23IV (644) could not find the OEM when I took delivery.  I found the best storage place for the table was to build a slide in rack over the top of the slide out stove.  It works well, uses space that had no other use, and I also made it convertible for both cabin and cockpit installation.  Also you might take a look at the custom cooler and drawer, unless Hutchins had changed the electrical panel configuration on your IV, you won't find a decent cooler that will handle the low height  in that area.

I am disappointed though, that you would voluntarily submit to Bob23's extortion.  Part of the adventure here is to stiff him on that request despite the threat of a visit by his Jersey Mafia relatives.  I have to admit, it has gotten easier to avoid as he has gotten older. Or maybe it is the PBR.

[brackish]

And here is some info on the cabin/cockpit table that I made.  It uses the support tube from the stock unit.  Works and has been used both places.  The unique thing is where it is stored, a place that is accessible and not used for anything else.  The blue you see is felt to help it slide without marring.  The back frame has been modified since this picture to attach to the hinged fuel locker.  However, if you are going to put in a cockpit grate, I would forget about that frame and incorporate your mounting system to that.  I was reluctant to make any holes in the cockpit sole.  There is a thread on this but the pictures are all gone due to the photobucket extortion attempt.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ngkHMSBYLt7R5q4JA

[MHardy]

Welcome John! I live in Raleigh and keep my CP27 in Washington, NC. I'm in Asheville 3 or 4 times a year and will be there again in early October for a few weeks. Your planned upgrades to the 23 sound great. Good luck with everything.

[Mountain Sailor]

Thanks Dale, Carl, Brackish & MHardy.

Maybe next year for the Outer Banks, Carl — I think I'll still be yard sailing this fall. My first stop in Oriental in March was The Bean where Sweet Dreams attracted a lot of attention. Too bad we didn't know each other then. I'm sure you'd enjoy seeing a Penobscot 14 up close and personal.

I like your table storage idea, Brackish — that's brilliant! I'll definitely PM you about some of your projects. Appreciate the pix. You've given me a lot to think about. (If Bob23 will just send me his tiller this winter, and not his relatives... I can get out of my heavily sarcastic offer to send money. Whew.)

Let me know when you're gonna be back in town, MHardy. Would love to welcome you aboard and hear more about your 27!

I tried to post some pictures earlier and had issues. Let me see if I can show you some before and after pix of the summer's work so far.

[brackish]

Wow what a transformation, you've accomplished a lot so far.  I noticed on one before pic maybe taken before you hauled it home, the furling line was set up as mine originally was, with blocks set to the inside of stanchions. I tripped on that line going forward quite a few times before I removed the nice blocks that would only work on the inside and replaced them with solid fairleads that could be mounted with outside orientation.  The friction on the line was not noticeably different but you would be surprised at how much that few inches helped at getting them out of the path. You might consider, I'll try to take a pic next time up.

[Seachelle]

Hi, John!

Thank you so much for sharing with us and I'm thrilled to connect with you! Your beautiful work shows the love and attention you put forth into both Sweet Dreams and Passionate Spirit! I'm so looking forward to following your journey of refits with Passionate Spirit -- please continue to keep us all posted and share those awesome pics!

Fair winds!
~ Chelle
SV Sunflower (Sunny) | 2021 Com-Pac Legacy
SV No Mas! | 1990 Com-Pac 23D MK3
sailawaywithchelle.wordpress.com

[Mountain Sailor]

That's another really good idea, Brackish. Thank you. I'm so used to the simplicity of the lugsail on Sweet Dreams that I might have started tripping over the furling line and not realized the obvious solution of moving it outside. I'll be interested to see some pix, but certainly no rush on this end — I have more than enough to keep busy for a long while...

Thank you, Chelle — it's been great following you on your blog and YT channel. I'll certainly share more, and I know you will as well.

Look forward to seeing/hearing how you're doing with No Mas!

[Tim Gardner]

How did you prep your non-skid areas for re-coating? Inquiring minds want to know.  BTW, I offer a 50% discount on the membership fee. Bob23's an over-acheater.

[Mountain Sailor]

Great to hear about your discount, Tim! I hereby withdraw my offer to Bob23, and formally invite you to send me your tiller this winter and I'll return her with 12 coats of varnish! You'll be the envy of the marina — and of the CPYOA...

Since I was using Total Boat Sand Beige (which appears to be a very close match for the original beige color from the factory that some boats had), I also used Total Boat Dewaxer & Surface Prep following a very thorough wash job.

Then I chucked up a round brush in my drill and went over the factory non-skid with a pretty heavy hand. It didn't scar or damage the non-skid in any noticeable way, but I'm sure doing that roughed it up somewhat to help the paint stick.

I'll do my best to post a pic of the brush, but the last time I tried that they just came across as links.

So, if that's the case for this photo, please let me know what I can do different to have pix post in my reply, rather than as a link.

Thank you,

[Bob23]

John, aka mountain sailor:
You're new around here so I'm gonna give you a break, this time. No discounts, all sales are final. Don't be taken in with Tim's offer as it won't stand up in court. I should know, I'm also known as Judge Bob23! And I prefer to do my own sanding and varnishing, thank you. Don't think I can't see through your attempted "bribe". I'm from NJ! This is how we do business here!

Welcome aboard! I think you're going to fit in around here just fine!
Bob23