Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Tanzer 16 -- Painting Continues -- Xylene is nasty stuff & a set-back

Tanzer 16 -- Painting Continues- Xylene is nasty stuff  & a set back  -- March 30, 2016  --At some point, if you are painting your boat, you are going to have to wipe it down with a solvent to eliminate the fiberglass mold release agent.


















Use a good respirator and have plenty of rubber gloves on hand.  Xylene is nasty stuff.  Once you use it, you will remember it.  Is smells worse than gasoline and lays on the boat in an oily film--oh yeah it works great.

Here is what the guys at Wikipedia have to say:

 Xylene is a slightly greasy, colorless liquid commonly encountered as a solvent.The main effect of inhaling xylene vapor is depression of the central nervous system, with symptoms such as headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. At an exposure of 100 ppm, one may experience nausea or a headache. At an exposure between 200-500 ppm, symptoms can include feeling “high,” dizziness, weakness, irritability, vomiting, slowed reaction time.
The side effects of exposure to low concentrations of xylene (<200ppm) are reversible and do not cause permanent damage.
Xylene is also a skin irritant and strips the skin of its oils, making it more absorbable to other chemicals. 
Best advice:  Mask up.  Open all the doors and windows you can.  Keep a lot of gloves close at hand. the stuff dissolves the nitrile gloves I get at Home Depot.

So--I got the boat wiped down with this stuff and started to mask.  Notice a few flakes of paint down by the keelson--which turned out to be pieces of delaminated fiberglass.  Bad words--many bad words.

Cut out the bad glass with a rotary tool--of course there isn't really any room to work. At least there is no punky wood underneath.  So a short time out from painting while we do a repair.  It would probably be okay to just go on--but we're here there is nothing in the way--we're spending buckets of money--let's just grit our teeth and get it done.  Grrr!















I think maybe this can't be blamed on the guys in Arlington WA that built the
boat.  Maybe this is just old age.



Monday, March 28, 2016

Tanzer 16, 300 miles of open water -- follow-up damage

Tanzer 16, 300 miles of open water -- follow-up damage -- March 28, 2016  Just received an email from Brian Mrachek.  When he got home from his Everglades Challenge...his email explains it best:

I started checking the rigging to see how the boat fared in the race.  Looks like it was a good thing we retired when we did.  The swivel that connects the mast to the furling (forestay) cracked.  I'm not sure when it happened but I don't think it would have made it another 100 miles.

I attached a picture of it.

Brian Mrachek

I just bought one of these and I can testify that it is a pretty skookum piece of
metal.  It saw a lot of stress.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Tanzer 16 -- Update on this year's iterations of improvement

Tanzer 16 -- Update on this year's iterations of improvement--March 21, 2016  -- The first race is May 12--We are a long way from ready and we are going to 2-weeks of great Mexico weather in there. Not a lot of time.  But we bought two extra weeks by volunteering to take the first committee boat duty of the year.  So really we don't have to be ready until May 26.  Here are the status of the different projects.  I am really not in favor of keeping track of prices.  I throw the receipts away.  But some of you might be interested  so I will throw in prices as I remember them.

Spinnaker launching tube.  Repaired and installed.  Needs to be painted when the deck is painted. The tube cost a hundred bucks and probably $40 in repairs Call it
  $150
Spinnaker.  Schurr Sails has removed the incorrect numbers, examined the sail, and installed a retrieval patch.  Patch was fifty changing the numbers was cheap-got lucky they came off easily.
$125
Roller furling jib.  Schurr made one up without a sun cover (we trailer the boat)
I sent them the following drawing:
$125
















Roller furling drum.  Ordered a small Harken set up from Maui Pro Sailing.  I had to make a stainless strap so it would fit the mast attachment point.  I think the whole thing cost about
$200

Spinnaker Retrieval Sleeve.  Turned out Schurr could make that too.  I redrew the design on the Tanzer 16 website and made some changes.  Schurr made more changes in the battens and draw strings.

$120


















Gallows to lift the boat. We used a bunch of 2 x 4's and a couple of 2 x 8's.  I bought two 4-part tackles and a couple of pieces of chain--and some bolts--and some plastic let's call the whole thing

$100
Painting the hull.  Three quarts of Largo Blue Brightside, two quarts of primer, three quarts of thinner about three large packs of sandpaper.  Doesn't include new HVLP spray gun. North of 
$420
Repair the seat. (seats as it turned out)--I found a new crack on the other side. About
$90
Side rollers and new keel rollers for trailer.  We don't want to scratch our new paint.  Ordered from Cabellas and US Trailer Store.
$150
New Trailer Lights.  LED's mounted out of the water and a additional hardware to mount.
$80
New Graphics in white, boat name and Tanzer logo.


Yes, it is the wrong logo, but it's wrong on the new main so we will go with it.


















New outboard mount.  From West Marine.
$140
Boarding ladder.  From West Marine  Really can't remember but it was more than
$100

More paint for the deck, seats and floor.  I just dropped another bunch of money at West Marine today.  The deck will need two coats of primer and two coats of white plus a coat of Interdeck to make it less slippery.  The seats will get two coats of primer and two coats of white.  The tops of the seats will get an extra coat of Interdeck. The floor will get two coats of Bilgecoat.  I haven't bought the brushes or rollers yet.  I am going to try my thinner idea and spray some of the first few coats.
$300
Other stuff.  I can't really remember, but I do know that we need a new Windex. That's really 
more just maintenance.  And we can't really count the outboard we bought last year.  
So it's true.  A boat is a hole in the water into which.....Luckily this is a pretty small hole as
boats go.  I'm pretty sure that this year's total is higher than:
Total    $2609

Ouch! See--it's just not a good idea to keep the receipts or think about what you are spending.  At least when the park me over in the convalescent center, I will be able to talk about the cool little boat I used to have.

I did forget one
Rubrail.  There are 6 pieces sitting in a 20-foot long box in the overhead of the carport.  It will take two people most of a day to install.  They will be one of the last things to go back on the boat.
$350

New Total $2959

Oh! I just remembered--I bought the boat for $1600.  And I spent a lot of money last year -- three new sails, winch, compass, spinnaker blocks, pole.  A mistress might have been cheaper.

Well, back to sanding the deck and seats at 0500 tomorrow.

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.






Sunday, March 20, 2016

Tanzer 16 painting project continues--right side up

 Tanzer 16 painting project continues--right side up --March 20, 2016  I can be a pretty patient guy, but I decided I wanted to flip the boat today.  My neighbor wasn't home and my crew guy, Tony, would have helped, but I didn't know I wanted to flip the boat today. I did manage to get it up in the air by myself--I had to find rubber gloves because the poly rope on the tackles is very slippery.

While it was up in the air, I tried to slide the trailer in.  Wanted to see if the
new side rollers were going to fit.  They don't.  The trailer shop will a piece of
tubing and we will make something that works.  




















While it was up in the air, I noticed that I had not removed the tape from the centerboard trunk so I had to crawl under a 425-pound weight hanging in the air suspended by slippery string.  I did place some blocks so that if the boat fell I wouldn't be crushed. 

I had ideas for an elaborate cradle but a couple of 2 x 4's notched at the appropriate angle worked out well.  I used some carpet squares to protect the paint.


















Once the keel was on the two "logs", I just added some blocking screwed to the "logs"--shielded with carpets of course.


















Now the boat looks smaller.  There is lots of prep work to do on the deck, seats, and floor, and I can start at 5:00 am tomorrow.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Tanzer 16 Painting project continues -- there comes a point

Tanzer 16 Painting project continues -- there comes a point -- March 18, 2016  Sometimes you just need to stop!  There comes a point in every project where you just need to quit messing.  You are at the place where it is not going to get any better.  If you keep going, you will only screw it up.  That's where we are on the hull painting.  It has two coats of primer and three or four coats of blue (Largo Blue).  I have actually lost count of the coats.  There is a tiny bit of orange peel on the bottom--about a square foot. I would love to get it perfect, but.....

This part of the project is at that that point.  In the next week, Tony will come over and we will turn the boat back over, set it in a cradle, and start working on the deck, seats, and floor.

It is now obvious that I should have used the roll and tip method that Interlux recommends. (Several great U-Tube videos) This paint, Brightside is much harder to use than automotive paint.  Auto paints rely on color build up--many coats--and then polishing at the end. That's not an option with this paint. Interlux does not want you to polish at the end; it kills the shine.

So--it looks pretty good--way better than before--not perfect, and I will have to live with that.  I am sorely tempted to sand it one more time.  But years of experience in several visual trades (printing, screen printing, interior painting) tell me it's time to be done.  Dang it!

The biggest problem with spraying this paint is that you have to apply the right amount of paint--too little and it leaves orange peel.  Too much and it sags.  You have to have the gun close--but not too close.  You have to move slowly, but not too slowly.  You have to overlap, but not too much.  The sweet spot is extremely narrow. I actually had a lot better luck spaying Perfection, but then it comes with reducer.  With Brightside I have a suspicion that if you used 8% regular thinner and 7% brushing thinner the paint might be a little more forgiving.  But we won't be finding out about that on this project.

Here is where we are so far.  The tarp looks far more blue in the picture than it is in reality.  The HVLP gun did a nice job of reducing overspray.

Spraying conditions in the garage were almost perfect;
60 - 70 degrees F.  About 45% humidity. Outside 40 - 50
degrees, and 85% humidity.























The spray barrier worked pretty well.  We are closed in on three sides and
I open the main bay door just during time I am spraying.  Of course I also
used a $300 respirator, a head covering (sock) safety glasses and rubber
gloves.























Coming up in future posts.  The trailer is spiffed up.  The new roller furling Genoa and the the retrieval sock are on their way here from Florida.

Cliche to live by:  The only that worse than quitting too soon is hanging on too long.  

Bonus cliche:  Excessive moderation is not a virtue.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Not So Open Water -- Brian's Report

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Not So Open Water -- Brian's Report  -- March 10, 2016


































Editor’s note:  I asked Brian to help us understand his challenge, and he provided this narrative.  I have done the best I could to put some references on a map.  His words really tell the story.  I should point out that Brian is 46 years old and his crew, his father, is 66.  Here is there story Four days in the Gulf of Mexico and the inland waterway.
My father pulled his back the night we checked in to check point two and could not go on.  I figured I wouldn’t go without him.  The weather would have been in my face at 25 kts the rest of the way and I couldn’t leave him anyway.
The boat took a beating.  Just South of Venice Inlet the tiller snapped due to metal fatigue.  Funny because that is exactly where I snapped the spinnaker pole two years ago.  We were able to take it apart and shove it back in temporarily.  The tiller was about a foot shorter so it was a little hard to manage.  We figured we would keep going South as the wind was coming out of the North at 15 kts and seas 2-4’ with 2-3 second duration.  Tacking back and forth would have been really hard on the rest of the tiller and I didn’t think it would hold, so we went for Stump Pass.
When we got to Stump Pass, the seas were 3-5’ from the WSW (at the pass) with the same duration and the tide going out.  The entrance was into the wind.  It is a tricky inlet and there was a Core Sound (a 20’ sharpie and a great design for this race) that had both masts down and he was collecting all his equipment on the beach.  The outhaul came loose and we hadn’t noticed until we entered the inlet and almost got knocked down trying to fix it.  We couldn’t and quickly put in the first reef.  It was a little too late and we started to beach.  We were able push off but when we tried to lower the centerboard it was stuck from the sand in the well.  By the time we got that freed we almost hit the shoal on the West but after that it took a couple tacks and we were in.
We checked in at Cape Haze Marina (check point one) and camped just outside of it that night.  The next morning we went back in and waited for the marina to open to make repairs.  We ended up using a hickory pole from, I think, an old rack.  It fit perfectly and actually was easier on the hand and I think I will keep it!  During repairs, we talked to another crew.  They jammed their centerboard too and had to hammer it free with a mallet.
We all set out together (for the company)  and while we are raising the main we realize we never fixed the outhaul.  I tried to fix in underway and while in irons the boom hit me.  I fell, hit the deck with my back and fell overboard.  The water was 62 degrees.  Not cold for you guys but I’m a Florida boy, that and hitting the deck knocked the wind out of me and scared the hell out of my Dad when I was grunting instead of saying I was okay.  I got back in and we sailed the inside.  The wind was at our backs and it was a great for +/- 10 miles.  We anchored with the other boat at the bridge.  The other crew was experienced but I noticed they were cautious to a fault.  We wasted about a hour while they tried to figure out how to proceed.    
We decided to keep going inside until Sanibel Island.  Two miles North of the Sanibel bridge, we anchored for the night.  The forecast was for the wind to die down to 0-5 knots, so we put up the tent and had dinner.  There was also another racer that wanted to anchor alongside, he was a 15’ slope with a cabin.  We woke in the middle of the night to the boat listing and the wind howling.  It looked like the anchor was slipping but we weren’t sure being so dark.  We couldn’t do anything about it anyways.  Around two, the guy in the slope was calling out.  His anchor broke and his auxiliary was slipping and he feared he would lose it too.  He was going to sail on until he found safe harbor.  We never saw him again, but we hope to find out at the awards ceremony.  In the morning, we realized we had drifted about 1-1/2 miles to the North and were aground in 6” of water.  Tide was dead low, so we walked to our anchor and stowed everything until we were free about 20 mins later.
We called the other boat and we all were going to meet at the bridge.  If we took the channel, we would have added two miles extra and into the wind.  The other boat took that route and we figured we could make it.  We did and got to the bridge way before them.  The seas were 2-3, wind 10-15 kts with 20 gusts. and from the Southeast (exactly to our head).  We went out but could not find the other boat.  Later we found out that they figured that was too rough and took the inside.  We looked at it and thought it was too hard to sail through given our skill and the wind direction.  Later we heard they couldn’t do it and gave up sailing back to Cape Haze.
We had lost sometime and figured we would sail clear to Marco Island.  Once the sun went down the seas died down and the wind was  a steady 10 kts.  We enjoyed the stars and made Marco by midnight.  We camped at a beach and realize our battery to charge our phones was dead.  We must have hit the button when we stowed it.  The next morning we went to a marina, had breakfast and charged our phones.  Bad mistake.  By the time we left the tide was against us. I figured the wind was strong enough to push us through.   It was at the inlet, but when we got to the shoal at the South of the island, the tide was too strong and we were against the wind.  It took us until 4pm to pass it.  The rest of the day we tacked back and forth against the wind and seas.  The boat took a hard pounding.  I still need to check for damage. 
We made Indian Key pass at night.  It is tricky even during the day, but we have the tide with us so we went for it.  The track does not show it, but we tracked every couple minutes all the way through it.  There was also a lot of rowing until we got to the check point to sign in.  We then docked at a local marina and went to sleep.  I woke up at 5am to see my Dad sitting on a dock bench.  He was in a lot of pain and could not go on.  So we called it quits.
It took a gopro with me but was either too busy or too tried to ever use it.  Sorry!    
Sincerely,
Brian Mrachek










Tanzer 16 -- Painting project continues

Tanzer 16 -- Painting project continues -- first coat of blue -- March 10, 2016 --  Put the first coat of "Largo Blue" (Interlux Brightside) down today.  The new HVLP gun works great, but I still got a very fine orange peel (you almost need a magnifying glass).  Don't know what to do about that; I'm already at 15% thinner.  They say that is the max.

Not sure I like the color.  Doesn't seem very committed to being blue.  We'll reserve judgement until the second coat.  At this point I am planning a third coat of satin on top of two coats of gloss--we'll see.

Hmmmm--seems kind of tentative about being blue.  Looked more sure of
itself on the color swatch.--says the color blind guy.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Not So Open Water -- Day 5

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Not So Open Water -- Day 5 --March 9, 2016 --  Brian and crew are still stationary at 09:38 EST.  No wonder! They spent 16 hours yesterday gaining ground then losing ground, beating to the south, and working their way through a mangrove swamp.  They must have been exhausted when they arrived at Check Point Chokoloskee after midnight.  Their latest check-in time was 10:00 hours today.  At least they beat that deadline by 10 hours.

.

The point-to-point calculator (as the crow flies) says they have made 131 nautical miles of the 196 nautical miles that comprise the challenge.  The race circular says 300 miles total.  Add in fluky winds, tidal flow, freshwater flow, etc.  That 300 might be an underestimate.  Brian has four days remaining.

According to the tracking system, Brian did not move from the check point dock today.  I am guessing, but I'm not sure, that he has abandoned the race. But--it could be broken equipment, weather, any number of things.  I have sent him an email and will share what I find out.  Meanwhile--Hell of job Brian.  I hope he will write an article for this blog when he has time.

The next check in point is Flamingo, 46 nm from their current position.  The weather will be mostly sunny, zero percent chance of rain.  The temperature will be in the 80-degree range, and humidity will be about 50%. The winds will be from ESE at 11-17 mph--pretty much right on the boat's nose. Could be another long day with lots of tacking.  Eleven mph is good wind for a Tanzer, 17 is too much for hour-after-hour of beating.

Flamingo is hard to find on a map.  Can't be many services there--it's just a campground (with "disgusting bathrooms") and a little store.

Stock photo of Flamingo Campground.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Tanzer 16 -- 300 Miles Open Water -- Day 4

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Not So Open Water -- Day 4


Last night Brian and the crew pulled up on the beach and camped.  They were back on the water at 07:00 EST this morning--just 8 1/2 hours of rest.  They spent an hour tied up a dock, and then they headed back out into the Gulf.  We don't know why he was there, but it wasn't for gas.




























Today's weather forecast:  Sunny all day--0% chance of rain.  Winds from the east at 13 mph. Temperature will vary from 70 (night) to 80 (noon) degrees.  The humidity at 08:00 EST is 50%.  Sunrise  06:43 --Sunset 18:33.

Brian and crew sailed from 08:00 until after midnight.  That is about 16 hours sailing time. According to the point-to-point calculator.  They only made 20 nm of progress.  But that doesn't begin to tell today's story.  The wind must have veered around a good part of the day.  Look at their track around the middle of the day. That is a lot of ground lost--twice.












Then they tacked down the coast for hours.












Well after dark they had to thread their way through a muddle of sandbars and small islands.  (Shown here in daylight)  About 30 minutes after midnight they made the checkpoint at Chokoloski.  The satellite shows them tied up at a dock, Chokoloski Park and Marina.










After four days they appear to be quite a bit more than halfway there.  But sailing is about a lot of things the skipper can't control--he can only control how he responds to them.  Here is their progress on the big map:






Monday, March 7, 2016

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Open Water -- Day 3 --out of the inland waterway

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Open Water -- Day 3 --out of the inland waterway  --  March 7, 2016 

Brian got an early start on Monday.  His position checks started at 07:20 EST.  The wind is predicted to be ENE at 6 mph.  It should be mostly sunny or sunny all day.  The temperature should be in the mid 70's.  Brian began the morning tacking across a small bay to get an angle for the channel under a bridge. If the wind holds, he should be able to beam or broad reach most of the day.  Like most boats, reaching is the Tanzer's best point of sail. Weight could be an issue; it is hard to imagine how much the boat weighs.  The hull and rigging are over 500 pounds.  Brian and his crew are two big guys (let's guess about 200 pounds each), and they have to carry their camping gear and provisions.  Total has gotta be well north of 1100 pounds.

Here is Brian's progress this morning from 07:20 to 08:20:

The Tanzer is not exactly a boat that points high to windward.












Brian cleared the bridge on the Sandibel Causeway at 09:49 EST.  The
distance between checkpoints increased markedly as soon as he made the
turn to the south.


















Brian and his crew put in a brutally long day on Monday.  They broke their camp on the beach and made their first satellite check in at 07:20 EST.  They stuck with it for 15 hours--a long time on a fully loaded 16-foot boat.  For some reason they made two major tracks to the north during the day.  The weather report says the wind picked up to 16 mph during the day.  Speculation:  Maybe they were trying to get into the lee of the land.  We will ask Brian when he finishes.

At 22:21 EST they beached the boat in a some kind of sanctuary--with a bunch of houses just beyond the vegetation by the beach.  Today's progress was 36 nautical miles.  In three days they have completed 105 miles of the 300 miles in the race.  They have five days to go.  They will need to average 35 miles per day for the next five days to finish.






































Custom Message
1 Hour ago ( 7:36 PM )
BubbaKoosh 
 Your Local Time:
 3/7/2016, 7:36:58 PM
 Coordinates: (WGS84)
 25.97355 , -81.7345
 Message Detail:
 Camping on the Hook  (time stamp is PST)



Sunday, March 6, 2016

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Open Water -- Day 2 results

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Open Water -- Day 2 results  --  March 6, 2016

Correction--it turns out that a little less than half of Brian's  Everglades Challenge is in open water.  He has chosen the inland waterway route for a little less than half of the race.  BUT starting today, Monday, his course will require that he will be in the Gulf of Mexico proper--I am going to stay with 300-miles of open water because it sounds cool.



Second day track.



















Brian got a late start on Day 2.  He didn't get moving until 1000 hours local time.  The race circular warns that a lot of people quit on the first day when they experience the hot tub and presumably some Florida rum at the motel.  The winds on Sunday were predicted to be about 6 mph from the NNE.  But, by 18:21 EST he had only made 26 nm.  At that point his tracker shows that he decided to camp on "the Hook."  So--8 1/2 hours 26 nm  not too bad for a 16 foot boat.  At this time 69 miles completed--251 miles to go--6 days left--Brian needs to average 42 miles per day to finish.

Camping detail.

Tanzer 16 -- Painting project continues

Tanzer 16 -- Painting project continues  -- March 6, 2016 -- The boat has been turned upside down, Sanded once.  Countless dings filled.  Primed.  Sanded.  More dings discovered and filled.  Bought a new spray gun today for second coat of primer-Hey in for a penny, in for 400 Euros.

The boat really fills up one side of the garage.  Looks a lot bigger here than at the dock. Just 11 or 12 coats to go.  Only eight or nine hand sandings remaining.

The lifting gallows provided a frame for a makeshift-spray containment
area.

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Open Water -- Day 1 results, Day 2 begins

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Open Water -- Day 1 results, Day 2 begins -- March 6, 2016  Spent the day watching grandchildren and tracking Brian Mracheck (Tanzer 1460) on the first day of the 300-mile race called the Everglades Challenge.

Update:  Brian did get moving at 0953 EST Sunday. As of 1053 EST he is sailing a SSW course.

They left St. Pete's Beach (at the mouth of Tampa Bay) at 0800 EST.  The weather was sunny varying to mostly sunny.  The winds varied during the day 3 to 7 knots from the NW and NE so presumably he got to use a spinnaker much of the day.  He sailed a pretty straight course to the SSW.
























In 12 hours they made 43 nautical miles of the challenge's 300-mile course to Key Largo.  They stopped for the night at the northern end of Don Pedro Island.

He has seven more days to complete the course.  As of 0845 EST he has not moved from his overnight position.  From the chart, it looks as though he will head down a narrow channel and continue south.  I will track Brian and his crew and they continue.  Sunday's weather is supposed to be sunny (0% rain).  Temperatures should be in the 70's.  Most importantly the wind is predicted to come from the NNE at 12 mph.  If all that is true, Brian should have another good day.

As Brian proceeds south the channel gets even more narrow.  The
race circular wars that contestants may have to pull their boats over
sand bars.


Saturday, March 5, 2016

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Open Water -- Day 1

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of Open Water -- Day 1 -- March 5, 2016  Today is the start of the Florida Everglades Challenge.  Checked in with Brian's personal tracker*. Last night Brian Mrachek (bubbakoosh) drove from Boca Raton to St. Petersburg on Tampa Bay.  Sometime this morning we will launch his boat off the beach and head south to Englewood the stop.  Good luck, Brian.  We hope to track you all the way to Key Largo.














You can follow Brian:  http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0sBvfIqa4GFaZqt2mOJRkdArpZotFDT9N

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of open water -- Everglades Challenge

Tanzer 16 -- 300 miles of open water -- Everglades Challenge -- March 3, 2016  21:27 PST--  One day and six hours from now Brian Mrachek will launch his Tanzer 16 from the beach in Tampa Bay.  He has eight days to sail it to Key Largo, a distance of approximately 300 miles.  No power is allowed.  No support or follow boats are allowed.  He can use sail and oars.  Brian has done this before, but this year we can track him.  Here is the course:























Brian has done this race before.  That is a lot of mile in a 16-foot open boat.  Oh to be 40 (or even 50) again.  You can track Brian's progress at:

  Below are the two links so you can track me.  The first is my direct spot account
The other is hosted by the event.  To use that one put the event as EC2016, challenger BubbaKoosh and Display as “Show Tracks, OK, Help and Current Waypoint Only”.  Then hit the Regenerate View button.   If you see a green box with a chevron it means we are camping there for the night.
 

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Tanzer 16 Updates and corrections on hinged masts and

Tanzer 16 Updates and corrections on hinged masts  -- March 2, 2016  D'Arcy Grant in Ottowa owns boat 175, a Constellation.  He has a keen eye and has done some interesting research on hinged masts and the logo.  In his own words.

Hi again Jim,
Way back, when you posted about past T16s having a king post and hinged mast (http://jimslittleboat.blogspot.ca/2014/05/tanzer-16-hinged-mast-step-early-models.html) I thought a couple of things:
1. I don’t think early T16s had a hinged mast.  Mine certainly doesn’t have a hinged mast, but it does have a king post.
2. I should mention something - which I never did.

I’ve included two pics of my boat, which as you know, is the original Constellation model.  When looking into the bow, there is clearly a post, which, I posit, supports the deck, transferring the load to the kelson, and is the king post.  The bow flotation tank on mine is much further forward than yours, so the king post is also used to attach 57 and 63 (63 is missing on mine, but there is evidence of parts being attached in the past.  Your boat model uses a cross beam to support the deck.

When looking to the stern, there is also a king post, again supporting the deck, as this model had no lazarette. (Note also the wide traveller (Optional Mainsheet Traveller, Type ‘A’) - mine was outfitted with the racing kit.) 

My mast is not hinged.

The video you found showing the hinged mast is, I believe, a custom job, like yours.  I have yet to find any other evidence of a Tanzer 16 with a hinged mast.  I also note that 378 in the video is actually the same design hull as yours, not mine.

So, while I look at your hinged mast with envy, I think that yours is the second of only two Tanzer 16s with a hinged mast.

That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking’ to it. :)

Best regards,
D'Arcy 

The hinge in that appears similar to 2014 post appears similar to the ones used on Overnighters.  So D'Arcy is probably right.

Here are D'Arcy's pictures:

The bow area of 175 is quite different from later
versions of the 16.
























In another note, D'Arcy noticed that my Tanzer logo is different than his.  In fact it is different from most Tanzers.  He wrote:

You’re using the wrong logo!  (Well, maybe not.)  My sail (the original 1966 main - yikes, coming on 50 years.) has the logo that looks more like a winged ‘C’.  I believe it was originally designed when the boat was called the Constellation.  It’s the same logo that presented so well on the Tanzer 16 plans that you sent me, shown on a two inch grid that runs parallel to the mast.  Well, that’s the logo that I’ll get if I ever replace my main…


It’s also the logo that is on Eric’s Tanzer 1304.  Check out your pictures.  I think maybe the Constellations and Tanzer 16s all had the ‘C’ shaped logo, and then it changed for later boat designs.  When sails were replaced, they went with the ‘new' standard Tanzer logo.  I like that the logo on mine is different from other Tanzer designs...

Here is the picture of my boat and Eric's boat.  Notice that 1306 has the "new" (maybe) logo.  My main was made in Quebec last year--so I will probably have to live with that logo until I am too old to sail.
















Here is the logo in the plans:






















Here is the logo from a Tanzer 22.  So maybe the changed the logo--maybe there has just been some confusion at the sailmaker's shop.  But it is a really good sail and the logo stays.  Good catch D'Arcy.