83' 14.2 #53 resurrection

Just home from a 350 mile adventure to purchase this boat. purchased from it's 2nd owner, who bought it in 90'. he hasn't had it in the water the past 10 years, during which time it was stored with wheels/tires off the ground on blocks and covered at all times. sails are excellent, having been stored in the house etc. of course all the running rigging is tapped out and I'll be replacing the standing rigging just because it's all original to the boat. the teak will clean up nicely, including the original cuddy door, which still has the sheets bag attached to it, and in good condition. there's virtually no scuffs on the bottom of the hull at all, and I only found one small gelcoat crack in the top, about an inch long, on the edge of the fore-deck. the hull should shine with little more than a coat of wax.
Am I excited? oh man, you betcha. tomorrow morning the wife and I are headed out of town for a week but I can't wait to get back, get to work on this thing, and dump it in the lake. We've been sailing an Alcort Puffer for a year or so, and having a blast, but the comfort factor just isn't there when both of us want to go out together in it.
I wonder if anyone has figured out a way to perk up the areas of the deck with the anti-slip surface. The hull will shin up with some wax and elbow grease, but not sure how to tackle the textured areas. any ideas?

Cheers,
Russ

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We're back from our road trip, and the fun has begun. today I got the boat stripped down and cleaned up, then ordered new standing rigging from Catalinadirect, running rigging line from SaltyDog, and after choking on the price of new hiking straps from the dealer, I discovered Strapworks.com and ordered 18' of 2" seat belt strap for ~$24.oo shipped. lots better than $150.oo+ , and I'm sure not too proud to just sew the end loops myself.
I'm a bit puzzled by a spare chunk of 3/16" bungy cord, which is knotted off in what appears to be factory grommets, in either side of the cockpit (see attached photo). does anyone here know what this was used for??
Another interesting note is that the boat has no boom vang, and neither boom nor mast is set up for one. not sure if I need one on this boat anyway. I didn't have a vang on my Puffer and it never caused any issue, so………… thoughts? I'm just a casual sailer, and not a racer.

mystery bungy:
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Cheers,
Russ
 
Karl is correct, but yours need to be replaced, it should be tight enough so it almost stretches straight across from one side to the other. Both front and rear hiking straps should be high enough off the deck for you to get your feet under them without looking down.
 
Made a little more progress today. I received the new standing rigging and got that installed. also received the seat belt strapping for the hiking straps, sewed up the end loops, and installed everything back into the boat. I've spent some time looking at ladders, but haven't seen anything that really thrills me, for a reasonable price, so I just made up a rope ladder for now. it actually works pretty well, so maybe I'll keep it. it's just some aluminum tubing and a piece of the old main sheet. as you can see, I doubled the rope and sent the middle through the self bailer, and retained with a shackle. the small rope between the sides and through the shackle prevents loosing the ladder inside the hull wile I'm in the drink. it provides a way to stow the thing inside the boat when not needed, but remains easy to retrieve from the water.

cheers,
Russ

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Ladder installed today (see my other thread also) and a few other tweaks after our madden voyage yesterday. it was really poor (gusty, switchy, etc) sailing conditions at the lake, but I mostly just wanted to get it in the water to test a few things out anyway. mission accomplished, as I learned a lot, and have already made the needed adjustments.

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to be continued,
Russ
 
Thanks for asking about the bungee cord. I don't have the cord or the hiking strap but I see the holes where the bungee should be and wondered what the holes were there for. I don't know if I'm going to replace the hiking strap or bungee or how to replace them.
 
Thanks for asking about the bungee cord. I don't have the cord or the hiking strap but I see the holes where the bungee should be and wondered what the holes were there for. I don't know if I'm going to replace the hiking strap or bungee or how to replace them.

I had a similar challenge, and did actually try to cram my fat arse into the cubby to access the knots, without success. I also found it impossible to twist my arm around the corner from the cockpit area enough to reach the bungie knot, so I came up with a little clip made from a piece of stainless wire that could be inserted from the outside. the two ears are squeezed together to insert and they spring out once inserted into the grommet. the stainless wire is actually boden wire, as used on inner throttle cables for lawn equipment etc. available by the foot at you friendly local lawnmower shop.
As noted above, I used seat belt strap and made my own hiking straps for about $20.00 . they are a useful addition at times, and they aren't in your way that much when not needed.

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Cheers,
Russ
 
I'm not sure where most folks stow their boom when transporting, but because it really doesn't fit well in the cockpit area I came up with my own solution. a 3/8" hole in the base of the boom is all it took. the rear of the boom is protected by a rag lashed to it, and sits on the pulpit.

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Interesting approach. I am wondering how you made the boom water tight. The only way I can think of off the top of my head is to weld a sleeve into the boom where the bolt passes through.

If you have just drilled holes into the boom then I assume it will quickly fill with water the first time the big stick that usually points to the sky chooses to points to the bottom of the lake/bay. If this is the case you will have increased difficulty righting the boat with the boom or mast full of water. A water tight boom and mast provide some amount of flotation aiding in getting the boat back on its feet so to speak. Not sure but with a "wet" boom you may not be able to right the boat single handed.

Back in the day when I was always sailing on the edge I would turn over quite often. To insure The boom and mast stayed dry inside I would go to great lengths to seal every possible point where water could get in. I was fanatical about this to the point I would pressurize the boom and mast with around 5 lbs of nitrogen and would actually have a very small pressure gauge on both pieces. Over kill? Yes, but I can say that while others had difficulty righting their boats I could always get my boat back on its feet with little effort. just saying...
 
You might be able to seal the holes in the boom by placing rubber washers backed by metal washers on each side of the boom. I used this method to seal the cubby hatch and it has worked well.
 
If a person really felt that sealing the boom would have any effect on flotation, then it would be easy enough to remove the end cap, seal the boom with spray foam, and re-rivet the end cap in place. but in reality, the boom has about zero affect on flotation when the boat is on it's side anyway. any hole in the mast end of the boom will be feet out of the water wile on it's side.

:)

Russ
 
Russ is 100% correct; water in the boom is not an issue with the boat on its side. The problem occurs when the boat is totally bottom up to the sky. When this occurs the boom is a foot or two under the water and if it leaks at all it is safe to say that the longer it is under water the more water it takes on which is more weight to lift out of the water and less flotation to assist with the task.

I have not calculated the area of the inner boom but I suspect is is somewhere between 3 to 5 gallons. With water at 8 pounds per gallon that makes the boom weigh somewhere between 24 to 40 pounds plus the weight of the boom itself. If you consider the effect of the boom plus the water and figure it is on perhaps a two foot arm you could easily have somewhere between 48 to 80 pounds to lift out of the water. If you are single handing that creates an obstetrical that may make the difference between getting the boat back on its feet by your self or having to have assistance.
 
I got a couple more things done on the boat today. I picked up a used MinnKota 30 kicker a few days ago for a good price, and installed a pad for the motor to mount on. I picked up an Odyssey battery to power the motor, so a bracket was fabricated to mount that on the center of the transom as well.

A wile back I had cut in a port so I could insert support blocks in the transom to mount a boarding ladder, so today I finally got around to picking up a one gallon paint can to modify for a dry box in the port before reinstalling it. by cutting out the lid seal groove in the paint can, it mates up perfectly to the backside of a 6" port. I epoxy the can to the port lip, and have a nice dry box for camera, license papers, wallet, glasses, etc.

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smooth winds,

Russ
 
The forest fire smoke diminished enough yesterday to inspire us to tow the boat to the lake. I was a little skeptical, as there was a forecasted cold front coming in in the early evening, but it turned out to be a pretty decent sailing day. a bit light when we arrived at noon, but it got much better as the day progressed.
Three of the most recent upgrades I've made to the boat were put to the test. the first is a set of slugs and shackles that I installed on the mainsail. now the sail is a breeze to raise, and simply falls to the boom when the halyard is released. I use a topping line to support the boom, so when departing the dock the sail can be on the boom with a couple of sail ties, then quickly raised once clear. coming in is also MUCH less frantic when it's time for the sail to drop at the last moment, as approaching the dock. A big part of this was the addition of the MinnKota 30 kicker. that thing is awesome and sure make returning to the dock a lot less tense. there is a slight clutter added to the transom, but the benefit FAR outweighs that shortcoming. The third item I added is a simple 3/16" line run across the deck, around a pulley attached along with the forestay retaining pin, and run up along with the jib halyard. when it's time to drop the jib this makes it a cinch (for my wife) to pull the jib back down to the deck.
I sure hope summer hangs around for a wile longer. otherwise it's going to be a VERY long winter, wile waiting for sailing weather to return. ;)

Russ
 
We've been trying to take advantage of every sailable day lately, as summer quickly winds down. we spent a splendid day at Lost Creek lake yesterday in fact. The wife and I have both complained of sore hind quarters after a long day on the lake, so today I fabricated and installed a new set of seat pads. made from the 1/2" rubber interlocking pads sold online at many locations (see pad in photo background), I chose these because they came in yellow, and a pretty good match for the boat at that. one side has a non-skid texture.
I began by making a pattern from poster board, which was then transferred to the rubber pads and cut out on the band saw. I ran a router around the edges and then glued them down with contact cement.
Awwwwwwww ;)
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Cheers,
Russ
 
No special reason for it. I just thought it was a cool photo ;) . taken a couple days ago, at Lost Creek Lake, by my wife looking up the "slot".

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Russ
 
Today may well be our last warm/sunny day of the year (high 80s today) so we headed to a small (650 acres) lake that we like nearby. the winds were forecast to be very light, but we've never had the boat on it's side, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to see how hard it was to get it on it's feet again, after a knock down ;)
The first test was actually one to see how well my home made (tightwad Bob) mast float worked. as the first photo shows, it works well. I swam out and pushed the float underwater as far as I could and it quickly bobbed right back up again. the photo also shows just how much of a sealed mast would have to be under water to gain any righting buoyancy from it. I'd say if the boat was over far enough to gain measurable floatation from a sealed mast, it would be on it's back anyway. with the float, it acts as if it could be on it's side forever without going turtle.
My wife was with me today also, and she was interested to see the recovery process as well, so we took turns tipping it over and righting the thing. each of us righted it 3-4 times with no problem at all. I even performed a "scoop" on her once and it was still very easy to get the boat back on it's feet with her inside. the only disappointment I had was that I was unable to climb over the boat as it went over, as I've seen others do, and stand on the centerboard to right it. I guess I'm just not as agile at 65 as I once was.
After the practice session, the wind did pick up to a (barely) sailable level, so we cruised the lake one final time to say goodbye to the summer. It's going to be a VERY long winter. the new sails arrive in March, so that's something to look forward to I guess.



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Cheerio,
R&J
 
[hurumph] site says I "don't have permission" to view my own attachments?? [shrug] whatever. (yes I'm signed in)
anyway. here are the two photos, and a bonus one, in case other registered users don't have permission as well. :rolleyes:

Russ&Jennifeer

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Oh ya, and the boat reveled it's name recently :) :

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Aside from the obvious, it also refers to an old si-fi movie, of the same name, with Bruce Dern.

Russ
 
Weeeeell…. just when the Capri is all spiffed up just the way we wanted it, with plenty of new attributes, a deal came along that I just couldn't pass up on a 25' Macgregor :) . Jennifer likes to travel and we both have loved sailing the 14.2 this summer, so we figure now we'll be able to travel around a bit and explore a few of the more distant lakes, staying in the new boat for a night or two, then moving on to the next lake. We're keeping the 14.2 also, at least for now, as we're thinking we may prefer to use it on a couple of the smaller local lakes for a quick day sail.
They told us that it wouldn't stop with just one sailboat ….. I guess they were right after all ;) .

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Russ&Jennifer
 
Bravo! That's a great boat. Make sure you pin the keel if you've dropped it all the way and get into sporty weather... I didn't on Lake Michigan one cruise and am lucky it's only a funny story and not a sad one. On inland lakes we never pinned it when it was completely down because there wasn't much pitching. We rarely even had it completely down due to the shallow waters. One day in huge swells on a wing/wing breezy downwind the keel would swing back as we climbed a wave then fall forward and slam against the stop sliding down a wave... a sickening lurch and noise came with each bang...

I wasn't with experienced crew and I was still a high school kid myself so as bad as the noise sounded I wasn't comfortable handing the tiller over as I went under to sort out whether I could get the pin in. I could see the lighthouses that signaled safety and ultimately made it but experience now would have told me to try anything to stabilize the boat in pitch so I could get down and pin the keel (broad reach between the waves and hope one of my friends could hold the heading till I pinned the keel etc). Best answer is pin the keel if you'll be in deep enough water on the big lakes or blue water before it's a drama which became the routine.

Inland lakes shouldn't be a problem at all and being able to pull up a few inches of keel now and then could make all the cruising difference.

**Definitely consider replacing the keel pivot pin if you're not certain it's in good condition**

Enjoy the overnights, that's good times.
 
Sounds like good advise there Pirate. that swing keel weighs about 625 lb and could sure beat up a keel trunk if it wasn't restrained on a big day. our usual "local" lake is about 3500 acre, plenty deep but not generally too nasty, . we're really looking forward to nights out on the lake next summer.

Cheers,
R&J
 

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