Category: Keeping Up Appearances

Maintenance, repair, refitting, and replacing things that break on a Good Old Boat.

Friend Ships: Zack Sisemore’s Catalina 22, “Love Boat”

On By David BranbyIn Friend Ships, Keeping Up Appearances, On The WaterLeave a comment

One of my favorite sailboats on Lake Tahoe is Zack Sisemore’s Love Boat, a 1988 Catalina 22 sailing out from Tahoe’s north shore. In 2013, Zach and a gal he was dating at the time bought the boat from a California woman whose sailor husband had passed on, and Zack’s “barn find” turned out to be the sprightly sailing vessel you see here.

How bad did Zack want it? “I sold my grandpa’s old truck and my parachute to fund the boat. It was hard to part ways with Grandpa’s old red truck, which had about 315,000 miles on a twisted frame, but I figure Grandpa would be proud that it was going to help fund a sailboat.” he said.

Zack got the boat for a pretty good price, especially considering that it came with “an SUV full of sailboat stuff the owner’s wife had found in the garage in addition to all the stuff that was already in the boat. She also included a 4” stack of records, service manuals, and receipts, which tells me that this boat had been well taken care of,” Zack added.

But, as with all things related to sailing, there were hidden expenses that popped up along the way, including a snapped drive shaft on his dad’s truck that cost $700 to fix.

What impressed me most about Love Boat, though, was the way Zack immediately went to work figuring out how to repair a significant void in her wing keel, filling it with foam down to the lead and epoxy-and-fiberglassing it over and fairing it until she was as good (or better than) new.

Debbie and I see Zach and his friends cruising along in Love Boat a couple of times a summer, always with smiles as big as Tahoe and friendly waves as we pass. I look forward to getting back on the water when the pandemic is over, and hope to see this “friend ship” riding the Tahoe blue once again.

Q&A with Zack Sisemore, Skipper, Love Boat

Q: What do you love most about Love Boat?
A: I love introducing first-time sailors to my boat. Teaching friends to sail is very entertaining! Watching someone’s eyes about to pop out of their head the first time they heel over brings me so much joy. Fumbling with the cleat hitch, oversteering through a tack, wrapping the winch counter clockwise are also comedy. But the absolute best is when the mistakes get cleaned up and seeing the satisfaction of friends beginning to understand sailing.

Q: What would you change about your boat?
A: The Love Boat will never be a perfect vessel but I’m happy with that. At the top of my list would be reupholstered interior cushions. Just a bit dated and falling apart. Next would be lighting. I don’t sail too much in the dark, but I need navigation and anchor lights. And lastly, my poor mainsail is on its last leg. Would love to go with in-mast or lazy jacks but doesn’t really make sense on the old girl.

Q: What was your most fun or interesting time on Lake Tahoe?
A: July 4, 2018 comes to mind. First time I took mom out. The wind was consistently blowing 15-20 knots. It was my mom’s first sail. I had the sails damn near touching the water for about 5 hours straight and not once did my mom seem uncomfortable or scared.

Another date that comes to mind is July 4, 2019. It wasn’t a sail, but my roommate Griffin and I lived on the sailboat at anchor for a week while renting out our house. We were both working long hours. No dinghy to get to and from the boat. We’d meet on the beach after work. Griffin would sit on an inner tube and I’d tow him out on the paddleboard with a rope connected to my ankle. Silly but fun.

Q: What was your worst experience sailing Lake Tahoe?
A: There was a lot of trial and error when I first bought the Love Boat as I had ZERO sailing experience and maybe 20 minutes on a power boat. The first couple of years, I didn’t have a buoy, so I had to launch the boat every time. I think it was summer of 2015 or 2016 and the lake level was very low, so I decided to launch at Obexer’s on an east wind day.

Well … Obexer’s boat launch faces east! It’s also a crowded fuel dock! Also, I had to launch alone as my now ex-wife couldn’t drive trailer or boat! So, in the chaos of it all, I launched, leaving my cell phone in the truck. Tied up really quick and moved the truck just outta the way. The waves were pounding the poor boat into the dock and the mast was swinging so hard the it too was hitting the dock, so I had to get the hell outta there. So here’s the scene: I’m circling the buoy field trying to give Sara instructions on how/where to park the truck. I have no phone, so I have to yell instructions as I’m circling around. There’s nowhere to tie up without beating up my boat. The guys at Obexer’s were not any help at all. After 45 minutes of circling, I tie up at the fuel dock, back the truck into the launch, and called it a day. Lesson learned: don’t launch in heavy water and if you do, have someone with you who can actually help. Your plan has to be bulletproof in heavy water.

Q: What would you tell people about Tahoe that they might be surprised to know?
A:  Lake Tahoe’s average depth of 988 feet is a shocker to most.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. – DB

Baby Needs A Bath

On By David BranbyIn Keeping Up Appearances2 Comments

There’s nothing like a pandemic to make you rethink your priorities. Right now, our priorities are getting to the other side of this thing – and if that means keeping Splendido on the hard this summer, so be it. I’ll be working on the interior and fixing all the little things, and maybe giving this girl a bath. How are my fellow sailors holding up in 2020? Drop me a note in the comments and let me know how it’s going for you and yours. Mask up, stay socially distanced, and we’ll see you on the water when all this is over.

Fair winds and smooth sailing, DB

Final Touches for a 2019 Launch

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, SplendidoLeave a comment

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Lane Walker – the master – at work.

We’ve had a rainier and stormier spring this year, which led to my cancelling our mid-May launch of Splendido and gave me a little more time to get her ready this year. My buddy Jamie helped me change the tires on the trailer, polish her up and put a nice coat of wax on so our 26-year old girl can shine.

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I messed up our logo when doing some gel coat repairs.

I noticed a few small chips in the gel coat this spring, likely caused by small rocks thrown up during trailering the boat down from Tahoe, so I tried my hand at gel coat repair this year. After watching a couple of YouTube™ videos, I mustered the courage to start, and found it to be a pretty interesting process – and all in all, easier than I had anticipated. One of the side effects, though, was that when I removed the protective blue painter’s tape I had placed around my gel coat repairs, I inadvertently took off some of the hand-lettering paint that my good friend Lane Walker of Solo Signs had put on about eight years ago.

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Lane Walker to the rescue.

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The man is a magician when it comes to sign painting and hand-lettering work.

In my eyes, Lane Walker is a living legend in the art of pinstriping and hand-lettering. I met him about 30 years ago when I worked for Harrah’s corporate advertising department and he worked for an outfit called Silver Dollar Signs hand-painting casino showcards and signage. After Silver Dollar closed its doors, Lane struck out on his own with Solo Signs, and has a bustling practice painting long-haul trucks and doing custom designs and pinstriping work for hotrodders, custom motorcycle embellishments, and all manner of hand-painted restoration projects.

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Perfect color matching by eye.

Watching Lane work is a joy. He hand-mixes and matches colors before your very eyes, and the accuracy is uncanny. He explained to me his collection of brushes made from the hairs of a particular Russian squirrel, and the virtues of now-banned lead paint, which flowed like a dream off his brushes and “wore like iron,” in contrast to today’s differently formulated paints.

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Lane Walker, the legend.

In about 45 minutes, Lane restored Splendido’s logo to like-new, and a quick polish and coat of wax will make her ready for launching.

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Jamie helping swap the tires on the trailer.

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Ready for launching at Obexer’s Lake Tahoe.

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Post-launch lunch at The Bridgetender in Tahoe City with Tracy Hieber.

We splashed the boat on June 21st and the launch went fine, although writing this a day after, I am sore and tired from the effort. I am grateful to Lane and Jamie and Debbie and Tracy and the folks at Obexer’s for all their help, and looking forward to sailing with all of them on the great sheet of blue water called Lake Tahoe.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

A Strong Start To The 2018 Season

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Overnighters, SplendidoLeave a comment

First, a word of thanks to my friends who helped make commissioning a lot easier this season: To Michael Salley, who generously let me store Splendido in his industrial yard, with access to water and electricity (and a forklift!), I am much beholden; it allowed us to get everything ship-shape in record time. To Jamie Filbin, my dear friend, fellow adventurer and sailing enthusiast, I am deeply indebted for the many hours of prep help, cleaning and waxing the hull (thank goodness for Collinite), helping paint the bottom and (this is where the forklift comes in), knowing how to drive one so we could lift the mast up 13 feet from the sawhorses it was resting on while we checked the rigging, replaced the halyards, and rebuilt the masthead.

Owning a sailboat in her prime (Splendido turns 25 this year) has its challenges, and one of them is parts wearing out and needing to be replaced. Notice that I was careful not to say “older” or “aged” sailboat – I am reminded of my favorite Aubrey/Maturin stories written by Patrick O’Brian:

Dr. Stephen Maturin: By comparison, the Surprise is a somewhat aged man-o-war. Am I not correct?

Captain Jack Aubrey: Would you call me an aged man-o-war, doctor? The Surprise is not old; no one would call her old. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She’s a fine seabird: weatherly, stiff and fast… very fast, if she’s well handled. No, she’s not old; she’s in her prime.

One of this year’s challenges was to repair, replace, or fabricate the masthead divider plate for our weatherly, stiff and (relatively) fast Splendido. Our masthead divider plate had worn out – had broken, in fact – and so I contacted Catalina Yachts in Florida and they searched the warehouse and couldn’t find anything that would work. So, I had to fabricate it myself, which was not difficult, and I actually enjoyed the challenge of finding the proper type of plastic and doing the engineering drawings and making the thing whole again. While I was at it, I also replaced two of the Delrin masthead sheaves (as well as the ones for the deck organizers, which had worn flat spots in them after all these years).

Once we launched the boat, I noticed a slow drip coming out of the sea water pump when it was running. Jamie and I pulled the pump, examined it, and couldn’t figure out why it was dripping. I got on the phone with the kind folks from Transatlantic Diesel, and they said it was probably the seals that had worn out. So, one evening over beer and pretzels, my engineer/brother-in-law Tracy and I disassembled the pump, replaced the seals I bought from TAD, and it’s been running like a top ever since. (Thanks, Tracy!)

Sailing? Why yes, the point of all this activity was to actually get out on the water. Long story short, the sailing has been great. Here’s a quick YouTube™ link to perhaps our best sailing day, June 25th, with Splendido rocking out in 21 knots of wind, racing southwards at 6.5 knots plus for miles on end.

On more normal sailing days, with 10 – 15 knot Zephyrs, Debbie and I have gone out and enjoyed gentler sails. On the eve of July Fourth, we had a wonderful sail with one reef in the mainsail and about 50% of the genoa out, which took us to our favorite gunkhole toward the south end of Sugar Pine State Park. There, we saw Terry Wasik and his 41-foot Hunter, Cheeseburger in Paradise, with the hook down, settling in for the night. We dropped the hook about 75 yards away and grilled steaks on the Magma BBQ while the sun sank in the western sky. As the sky darkened, we saw the flashes of fireworks at King’s Beach on the north shore, and sat on the deck enjoying the show.

Once again, I am filled with gratitude at the gift of friends, this lake, this boat, and being healthy and able to enjoy it all. To my fellow sailors, I have a deep appreciation for all the hard work, headaches, and heartburn that goes into pursuing our shared passion for life under sail. What’s remarkable to me is that every season, getting out on the water, trimming the sails, and cruising along with one foot on on the wheel and the wind in your hair is like a magical amnesiac that makes all the effort worthwhile.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Dude, What Happened To The 2017 Season?

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Overnighters, Splendido4 Comments

I didn’t post much last year (actually, I posted only once), and for the past six months, I’ve been thinking about why that was. The truth is, last season was a bit rough for Splendido, but we still had a lot of fun when we did manage to get out on the water. So here’s the story, belated though it may be:

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At first, I thought the season was going to be a breeze. Spring commissioning went really well, with lots of new upgrades, including a new mainsail, lazy bag, and lazy jacks, Raytheon wirelesss instruments, and new Navy Blue Krypton bottom paint, too. But then…

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I noticed hairline cracks in the fiberglass in the bilge area made me nervous (this does not take a lot, as friends can affirm). After grinding out the cracks and thoroughly inspecting everything, I realized the repair was beyond my comfort level, so I took Splendido to my local fiberglass expert. A cool $950 later (ouch!), she was better than new. The repairs set us back a few weeks, so we didn’t launch until nearly July. So there’s that. Then…

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Wildland fires in California made the lake basin smoky for a good part of the season, so that cut into our sailing time a bit.

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Thunderstorms kept us guessing for a fair amount of the season about when and where to sail.

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The weather patterns seemed different, although they made for some very interesting cloud formations. I believe the clouds shown here are called mammatus clouds, and they form on the underside of anvil clouds. They have a particular beauty, especially when the sun hits them at a low angle.

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When the sailing was good, it was epic, and so I tended to try to squeeze every drop out of it. Hence, the burkha-like headgear to protect my pale skin from Tahoe’s high-elevation rays.

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Boat camping was a standard weekend activity for us when conditions permitted. We enjoyed a number of two-night stays at anchor, often rowing in to shore to take walks and explore Tahoe’s forests and glades.

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Sometimes you can sail in the morning at Tahoe. One weekend when Debbie was hanging out with one of her girlfriends at our home in Reno, I spent two nights on the boat. This shot is of a 7 a.m. sail northwards, just ghosting along at about 2-3 knots with a gentle westerly.

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Other mornings, you just hang out and enjoy the beauty of a quiet anchorage while you sip your morning coffee.

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In August, the water was warm enough for swimming, and Debbie and I did a lot of swimming off of Sugar Pine State Park.

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Debbie is getting a lot more comfortable being skipper, although she clearly still doesn’t like having her photo taken.

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A rare easterly storm in late September shook my brand-new wireless Raytheon wind instruments off the mast and tossed them in the drink. Because Splendido was on her mooring ball when this happened, I knew they had to be somewhere within a 50-yard radius of the ball. So, on a placid day in mid October I donned a wetsuit, gloves, hood, flippers and mask and tried to find this precious gear somewhere on the lake floor. After two hours of diving and chilled to the bone (the water was 50 degrees F.), I spotted a glint in the muck at about 25 feet deep. I broke an eardrum and got a bloody nose because I didn’t clear my ears properly, but I got the d@#ned instruments. Best of all, they still worked after spending three weeks in the water.

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Royal blue is not Navy blue I loved how good the Total Boat Krypton Navy blue paint looked on Splendido at the beginning of the season (see the first photo at the top of this post), but I didn’t buy quite enough, so I ordered another gallon about a month after I bought the first gallon. The day before we launched, I touched up a few areas on the hull, and the color looked normal when it was applied over the rest of the Navy blue. However, when we pulled the boat at the end of the season, I was stunned to see that the “touch up” part was actually Royal and not Navy blue. I called Jamestown Distributors to tell them they were putting the wrong color in the Navy cans, but they thought I was hallucinating – until I showed them what the hull looked like. They sent me another can, free of charge – and it, too, was labeled Navy but filled with Royal blue paint. Bottom line, I guess Splendido will be sporting a Royal bottom this year. Word to the wise: Always buy your paint at the same time – and check the cans!

Fair winds and smooth sailing, DB

The Labor Of Love, And A Launch For 2017

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, SplendidoLeave a comment

I have to laugh when I think of the popular view of sailing as a leisure activity for folks who wear ascots or sport Hermes handbags. It may be that way for some, but for those of us “Good Old Boat” lovers, it’s literally a labor of love. (By this, I really mean lots of hard, physically and sometimes mentally demanding work.) This year, I will be the first to admit that I was overly ambitious with winter/spring/early summer commissioning, putting in well over 100 hours of time attacking the following projects:

  • Sand entire bottom to remove flaky old hard Pettit Trinidad paint
  • Repaint hull with Total Boat Krypton ablative antifouling
  • Remove all original instruments (wind, speed, and depth) and wiring
  • Replace with all new Raytheon wireless wind, speed, and depth, and rewire nav sender
  • Discover – to my horror – significant cracks in the stringers athwartships in the bilge area
  • Grind out said cracks to see how extensive they were
  • Abandon all hope of self-repair and take the boat to Ted Thurston at TNT Auto & Marine for some serious fiberglass work, including on the transom from last year’s piling knock
  • Check and repair/replace lighting (swapping out old lighting to new LEDs), which involved soldering (which I am not the most skilled at doing!)
  • Replace and rewire fuel tank sender unit, as the old one was on the fritz and we were judging fuel levels by estimating engine hours-to-gallons (not very accurate, esp. motor-sailing)
  • Install a new mainsail, new lazy jacks, new lazy bag system
  • Reconfigure the 1997 Hood Sea Furl furling headstay, replace broken centering assembly, adjust length while the rig is standing (a major, major PITA requiring two stout men to do it)
  • Replace punctured (due to age/dry climate) Whale Gusher Urchin diaphragm
  • Replace all the locker elbow latches inside the boat
  • Replace the Shurflo twist-on pipe strainer on the water pump under the sink
  • Repair flag holder assembly that had worked loose on the stern of the boat
  • Replaced worn-out oar locks on our Walker Bay dinghy
  • Re-veneer woodwork in the salon that was damaged from some water infiltration (thanks to dried-out porthole seals) due to our 2x-normal wet winter (and yes, I need to replace those seals!)
  • Clean up edges of bottom paint along the boot stripe by hand, with acetone and a rag
  • Wash hull twice, wax with cleaner wax, and polish to a gleaming shine

Long story short, I am exhausted; my entire body is sore from the effort, but I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. A million thanks to my brother-in-law Tracy, the engineer, whose brilliant mind and ability to trouble-shoot almost anything mechanical never ceases to amaze me; to my friend Michael Salley for letting me use his industrial yard to work on the boat this spring; and extra-special thanks to Debbie, to whom I gave two bouquets of flowers on the eve of launch day this year – the first bouquet for putting up with me for being a cranky bastard for the past four months, and the second bouquet as a hedge against my being a cranky bastard in the future.

The good news, though, the boat is finally in the water at Tahoe, and sailable as of last night, June 24, at 6 p.m. It’s the latest start we’ve ever had. There is still some fine-tuning to do on the lazy jacks and lazy bag, but she looks good; I feel confident that all systems are working great; and I can’t wait to actually sail her and enjoy the feeling of gliding across the water to our favorite gunkholes around the lake. To summer and sailing Lake Tahoe!

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

 

Ready to Sail 2014

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, On The WaterLeave a comment

Load-in 2014 Load-in 2014 II Fully loaded 2014I woke up at 4:58 a.m. today, excited to hit the road and get Splendido loaded for sailing season. Thirteen hours later, I am back home, bone-weary, and ready to hit the hay. All that’s left to do is install the UV zip-ties on all the turnbuckles and lifelines, and we’re good to go.

The obvious issue this year is how low the water is; I was at the very end of the dock, and I was pretty nervous that I’d be painting the rocks with the keel. Didn’t happen, but I imagine this will be the last time I even get near that particular dock this summer.

Load-in wasn’t that hard; it was just time-consuming. It still needs Debbie’s touch to give it orderliness and style. I was just content to get everything in and stowed quickly, and get back out to the buoy before the waterski boats started creating chop that would surely bang the keel on the rocks below.

At the end of the day, she looks pretty good. Everything works; all the wood is in; and what was really remarkable to me is that the Perkins Perama just fires up nicely every time. Can’t wait to get out and sail…probably next weekend will be the season opener. Until then, fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Nautical Notoriety: Splendido in the Media

On By David BranbyIn Keeping Up Appearances, Splendido1 Comment

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Good Old Boat Magazine – January/February 2014 Issue

Splendido got her 15 minutes of fame this month, getting a mention in the January/February 2014 issue of Good Old Boat magazine. There, on page 30, is this image from an early-season sail with our good friends Patty Bell and Mike Bryant, with Debbie Branby at the helm. I have had a subscription to Good Old Boat magazine since 2011 and thoroughly enjoy the publication, as it caters to those of us who like to mess about in boats and do a lot of the work ourselves.

It’s also fun to see what others around the country have done with their older boats, and some of the MacGyver-esque fixes and modifications are simply amazing. Plus, as an advertising guy at heart, I just love the small-space ads for unique sailboat products and services in the back of the magazine. I get something useful out of every issue, and eagerly await the next issue (it comes out six times a year). Check it out online at http://www.goodoldboat.com for current news of interest to good old boaters and also to get a subscription or order some of their very fun swag items, too.

Online, I was also thrilled to see Splendido appear as the cover art for the Yahoo! Groups page for Catalina 270 sailboats. This is a handy forum I turn to now and then to get specific answers from fellow Catalina 270 lovers from all over the nation. It’s an honor to be in such auspicious company, and like any doting father, I’m always happy to see photos of our girl, wherever they may appear.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

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Yahoo! Groups – Catalina 270 Group

Midwinter Musings

On By David BranbyIn Keeping Up Appearances, Overnighters, SplendidoLeave a comment

David at the helm 2013This is the time of year where I really start jonesing for a chance to sail. It’s been an extremely dry winter here in the Sierras, and I’m already worried about low water and not being able to use the dock at all this summer. Nevertheless, at 51, I am determined to make sure this year is filled with adventure and fun, so I am going on the record here to say this is the year that I do a three or four day circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe, dropping the hook each night in some protected anchorage and checking out the the local color. Debbie has already announced that she doesn’t want to go, mostly because she doesn’t sleep well on the boat, and well, her idea of camping is slow room service at a nice hotel. So, I may go solo, or I may test a friendship by sharing the voyage with a friend. I’m thinking that it has to be July, when the water warms up a bit and the wind is steady and there’s good sailing to be had. In the run-up to launching in the spring, I have a bunch of chores to do. One thing I’m really glad we did last fall was have the trailer rebuilt, as that thing is bulletproof now. I spent a fair amount of time online today, sourcing things I need to repair or replace. That damn teak wood is still on the sawhorses in my garage, awaiting sanding and varnishing. I could go on and on, but like any INFJ, I have a nice long list of things I need to do.

DSC_0150I am optimistic that this is going to be a great year for sailing at Lake Tahoe. Last summer’s sailing season felt a little “short” because of the smoke from the Rim Fire near Yosemite, which made it just nasty outside for a few weeks. I’m also excited about sharing Splendido with some new friends and with some old friends who were gone for a while but now have come back to the area and rekindled the friendship. An afternoon of sailing on Tahoe is a lot like a nice dinner party (and sometimes, they are one and the same!)…a few delightful hours of conversation, relaxation, good food and wine, and the activity of handling the boat and enjoying the view. What’s not to like?

Still, as a conscientious user of this beautiful treasure called Lake Tahoe, one thing I hope to achieve this year is selling my trusty old 1994 Jeep (she turns 20 this year!) and getting something that’s a little lighter on the environment, like a Prius. Because I work at the University of Nevada, Reno, I get to learn from some amazing researchers, including the folks who study human impacts on the entire Tahoe Basin, the air quality, nearshore ecosystem, and, of course, the clarity issues about which much has been writtten. For a glance at some of the cool science they’re doing, check out this Tahoe Summit_Report.

Obviously, I’m not sailing today, so the photos shown here are from a great sailing day last summer with Debbie. (Midwinter is a great time to reminisce.) The final photo is of this cool “picnic boat” that moored near our buoy on Hurricane Bay last summer. We never saw her used much, but it could just be that her owner was out enjoying her when we were at the office during the week. Anyway, she’s a beauty, and I hope to see her out on the water next year.

More when it happens. In the meantime, fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

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Squeezing Every Last Bit Out Of The Sailing Season At Tahoe

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Splendido3 Comments

last-boat-2013The weather in the Sierra Nevada has been absolutely spectacular for the last three weeks or so; high pressure locked in, the leaves on the aspens and cottonwoods ablaze with color, and a breathtaking stillness that makes Tahoe flat as a millpond with virtually no wind. The lake level had dropped significantly over the past month, so my springtime plan to offload the boat using the Skyland pier fell by the wayside, as there was no hope of getting anywhere near it, much less to tie up and unload. I called on Obexer’s to arrange the haul-out, which we scheduled for Tuesday, October 22. I went up on the 20th for a final sail, but there wasn’t much wind and I just made a nice motor-sail day out of it. Mike Bryant came along for company and we spent the balmy afternoon putting up to Tahoe City to take in the fall color.

The next day, I drove up once again to take the boat down to Obexer’s for offloading. The logistics of the offloading were a bit like an athletic event: I had to drive the van up, drop it off at Obexer’s, pull out my bicycle and ride it two miles north to where Splendido was moored, row out with the bicycle in the dinghy, unfasten the mooring line from the buoy itself, tie off the dinghy to the back of Splendido, and then motor down to Obexer’s. It was all a bit of sprint, because I had to get everything done, be back in Reno by 4:30 p.m. for a short nap and then go to my statistics class in the MBA program from 7 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. Fortunately, when I arrived at Obexer’s, they let me pull into a vacant slip, where I proceeded to empty the boat of every last item, from cushions to glassware and sunscreen, and transfer it all into one of Debbie’s catering vans. Luckily, I had borrowed the big Safari van, and filled every inch of it. That made me think that the boat could probably add a knot or two to its top speed if only it wasn’t so laden with creature comforts. But, after thinking about it for a few minutes, I decided that it was all worth it if it kept Debbie happy and sailing with me.

This summer, I paid particular attention to making sure I was staying hydrated, because at 6,239 ft. elevation, it just wicks it out of you. I would find myself dry-eyed and unusually weary and headachy after being out on the water for four or five hours, and I attribute it to dehydration. So, on my offload day, I packed in a cool gallon of spring water and drank from it often and deeply. At about 2 p.m., I had everything off the boat except the sails and boom, so I attacked that chore next and was surprised how quickly I got things bagged and put away. With that, I locked up the cabin, grabbed a delicious pulled pork sandwich at Obexer’s General Store, and headed home.

Tuesday morning, I met my brother-in-law Tracy at his house, and we drove over to Kro-bilt trailer repair in Sparks to pick up the trailer. I haven’t written a lot about that trailer, but one thing we noticed over the years was that it didn’t fit the boat particularly well, and the stress was showing on both the trailer and on the boat. The uprights were holding the boat like tongs hold a thick ribeye steak; “squeezing” the boat rather than supporting it from underneath. This resulted in stress cracks in the uprights (as well as visible signs of them “splaying” outward), and it was putting dimples in the hull of the boat over the winter months. So, I got online and looked at all the latest sailboat trailer sites, and put together a plan to rebuild the whole dang trailer. I ordered six new boat stand and pads from Brownell’s, and had the Kro-bilt crew grind off all the old uprights, moving everything in 6-8 inches and replacing the old uprights with beefy Schedule 80 tubes and square-tubing supports. Now, the thing is sturdy as an aircraft carrier, much to my relief and Tracy’s, too. After all, Tracy is the one guy generous enough to haul the trailer with his huge Ford diesel truck because he takes great joy in anything mechanical–although the janky trailer was causing him a bit of heartburn all the same. At any rate, the Obexer’s crew was ready for us Tuesday morning, and it was a smooth process from unstepping the mast all the way through strapping the boat down and driving away. Of all the many moving parts involved in hauling a sailboat, the one slight mishap was that we left the dinghy in the harbor and didn’t realize it until we parked the trailer down in Reno. A quick phone call to Obexer’s confirmed that they had noticed it and locked it up until next weekend when I could manage to get back up there to retrieve it.

All in all, a pleasant season that ended well. I’ll post again with a photographic recap, but until I do, fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Big T & Big D 10-21-13