Tag: Good Old Boat

Fall is in the air

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Mechanical Stuff, Splendido2 Comments

Here’s to another summer sailing season at Lake Tahoe in the books! My pal Ancil and I drove up early yesterday morning to haul out Splendido for the winter. We arrived well before any of the staff was up at Obexer’s Marina, so we did our prep work (loosening the shrouds and stays) and were ready to go when Bret and Jessy fired up the Marina Bull to unstep the mast and lift Splendido gently out of the water and place her on her 38′ trailer.

Two days before, I had bade farewell to our lovely mooring at Hurricane Bay and motored down the 2-1/2 miles to Obexer’s, as they gave me permission to take an empty slip in preparation for our haul-out. On the way down, winds were 12 knots out of the east with that long fetch from Cave Rock on the east shore all the way to McKinney Bay on the west, so it was quite the rock ‘n’ rolling ride, with occasional three to 3-1/2 foot swells and water splashing over the side, which made for a lively passage.

Hauling out a 27′ sailboat like Splendido is fairly straightforward, although I’m always a bit “on point” because there’s a lot of moving parts, literally and figuratively. First, we move the boat nose first into the haul-out slip and tie her off with four lines. Then, the forklift comes in and they put a harness around the mast at the balance point near the lower spreaders. We then release the lower shrouds, upper shrouds, forestay and backstays, and they unstep the mast and place it gently on sawhorses. I then tie down all the rigging and remove the wind instruments and put them in their winter storage box. Next, we move the boat out of the slip and back it in so the stern is facing the forklift. They get it balanced on the forks, then gently lift her out and set her on her trailer. Finally, they lift up the mast once again and set it on top of the boat. We lash everything down, put the dinghy on the trailer, go have lunch at The Bridgetender in Tahoe City, and head down to the boatyard.

The ride down the hill from Tahoe (6,230 ft. above sea level) to Splendido’s winter home (4,800 ft. above sea level) was smooth and uneventful — just the way I like it. Over the next week or two, I’ll get her cleaned up and winterized, which means draining the water heater, blowing out the water lines with compressed air so there’s nothing to freeze, changing the oil and filter, topping off the fuel and buttoning her up. Ancil (who cannot help but to make constant improvements on anything that catches his eye) surprised me earlier this summer by mounting an aluminum truck storage box he’d found for free on Craigslist to hold gear, tools, and whatnot on the trailer. It looks and works great. While he was cleaning out his shop recently, he came across some steel bars and decided to fabricate, primer and paint four “mast holder” extensions that will support the mast on the lower right side of the trailer when it’s time to put on the winter cover later this fall. I can’t thank him enough for all he’s done to make sailing Splendido safer, easier, and more convenient. Thanks, Ancil!

As I write this, the aspens are beginning to turn here in the high country; the birds are flying south and the Nevada sky has turned that deep, lustrous blue that means the first blustery winds of the season are not too far around the corner. I am immensely grateful for every moment spent sailing Splendido and working on her to make her the best good old boat she can be.

I look back and recall fondly the four years(!) Debbie and I spent looking on our laptops for a boat that spoke to us and that we could afford. When we happened upon the Catalina 270 — named Boat of the Year by Cruising World Magazine the year it was unveiled — our minds were made up, and we’ve never regretted that decision. Splendido has been yar, which means lovely, balanced and quick. We learned that watching The Philadelphia Story with Katherine Hepburn (Tracy Lord) and Cary Grant (C.K. Dexter Haven) who were reminiscing about their sailboat, The True Love:

Tracy: It was beautiful – and sweet, Dex.
Dexter: Yes, yes. She was quite a boat, the… True Love, wasn’t she?
Tracy: Was, and is.
Dexter: My, she was yar.
Tracy: She was yar alright. 

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

Stripping the boat for the change in seasons

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, On The Water, SplendidoLeave a comment

I went up to the lake yesterday morning to prep Splendido for her haul-out scheduled for next Wednesday morning at Obexer’s. I motored north to Tahoe City Marina to do one final pump-out for the season, then enjoyed the view of the turning aspens intermixed with Tahoe’s gorgeous pines on the way back to our mooring at Skyland. I set a stopwatch and am proud to say that I was able to untape and pull all the cotter rings on the rigging, put the boom and mainsail in the cabin, and drop and bag the 150 genoa in two hours and six minutes — literally singlehandedly, since my left wrist is in a splint from coming off my dirt bike earlier this summer. As I was wrapping up, a solitary efoiler with a visible microphone in his helmet carved lazy S-turns through our mooring field and waved as he passed Splendido, the last boat left on the hook. I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t Zuckerberg himself. I mean, who else would have a microphone in their helmet? We’ll never know.

The big news of the day, though, is that, with a heavy heart, we have put our lovingly restored Splendido on the market for sale, as we now want to do more land-based travels to national parks and to see parts of this amazing country and the world that we haven’t seen yet. This doesn’t mean it’s the end of our lives as sailors. I’m not sure what the future holds in that regard, but I can imagine finding ways to get back on the water when we’ve had our fill of road trips. I am grateful for everything I’ve learned (and that’s a lot!) and every moment spent getting to know majestic Lake Tahoe over these past 15 seasons — and filled with gratitude for the shared wisdom, support, hard work and goodwill of everyone who’s supported our journey. Until next time,

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

Dog days of August at Lake Tahoe

On By David BranbyIn Splendido1 Comment

Debbie and I went up to Tahoe yesterday to re-install the genoa I had re-sewn, then we headed south to Sugar Pine State Park for the first swim of the season. It was an almost windless day, so we had to motor, but the views were spectacular and the lake was pretty quiet, which is the norm mid-week, even in summer. Once we got down to Sugar Pine, we threw down the hook in front of the Boatman’s Cottage in 11 ft. of water and before I knew it, Debbie dove right in to the crystal-clear water, and popped up with quite the surprised look on her face, then let out a whoo! you hear so often at Tahoe. I flopped off the back of the boat to join her, and we both swam around until we got used to the water temp, which I would guess was in the high 60s. Afterwards, we lounged in the shade and relaxed as kayakers and ducks paddled by. Around 5 o’clock a little breeze came up, so we headed back, cruising along the south coast of McKinney Bay, where we saw our pal Mike Levin’s lovely Catalina 28, Sailing on Sunshine on the hook, and then past Chambers Landing, where vacationers were enjoying drinks on the deck. Back on our mooring ball, we buttoned up the boat and drove over to Whitecaps Pizza in Kings Beach for their delicious pesto pizza and beers, listening to the bartender regale a handful of tipsy patrons with tales of the Tahoe ski patroller’s lifestyle. We munched away on our pizza as the gathering of funhogs traded stories about torn menisci, ACL surgeries and stem-cell injections in Ensenada that produced miraculous recoveries. We settled up and then headed off in the pitch darkness up the hill and down into the valley and the pretty city lights of Reno. “Better late than never” was the phrase that kept coming into my mind as I reflected on this unusual sailing season. We’ll be back for more exploring, boat camping, swimming and the sweet smell of the pines as we do our best to wring everything we can out of summer at Lake Tahoe. Until then,

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

David Branby smiles as he looks up how to use a sewing machine.

Remind me again… how do I sew a seam on a sail?

On By David BranbyIn Keeping Up Appearances, SplendidoLeave a comment

It’s been several weeks since I have been able to sail, so yesterday’s outing on Lake Tahoe was a real treat. Winds were fresh out of the SSW at 15-16 knots with gusts up to a sprightly 23+ knots, which made for some exhilirating moments. To shake off the rust, I sailed down to Chambers Landing, then tacked and sailed back up to Mark Zuckerberg’s place before heading in. Along the way back, I noticed the leech (trailing edge) of the genoa looking a little ragged. Nothing major; the stitching had come undone on the sacrificial UV strip (the blue fabric that protects the white Dacron® cloth of the sail) along the last 8-10 ft. up from the clew. Back on the hook, I dropped the genoa onto the deck and did my best to roll it up and stuff it into the dinghy so I could take it home and re-sew the material.

Once I got home, I dragged out the ol’ sewing machine, found some UV-protected upholstery thread, and got to work. I had actually forgotten everything about using a sewing machine, including how to put thread on the bobbin and even how to re-install the bobbin. A few minutes with the 1970s-era manual, and I was back in business.


As luck would have it, I broke the needle at the very last stitch down the leech. I still have a bit of work to do on the cross stitching that holds the sacrificial UV strip on, and then it’s time to re-hoist the genoa and go for a sail. August is the best month for sailing Tahoe. The weather settles down and becomes nicely predictable, and the water is warm enough to go for a swim. Can’t wait to get back up there. Until then…

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

The peace of mind that comes from sailing safely

On By David BranbyIn Keeping Up Appearances, On The Water, Splendido1 Comment

I went out for a singlehanded sail last Monday; winds were light at 8-17 kts and the temperature was downright balmy. I saw six or seven sailboats out, which made me smile. I’m glad things have settled down a bit after the ups and downs in the weather of the past few weeks. 

I have to admit, I was pretty shook up by the tragic white squall that hit Tahoe on June 21, and it cast quite the pall on sailing for me for a few weeks. So, I turned my shock into action and got busy checking all the safety gear aboard Splendido. I checked the CO2 cartridges in all six of our Type V (inflatable) PFDs, then made sure all of our Type II PFDs (the bulkier orange kind) were in easy reach. I also checked the expiration dates of the flares, checked the air horn, both fire extinguishers, and refreshed my knowledge of using the VHF radio in an emergency. Folks who’ve sailed with me know I ask everyone to wear inflatable PFDs while on board. It’s a habit I’ve had since childhood, when a neighbor down the beach from our home on Fidalgo Island in Washington’s San Juan Islands tragically drowned one morning when he was out checking crab pots just 50 yards off shore. Now, it’s not clear whether the eight folks who drowned at Tahoe on July 21 were wearing PFDs, but we do know the two survivors had PFDs (one was wearing one, the other was clinging to one when rescued). As a skipper, knowing everyone aboard is wearing a PFD gives me one less thing to worry about so I can relax and enjoy the time on the water.

Because we sail Splendido on California waters (Tahoe is about 1/3 in Nevada and 2/3 in California), I’m now required to carry a California Boater Card. It’s a new rule for skippers of any boat with a motor in it as of January 1, 2025. I found a free U.S. Boat course online, and it was a really great refresher on boating safety. I already have my American Sailing Association 101 through 104 certifications, but I was surprised at how much I learned by taking this course. One thing that blew me away was learning that more hunters drown from falling overboard each year than die from getting accidentally shot. The course took me about five hours to complete, but I got my card and I’m legit now. To celebrate, I went out for an afternoon sail and had the whole gorgeous lake to myself.

Splendido at play on McKinney Bay at Lake Tahoe, July 14, 2025.


Back on the hook, I turned my attention to taking care of the interior woodwork, which tends to dry out in our low-humidity, high-altitude sailing area. I think it turned out pretty well. I can’t make our 32-year-old boat new again, but I can make her as beautiful as elbow grease allows. 🙂

A photo of newly-oiled interior woodwork aboard Splendido, a 1993 Catalina 270 that sails at Lake Tahoe.

While the weather was sorting itself out in late June and early July, Debbie and I took the opportunity to do some hiking in the Sierra Nevada. We did some training hikes on the Jones Creek Loop trail south of Reno, then had a picnic hike on Whites Creek – Dry Pond trail, which is just lovely this time of year.

David and Debbie Branby taking a break while hiking the Whites Creek - Dry Pond trail in the Sierra Nevada near Reno.

The forecast is for perfect sailing conditions for the next week after today’s blustery winds settle down, so that’s what we’re aiming for — quality time on the water of our beloved Lake Tahoe.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Moments like this make it worth the effort

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, On The Water, SplendidoLeave a comment

It’s taken me more than a decade to realize that living with a “good old boat” might have a lot of similarities to giving birth. Few can imagine the effort you have to go through to get her launched, but most folks can appreciate the magic and magnificence that happens when the pain subsides and the pleasure begins. 🙂

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Back on the water at last

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

This year marks our 15th year of owning our lovely sailboat, Splendido, and it seems we were as busy over the winter fixing things as we’ve ever been. My sailing pal Ancil Sigman likes to joke that all she needs is a new gas cap and she’s a brand-new boat. 🙂 In a nutshell, we:

1) Disassembled, installed a complete rebuild service kit, and reassembled the Hurth transmission

2) Replaced all four motor mounts

3) Repacked the stuffing box

4) Dropped the rudder, cleaned the shaft and installed new rudder washers

5) Replaced the glow plugs and fixed the electrical wiring so the plugs actually warm up — now it starts like it should!

6)  Re-wired and grounded the alternator properly with the help of AI and now everything works as it should — including the tachometer and battery warning light on the panel.

I learned so much working with Ancil over the winter. The man is mechanically gifted, to say the least. However, he’s not the best weather forecaster. Three storms ago he told me spring was sprung and we wouldn’t be seeing any more nasty weather. 😀 

Launch day went very smoothly, although I tell my wife Debbie that owning a sailboat around here is like having an erector set (that was a toy kit back when we were kids where you could build things out of various parts, which they still make today) that you pull out in the spring and in the fall. First, you launch the hull and check for leaks. Then, you step the mast. Then, you attach and tune all the shrouds and stays. Then, you install cotter rings on everything, and then you put rigging tape over all those. Then, you have to wipe down the boat inside and out, as the pitter patter of everyone’s feet leaves your ordinarily white decks a hazy shade of gray. C’est la vie.

Here it is, June 1 already, and I, unfortunately, have not been able to sail yet. I spent the better part of a day trying to adjust the stuffing box I’d recently repacked, and didn’t quite nail it. You’re supposed to get 2-3 drops of water per minute when the drive shaft is turning, but I either got a lot more than that or nothing at all, which is not what you want. (No drips means it’s probably adjusted too tightly, so it’ll heat up and possibly score the drive shaft.) It’s a dicey thing, though: Who even wants one drip of water in their boat when it’s under way? 🙂

As I was playing with the stuffing-box adjustment, suddenly water started spurting out of the back end of the heat exchanger. A little investigating revealed that the back-end boot from the heat exchanger tube had developed a crack, so I phoned Trans Atlantic Diesel and ordered up a new boot. It should arrive this week. In the meantime, I’ve got all the little things taken care of around the boat, so she’s technically ready to sail right now.

The good news is, the lake level is high, the Tahoe parks folks have done a great job of cleaning up the detritus where I keep my dinghy, and the smell of the pines and the lovely breeze beckons me to get out on the water. More when it happens — until then,

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Reflections on a season of midweek sailing at Tahoe

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Ports Of Call, SplendidoLeave a comment

Debbie and I had one goal this sailing season, and that was to try to relax and enjoy our new-found leisure time after I stepped away from my long advertising career at the end of January. We were excited to see how we could go from being the typical “weekend warrior”-type sailors we’d been for the past 14 years to any-day-of-the week yachties able to get far from the madding crowds as much as possible. We discovered, to our delight, how empty Lake Tahoe is in the summer Mondays through Thursdays (apart from July 4th and Labor Day weeks, of course). When you’re out on the water midweek, you really do feel like you have the whole place to yourselves.

Nevertheless, we did find time to socialize a bit, whether at Chambers Landing, where they’re really stepped up their game of late with new management, or happily running into our nephew Dusty Cady as he was in the midst of a stand-up paddleboard circumnavigation (yes, 72 miles of paddling and camping out over five days). In early summer, our friends Fred and Alice at Big Blue Tahoe Yacht Club threw a backyard party with delicious paella, where we reconnected with Brady Trautman and met Alex Blue and Sharky of SV Delos and Cruisers Academy fame. When the weather warmed up, my sailing pals Ancil Sigman of La Crapaud and John Turner of Grand Cru invited me out to enjoy a relaxing day floating, eating and swimming off Baldwin Beach, followed by a tour of majestic Emerald Bay, which I hadn’t visited in a long while.

While nothing catastrophic happened (thank you, universe) other than someone stealing our buoy tags, we did have some lively moments, like when the sail slides on the mast all blew out right after I’d hoisted the main. In an instant, our mainsail turned into a wildly flapping spinnaker. Fortunately, I was able to pull it down quickly and continued sailing under genoa alone up to Tahoe City Marina, where you could not buy — at any price — a damn sail slide. (I now have enough backup sail slides to take care of two future blow-outs, thanks to our friends at Sailrite.) Oddly enough, a week later, that very same failure happened to John Turner aboard Grand Cru. The lesson here is that things age quickly at Lake Tahoe’s 6,225-ft. elevation, especially plastic sail slides. Back in my garage, it took me about four hours to sew on the new sail slides and shackles (another interesting lesson: I thought sail slides all just attached via snaps or screws, but half of the sail slides on my main had to be laboriously hand-sewn on. That would be quite the PITA if you had to do it aboard a pitching sailboat at sea).

One highlight of the season for me was to catch my first ride on Terry Wasik’s legendary Cheeseburger in Paradise, a 41-ft. Hunter sailing out of Obexer’s Marina. Last season, Terry had hauled Cheeseburger to the coast and sailed down to Mexico in the Baja Haha flotilla. I am deeply appreciative of having the opportunity to spend a lovely day of fine sailing aboard this gorgeous vessel with a crew of 5 or 6 guests while (appropriately enough) Jimmy Buffet serenaded us. Thanks, Terry!

While our good old boat only has about 700 hours on her 18 hp diesel, one day, I heard a grinding noise down below and discovered that the crankshaft was turning while the engine was turned off and in neutral, which was a real head-scratcher for me. Ancil theorized that the clutch plates had warped over the years and were causing the shaft to turn, which is not optimal. At the end of the season, we removed the drive shaft, pulled the transmission out, got it cleaned up and now plan to install a service kit to get things working properly again. I’m also thinking about replacing the worn engine mounts, which is kind of a big deal, but that should reduce engine noise and vibration as well. I’ve also got to drop the rudder and mount a new rudder bushing which I accidentally discovered while diving the hull in August. What do we live for, hey? 🙂

Alas, the season is so short at Tahoe, and before I knew it, it was time to bring Splendido down to Reno and put her away for the winter. I built a proper frame for her new-to-me winter cover, so I’m really grateful to be able work on her out of the weather this winter (and staying pretty warm when the sun’s out) while she’s on the hard. Next season will be here before we know it. Until then…

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Yes, Virginia, Tahoe can get crazy in the summer

On By David BranbyIn On The WaterLeave a comment

Nope, I’m not talking about the summer crowds at Tahoe (although they can be a little crazy at times, too). Not long after I visited with sailor Andy Schwenk at the 2024 Santa Cruz 27 National Championship races out of Tahoe Yacht Club, they held the long distance “Trans-Tahoe Regatta” — and a summer squall with 50-knot gusts blew up. This snapshot from a video by South Lake Tahoe Windjammers Yacht Club rear commodore Sam Corso sums it up: Lake Tahoe can be a moody mistress when she sets her mind to it.

This is certainly the exception to the rule. With recent high pressure (and high temperatures) over the Sierra Nevada, it’s been either flat or mostly 15-17 knot breezes and pleasant sailing, with gorgeous cumulonimbus clouds piling up in the afternoons off toward the east over the valleys of western Nevada. I was single-handing this past Monday when I heard a shout from my old friend Zack Sisemore of Wake Almanor luxury surf charter, who texted me some pics he’s taken as I cruised along just enjoying the day. It’s a wonderful thing to feel a connection with the friends we’ve made out on the water over the years… the community is small but supportive, and I’m here for it.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Sailor Andy Schwenk

Catching up with sailor Andy Schwenk & our first splash of the summer

On By David BranbyIn On The Water, Ports Of Call, Splendido2 Comments

I got a note from my high school pal Pam last week that her brother, sailing legend Andy Schwenk, was going to be joining Rick Raduziner — owner of the Santa Cruz 27, Lickety Split — to compete in the 2024 Santa Cruz 27 National Championships at Lake Tahoe July 12-14. Andy was a couple of years behind me in high school in Anacortes, WA and I had the good fortune to sail with him and his dad, Dr. Walter Schwenk, aboard the iconic Santa Cruz 33, Ajax, back in the day.

Andy’s been afloat pretty much his whole life, and has chalked up 54 trips across the Pacific to Hawaii and back while racing in the Victoria to Maui, Transpac and Pacific Cup competitions. Professionally, Andy is a marine surveyor, rigging expert, delivery skipper and Port Captain of the Richmond Yacht Club in the Bay Area. Andy made headlines a few years ago when he developed necrotizing fasciitis from a minor ankle scrape after the 2022 Pacific Cup race. A few days into the return voyage, Andy had to be transfered to a passing tanker and later airlifted to the mainland, where he spent a month at Stanford hospital while a team of physicians worked to save his leg.

I drove up to Tahoe Yacht Club last Friday to see if I could find Andy after the skipper’s meeting, and recognized him instantly. We visited for a few minutes before he and Rick dashed off to prep the boat for the race. With high pressure hanging over the Tahoe basin, winds were light and shifty, and Lickety Split managed a respectable 5th out of a dozen boats.

The day before, Debbie and I snuck up for a wonderful afternoon sail in 12-15 knot winds to Sugar Pine State Park, where we dropped the hook in about 14 ft. and both went swimming for the first time this year. The water was about 70º F. at the surface, so we dove in and splashed around a bit before climbing back aboard to dry off under the shade of our makeshift “bimini.” The winds dropped off to just a breath later in the evening, so we took a leisurely motor along the shoreline looking at all the lovely homes and boats as the sun lowered in the sky. After all the wrenching on the boat earlier this year — including replacing the hard-to-find Lucas alternator just last week — it felt like we’d finally settled into our summer groove. We’re looking forward to more. Until then …

Fair winds! DB