Reenie K

Or perhaps "Call me Ishmael" is more fitting.
The Reenie K is (or will be the name) of my "new" old boat.

She is a 16' boat built in 1974 and not very well maintained over the years. There are some pictures of the model around the web - look for American 16 made my American Fiberglass.

I owned a sailboat mumble mumble years ago (a 14' lateen rig I sailed on Chautauqua Lake for 2 summers. She didn't even have a name.

First of all, never EVER EVER take possession of a boat without getting the paperwork - the title and registration. My niece was given the boat and then decided to give it to me cause she was moving. Two months later, I had the ownership history from the day she left the factory until the day she was 'docked' in my yard. But no paperwork!

Since you need a title to register a boat in New Jersey, I had a 16' planter on my hands. In fact, I did consider making her into a planter for a few days!

Finally, my 12 year old son, who is usually pretty mellow, snapped! While I was talking to the last registered owner (notice I didn't say the last owner), he yelled "You are driving my father CRAZY! Come get your FREAKING sailboat out of our yard!"

The next day, I had the title in hand! Two hours after that, I owned a sailboat! Where other people hang pictures of the boat, I framed and hung the title! First major hurdle cleared....

This is what the Reenie K looked like when I started on her. It took 2 weeks of scrubbing to get her looking more like a boat and less like an abandoned derelict.

By the way, Melaleuca products do a GREAT job of cleaning.

I did find out her hull is water tight. There was two feet of water in her! If she keeps water in, she'll keep water out.

I really don't want to post any more pictures like this one. It gives me a case of the 'collywobbles.' (the shuddery goose walked over your grave feeling - yuck!)

I now have an official crew!

Every time I walk NEAR the boat, my 12 year old son RUNS upstairs, grabs his Jack Sparrow hat and comes out to help. He's learning a few things about boats, a few new vocabulary words (some he better not use when he visits Mom!).

He's suggested a sail to Baltimore (which will take DAYS!), rigging the boat as a camper (which I'm working on) and has learned how to tie a few knots. He regularly swabs the deck too!

Seriously, I am now counting this as a successful adventure, whether we get launched or not. Brian is my youngest and this is a GREAT activity for us to spend time together.

Well, rather than working on the boat for the last few days, I worked on the blog ABOUT the boat.
Not nearly as much fun!

I did get comments to work, which was the main purpose of the work. In order to keep the flotsam and jetsam out of the blog, I enabled Typekey authentication. In order to comment, you have to sign in. If you don't have a Typekey account, you can get one for free in about 30 seconds.

(The only thing worse than using other people's scripts is trying to write your own!)

Here are a few of the vendors I've used. I'll update this occasionally.
If you find a good vendor, please add a comment. Thanks

Lockwood Boat Yard: http://fishbox.tv/lockwood/
(lots of sailboat equipment)

Egger's Sail Loft: http://www.johneggers.com/
very patient with a sailor wanna-be

Duckworks Boat Builders: http://www.duckworksbbs.com/
some hard to find things for modifications

Boaterbits: http://stores.ebay.com/Boaterbits
real good people who stand behind their products

Greenbrook Electronics: http://www.motionnet.com/cgi-bin/search.exe?a=sc&no=17021
they need a website of their own! I even found wire ties with label tags here

Lowe's: http://www.lowes.com
very good selection of stainless steel screws, bolts, nuts, washers and cotter pins.

Dwyer Mast Company: http://www.dwyermast.com/
complete standing rigging and components for sailboats

Annapolis Performance Sailing: http://www.apsltd.com/
I found just the right cam cleats here!

To all who have helped get me fired up about something new:

Vickie - Who gave me the boat and got this started
Cat - who listens to the enthusiasm
Al - the maker of the rudder mount - It looks better than the original
Bob D - good advice and a few laughs when things looked bleak...
Ben C - several good places to put the boat into the water and some nice toys I never would have thought of
John Eggar - a man of great patience and skill

Thank you one and all!

Brian and I went to a boat show after work last night. God, there are some beautiful boats for sale. I think the most expensive one there was going for $149,000! And that included the show discount!

Not a single sailboat there, however. We did get information about the safe boating classes, ordered a new name plate for the transom, bought new dock and spring lines and found a few vendors for making cushions and making a tent. I think the tent might have to wait until next year. That or I'll try making my own.

Next time I go to a boat show, I'm gonna look for a sailboat show. I didn't realize there was such a division.

Well, I'm back at school...

The first safe boating class was tonight. It's typically geared for power boat people, as it should be. Of 20 people in the class, 2 are sailors. I don't think Brian and I will have any trouble passing the class..

Early Daylight Savings Time is GREAT!

I came home to daylight! I was just starting on the boat when a neighbor came over. I woke up and found myself working on his rototiller!

I did manage to clean up the boat a bit and mount the bracket to hold the cabin light. I also ordered a tiller lock and a compass. Eventually, I'll need them if I EVER get the boat IN the water!
I have to check regs for lighting too - I might need to put yet another running light on. Damn!

Oh, well...

After talking with the guys who are teaching my class, I don't have to add another light to the mast! The anchor light will do double duty as a steaming light if I run the sailboat at night on the motor.

I don't plan on doing that very often, so I hate to spend the money and the effort for something I might need once.

I looked again at putting a tent over the boom for camping. It's doable, but that might have to wait until next year, unless I try making my own tent. Hmmmmmmmm...

I don't believe it! Just before spring, we get a sleet and snow storm! And here i had visions of taking the Reenie K out for her first shakedown cruise this weekend!

All the inside work is pretty well done, too! I need to mount the compass, replace the tiller lock cause the first one doesn't work correctly. The lock is fine, but the angles of the lines are wrong. I need to wire in the cabin light, wire in the light for the compass once I figure out where I'm mounting it, I need to wire in the bilge pump and mount the portholes.

Then I need to start the painting process.

Not really a lot of work left to do, but it's all outdoor stuff! This may push back the launch date by a week or two. Damn!

This is sooo cool.. I got Image-magick to work on this server....

I'll be going back and changing all the images to thumbnails in the next couple of days....

(hey, if I can't play with the boat, I can play with the software about the boat at least!

I feel a case of "boatitis" coming on.....
If I am lucky, I can get the boat out on the water for her shakedown cruise during the first week of April. To do that, I need enough time to finish wiring the bilge pump and fix the rudder. Everything else is cosmetic or optional - filling screw holes, painting, installing the new tiller lock, finishing the portholes. That can all wait...

I just need to take a day off to get the boat in the water for a test... I cannot WAIT!!!!!!!

Here's what the portholes will look like when finished:

Any day I'm on call and manage to get some work done on the Reenie K, I consider a moral victory. I can only do short jobs, or things I can leave in a hurry. Between the rain and standby, it seemed that nothing was getting done lately.

Well, today I managed to mount the cabin light and wire it in, mounted the new compass and checked it out, added hatch closures for the two cabin hatches (so if I do flip her, all my stuff doesn't end up at the bottom of some lake), got the rudder apart and re-painted and started painting the box of emergency supplies and test wired the bilge pump so it will run automatically with a float switch.

We're getting there and still are planning on a shakedown cruise in early April.

Whoo hooooo

I finally set the trailer up for the boat so the tongue weight is 200 pounds as it should be. I also took the wheels off. Thank God I planned on replacing the bearings! Both bearing nuts were so loose the hubs had play in them! One set of bearings was water fouled and had started to rust the shaft. Tomorrow, new races and bearings and a healthy addition of grease.

Best boat in the world isn't worth spit if you can't get it to the water.

Here's what the interior looks like from the cockpit. It's still a work in progress, as evidenced by the parts and tools scattered about. The two nets you see are going to keep things from sliding around and hopefully keep things inside if we capsize (not that we'll ever do that!)

On the starboard side (the right to you landlubbers), you can see the cut out for the portholes I'm going to install. That might be the next project. I don't mind doing the shakedown cruise with the boat needing paint, but I'd rather not put her in the water with great gaping holes, even if they are above the waterline!

We are Ready for the shakedown cruise!

I bought life jackets today, which was the last thing on my "need to be legal" list!!

I also put the new bearings on the trailer today, which turned out to be a major chore.

Tomorrow, more work after I take the car in for brakes. I think I'll need them towing

Although I really want to paint her this year, I think that's going to wait until the fall. I found out to do it right, I need to sand, clean the dust, prime, paint, sand, clean the dust and paint (the paint is 67.00 a quart!!!!) So this year, we'll sail her as she is, I think.

That means I'll be hand lettering her name this year.

I also decided on a personal flag to fly along with the ensign. This is the rough version...

We had our first annual voluntary boat safety inspection today. We passed!

Tomorrow if it doesn't rain, we're taking the boat out for the shakedown and the dechristening ceremony. Everything looks to be ready. Damn, I can't WAIT!

The weather was cold and rainy today, so we didn't take the boat out onto the water.
We did test out the trailer and had a few issues - like the lights. I had to re-wire the car side.
It also took a little work to get the boat out of the soft ground, but we managed to do it without a mutiny. NEVER LET A 13 YEAR OLD GUIDE YOU BACK! I didn't know whether to turn left, pull forward or flap my arms and fly away!
It was a pretty white knuckle flight, but we managed to get there and back

It is with great pleasure that I'm writing that the good ship ReenieK was officially christened on this day. Present were her owner and captain and her crew. In keeping with the traditions and superstitions of the sea, the god of the sea and the gods of the four winds were offered libation and invited to grant safe passage to the ReenieK, her crew and her passengers. There will be a celebration later in the year.

It got cold again and all the indoor stuff is finished. I have a few small things to work on but they're all outside things.

Damn!

Or at least weather warm enough to work outside!

I'm sitting around here creating jobs. I earlier tried making a rope ladder by looping and tying a 1/2" dock line i had laying about. It looked hideous. Yesterday I finished cutting, routing and sanding 4 wooden steps to make a nicer ladder. Brian commented that the last 2 steps would float and be hard to use. I routed a dovetail slot in the underside and filled the slot with lead.

Next thing I need to so is make a couple of wooden boxes to store the navigational tools and to keep the compass in when it's not mounted.

If the weather would break and the penguins get the hell out of my yard, maybe I could actually do some work on the boat! I have to work standby this Saturday, but three is a possibility that I can take her back out Sunday...

I am trying to balance security and convenience for people who want to comment.

I was using some authorization site that was kind of a pain in the neck - or further south along the spinal cord. I liked the security, but it was awkward to use to say the least.

So here's the new method...

You post a comment and I get an email telling me I need to authorize it. Since I check my email several times a day, I can approve comments fairly rapidly (within 24 hours unless I'm camping on the boat).

I can also disapprove equally as rapidly, so let's keep the comments suitable for all to read (my crew is 13 and will be viewing this blog too) and on topic. I'd love to hear comments from other boaters and sailors.

Thanks...

They got washed away by the rain!

We're gonna have rain until Saturday, when I'm working. Then it will clear for my standby duties.

The Nor'easter hits Saturday night or Sunday morning! No, I am NOT making this up!

I have the mast apart for some repairs, the portholes needing to go in, an adjustment to be made to the kick-up rudder, stays and shrouds to adjust, a boom cradle to install, safety chains on the trailer to replace and it's gonna be another weekend of freaking rain!

One can't help feeling this will not be a year of droughts in New Jersey.

(Oh, yeah. My garden is growing a fine crop of mud too!)

I know where the next place I can sail is! My basement!
3 sump pumps running and I couldn't keep up with the water.

I managed to duct tape another set of pipes together... and we're gaining slowly. The water is down 1/2" in about 40 minutes... If the rain slacks and the power stays on, I should be OK.

This will delay the work on the Reenie K for a while, I'm afraid.

Here is the venue for the 2007 New Jersey Indoor Regatta:

Stupid ISP!
For some reason, after 3 years with the same IP address, things changed.

This should not have been a big deal, except the links ot all my pictures got farbled up.

I just spent about an hour uploading all the pictures again. Everything should be back working, but if you find a problem looking at pictures, post a comment and I'll fix it again.

The joys of hosting your own website....

The weather report calls for sunny sky and 70's! Two days in a row!

I am gonna fix a few things up to make the Reenie K seaworthy on Saturday, then take her back out for the second set of trials.

I have to reset the mast rake (the angle the mast tilts back) and test it and try a few accessories Ben C gave to me

A glorious day!!!!!
I got a lot of stuff finished.
The portholes are done.
The mast was re-set, soon to be tested for weather helm
The trailer was completed
The compass light was installed just in case we sail by night

And best of all, the transom was lettered:

This is temporary for the season until I paint her next fall. I don't want to lose any time on the water this season.

Tomorrow we go out again.

I expect to be out for the better part of the day... 11:00 to 16:00!

I just about finished the boom crutch I wanted to make.. here's the story
The boom is a roller boom, so you can wrap the mainsail around the boom to store it out of the way. The problem is that the end of the boom drops unless you either support it with the mainsail halyard.. the line that raises the sail, or you hold it up with one hand while you try to wrap the sail with the other. It's kind of like trying to stuff a cooked noodle into a wildcat's ear with a hot butter knife!

So I designed and had made a boom crutch.. it's two pieces of stainless steel tubing that are mounted to the transom (the back of the boat). They cross to provide a place for the boom to rest.
It will make a nice support for the boom while we are raising or lowering the sail or when we use the boom as a ridgepole for a cockpit tent.

It's not quite done and it's raining here again, so pictures will have to wait...

I think I need to take a picture or pictures of the boat and point out some of the things I'm talking about. There are a lot of nautical terms being bandied about.

I also made some boxes to store navigational equipment and the compass. Not bad for a first time with intricate woodwork. I'll post pics after I sand and stain them

My older son Rob gave me a pretty nice little navigational kit for Christmas. I haven't needed it yet, cause we're still sailing small lakes, but eventually we'll be out on the Raritan Bay, the Barnegat Bay and maybe even the Chincoteague Bay!

I'll need those tools then. I also hate little parts and tools scattered all over the place. So I bought some bigger tools, like a router and router table and got seriously back into woodworking.

Here is the result:

But I didn't....
I spent a lot of the day filling a gazillion screw holes left by one of the former owners.

I made a few changes in the layout also and did a MAJOR upgrade!
The 14 pound thrust electric trolling motor just could not move the boat in any kind of winds.
So, today I picked up a used 5 hp Nissan outboard! I'll have pictures later this week or when we test the motor on the water.
Since the Reenie K was originally rated for 6 hp as the max, 5 hp should work very well to fight winds and currents, especially since I bought a 4 stroke engine which runs more efficiently I'm told. When the Reenie K was made, 2 strokes were all that was out there. I can't wait to see what she does with her new engine.

Of course, I have to move some things around... like the boom crutch. The way it's set up now, we can only make right turns! That's a minor fix though. I also need to put a security cable on her. Otherwise the engine will probably disappear.

I'm also looking at making a set of lazy jacks... (goggle it-it's a way of raising and lowering the main sail without catching a boom in the teeth!)

Next week, we try her out yet again

Or "stuff and nonsense." I'm slowly working thru my list of things to fix, revise and update...

I swapped out the jib sheet cause there was a fray from the line catching on the mast earlier. Probably not an issue, but I had the new line anyway. I changed the motor mount to get a better angle in the water. If that doesn't work on the next test, I'll buy a mount and install it.

I'm going to be changing the anchor light wiring. I want a lower profile connector for the wiring. I know what i want to pick up and even where it is.

I put lead weights in the top two ladder rungs also. We tested the ladder out and the 2nd rung is under water and floated. It won't float again.

Tomorrow morning before work, I'm going to adjust the stays and shrouds. I need to rake the mast forward a bit. Unfortunately, I can't test until a week from this Friday when I have off. Damn! I'm hoping the day will be calm enough that I can fine tune on the water. We'll see.
Next venture out, I'm going to try to take some movies using a laptop and webcam!

I worked some more on fitting the tent to the cockpit tonight. Almost all the bugs are worked out about fitting. It's gonna work great! I need to order 1 extra set of poles for the middle of the tent to keep wrinkles out.

I'm slowly collecting gear for camping on the Reenie K. I'm looking forward to some solitude.

This Friday, I have a day off - and just before the holiday weekend, I'm going down to the Shrewsbury River to check it out. It'll be the first salt water venture!
Can't WAIT!

My crew is jumping ship, at least for a while. Brian is off to spend at least a month with his cousin and her family. He always has a good time, and he's close enough that i can pick him up for a day sail or even a weekend sail.
He leaves Friday afternoon, his first day of summer vacation.

That weekend, I am going to put the boat in the water in Highlands, NJ and sail over to Sandy Hook. There's a nice looking bay that appears to be a great place to anchor for the night. Then Sunday, I'll do a bit more sailing and come home. I want to test the tent, the camping equipment and the new sunshade I just finished. (yeah, I know - I owe pictures).

Next month, I am still looking at a run down to the Chesapeake Bay near Dundalk, Maryland. That will be 3 or 4 days on board! How cool is that?

For some reason (operator error?) the comments stopped working.

I just fixed the comment scripts, so they are working.

I hope people will start posting comments again. I'm looking for good places to sail in the New York City, Raritan Bay, Barnegat Bay areas, good chandlers, rigging tips we can share among ourselves and others who share the passion for small boats on a big ocean.

Thanks

Just for fun, I decided to tally up all the things i did to make the Reenie K into a working sailboat,

First the trailer:
1. New bearings and races
2. New lights and wiring
3. Nose wheel and jack
4. Replaced the cable and tie downs
5. Added a safety chain

Now the boat (in no particular order):
1. Repaired sails
2. Upgraded stays & shrouds
3. Replaced all running rigging
4. Re-engineered rudder
5. Added portholes
6. Added a motor
7. Re-wired the bilge pump and running lights
8. Wired an anchor light
9. Added a compass and light
10. Added a marine radio and GPS
11. Added lazy jacks to make raising and lowering the sails easier
12. Installed a step and box for the mast
13. Installed a boom crutch
14. Designed and modified a tent for the cockpit
15 Designed a sun screen for lunchtime
16. Started filling holes and dings in the hull and deck

Not bad. and not much more to do.
Finish filling holes and sanding
Add a jib furling system
Paint and re-letter

I wasn't on call..
The weather was GREAT!
The boat was ready!
I even had the urge to go out..

So why didn't I?
This weekend's project was making 20 pounds of smoked venison sausage!
YUM!

Well, it was a day that I knew was coming sooner or later. I was just hoping for later, I guess.

I started emptying out the Reenie K today. I put her mast up one last time to check the alignment again, then started emptying her out.

I also started sanding the hull and deck and building a mount point for the motor. I found a bunch of cracks around the motor mount when I dismounted the motor. I need to reinforce the whole area this winter, then build a mount.

I want to get her all filled and sanded before winter, so early next spring I can paint her up real pretty.

Here's the list of winter chores:
Winterize the motor so I don't have a Nissan anchor next year.
Reinforce the transom
Design and build a new motor mount
Repair the centerboard pivot
Finish filling and sanding the hull and deck
Paint
Re-letter the ID and name lettering
Get a safety inspection done again
Redistribute the equipment to balance the motor (I think that's were some of the helm balance issues lie)

I already miss going out on the water....

It is with great joy and a twinge of sadness that I am writing to announce that the Reenie K will be off to a new home soon.

A young man with the dream of eventually living on a boat has purchased her as a starting point. By the end of the week, the sale will be complete and she will be off. He has to take the safe boating classes and register her, sao it might be a while before she is on the water.

He's very excited and that makes me happy to have the Reenie K go to someone who was as excited as Brian and I were.

May she provide him with as many hours of pleasure as she gave to us.