Bob Perry is our Corpus Callosum

 

 

Bob Perry is our Corpus Callosum

 
A friend asked me how Mark and I came to an agreement on a boat when we are so very divergent in our tastes and personalities. Here in lies the story.

Our relationship works because we balance each other. Mark is the quintessential Left Brain. An engineer by trade and by personality, Mark is analytical and obsessed with order, performance, suitability for the job at hand (be it a boat or a tool), tidiness, symmetry and form. Me? I'm the epitome of a Right Brain. Creative, a bit chaotic, with a big imagination and a deep love of beauty be it audio or visual. That's why I slogged away all those years with music as my profession.

As we began our search, we did this the way that we do everything. I started researching, then started looking and if I found something I thought would work then we would bring out Mark. I think there were many brokers who were put off by the fact that it was just me doing the initial viewing. No, I am not going to bring "my hubby" out to tire kick. I know what boats would possibly work for him, no sense wasting his time on ones that won't meet his criteria. I looked at many boats. Many, many boats Morgans, Babas, Irwins, Gulf Stars, Tayanas, Beneteaus, Isalnd Packets, Catalinas, Cabo Ricos, Passports, Jeanneaus, etc, etc.

 At this point I knew nothing about designers, just features that were a must. While Mark loved big open cockpits, this was a no go for me. My overactive imagination/ chicken baby tendencies would kick in and I could imagine 100 different scenarios where in we were all swept overboard from that big open cockpit. Mark loves the lines of the newer European boats. I imagined hull slapping making me go insane and me taking everyone with me. I like the charm of more traditionally styled boats, Mark doesn't care for charm, he's the sailor and he wants a boat that sails well. I want a boat that makes me feel safe because I am not the sailor in the family. I am a willing crew member, but I wouldn't call myself a sailor- yet.

  The first boat that really made me pay attention after 2 boats failed survey and sea trial was a Passport 40. It met Mark's criteria for beautiful lines, reputation for sailing well , logical use of cabin space and deck layout. I liked it because the cabin felt like a home and the cockpit seemed "safe". Alas, this particular boat was not in good enough condition to even warrant further investigation but I did note the designer listed on the paperwork for the first time- Robert Perry.
*photo above is a sister ship and was not taken by me. Notice how similar her lines are to Ceol Mor.

 The next boat that I was interested in, I deemed to be too small for our family but once again it met the joint criteria of both Mark and I , the Tayana 37. Beautiful, logical and that important quality to me- it made me feel safe. It wasn't a fit for us at this time but hey, there's that name again. Robert Perry.

We looked at a few more boats. Ok, we looked a a LOT more boats. One of the brokers mentioned that he had a boat I might be interested in and would I come take a look?

Before we made a formal offer, we did a bit of research. Where was she made? What type of steel was used to make her- Chinese or US? What was the hull speed? Sail plan? Displacement? Tankage? How many of these boats are out there? What are the owners doing with their boats? And finally, who designed this boat? The answer to that last question - Bob Perry.

We didn't become fans of Bob Perry because we read that more of his boats have circumnavigated the globe than any other modern designer. We weren't swayed by his many awards or his accomplishments. We became fans of his work because of the work itself. Work that we saw first hand through neophyte eyes and which captured us both, for very different reasons. I think this is what all artists hope for, for their work to be appreciated for itself.

* Photo from www.perryboat.com
 After living with Ceol Mor for a bit, I looked up some information on Bob Perry. It turns out that he not only studied engineering and naval architecture but he is a musician as well.(ok, he's a bass player but we will give him credit ) If Mark is the left brain of this relationship and I am the right brain then Bob Perry is our corpus callosum. Thanks Bob. You've managed to design a boat that makes us both happy.

Plywood Follies

We've run into some debate over what is the best type of marine grade plywood with which to rebuild the chain plate bulkheads. Mark of course, went into "Mark mode" and decided to begin extensive testing of the different types of plywood available. He felt we needed to test for compression and rot amongst other things. This meant we had to have a sampling of different plys on hand in order to get going. This shouldn't be a problem as the local chandlery had some 4x8 sheets in stock.

Ah HA! Here we run into a bit of difficulty due to Mark and his Markness. Mark is the reason that the Scots have a reputation as being frugal. Mark would rather have bamboo shoots shoved underneath his fingernails than to waste money. Imagine his distress to find that having the oversized sheets of ply delivered would cost more than the wood itself. Having a small car means that they could not be transported by car. Hmm...

Mark has an uncanny ability to figure out the lowest cost solution to every difficulty. If everyone has a superhero power, this would be one of his (the other is that he can fix anything and make it better than it was in the first place. seriously). I was out of town with the kids, so I did not get to see the looks on peoples faces as he loaded the plywood at the shop then brought it home without having to pay anyone or to scratch up his car by placing it on the roof. I did however, convice him to grab a photo of it for my amusement. Hopefully, it amuses you as well.
Behold- the low cost plywood transportation solution!

The Navigation Lesson

 

• 
  

    One of the things I am most keen to do is to learn celestial navigation. Not out of a desire  to keep a dying art alive but out of my Big Chicken Baby tendency to think of every possible dire scenario and how I would handle it. What will we do if the chart plotter fails and all of our GPS aids are lost because an errant sea gull is attracted to the shiny bits and flies off with them?!?!? My answer- navigate by sextant, watch and charts. Of course at this point in time, I have no idea how to use a sextant but we will get there.

  
  

  Mark is one of those folks who can quickly grasp a concept at face value, examine it and perfect it. I have a capable enough intellectual capacity, but I also possess this wacky brain which thrives on tangential “rabbit chasing”. To his credit, Mark just takes my weirdo thought processes in stride and soldiers onward. Here’s an example.

  
  

  Mark and I were sitting at the dining room table after dinner with the globe. We do this from time to time to think about where we might like to travel. This time, Mark was going to start my navigation lessons. It went something like this:

  
  

  Mark: Ok, there are 360 degrees in a ….

  Me: Circle

  Mark: Right. The Earth is a circle and therefore it has 360 degrees but in navigation parlance, the prime meridian or 0 is at Greenwich England.

  Me: Why did they pick Greenwich? Nobody goes to Greenwich. London makes more sense. They should just say London.

  Mark: Greenwich is home to the Royal Observatory and since the British Admiralty developed all the charts they get to choose the prime meridian.

  Me: I wonder how the Spanish feel about that. They’re probably just a bit bitter.

  Mark:  We aren't concerned with how the Spanish might or might not be feeling, lets move on. With Greenwich being 0 degrees longitude, the Earth is measured in 15 degree increments going to 180 degrees East or 180 degrees West.

  Me: Why do they do that?

  Mark: Why do they do what?

  Me: Reuse the numbers, only going to 180 .Wouldn't’t it make more sense to count all the way to 360 rather than reusing numbers and confusing people by having a 30w and a 30E? That sounds like they were being obstinate just to confuse people.

  Mark: No,  they weren't being obstinate, they were…never mind. You understand, yes?

  Me: Yes.

  Mark: Ok, each degree of longitude is divided into 60 minutes and further divide into 60 seconds.

  Me: Why do they call it minutes and seconds? That makes no sense.

  Mark: Yes, it does. They have to call it something and since early navigation utilized chronometry minutes and seconds it was.

  Me: So really the minutes and seconds mean nothing, just a means of measurement?

  Mark: Yes, you could call it anything so long as the measurement was precise.

  Me: So we could call it degrees, door knobs and doughnuts?

  Mark: Umm..

  Me: Doughnuts would be a good name. That would make me hungry though. Then I’d crave carbs. Carbs are the devil.

  Mark: (places head in hands) What ever, do you understand so far.

  Me: yes, I understand perfectly. I still think the Spanish are probably bitter about the Greenwich thing though.

  
  

  
  

The rest of the archives

I was trying to painstakingly move the content over from the Xanga site to the blogspot site post by post. I'm done with it just now. Not that the task is completed, I just can't find the time just now to not only keep the blog current, but move everything and edit as well. Sorry. http://ceolmor.xanga.com/

A Pod of Dolphins, A Torn Main and Rain

We were able to go sailing on Sunday, July 19. We had a boat full of wonderful friends and family- my good friend the beautiful ( and very pregnant) Alma and her cool husband Alan, my gorgeous nieces Victoria and Madeleine ( who turned 17 on the 19th! Happy Birthday!) and Ben, who turned out to be a crack crew member. We were a bit concerned about whether or not there would be enough room in the cockpit for 7 adults but we managed just fine. Mark spent a good bit of time on the safety and sailing briefing so everyone knew what to do and when to do it. I highly recommend spending an hour making certain the guests know what to expect and how to crew effectively- its more fun when everyone participates.

From left- Madeleine, Victoria, Alma (and Sophia) and Mark
We left the marina with a forecast of 15-20 knot winds and a possibility of thunderstorms. Since we have been suffering in drought like conditions as of late, we were undetered by the possiblity of rain. We knew if the weather turned sour we would drop sail and motor back in so we stayed within a few miles on the marina just in case.

On right- Alan tidies the cockpit lines
Early on, the weather was breezy and there was just enough wave action to make it fun. We bounced along while everyone got to know the winches, lines and sheets and how to operate them correctly. While were out getting toknow Ceol Mor, we were treated to a pod of about 6 dolphins playing just 20 yards off of our starboard side. I need to get better about keeping the camera and video handy as I was so busy trying to crew, I missed the opportunity to photograph them. This will not happen again.

Mark and I readying the main
Victoria did a long stint on the helm and did an admirable job. She never panicked and took instruction exceedingly well. Alan and Ben did a great job manning the winches and their extra upper body strength was appreciated when the winds picked up to 20 knots. Madeleine hung out and Alma gestated quietly.

Victoria at helm
I looked off to the West and saw really ugly, dark, lightening filled clouds approaching. Mark was his usual cool self, I was my usual chicken baby self and requested an early reefing of the main and furling in the genoa. Mark likes to wait to see what the wind will do, I like to assume it will get nasty and proactively preapre for the worst. Mark ignored my pleas and carried on. The main sail ripped at the reef point when the wind picked up. Would we have a rip had Mark thrown in the extra reef when I asked him to? Hard to say, but I like to think that I was right and since I am writing the blog, we will all assume this was an "I told you so" moment.

We seriously need to do something about the jib sheets
We dropped sail and motored back in just as the rains began to come down. The ladies retreated to the cabin below while the manly men battled the current coming into the channel and got soaked. The rain stopped and the sun came out just as we were approaching our slip at the marina. With so many deck hands, we were able to get Ceol Mor into her slip with very little worry or bother except for the old dude who felt he should be captaining the boat, not Mark. It was a bit annoying for Mark to be telling me one thing only to have Old Barnacle Bill on the dock telling me to do the opposite. I ignored Barnacle Bill's instructions but did say " Thank you so much for your help" as he turned his back and wandered off down the dock. Ah well, one of the best parts of sailing are the people you meet- even crusty characters, maybe especially the crusty ones. These are the type people that cartoons aer made of and personally, I LOVE cartoons.

Its been so long since we've seen rain, I wanted to take a photo just to remember it by

New and Improved Perkins- Now With 100% Less Smoke

When last you visited with your intrepid would be-sailors we were dealing with fall out from a blown exhaust elbow. Yes, the survey had picked up that the elbow had corroded and would need replacement. We just thought perhaps we could replace it during the haul out, the elbow had other plans and wanted to be put at the top of the punch list.

Our engine is a Perkins 4-108 and for the most part, it is in very good condition. This is a good thing because it is just about impossible to find a replacement parts. We looked everywhere for a stock ehaust elbow- at chandleries, marine diesel engine shops, Perkins dealers, etc. We did not limit our search to those in our local area, we cast the net for the part far and wide to no avail. You simply could not buy a replacement part from stock.

An internet comrade ( thanks Cam!) suggested we try Trans-Atlantic diesels. http://www.tadiesels.com/  While they did not have the replacement part, they did offer to fabricate us a nwe one if we would send them our old one. We loved their Can-Do attitude, their professionalism in answering questions very quickly what we didn't love was the price. They were not over charging by any means, just charging a fair price for their efforts. Unfortunately or fortunately ( depending on how you look at these things) our number one goal while refitting Ceol Mor is to do so and still slow the hemorrage the bank account has been suffering of late.

Hey..wait a minute. Mark can fix or build anything. Seriously. Mark spent a couple of nights in the garage with his grinder, the old exhaust elbow and stainless pipe and elbow purcahsed from Grainger. A trip to Hobby Lobby (seriously) produced a fine sheet of copper which would be cut into gasket for the exhaust elbow. A bottle of whisky and a trip to Mark's friend Christian's home work shop (with TIG weld) produced the end result of a beautiful stainless steel, well gasketed and perfectly welded exhaust elbow at a savings of 75% of retail.

Thank you Christian and well done to you and Mark! The new part was tested at length on July 4 and it performed beautifully.

I Love Mr. Clean

 

• We are not going to be angry at the person who put the camera where it does not belong. We are just going to be grateful that we still have the camera and the photographic evidence of the wonders of the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.
   Bad scratch sadly upon our hull...
  
  But wait! Mr. Clean says he can clean it!
  
  A little bit of effort, and...
  
  No one knows about my infamous docking tragedy! Yay for Mr. Clean who is now my boyfriend because I puffy heart love him forever.