| January 4, 2010- North Carolina |
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It's a New Year! Boat work is coming along nicely, and i'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel; in about two weeks, "Warrior's Wish" should be en route to California, so that I can begin training and preparing for this year's Singlehanded Transpac. The race is no longer "next" year, it's in just five and a half months! We're kicking things into high gear from this point out... After typing the last blog, I prepared to head home to Georgia for the holidays. On the day that I was planning to leave, we got pounded by a quick snowstorm. With temperatures well below freezing, snow began falling and quickly covered the ground with a few inches of snow. It was literally the first time i've seen snow fall since I was in Iraq in 2004. (Yes, it snows there.) The roads were a mess, but I managed to get to the train station and make it home for the holidays.
This is Frosty, official snowman of Warrior's Wish.
This was literally like 20 minutes later when the snow was really beginning to stick.
The boat work is coming along pretty well right now, but the temperatures are definitely not helping us out. Just like in sailing, it seems that i'm always fighting some type of weather. The weather isn't supposed to crack 40 degrees for the next two weeks, so i'm going to have to get creative to finish my deck painting and the re-bedding the last few deck fittings. I put on the starboard side toe rail a few days ago. All I need to do on deck right now is finish painting a small area on the starboard side with non-skid, put on the port side toe rail and re-bed the fitting for the tack of the head sail, which is just aft of the front chainplate.
This is our custom fiberglass dodger that we've been building. I've posted up pics in the last couple of blogs if you want to compare the progress. We have mocked it up and modified it to fit, and begun to primer it. Notice the three bolt holes on each side. We've already test-fit our hatch slides, and made a custom sliding hatch for it. All that is left to do now is paint it, put the slides on and install the dodger on the deck, which will require drilling and bedding some threaded fittings. When finished, this dodger will allow a layer of protection over the boat's hatch, hopefully making that part of the boat stronger. And dryer! Looking at this picture, you have no idea how many man hours have gone into making this piece, from original conception to nearly finished product....
This is the inside of the boat right now. After all of my cutting, grinding, drilling, fiberglassing, sanding and fairing, we added some carbon fiber reinforcement to most of the stringers. It's been a lot of work, but the boat should be stronger than it was before. All of the grey areas under the fiberglass and carbon fiber are just bare fiberglass, where paint has been ground away. I started sanding down the entire inside of the boat yesterday, and hopefully today i'll finish that and start painting the entire floor with bilge paint. Sad thing is, you won't be able to see ANY of this work when I put the floor boards back on. haha. In the next few days, I hope to have that work finished, and be able to clean the boat out thoroughly and put the floor boards back in and then begin packing the boat for California. I also hope to have the dodger finished and installed this week. We had originally planned to have a new rudder bearing custom-machined for the boat, but that's not going to work out. Fortunately, PYI, the US distributor of Jefa rudder bearings has stepped in and offered to sell us a new lower rudder bearing at a discount. Still not cheap, but should be worth it. Hopefully i'll have that soon so that I can put it on and install the rudder back into the boat. I've been able to cross several things off the list recently, and with any luck, we'll be on our way to California soon!
Bluestorm foul weather gear has stepped in to sponsor our program and has supplied me with a new set of their "Latitude 61" foul weather gear and their new "Pro Sail 33" PFD. These are my new foulies. Not a great pic, but in San Francisco's cold, windy, grey, wet weather, i'm sure i'll get plenty of opportunities to post up pics of my awesome new gear! Thanks a million to Bluestorm foul weather gear. www.bluestorm.us
This is my new Bluestorm PFD with integrated sailing harness. You can set it up to inflate manually or automatically, when it sees 4 inches of water. (ie- you fell in...) Fun with fiberglass So i've been working with fiberglass quite a bit, and recently, with carbon fiber as well. I like the stuff. I'm really happy that i've gotten the opportunity to learn the basics of working with composites.
So the other day I was browsing Sailing Anarchy and I saw this ad for a $45 carbon fiber money clip. See, if I had bought that money clip, i'd have nothing but a receipt to put into it, so I decided to make my own. Albeit, out of glass, not going to waste expensive carbon fiber on a money clip... So I was working on the boat and had some extra resin in my hand so I quickly took two pieces of fiberglass tape and wrapped them around a thin piece of polymer that I had just sanded down to shape. I used some mylar to keep things from sticking together, and then resined the whole thing. The next morning I had this bad ass, uber ghetto money clip to stack all that cash i'm not making. Behold my custom fiberglass money clip.
Don's friend is building a pro stock drag car and needed some carbon fiber work done to his hood scoop. He wanted to stiffen the existing flange without adding weight. So he cut off the flange and gave it to Don and I. Don ground it down and had me carbon fiber over it. I think it's pretty neat, so here's a picture. Working with carbon fiber. Bling bling. Home for Christmas
I went home to Georgia for the first time in two years and had a blast. I got to spend a lot of time with my mom, some old friends, and made some new ones in the process. My old roommate Matt and I went hiking/ camping for a couple of days on the Appalachian Trail. This is a picture of us at Amicalola Falls with full packs, at the start of the A.T. Also did some mountain biking, skating, went to a hockey game, ate a bunch of food and relaxed. Hope everyone reading this had a great holiday. Sponsors We've had some sponsors come on board to help us out, and more are stepping up as well. In addition to Hope for the Warriors, we've had Bluestorm foul weather gear and their distributor, Marine Tech International step up and hook us up with some new foul weather gear and PFD (pictured above.) Wolverine Inflatables out of Detroit, Michigan has re-certified our life raft for us, and it should be back any day now. Teleflex Marine has hooked us up with a new hydraulic cylinder for our autopilot, PYI is hooking us up with a Jefa rudder bearing at a discount, Schaefer Marine wants to help us out, as well as yacht clubs, marinas, boat yards, a photographer, and more. Things are going really well in this department, but we are always looking for more sponsors and support. I'm funding this project out of my own shallow pockets, and any help is appreciated. If you wish to join the team and sponsor our campaign, e-mail me through the site for more information. If you wish to contribute financially, please see the paypal link at the top of the site. The website The website is slowly receiving an overhaul. I've gotten the pictures section mostly up to date, as of 30 minutes ago. Check it. I've also added a sponsors page, which will be growing by the day. I will have a tentative schedule of races that I plan to do next year on the site soon, and more! Check back as things are really starting to move forward. thanks and bye Ronnie- 1/4/2010
This pic is for Ralph. He was asking about the emergency rudder on the boat. Yes, we have one. It's not pretty (nor is it painted), but it is strong and sturdy when attached. There is a tiller just for that rudder, and an electric, above decks autopilot that will work with it. Don built that rudder a couple of years ago before his 2008 Singlehanded Transpac.
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January 03, 2010
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