Sleeving the Mast

A small, shallow crease was somehow formed on the front of my mast just below the partners. This crease was present when we bought Maybe. Perhaps the mast was dropped or the base slipped when stepping or unstepping it? After closer inspection, small hairline cracks were radiating from the crease in an outward direction. It was easy to see that the mast could fail if left alone.

The big question I had was how should this should be repaired. The initial thought I had was to have the crack TIG welded. Researching the web resulted in several so-called "experts" advising against welding saying that it would "remove the temper." Short of having an annealing oven, it sounded like a T4 temper was the best result I could expect from localized tempering. Short of the original T6 temper didn't sound too exciting to me. Plus the weld process could be too easily screwed-up if the wrong rod was used. I wanted to see if there was a "better way" available.

Consulting with Charleston Spar (Sparcraft), they recommended sleeving the mast from the inside using the very same J/24 (DM-375) mast section. Sleeving a mast is a common method for joining spars over 50'. Spar length is usually limited by the length of the temper ovens. With this lead, I again searched the net finding surprising little on the topic. One site that was most helpful is Brion Toss' SparTalk.

I assembled a short list of sleeve assembly specs as follows:

1. Splice plate(s) must fit absolutely tight against the repaired spar (cut the spar in half if needed)
   
2. The splice plate should be at least 3x the chord length
   
3. Use stainless steel machine screws (flat head undercut) of sufficient length to clear the innermost section
   
4. Drill, countersink, and tap the holes approximately 4x the diameter from the edge, hole, etc. and then 8x the diameter of the machine screw thereafter
   
5. Stagger the screws in the adjacent rows

I cut a small section off the sleeve piece and then cut the back channel off for a test piece. Sure enough, the fit is perfect if the front most portion is secured first.

After confirming the snug fit, I then cut a 4x chord length (~20"), exceeding the 3x recommendation. Going beyond this length could affect tuning.

Since the sleeve was still a single piece, it had to be compressed and pounded into the mast. WD-40 was used to prevent galling and help the mast slide easier.

Next, I proceeded to mark the frontmost portion of the mast and center punched each hole to keep the drill bit from walking.

Based on the thickness of the spar and mast, I chose to use a #8-32 UNC thread SS machine screw. I first drilled 3/32" pilot holes, followed by an undersized 1/8" hole, counterbore, and a good quality tap and some thread cutting oil. Using a slightly undersize 1/8" bit rather than a #29 bit for a #8-32 tap is adviseable with soft materials such as aluminum.

Run the counterbore slowly to prevent sharp edges forming on the counterbored holes. Also use a stop collar on the counterbore to control the depth. The finished product results in a near flush mounted screw.

Practice drilling, counterboring, and tapping of a leftover piece of spar to get the process down before attempting it for keeps. I found it nearly impossible to strip the Phillips head screws. There is incredible clamping power in those little countersunk screws!

Remember to start at the frontmost part of the mast to pull the sleeve tight against the mast and work your way outward from there one row at a time. It's also adviseable to drill a small hole at the extreme ends of a fracture to prevent a crack from propagating.

Working out from there was tedious. Mr. Miller soon helped out and made the job easier.

I used 1" spacing between the screws alternating the location.

After installing all the screws, I used some brake cleaner to remove the thread cutting oil from the suface. Then removeable thread lock was used to help seal the small space between the aluminum threads and the stainless steel screw.

The result was a professional looking repair that should adequately hold until I can replace the mast down the road. I've not seen any degradation in the repair after several races this year. If something does go wrong, I'll be sure to post back to this site.

2009 Projects

Here's a list of projects that I need to complete this spring before the racing starts:

• Finish epoxy work on inside of cabin and paint inside repairs of cabin
• Repair a small dimple on the front of my mast
• Take the steps to make Maybe drownproof
  
• Repair the side storage cabinets
  
• Polish the sides
• Burnish the Baltoplate bottom
  
• Get the boat remeasured for the areas possibly affected by the repairs (i.e. weight)
  
• Put together the rest of my crew for the season
  

These projects are also on my list but can afford to be done a latter time:

• Painting topside of deck with a non-slip finish
• Paint mast
  
• Replace halyards
  

Racing Crew Needed

Are you interested in sailing this summer on beautiful Lake Minnetonka and meeting new people and possibly making some new friends?

I'm looking for several people to join me in racing Maybe this year.

How about crewing for me this summer as part of a 5 "man" (yes, women are invited too) race team? Typical time on the water is less than 3 hours.

It's a great chance to get your feet wet, literally. Experience is not as important as a willingness to learn and follow directions. There's only room for one skipper on a boat :-) I'm always open to advice from more experienced sailors and suggestions from crew.

My plan is to sail at both in both Minnetonka Yacht Club's Open Fleet as well as Wayzata Yacht Club's J/24 Fleet. The possible days for racing are Wednesday and Thursday evenings as well as Saturday and possibly Sunday mornings. Racing runs from May through October.

If you think you can commit to one day a week and show-up on-time, I'd like to hear from you!

No, you don't have to race every possible day to be on this team. I'm expecting to have different crews for a given day. Face it, there is probably many other things going on in your life that also require your time.

Not much "special" equipment is required for racing on a lake that you wouldn't likely already have in the form of outwear for spring/fall and summer. If you're totally new to sailing, I'd be more than happy to provide you with a short list of recommended items. The cost is minimal and pay is even worse!

Let me tell you a few things about me as well as what I expect:

• Safety of my crew is my primary concern. Having fun so that my crew wants to be out on the water is a very close second.
  
• I enjoy sharing time on the water with friends and knocking back a few adult beverages after the racing is over. I expect my crew to show-up and race sober; after the racing is over, that's up to you. I'll provide the refreshments (including non-alcoholic). There's nothing to be ashamed of in not having a drink!
  
• I'm happily married to my wife, Liz, and am fairly easy to get along with. My work as a Program Manager at Sauer-Danfoss requires building relationships to get the job done!
• As a Christian, I try to live my life in such a way to that celebrates life in Jesus. Talking about religion and politics is a sparring sport so I usually avoid it, smile, and move on in spite of my passion. Nonetheless, I'm always open to sharing my faith story and enjoy hearing others' in the right setting. No, I don't thump the Bible and wag my finger in people's faces as that's not what Jesus did.
• Serving as an Assistant Scout Master in Troop 424 and an Assistant Coach for Tonka Football youth are a couple of my other activities that keep me busy with my kids.
  

Call me (Bryan) at 612.805.9244 and leave me a message. I'd like to hear from you!

Motor Heads

J/24 class rules require a 14 kg (30.9 lbs) minimum outboard (Section 3.8.8). I have an older 80s vintage Mercury 4 hp, 2 cylinder, long shaft (aka "gnat") that weighs 19 kg (42 lbs). It usually runs smooth and is quiet. However, lately I've had to always play the choke and throttle to simply keep it running.

It's a real pain to do all that juggling while trying to steer. I've tried fixing the carburator several times but I can't get the gas entering the bowl to shut-off. Eventually the Merc carb overflows with fuel and chokes itself. The needle valve shows no signs of wear but is probably hardened from age so it no longer seats properly to shut-off the fuel. I'll have to have my Dad give me a hand with when I get around to ordering replacement parts.

Since the Mercury gnat is "too heavy," I've been looking for a Nissan or Tohatsu 3.5 hp long shaft outboard for the past couple of months. These 2 stroke 3.5 hp motors just meet the minimum weight, while the new 4 stroke motors are heavier given the same power rating.

There doesn't seem to be many used long shaft engines out there now that 2 strokes are banned and those that I did run across were on the coasts. There are still a fair number of short shafts around. I finally ran across a Nissan long shaft on eBay in which the seller couldn't get it to run. I figured worst cast I was buying a long shaft conversion which was worth the $142 I paid for the engine.

Winter is a great time to work on projects that don't require a large heated garage or involve epoxy and paint. My oldest son helped me out on this project. The spark was good and there seemed to compression for such a small cylinder so our first task was to look into the carburator. Cleaning out a few fine bits of grit and reassemblying this very simple carb, my son helped put reassemble everything. I figured we had it licked.

Nearly pulling my arm out of joint from yanking so many times and my son laughing deliriously from the sideline, I gave up. If it hadn't been for few plumes of smoke and a couple "pops," I would have given up sooner. It was funny looking back and I'm glad my son helps me laugh at myself.

After buying a compression tester, my son and I were back at it. The Nissan only had 60 lbs of pressure which explained why the motor would try to fire occasionally but never start. So what was causing the lack of compression?


With my guidance, my son took off the four bolts to remove the head. The head gasket appeared to be leaking from corrosion "growing" between the water jacket in the head and the gasket probably due to not flushing out the salt water from the engine using a pail of fresh water like the manual explains.

As we were cleaning out the corrosion with a putty knife, all of a sudden a corner of the head popped off in my hand. The head was cracked under all that corrosion. The rest of the block looked fine. There were no scored walls on the piston and the rings were likely making a good seal provided the head could be replaced.

Doug Russell Marine has great prices on replacement outboard parts. Tohatsu rebadges their 3.5 hp outboards for Nissan, Mercury, and Johnson! The parts from a Johnson J3RTLSSR appeared to be the correct parts and are lower cost than Mercury. It was going to run me $65 for a new head and gasket. Not knowing if the rings were good or not, we may as well replace them too.

I ended up buying a Mercury 3.3 hp donor for $100 in order to simply replace the powerhead. The compression on this Mercury 3.3 was 120 lbs. Much better!

On a gorgeous 45° 31-Jan day, my son and I removed the mere six bolts, replaced the powerheads, and reassembled. Ready to give the engine a test again, it was now my son's turn to give to give the rope a yank. It was my turn to laugh. Two pulls later and the engine started right up! This Nissan 3.5 is certainly noisier than my old Mercury gnat, but my son and I think of it as our own little Harley, shaking handle and all! We both had huge smiles!

Once the weather gets warmer, my son and I will have to repaint the engine to give it a brand new look for Maybe (and Liz).

Sump Rework

Here's a before and during reconstruction of the sump area. The rearward part of the sump had some vermiculite yet, which had to be removed. Also some of the spars let loose from the hull and had to be reattached.









and during...

"Maybe" I Found Her?

Further searching on Google turned-up an interesting J/24 on Sailnet over the Thanksgiving holiday. I was patient but persistent looking for boats all across the country.

This J/24 was described as a 1984 #3801 with 2 mains, 2 genoas, 3 spinnakers, 1 jib, curved tiller, Triad trailer, faired keel, Baltoplate racing bottom paint, measurement certificate, with no engine, and a local race winner located in Noank, CT. This sounded more interesting than the other 44 inquired I had made thus far.

This was a relatively newer boat compared to Take Five. Plus most of the other J/24 owners didn't mention having a measurement certificate along with a faired racing bottom.

It was evident that she was in need of some major TLC on the deck judging by a few of the photos that the owners sent me. I could see the characteristic dark-stained balsa core from being wet.

My wife, Liz, agreed to go look at Maybe and I quickly started planning the trip to Connecticut. We decided to turn it into a vacation of sorts. It was already sub-zero in Minnesota. Winter had set in unusually early and we were both longing for more fall days.

Liz and I have stayed at bed and breakfasts on our past trips and loved meeting new people and getting local advice on sights to see in the areas we visit.

A handful of bed and breakfasts were in the Mystic, CT area. There was one offering an off-season special for a more lengthy stay. Roseledge Herb Farm sounded like the perfect place.

Within a short two week period, plans were set and Liz and I made preparations to head east in early December. The 15 day forecast for Mystic, CT looked relatively warm compared to Excelsior, MN.

Which J/24?

I spent the next two months combing the internet for "local" J/24 boats up for sale. There were three boats and all at Hooper Yachts.

Jazz, the '77 #15 hull, was the right price but needed plenty of bottomside work to make her blue antifouling fair plus the mast had to be upgraded with the spreader thru bar. It seemed like too much work at the time.

'79 hull #1400 had a much smoother bottom but was more than I wanted to spend. It too needed the spreader thru bar and the hatch and companionway upgrade to the new style. This older boat had the upgraded bilge area.

Finally there was an even more expensive '87 hull, Phatty Boom Batty. This boat was in nice shape all the way around and a fair price if you were looking to spend $10k.

The search continued...

The range of prices seemed to grow as did the conditions of the boats. I guess that's to be expected when boats are anywhere from 30 years old to brand new boats coming off the production line!

In all I inquired on 45 boats across the USA and Canada! It was fun and I had all winter.

Quest for a Racer

In my search for a "new" sailboat suited for racing, I came up with a short list of requirements for this new boat:

1. One design in order to measure my skill as a sailor against a seasoned field of competitors
   

That's it! I said the list was short.

Sure, I wasn't looking to layout a wheelbarrow full of cash. Plus the boat had to be large enough to hold the entire family plus a few friends. And the kids would love to be able to sleep overnight on the lake. But these were secondary, nice to haves.

Another sailor in our MYC Open Fleet, Hashem, sails a sweet J/80, Gee Kay. These are awesome sport boats as witnessed firsthand racing in Wales. J/80s simply were out of my price range, though I certainly wouldn't mind owning one.

MYC and WYC share a J/22 fleet with reciprocity between their club races. This looked like a suitable option to consider. I've been sailing a few times on J/22 but knew very little about them.

A quick search on several used boats sites didn't look promising at finding a J/22 for any less than $10k, a little out of my range of what I wanted to spend. However, what I did find was quite a few reasonably priced J/24 boats.

It didn't take long to discover the incredible all-American story of Rod Johnstone and his dream of building a new boat in his Stonington garage. The other cool thing I discovered is that the first handful of J/24s came to Minnesota to race on Lake Minnetonka and thus Fleet 1 was born right in my own back yard! I had to try our a J/24 myself and see if this was indeed the next boat I wanted to trade-up.

After making a few inquiries in early October at WYC, I got in touch with Dave Bennett, the J/24 fleet captain, and he offered a spot on his boat, Hellfire. The race was part of the Commodore Cup, a longer run around Big Island.

We paced back and forth in Wayzata Bay putting in a few tacks and then hoisted the spinnaker to get everyone's position straightened out for the race. The wind was light in the bay and I was excited to be out on the water for one last time on a faster boat.

5, 4, ... 1, and the cannon shot fired to start the race for the S2 7.9 fleet! The J/24 fleet started three minutes later. On our first leg running down to Excelsior Bay. The breeze increased out of the bay and built the entire leg. When a gust blew in with a shift, Hellfire's beam reached off the water as we hiked hard to keep her flat. It was the same thrill I experienced hiking on the beam of Ego Tripp racing my first time in Wales! The wind died down as we squeezed behind Big Island on a reach into Lafayette Bay. As the sun heated up on the final run back to Wayzata Bay, the wind all but died. It was a memorable race.

I had told Dave that I was looking at buying a J/24 so he gave me the helm following the race and we sailed around Wayzata Bay so that I could get a feel. Sitting further back at the tiller, Hellfire seemed much larger due to the low, rounded, windowless cabin. Plus the rudder would mounted on the stern, unlike Take Five.

We headed back in to WYC and Dave steered Hellfire back into her slip. I surely must have had a big smile when I headed back home knowing this was my next type of boat!

Repairs to Take Five

After my first season of racing, it was time get Take Five out of the water and make some needed repairs. Liz was complaining about the wet smell of the boat and it was even starting to get to me.

After a good rain, I always found water around the head from the mast step as well as the port gunwale where it was probably leaking through the stanchions. The prior owner of Take Five did not adequately seal the through deck hardware. Plus it didn't help that she was left uncovered for a handful of seasons in Wisconsin. In an attempt to fix the problem, I didn't do Take Five any favors by using a construction grade silicone adhesive caulk.

The headliner inside surface of the deck had stinky gold 70s carpet. The only good thing was Coastal Recreation did not use foam-backed shag! After removing the trim, I made the cut along the outer edge of the deck from the inside. When I cut into the deck from the bottom inside of the cabin, there was a very wet, soggy layer of what looked like particle board! Further inspection of the side of the cabin revealed Coastal Recreation used plywood for the core. Particle board and plywood isn't the best choice for core materials but I suppose they worked for a cruising boat.

I've been a carpenter ever since I could hold a hammer and bang on my Dad's Chevy truck baby moon hub caps at one and half years old. Boat reconstruction was new to me, but how hard could it be?

After doing some research I decided to use marine grade Luan plywood to rebuild the deck core. Two thin layers of plywood were epoxied back onto the ceiling one layer at a time using West System materials. I ripped some pine boards lengthwise to create flexible supports for the plywood.

Spending all this time with Take Five gave me enough time to think about my first racing season. Take Five was great for cruising but lacked many of the adjustments needed to tweak your sails under all conditions. I started wondering what other sailboats were out there that I could buy for a similar amount of money. After all, I was going to spend all this time and money on Take Five, I might as well have something to show for it with a boat intended for racing.

So began the quest began for a "new"racer...

First Year Racing

I joined the Open Fleet at Minnetonka Yacht Club in 2007 following my experience racing overseas in Wales.

Motivationally speaking, I was excited to start my own crew on Take Five. I had two years of sailing under my belt. How hard can this be to race?

Practically speaking, I was tired of trailering my 26 foot sailboat and stepping the mast each time we wanted to go sailing. There was easily an extra 2 hours spent preparing the boat, stepping, and the unstepping the mast each time I went sailing.

Let me tell you that racing when you're a crewing is a whole lot easier than being the skipper! My first few races were overwhelming to say the least.

There were many lessons I learned in my first year of racing. Here's are few that stood out in my mind:

• Learn all of the RRS and study course strategy and tactics! You're always going to face new and unfamiliar situations in traffic.
  
• Even "slow" cruising boats that race with a handicap need to be kept in racing condition (smooth, faired bottom, good sails, etc.)
  
• Always face forward when driving a boat with a tiller (otherwise you'll zig instead of zag)
• Get on the course early
  

Racing?

2006 found me making frequent trips to Wales. After several weeks and Spring quickly passing me by with no time to spend on Take Five, I was getting the itch to go sailing. I stopped into Marine Scene, a local chandlery in Penarth, overlooking Cardiff Bay, and bought a few things. Inquiring about any locals going sailing during the upcoming weekend quickly found myself invited to crew aboard a J/109, Jackhammer, down at the Cardiff Bay Yacht Club, but this wasn't an invite for crewing on a boat going out for the weekend!

CBYC is situated in Cardiff Bay and well protected from the extreme tidal swings of the Bristol Channel by a three lock barrage. The Bristol Channel is second only to the Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy (Minas Basin) , but we're still talking up to 15 meter Spring tides! So where was this bloke with the J/109 that I was supposed to hook up with? Saying hello to each sailor as they passed down onto the water made me wonder who exactly I was going to sail with that day. Finally a salty looking man looked at me and said that I didn't want to sail on that J/109 and should come with him and crew on his boat! Not wanting to insult him and really not having confirmed my ride, I followed along. "Great," I said to myself. "What kind of bathtub was I going to be jumping into next?"

Walking up to the mystery boat, Tom Hazelwood introduced himself as he smiled at his classic dark blue Tripp 40, Ego Tripp. This was going to be a sail I wouldn't soon forget!

Soon, the rest of Tom's crew showed-up and Billy took the helm and steered us out to the barrage. Once we hit the channel and hoisted Ego Tripp's main and genoa, it was off the races! It was my first time experiencing the countdown sequence, 5 ... 4, 1 ... and the start of my first race! The wind was blowing 12-15 knots that day and the sail was perfect. The tide helped us move 13 knots upwind! This was racing and I was hooked! There had to be a way that I could get involved in racing back on little old Lake Minnetonka.

CBYC runs IRC, PY, and J/80 sportboat fleets. Through that summer and the one to follow, I made some wonderful friends that I shall never forget racing on the Bristol Channel. I became known as "the American" at CBYC. Thanks for the invite to your backyard barbie, Tom, and crewing for you on Ego Tripp! I'll bring the wine again any time. Thanks for schooling me on proper English, Steve Parker! Ta ra!






A reefed Jackhammer (J/109) running downwind in Force 5 wind just ahead of Red Sky (J/80) during the pre-start of a race in the Bristol Channel near Cardiff, Wales.


Later the breeze freshened to Force 6 in a long beat up the Channel...

Grinding on the winch on the low side of boat is no fun when going over those rollers coming down the channel. After coming up for air and to see the horizon, I tossed my cookies :-) You always seem to feel like a champ afterward so I took some photos.


Cheers mate!

Gitchigume

My wife, Liz, and I spent our 10th anniversary up at Bayfield, WI sailing around the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior. We agreed to spend half our time sailing and the other half exploring the sites of Bayfield and the surrounding area.

Knowing what Gitchigume can dish out without much notice, I did buy a VHF radio with DSC to interface with my GPS unit. We left, we did get a MMSI registration assigned before we left in case something happened.

I found us an awesome bed and breakfast that we stayed at in Bayfield just across from the grade school.

We arrived to find Bayfield in a flury of activity preparing for their annual Scarecrow Festival and Orchard Tours, a two week celebration at the end of September. It was fun to see the whole town get into this celebration and contest.

Liz was on the bow securing the headsail when we turned out of the harbor. Immediately we started pounding the 4 foot waves rolling down the North Channel.

Liz took the helm on the stretch heading south back to Bayfield through the West Channel, with Basswood Island to out port side. The breeze was perfect for reaching all the way back to Bayfield with our colorful genaker.










The city of Bayfield operates a public launch on the south side of town. The harbor area is well protected.

We shall return one day to cruise these waters again!

Prairie Sailor

Growing up next to a lake in Jamestown, North Dakota had its benefits. It was always fun to explore the shore for hidden treasures, skip shards of shale, and fish for northern pike and walleye. I remember many sunny, fall afternoons growing-up when I had the chance to grab my pole and a landing net after school to head-off down to the reservoir and try my luck landing pike. Sometime around my early teens, my Dad bought a 16 foot Lund fish-n-ski boat for the family to go fishing and water skiing. My friends and I must have run-up some big bills charging all that gas and oil on my dad's tab at J&L gas station. Thanks Dad!

Fast forward about 20 years to 2004. I took a job in the Twin Cities with Sauer-Danfoss. My wife, Liz, and I found a nice home overlooking Excelsior, MN, a wonderful bedroom community on the south side of Lake Minnetonka, thus far unaffected by the extreme make-over Wayzata wannabes. With Lake Minnetonka so close by and growing-up on the water, it was only a matter of time before I would get my own family involved in water sports.

It didn't take me long to discover that Lake Minnetonka is smack dab in the middle of "Lah-Lah Land," a local term I first heard from my brother-in-law, Jeff. Lah-Lah Land refers to the unencumbered spending by more than our "fair share" of corporate executives (especially healthcare related) living in the Twin Cities area as evidenced by multi-million dollar mansions and 40 foot multi-big block engine yachts lining the shores of relatively small Lake Minnetonka. I hold no grudges against these so-called "rich" people, just telling you the facts.

When Liz and I took the kids down to the beaches around the lake during the dog days of summer, there was always no shortage of boat traffic on the lake. I wished that we had a boat to get out on the lake as well. There seemed to be an unusual number of PWC jumping the wakes of power boats. Well those weren't PWCs wake jumping, those were 16-20 foot runabouts, ski boats, and fishing boats going airborne on the wakes of those mega-yachts! It is chaos on Lake Minnetonka during those perfectly still wind days when all power boaters want to get on the lake. Then throw into the mix the locals' Big Island scene, a smaller version of the Tampa Bay Gasparilla.

With all the mega-yachts creating 3 foot waves with superposition'd 6 foot swells appearing out of nowhere, I quickly figured out that we were either going to either get bounced around in a "small" runabout as well or we needed to look beyond a 20 foot craft. So the hunt for a 20+ foot boat began.

Let me tell you that the cost of boats, at least locally, has risen just a tad since my Dad bought his boat. It didn't help that I was also looking for a bigger boat. Coupled with the limited amount of public access on the lake which drives up the price of slips on the water, owning a boat on Lake Minnetonka in no cheap affair. Matter in fact, owning a boat and storing it on Lake Minnetonka is cost prohibitive for most families. My family was no exception. Owning a 20+ foot power boat and fueling it was simply not an option even if I trailered it home after each use, but I was determined.

A few of the times we visited the lake, the wind was blowing like many of the days I remember growing-up in North Dakota. On the longer fetches, stronger winds created 3 foot waves rolling into shore instead of the endless parade of power boats running up and down the lake. Sailboats were now in a long line with only a few power boats dotting the horizon. The sailboats seemed to gracefully scoot back and forth with the ease of the wind. What does it cost to own a sailboat?

The cost of sailboats is deceptive. Older boats with worn sails are nearly give away. Yet cutting edge, high tech rigs are all the cost of any power boat. After looking for some months as what was out there and what I could afford, a Lyle Hess designed, 1976 Balboa 26 from the South Shore Yacht Club in Milwaukee, WI came-up in my search.

My older son, my Dad, and I made the trip to Milwaukee in the middle of a late March snow storm to go look at this sailboat! I ended up buying her and we hauled it back across Wisconsin on clear roads lined with high snow banks. It was a fun and memorable trip. My first boat! What should we name her? How exactly do you sail?

Our neighbor, Ed, back in North Dakota invited us kids to sail with him a few times, but that was hardly enough time to have learned anything about sailing, but I knew it was fun. My wife agreed to Take Five after Hot Ruddered Bum didn't fly. Take Five was no doubt the right choice looking back. After reading about the basics of sailing and stepping the 28 foot mast a few times in my front yard, it was time to give her a try on the lake!

Take Five was fun to sail, at least for my first sailboat! Besides being my first boat, she carried the entire family with room to spare, was stiff in a breeze, slept five, had a porta potti with a door, a kitchen table, an alcohol stove, and even two small sinks! The first few times we took her out, only the mainsail was raised and we went nowhere fast. It was still fun! When I gained confidence and added the jib, Take Five started to move. One weekend when my brother-in-law, Jeff, and I took Take Five out in a stiff breeze, I took my attention away from the tiller and in a moment we proceeded to spin cookies in the middle of the lake doing back to back round-ups. Take Five was a 3600 pound RV including the 1200 pound unfaired keel she slogged through the water and thus moved relatively slow. Speed wasn't a problem because I had nowhere to get to quickly and the sheer size of her yellow hull was like a warning beacon to those 40 foot power boats to stay clear on this inexperienced but determined "prairie" sailor!


The boys on our first outing with Take Five with me motoring into the evening. I was just happy getting the boat off the trailer, stepping the mast, and into the lake with everyone in one piece.

My buddy, Chris, helped my get Take Five into the water. Couldn't have done it without you, Chris!

I wasted no time gaining experience sailing by going for an evening sail on Lake Minnetonka. My oldest son and I sailed into the moonlit evening in a gorgeous warm freshening breeze.