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Dog Gone Ballast!


Mike Pennington

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I mentioned The Big Lake Sailing Club in another post. But the members were so cool 8) I had to give them an endoursement and a proud thumbs up. This group recently bought the property, previously on lease and about to expire, and donated the land to the Sailing Club, so that the local group would have a place for sailing on Big Lake. They are very friendly and and it seems always ready to help out a fellow sailor.

Commador Dave Johnson said to me, "Sailing is what we are all about!"

The return inventation meant alot to me, I was also asked to participate in the Labor Day Regatta. :o

Many of the members seemed very interested in the Stevenson design's, of coarse I did us proud in the few friendly sprints about the lake. My wife says I am a hopeless show off. :roll:

Big-Lake-Sailing-Club.JPG?dc=4675426783241589015

Never the less, I say a Grand Hats Off to the Big Lake Sailing Club and their hospitallity. :D

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One last pic before I get some sleep. This is Nancy Lake, a fun little lake that will challenge a skipper. Long, twisting, surrounded by steep hillsides with narrow channels between the larger portions of the horse shoe shaped lake. Got the chance to try out the new bed in my cabin, 8 inches of foam, very comfy!

Nancy-Lake.JPG?dc=4675426630456494692

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Yes, I will eventually mount a small kicker. My transom is one inch thick just waiting for the extra weight. I don't need a motor for the lakes, the oars do just fine. But If I want to sail the bays such as Ketchimak off Homer, I will need a motor. I would like a four stroke, but as you know the companies making them are taking advantage of the consumer do to the change over. Very spendy! If I find a second hand 2 stroke I will buy it until the four stroke prices come down to reasonable price gouging, not plain piracy. It is like the first VCR's or DVD's, outrageous at first, then down to less than a hundred bucks. I can wait :lol: Meanwhile, every body thinks I am salty, because I don't use one. :roll:

Cabin-View.JPG?dc=4675426786582521588

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Looks teriffic Mike! But those 4 strokers may not get any cheaper. They are quite a bit more complex, and involve more raw materials than a 2 stroke. So they will always cost more.

I sure like the Tohatsu/Nissan motors, and they're often the cheapest of the major brands.

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JT

I'll look into that brand, as much as I like rowing :roll: I will need one if I ever put out of Homer or Valdez.

Further more, good for you, I am glad to here you scored with Bruce's boat. I beleive you may have got a real treasure, certainly some quality workmanship.

Mike

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Mike, your rig looks outstanding, especially with those lines in the sails.

Don't worry about the motor... It shows charracter if you don't have one...

And if you get into trouble you can just blame it on the fact that you don't have one.

It sure looks salty! I wish mine would look half of that. I can't wait untill you come over and we can sail some of these lakes around here... the news media will be all over us. You may have to move here :-) (you'd probably like it too)

Cheers

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Well I guess I better take this oportunity to say something nice about those sails. Since they have carried me across a number of those fine Alaskan Lakes. And for a few more to come.

They work good, rain or not, they keep their shape. Not a stitch has frayed, nor a gromet pulled and besides a few wrinkles from to much storage time :oops: the surface is in good condition too! I bought them three summers ago, on a rush order, the rush part was generously extended by Ye Old Sail Maker, Paul. :wink:

Believe me, I have made a few tarp sails, :lol: not the same! But if you like crashing through rigging or branches on shore for a quick raid on some unsuspecting island, tarps good.

Ulta-Sails-June-.JPG?dc=4675427021050274291

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They sure look good Mike. Hope they last forever. Congrats to Paul for making such good sails.

I may end up getting him to make a set for me later on when we recover from these spending sprees during boat and trailer building. We've had another mishap a couple of weeks ago which set us back about $1500. Our washer and drier decided to croak within about a week of eachother. Talk about perfectly timed built in obsolescence :-). That kind of blew our trailer budget right out of the water (pun intended). No matter, that still won't stop us from building boats, the gelcoat didn't :-)

Cheers

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