Russ Sylvester

Yeah, it took a couple of days for the water to go down. We got within a couple of inches of getting it in the house. Terry Crisp, now there's a name from the past. As long as we're in way back mode, is the byyb still going? I haven't checked in on that site in a looonngg time. You lost me on 'him' and the sleeping dog. Russ

Wow! How goes it all!?! Saw a gaff rigger out on the water last sunday and it got me to remembering the whole weekender time. I even pulled out the picture album that the wiff made during the whole building process. Sniff, sniff, I sure miss building that boat. I do still have the vacationer plans, hmmmm..... Actually, I better not go there right now. We are elbows deep in getting the 23 fixed up to put on the market in the next month or two. We are looking to move up to 30-32 range. We want to start doing 2-3 week Bahama cruises in preperation for retirement and the big lap around el caribe. Thought I would check in and say hey. Russ (Builder/Skipper of weekender 'Opus')

Hey everyone! Remember me? It's been quite a while since I've been on here. Was poking around looking for a book and found my vacationer plans that I bought shortly after I finished 'Opus' and that got me to thinkin' about everyone here. Who all is still here? Is Konrad still slowly killing himself? Did Bruce ever finish his boat? Is the BYYB still going? Who still has their weekender or vacationer? Still sailing them? I still sorely miss mine. Every time I varnish something or mix up a batch of epoxy I start remembering Opus and get a little misty :'(. Unfortunately I lost track of where she ended up. The guy who bought her from me lived in Kansas(??) and he had some sort of medical problem shortly afterwards and sold her to some guy further west. I did find a small picture several months ago of her after being repainted. We're still sailing. We bought an O'Day 23 just before selling Opus and named her 'Second Star' (as in "Second star to the left and on 'til morning"). We've been doing a LOT of sailing trying to move our education along. I'll probably be kicking off my six pack ticket starting in another month or two. We want to start bareboat chartering in the next year or so. Our next big step is to move up to at least a 32-34 footer so that we can eventually start heading south to the keys and over to the Bahamas. We'll see where we head to from there. I still get comments from the neighbors about building Opus in the driveway. I even had a few make the comment that they wished I would do another so they could watch. The boss put a FAST nix on that one. She says I can only own one boat at a time. Russ Sylvester Melbourne, Florida Former builder/skipper of weekender 'Opus'

Hey everyone! Been a while. First thing I would change would be to NOT SELL THE DAMN THING! I still miss it. I would build the vacationer rather than the weekender and I would change the keel very significantly and add about 200 pounds of ballast in it. I would explore multi-chine sides rather than hard chine. I would go tiller rather than wheel. I would build in a real electrical system rather than think about it after the build is complete. I would add deadeyes, ratlines, and topmast. I would use much better grades of wood. Most of all I would slow WAY down in the construction and enjoy the process for as long as possible. That's what I miss the most. Come to think of it, I do have the plans to the vacationer laying around somewhere...... Russ Sylvester (Soon to be Capt. Russ)

Mine did the same thing. Seemed like the faster the boat went, the more bubbles came out and in a straighter line. I always figured that when the boat is reaching along, one side of the keel has a lower pressure on it than the other. Kind of the same deal as on the sail. This lower pressure would create a suction that would pull a little air down along the edge of the keel until it detached and came out the back. I have no proof of this at all, it's just a theory that seemed to fit. Although I did see the rudder do the same thing a couple of times. It would pull a little air down the lee side of the leading edge and it would detach at the bottom. Russ

One thing you can try is to drill a hole through the pipe big enough for the rope to go through somewhere near the middle of where you have it wrapped around now. Thread the rope through the hole first then wrap it around the pipe several times in each direction away from the hole. This way the rope can't slip because the through-thread won't let it. Worked like a champ on my boat. Adjusted it once and never had to touch it again. Russ

Just returned from a 7 day cruise to the eastern Carribean where we went to Nassua Bahamas (never go there again), St. Thomas USVI (nice place), and St. Maarten (so-so). The VERY best part of the entire cruise was that I got to go on the America's Cup regatta jaunt. Some guy bought three mid-1980's vintage 12 meter boats and took them to St. Maarten where he de-tuned them a little and takes folks out on them for a regatta. We went out in the mid-afternoon on US-55 (Yes! It was Stars & Stripes!!) and sailed against True North (Canadian) and the wind had cranked up pretty good. Our skipper even said that the wind had been flat for about two weeks and not much fun but this race should be a white knuckler and he was right. We had the rail really buried on every upwind leg. Even though the rig was de-tuned we still were going faster than I have ever gone on a sailboat! I got assigned intially as a main grinder but got switched to primary grinder after some guy wimped out mid-race. I gotta tell ya, that wore my ass out. I know now why they get those gorillas guys to grind those things. So after three laps on a upwind-downwind course US-55 took the cup!!! Even though it was an adrenallin rush to even be on the boat I got an even bigger one when the skipper asked ME to take the helm on the trip back in!!! TALK ABOUT YOUR WHOLE FACE SHIT-EATIN GRINS!!!!! :shock: . I guess he heard me and another guy talk about sailing and my having built my first boat and now sailing a bigger one. I gotta tell you, I was weak in the knees when I got off the boat. The rest of the trip totally and completely paled in comparison to that afternoon! If I can get my brother in law to scan the picture they took I'll post it here. I'm right in the middle of the boat as its heeled over and I've got this huge grin on my face. Couldn't help it, it just wouldn't go away. Russ

I know your pain Frank. Watching your baby head off down the road behind someone else's truck has to rate up there with the hard things in life. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that the old saying about the best days in a boat owners life being the day they buy the boat and the day they sell it is a load of bull. Russ

Before my grandfather died I took a tape recorder and had him reflect on everything he could think of. Sort of a life story on tape. Didn't matter if it was about family, things that he did during his life or stories from wherever. I wanted to record everything about this man before it was lost forever. During our taping, he got to the time in his life when he was a young man and was in the army during WWII. His entire tone changed and I could easily tell that this was a hard time for him and all of the men that were over there. He was part of a tank platoon that was part of the battle of the bulge in the Arden(sp?). He told a story of being out in the woods one day when the tank threw a track. They were working on it and all of a sudden he said they heard a loud 'ping' right next to where they were standing. It was a bullet ricocheting off the tank from a sniper. He said they called in some infantry guys and they went out to find the sniper. He said that in a little while they heard a rifle shot some distance off and the word came back that all was clear. I'll never forget that when he got to the point about everything being all clear, he got real quiet and said something about that sniper being killed was very hard for him. I still don't fully understand how my grandfather could feel sad about an enemy soldier who was trying to kill him, himself getting killed. I guess it was just the kind of man he was, life was that precious. Every fourth of july and every fathers day I spend at least a few moments thinking about him. I kept some of his ribbons and even have his second lieutenants bars. He was one hell of a man and a hero in my eyes. BTW, I burned the tapes onto CD's and gave copies to everyone in the family as presents. I plan to make tapes from my father in a few years. Should be interesting. Sorry if I bored everyone with this long story. Russ

Somebody had a boat that looked just about like that at the St.Pete boat show last year. Took a good look at it and decided that I was just a little too claustrophobic for a boat like that. You couldn't even fit a small cooler in the cockpit. There wasn't room for anything. Talk about human ballast! Russ

I've found that even though I sold my weekender quite a while ago and the video/plans with it, I can still relive the fun I had building it by listening to the "Blurring The Edges" CD that was the music on the video. Incidently, the song that plays during the opening sailing sequences (kind of the theme song) is titled "Trippin' ", kind appropos don't ya think? Seems like every time I play it I can see exactly the building scenes that went with the music. No, I'm not trying to sell the CD's and I'm not going to link their site here. I haven't read Frank's rules but I'd bet that there's a rule against selling stuff here. Just some random thoughts. Hey! There's an idea, maybe Frank could set up some sort of deal where the CD's could be purchased through here and make a buck or two to help pay for the site. Russ

They don't breed in salt water but they damn sure will hang around it. I've been doing the friday night rum racing with a yacht club a couple miles south of where we dock. During the race one of the marks is close to shore and the race is usually two laps around. During the first lap (while the sun is still barely up) there's no problem. The second time around (right about dusk) you get swarmed with the blood suckers. It's fun to watch other crews go nuts trying to get away from the little vampires right up until it's our turn in the blood bank. Then it sucks, literally. BTW, I run 100:1 in my Yamaha 4hp. Russ

Really the only reason we got rid of Opus was that we couldn't justify paying slip fee for Second Star and storage for Opus. We knew even before building Opus that we would move up to a bigger boat. Opus was just a way to shut me up until something better came along. Stay tuned about the 34. :wink: BTW, you're correct, you definately DON'T make money by selling the weekender. OK, I agree with Tim, who else can step up and tell us about their launching or first sail of the season. If I can write about our mistakes and mishaps then you can too. Russ

Looks to me like she's got the finer points of sailing down to a science. Getting ready for the next watch is very important. What's that? There is no next watch? Well then this was good practice in my book. Russ

Tim, Yes you can sail year round but in the winter the north wind blows through here like a freight train. In the summer our biggest problem are the pop-up thunderstorms. The sky can go from clear blue to black in a matter of minutes it seems like. It's not the rain or wind, it's the lightning. It's not uncommon to get multiple strikes per minute. Scary stuff. We sail on a 1981 O'Day 23 that we bought after I sold my beloved weekender. I miss 'Opus' more than I ever thought I would. 'Second Star' is fun and I'm learning a bunch on it, but I just don't have feelings for it at the same level as I did with 'Opus'. We have a plan to keep moving up in size as we want to start taking trips to the Bahamas and possibly down island in the future. So we are constantly on the lookout for something bigger. In fact we might be selling 'Second Star' shortly. The guy we bought it from contacted me a couple of weeks ago and he's extremely interested in buying it back. I found a 34' Oday that looks very possible right around the corner from where our slip is. Tell me what you think. http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/pl_boat_full_detail.jsp?slim=quick&boat_id=1380252&units=Feet&currency=USD&access=Public&listing_id=1878&url= Russ