[Rhodes22-list] Dinghy Selection Complete and other notes

Sat Sep 22 03:28:53 EDT 2012

Thanks Pete. The sailing pram sounds interesting.  I will let my wife know 
about the pad you mentioned. She may need it when she finally makes good on 
her threat to replace me with a dog. Thanks as well to the others who 
responded. I am archiving the dinghy feedback for future reference in case 
the Sea Eagle I ordered turns out to be a bust.

BTW. The Lady Washington crew and Captain had been trying to get the dog to 
go for a day and a half. I petted it briefly when it sat next to me and then 
turned away just before it decided to let loose. The crew peppered me with 
questions the rest of the day. They wanted to know what I said to it and 
what I was petting. Take care.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "peter klappert" <peterklappert at comcast.net>
To: "The Rhodes 22 Email List" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2012 10:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Dinghy Selection Complete and other notes

>
> Jay--
>
> I really got a kick out of your message. Thanks!
>
> Two comments.
>
> Dogs: Training pads are available for house-breaking a dog & I think they 
> may be washable & reusable. They have some kind of irresistable (for a 
> dog) scent. I expect to try one some day--I mean let my dog try one.
>
> Dinghy: I ended up buying a 10' Walker Bay with sail kit because it was an 
> incredible buy: it had been in the water once & never even been rigged for 
> sailing--everything was still sealed in plastic--and the price was less 
> than 1/2 West Marine's list. Mostly I wanted it to play around in the 
> tidal canal behind my house and to get under Aeolia for various tasks when 
> she's on her lift. Eventually I'll try towing the dink, though I've been 
> told it's not a great idea with the R22.
>
> Anyway, I just want to mention that I find the W-B pretty tippy and 
> unstable. (Also, the way W-B has a block for the sheet attached to the 
> center seat means you can't sit there while sailing. Besides, you don't 
> need the block anyway.) But the main disappointment has been that the boat 
> points so poorly. The canal runs East-West, as do the prevailing winds, 
> and when the tide is running it's often impossible to make much headway. 
> Coming back before the wind is fun, but it's over in no time!
>
> I guess I was spoiled by sailing pram I had in the 50s & 60s, a prototype 
> for a boat never put into production though it got a 2-page writeup in 
> Popular Boating. It was made of sheet fiberglass (teak outboard mount, 
> seats and gunwales) and weighed maybe 45 lbs. (The W-B weighs 120.) I 
> could get the center seat across my shoulders, wade out knee-deep from a 
> beach, and sort of shrug the boat off so it flipped upright before hitting 
> the water. This protype had a Dyer dink sail but was faster than a Dyer. 
> It pointed well and turned on the proverbial dime. I remember sort of 
> slaloming between lobster-pot floats or mooring markers in the old Block 
> Island harbor.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jay Curry" <jac2 at wavecable.com>
> To: "rhodes List" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2012 1:09:22 PM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Dinghy Selection Complete and other notes
>
> Thanks for the feedback folks. I was looking at sea eagle models. Knowing
> others had used them successfully made the choice easy. We have a model 
> 370
> package on the way.
>
> I loved the idea of just beaching the boat, but in the Great Lakes for
> example the beaches are often very rocky and some serious rocks are often
> hidden just under the sand. In addition, exploring small islands is often
> much easier from the shore line than on rough trails inland. You often 
> need
> the option of a stowable dinghy to get around. Shore waters can often be
> rough and you need a stable maneuverable boat to stay safe.
>
> In my experience, most of my fellow boaters at anchor on lake superior, 
> used
> their dinghy's solely for trips to shore for their dogs. They would get up
> at dawn, haul what often seemed like a Great Dane size mutt off of
> everything from small fishing boats to large sail boats and dinghy it to
> shore for a walk. Of course this had to be done in any weather and in in 
> any
> conditions. I kept waiting for someone to just hold the dog over the side 
> on
> a really bad day. I love dogs, but not on a small boat with two people
> already competing for space.
>
> In October 2010, I took a transit on the Lady Washington from Westport, WA
> to San Francisco. The Lady Washington is an authentic wooden replica of 
> the
> 1787 Brig of the same name. She was instrumental in opening up the west
> coast to trade and exploration. The replica is now the official WA State
> ship. It is also the ship that Captain Jack Sparrow commandeered in the
> first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It was fitted with a wheel for the
> movie. Ours had the original tiller back in place. We spent 7 days in 
> rough
> seas with no showers and until the last two days, it was all under sail 
> day
> and night. We crossed the Westport bar once at night and the Columbia 
> River
> bar twice. The captain had a dog on board with its own life jacket and
> beacon.
>
> Since the dog could not go to shore, they set a litter box on deck after 
> we
> left the Columbia River for San Francisco. The dog refused to use it. The
> Captain did his best to walk the dog all over the ship and kept stopping 
> at
> the box. The dog would just wag his tail and look up at the captain and 
> keep
> motioning toward the area where he knew the gang plank was always set up. 
> By
> the second day, you could see the dog crossing his legs and walking funny.
> He was bound and determined not to use that box. Toward the end of the
> second day, The dog was wandering the deck between walks around the litter
> box and came to visit me. It decided to let go right next to me while my
> attention was elsewhere. The crew saw what was happening and warned me in
> time, but I still nearly fell over board trying to get away.
>
> Moving on deck was tricky, you had to time your steps with the motion of 
> the
> boat. If you guessed wrong, you went for a tumble. I went for a tumble. On 
> a
> trip to the head from my bunk one night, I misjudged my reach to the steps
> from my bunk, got caught by a violent swing to one side and got slammed 
> into
> the stair rail. It left a mark. One of the other passengers misjudged his
> exit to from the hold in a similar manner and banged his head hard enough 
> on
> the hold cover to cut his scalp. He refused any help and spent the next
> couple of days with a napkin on top of his balding head held down at each
> corner with Mickey Mouse band-aids. At least most of the time it was under
> his rain cap. It was an interesting trip.
>
> Anyway, during the rest of that night and the next morning the crew on 
> each
> watch spent a good deal of time throwing buckets over the side and hauling
> up water to wash down the deck. This was sometimes for the dog and other
> times for those on the crew who were sea sick. The dog seemed to now have 
> a
> constant smile and the litter box stayed unused. I decided long ago, that 
> if
> we ever had kept a dog on the boat, it would have to be trained to blow up
> the dinghy and then get to shore and back on its own.
>
> I love cats too, but I am really confused by those who keep cats on board.
> The cat we kept for 18 years could peel the pain off of the wall for 10 
> feet
> around the litter box after a night out chasing critters. Imagining that 
> in
> the small confines of a sail boat is nightmarish. I would bet our cat 
> could
> have softened the fiberglass. Maybe cat owners with boats have found some
> feeding routine that helps like a full vegetarian diet mixed with carpet
> fresh.
>
> Thanks again for the feed back. Take care.
>
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