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britinusa
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5404 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/06/2005 : 01:23:14

We launched her today. (Actually Jerry Butz from Boaters Exchange splashed the boat, it was hooked up to his truck.)

Over the past few days we have been discussing the Boats Name.
Originally we were going to transfer the name of our small laser II 'KnotALot' as the name had never officially been given to the laser. and who names a laser!

Then we thought of calling it ATM because cash started to pour out of it before we even took delivery.

Both of those names have a bit of a negative aspect, so we dunked them both.

Now we had to come up with a new name. I mentioned that it would have to be a joint decision so that we both took ownership. So, that was how we came up with the new boats name. "Joint Decision"

Sure is a nice boat; my concerns about the lower headroom of the C250WB were unfounded. It turned out really easy to raise the mast and hook up the CDI furler.

Took her out for a sail with Jerry, sailed into view of his house on Indian River and then returned to drop him off at the dock with his checks. Then we were on our own for the first time in a real sail boat.

A couple of hours on the water heading south from the causeway at Cocoa village, and back. Slightly apprehensive about the raising up the ramp with our Chevy Blazer.

We had purchased one of those battery powered air pumps from Walsmart ($19) to blow the ballast.

First try we used the regular Road hitch, got the boat onto the trailer ok, but no way could we pull it up the ramp. The Extending hitch is mounted under the regular hitch, and it was now firmly bottomed out on the ramp in the water.

So we launched again and setup the trailer to use the extended hitch (about 4' extra I'm guessing) but more importantly, the lower hitch is now raised by about 5".

With the trailer setup in the water, we put the boat back on it. Slid straight on.
(should have checked, the admiral missed the fact the bow was about 6" short of the trailer bow rubbers.)

A few short bursts of blue smoke and the blaser pulled Joint Decision out of the water pretty easily. Phew! Just in time as bad weather was approaching from the East (Cape Canaveral)

Now the fun of our first derigging. There has to be a better way! But first a concern turned into reality. The UHaul Hitch was mounted suitable for the Laser II, tiny little boat. But under the load of the C250WB it was too low and left only about 2" of ground clearance under the extending hitch. So we had to call a truck out to switch the hitch around (invert the hitch ball holder whatever that thing is called.) $100 and it was fixed. (took 5 mins with the correct Pneumatic Wrench)

While wating for the Truck guy to arrive, I proceeded with the derigging.

Mainsail was already in it's canvas cover, so that was easy to take off and lay along side on the stbd cabin roof.

The Bimini has a zippered opening for the back stay, but you have to either take off the bimmini completely or remove the back stay. After disconnecting the backstay, the bimini was able to lay forwards out of the for the mast lowering.

The mast support aft was easy to setup because the dealer had a second set of gudgeons installed just for the support. (Wheel steering so cannot lift off the rudder where the mast support aft normally sits.)

Hooking up the trailer winch hook to the redundant forehalyard, and taking the strain (remember the backstay was disconnected) it was very easy to remove the CDI furler base pin. The furler was then led along side handing out of the way.

The mast lowering went without hitch, did not reconnect the mini stays. Next removing the mast bolt from the mast base was again easy. This is turning out to be a simple job.

Oh, did I forget that during all of this a storm was passing through, I mean a full, drench everything you are wearing type of storm. Nasty, even the admiral agreed (at least I picked up that each time I returned to the car to see if she was ok ;)

I ended up putting the Furler, with Sail, in the cabin, the ends aft and the rest curved up towards the cabin mast support pole. (I did think that it was a dance pole at first) (Not going to happen :)

Then all of the standing rigging was tied up to the mast now laying between the aft mast support and the forward trailer mast support. That looks really ugly (the lines tied to the mast and the lifelines. There must be a neat way of doing this.

Finally the derigging was complete. Boat secured for the journey (160+miles) home. I was able to pull the boat fowards to withing 2" of the trailer bow rubbers. 2x20' tiedown straps held Joint Decision down the the trailer.

I got my workout today, and I know it will get easier from here. We had a great sail, and Peggy (the admiral) took the helm for the first time ever and did really well.

Exhausted, and having drunk all the water, gatorade, and OJ, we needed refuelling.
So we headed over the bridge towards Merrit Island and the drivers side windscreen wiper failed, just broke. So we headed into the local walmart for new blades and gourmet dinning at their Big Macs.

The journey home was fine. We drove at around 53-54mph as that was really comfortable, and arrived here only to find that the rain we had in Cocoa Village was here also, so the grass driveway to the boats land home was totally sodden. Could not backup onto the grass or slope. The trailer has disc brakes and some kind of inertia switch, it prevented us backing the slope of either the grass driveway to the side of the house, or up the driveway in front of the garage. I just connected the trailers 5th elec connector to one of the lighting connectors and that released the brake, now we can reverse.
The hard driveway is not long enough to put the boat there and the grassway is too sodden.

now there must be a way to handle that (sodden grassway) without having to put in a whole new tarmac driveway to the side of the house.

Absolutely delighted with the new boat. We'll take her out again next weekend locally, at least that is our Joint Decision.

Joint Decision. (Sold)
PO C250WB 2005 Sail # 841.

Moved up to C34 Eximius

Updated August 2015

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
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2980 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 07:28:01

Great report...

Edited by - on

britinusa
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5404 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 13:48:00

Follow up..
Have to thank the forum contributors, we used tiewraps around each pair of shroud fittings amd put a sponge down the keel cable tube, worked a charm.

Today I removed the furler from the cabin and removed the jib after figuring out the method of putting it back on. The furler is now lashed (without sail) along the mast ready for next weekends trail to Black Point Marina. (The jib is in it's bag.)

We had enough water in the cabin this morning to fill the portapotty twice! Not sure where it came in from, suspect the cabin roof sliding / tilting hatch (We did drive 160+ miles last night in really aweful weather. Also found 20 pulls on the whale pump of water in the bilge at the forward end of the aft berth. Had to reposition the bilge pump hose end so that it would suck up the water. Has anyone fixed the hose in place (perhaps with some self adhesive velcro) to the forward side of the bilge. (and is that spot at the fore end of the aft berth the only bilge area?)

Oh, one more thing... I just put the metal frame of the pop top up, it fits almost perfectly as a central mast support when trailing. Good or Bad idea? (I'm concerned that the entire weight of the mast when trailing is spread between the fore and the aft mast supports, nothing in the middle.)

Edited by - on

Tom Potter
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1913 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 14:47:24

I made a mast support using wood (I believe it was a 2x8 when I started). I cut out a place for the mast to fit in and lined it with carpet so not to scratch the mast. I cut the other end down so it would fit in the mast foot on the deck of the boat. I screwed a couple wood blocks on both sides of the 2x8 where it fits into the mast foot to make it bigger on the bottom. I then drilled a hole through the 2x8 and used the mast bolt to hold it in place. Of course you have to measure for the right height.

Edited by - on

Jeff McK
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389 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 15:45:58

Paul,

Strong work!! Here's hoping you have many more enjoyable trips.

Edited by - on

Buzz Maring
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1768 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 16:32:28

Way to go, Paul ... 'sounds like you jumped in head first ... congratulations! I hope y'all have lots of great adventures in your new baby!

Tom ... I really like the supports you made for your furler ... I swiped the photo ... I might just steal your idea, too!

Edited by - on

Tom Potter
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1913 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 17:03:10

Buzz,
I can't claim that nifty furler support idea, I stole it from Charlie "Sterngucker"

.

http://www.catalina25-250.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9049

I tried it out a couple weeks ago and it works well. The only thing I can suggest is to make sure you secure the brackets to the mast before you start laying the furler in them. They will slide off

Edited by - on

Lightnup
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1016 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 17:13:35

Like your choice of names.

Enjoy her.

Steve

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bren737
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291 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 17:17:58

Paul,

Congrats! Sounds like you're off to a great start. Just a thought about the water inside the boat. . .

After having a similar problem when I first got 'Ruah' I found out from Catalina that the boat is assumed to be 'level in the water' when stored, even on its trailer. It's important, even with the hatch closed and the board in, to have the canvas hatch cover snapped tightly and the boat perfectly level to the ground (as in the water). Otherwise the drain system will put water in the boat in all but the lightest of rain. I suspect that at highway speeds this would be even more of a problem in strong rain. Of course, I don't know that I'd run down the highway with the canvas cover on either. It probabaly wouldn't stay on long.

Edited by - on

welshoff
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253 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 18:52:08

Sounds like a positive start and a good day sailing.

Disc brakes on trailer - that sounds nice. Here is a link to champion trailers (for reference). Look for the reversing solenoid link. It will explain how it works and how to connect to the tow vehicle (it sounds like you had one on the trailer already?). This will allow you to back up with out applying force through the surge brake master cylinder. I think they say to hook the wire to the reverse lights on tow vehicle. That way the brakes on trailer will not apply due to surge brake at hitch when you go to back up - this will make it happen automatically for you.

My surge brakes on my trailer (drum) have a lock out pin in the hitch itself.

http://www.championtrailers.com/index.html#INDEX

Edited by - on

britinusa
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5404 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2005 : 20:45:40

Thanks guys for the upbeat notes.

Tom,
The mast support looks about my level of woodworking, I'll make one of those before the weekend. (the pop top frame is probably not a good idea, the base of the frame might punch down through the hatch area if the boat hit a bump)

Will,
you were right on the mark, we knew the trailer had that reverse feature, but could not get it to work. Tonight we successfully put the boat alongside the house, needed to reverse it in. So I just connected the 5th wire to one of the other pins, turned on the blazers lights and we could hear the solinoid click over.

I must say, I'm impressed the way that our chevy blazer is able to move the boat.

Now a question about the water level.
Exactly which part of the boat should be level. I'm guessing that the variations in trailers forbids assuming the trailer level means the boat is level. Is there some part of the boat that I could put a spirit level on to set the boat 'level'?

And.... am I the only one that hates those curled wire rings that are used to hold pins in place? What is the best alternative?

A note of a question. I have questions about the fire extinguisher, porta potty, bilge pump, rigging, lighting, and more. Should I start a new thread on each or just continue here?

Thanks.

Many have said this: This is a great forum, and if you hang around it for a while, you'll see that there are a lot of sincere folks online that have a wealth of experience. Many of the top posters have been there, done that, or have written the book. More than ever we're glad I bought a Catalina, it was a joint decision

Edited by - on

DanM
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256 Posts

Response Posted - 06/07/2005 : 11:20:19

A SECOND from another new owner to your complements to the contributors on this forum.
As to the ss wire rings, they are rough on fingernails but they avoid snags in sails, shoes and skin! You don't need pliers and they don't get lost. You will learn to appreciate them.

Edited by - on

Ray Seitz
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Response Posted - 06/07/2005 : 12:54:32

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">And.... am I the only one that hates those curled wire rings that are used to hold pins in place? What is the best alternative?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I have changed all of the pins (with the exception of the forestay pin) that need to be removed during breakdown with the type of pins that are held in place by little steel balls. The steel balls are spring loaded and when the oppisite end of the pin is pressed the pin can be easily removed. I do not know the real name for these type pins, but purchased from West Marine
.
Congrats Paul sounds like your off to a great start.

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bren737
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291 Posts

Response Posted - 06/07/2005 : 14:29:54

Paul,

You can hold a contractor's level along the hull stripe to find 'level' when adjusting the trailer's tongue jack.

Edited by - on

atgep
Master Marine Consultant

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1009 Posts

Response Posted - 06/08/2005 : 12:21:13

I would caution against the quick release pins for rigging stays. With the rigging you are betting your life that it is going to stay up. To me there are 2 problems with them.

1. They are hollow.
2. They can jam or release unexpectedly.

I have gone to a SS bolt and lock nut on the forestay. For the other shrouds. I just unscrew the turnbuckle and leave the barrel on the lower t-bolt. I bungee the barrels together so they dont fall off on the highway. All the stays then get tie-wrapped to the mast. The backstay stays connected and lays in the cockpit.

My 2 cents, Tom.

Edited by - on

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