Centerboard, was parting out..uh..with a boat

Chris, Google "ultra high strength concrete" and see what you think. It's composition is a bit different, and you add some fibers to it, but they can make it stronger than reinforced concrete, approaching 30,000 psi. whereas normal concrete is 3k to 5k psi. Vastly cheaper than bronze. Maybe you can mix some lead shot into it to add some additional weight, if you need that. If you can't find anything I'll dig up my references for how it's mixed. Jerry of Shpritz -------------------------------------------- On Wed, 8/24/16, ccampbell cc… [at] lsnm.org [Cal_Boats] <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] How do you Part with a Boat that was a HUGE part of your life To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com, "Darr LaFon" <da… [at] verizon.net> Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2016, 1:31 PM On 8/24/2016 8:13 AM, Darr LaFon da… [at] verizon.net [Cal_Boats] wrote: Hello everyone, Have not been on in quite a while. I am considering selling my wonderful vessel, Alcyone II. I put a lot of my life into her. She is berthed in Annapolis, MD. Any ideas how to deal with the emotions about this? and anyone who might be interested? I'm lucky to be healthy as an old guy and still able to single-hand my boats, and in addition they are small and easy to sail. My older boat, a pretty 1961 Tripp vessel, has been in my care since 1968, so we are old friends. This winter I will be investing in a new bronze centerboard to replace the 55 year old rusting steel one. Bronze must be closely related to gold, at least to judge by the price. But my theory is that when the time comes to pass the old girl along to somebody else, she'll be in reasonably good condition, and it will be obvious that somebody cared. The little Cal 20 was intended to be a temporary boat, but after 17 years I've decided that I can't part with her, either. And I knew the original owner of that boat, a true "old salt," and that makes her more special. He was a good sailor and a genuine eccentric. They do become a part of our lives and routines, don't they? Maybe one way you could keep sailing your boat would be to find some local organizations that serve kids--you mentioned Boy Scouts, for example--and see if they would be interested in working out a sail training program with you. You'd want to have some adults involved as well as the kids, but the extra muscle might let you keep sailing. And if it was successful, then maybe the donation idea would be less painful for you. You'd know what the boat meant to the organization and the kids. The organization would know what the boat meant to you. You could teach not only sailing, but also maintenance and the dirty grunt work that most of us--the ones who can't afford to hire out the gritty stuff--have to do ourselves. Hey, sailors need to learn that stuff. A former boss who's a decade older than I am is having trouble sailing his 40-something C&C. He's got some health issues. He has the same question--sell the boat? And yet he doesn't want to. He likes the boat and has put a lot of effort into making it just right. I try to go out with him, but since it's at some distance, that means not sailing my own boats. I'm always a bit jealous of the sailors who have lots of friends--the ones who always have 5 or 8 people aboard. Many of us, especially of the male gender, seem to have smaller groups of friends and sailing acquaintances. It makes it harder to rustle up a crew. It's why I learned to handle my boats alone. It's easy to say "make more friends" but accomplishing that is not easy at all. The latest issue of Good Old Boat magazine had an article by the publishers about "adopting" local kids to teach about sailing. They reported great enthusiasm from the kids. My experience is generally that kids want to stare at their cell phones or stay indoors. I'm going to re-read that article, because there is much to be said about getting young people interested in making boats go, safely and efficiently. Chris Campbell