Reflections on a year of aircraft ownership

Dave wrote:
On Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:40:06 -0600, brian whatcott
wrote:

In powerboat context..

"BOAT" means.

"Bring On Another Thousand"

I know this, and..

I also know what an "AMU" is...



Dave



Ross wrote:
... there use to be the AMU. I think it
was aeronautical money unit. It equaled $1000.00. Therefore your $150.00
was only .150 AMU. Doesn't sound so large.

In a sailboat context, that's 0.15 boatbuck...

Brian W


But with a boat you do not need an A&P/IA to sign off your work. I had a
21' Chriscraft for several years and did all the work myself.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
Sold
KSWI

On Dec 9, 12:45*pm, Ross wrote:
brian whatcott wrote:
Ross wrote:
... *there use to be the AMU. I think it
was aeronautical money unit. It equaled $1000.00. Therefore your
$150.00 was only .150 AMU. Doesn't sound so large.

In a sailboat context, that's 0.15 boatbuck...

Brian W

What kind of sailboat do you own?

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
Sold
KSWI

The O'Day sloop (25 foot swing keel) was simply not expensive -- the
biggest annual cost was a pier side docking, and that was a bit over
$1000. "Flight" planning for 5 knots took a different mindset though.

a wrote:
On Dec 9, 12:45 pm, Ross wrote:
brian whatcott wrote:
Ross wrote:
... there use to be the AMU. I think it
was aeronautical money unit. It equaled $1000.00. Therefore your
$150.00 was only .150 AMU. Doesn't sound so large.
In a sailboat context, that's 0.15 boatbuck...
Brian W
What kind of sailboat do you own?

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
Sold
KSWI

The O'Day sloop (25 foot swing keel) was simply not expensive -- the
biggest annual cost was a pier side docking, and that was a bit over
$1000. "Flight" planning for 5 knots took a different mindset though.

I used to have a 21 foot Chriscraft power boat. My aircraft (to keep
aviation content) mechanic has the building rights to the Valiant
Yachts. http://cedarmills.com/valiant.htm Check out his airstrip also.
Nice gathering place for all of us.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
Sold
KSWI

Ross wrote:
brian whatcott wrote:
Ross wrote:
... there use to be the AMU. I think it
was aeronautical money unit. It equaled $1000.00. Therefore your
$150.00 was only .150 AMU. Doesn't sound so large.


In a sailboat context, that's 0.15 boatbuck...

Brian W

What kind of sailboat do you own?


A SouthCoast 22. That's a swing keel. I keep it at the house. But it
wants three people for anxiety-free mast raising, and that's a problem.

My younger son has a better way. He recently rented a lake-front place
with a personal mooring out front for his Hunter 25 - and space for a
trailer too....

Brian W

On Dec 10, 8:09*am, brian whatcott wrote:
Ross wrote:
brian whatcott wrote:
Ross wrote:
... *there use to be the AMU. I think it
was aeronautical money unit. It equaled $1000.00. Therefore your
$150.00 was only .150 AMU. Doesn't sound so large.

In a sailboat context, that's 0.15 boatbuck...

Brian W

What kind of sailboat do you own?

A SouthCoast 22. That's a swing keel. I keep it at the house. But it
wants three people for anxiety-free mast raising, and that's a problem.

My younger son has a better way. He recently rented a lake-front place
with a personal mooring out front for his Hunter 25 - and space for a
trailer too....

Brian W

Brian, for what it's worth, I could 'walk' the mast up on the O'Day 25
with the side and aft standing rigging in place. It was designed to
pivot at its socket. I'd run a line near the top with a quick release
knot and have my wife cleat it to the anchor cleat on the bow when
it's upright. then I could attach the forestay and yank on the free
end of the line to release it. The boom goes on after all of that. It
may be your mast is a lot heavier or it didn't pivot into its socket.

I would not want to go through that every time we went sailing, but
the boat once rigged stayed that way all season. It did not trailer
well, I wish it did.

In article , betwys1
@sbcglobal.net says...

Ross wrote:
brian whatcott wrote:
Ross wrote:
... there use to be the AMU. I think it
was aeronautical money unit. It equaled $1000.00. Therefore your
$150.00 was only .150 AMU. Doesn't sound so large.


In a sailboat context, that's 0.15 boatbuck...

Brian W

What kind of sailboat do you own?


A SouthCoast 22. That's a swing keel. I keep it at the house. But it
wants three people for anxiety-free mast raising, and that's a problem.

Surely not! My trailer-sailer is 25' - I can raise and lower the mast
myself (level ground helps!). Surely only one person is needed to hold
the mast up, while the forestay is secured (I use the main on the jib
halyard to tension the mast and allow the forestay to be secured).

--
Duncan.

On Dec 10, 2:41*pm, Dave Doe wrote:
In article , betwys1
@sbcglobal.net says...







Ross wrote:
brian whatcott wrote:
Ross wrote:
... *there use to be the AMU. I think it
was aeronautical money unit. It equaled $1000.00. Therefore your
$150.00 was only .150 AMU. Doesn't sound so large.

In a sailboat context, that's 0.15 boatbuck...

Brian W

What kind of sailboat do you own?

A SouthCoast 22. That's a swing keel. I keep it at the house. But it
wants three people for anxiety-free mast raising, and that's a problem.

Surely not! *My trailer-sailer is 25' - I can raise and lower the mast
myself (level ground helps!). *Surely only one person is needed to hold
the mast up, while the forestay is secured (I use the main on the jib
halyard to tension the mast and allow the forestay to be secured).

--
Duncan.

The jib halyard would work at least as well as what I do. Just
thinking, if one attached a pulley to the anchor cleat the hoisting
line could be brought back to one of the main's winches. . .hmm,
getting the mast up could be a one man task!

a wrote:

... there use to be the AMU. I think it
was aeronautical money unit. It equaled $1000.00. Therefore your
$150.00 was only .150 AMU. Doesn't sound so large.
In a sailboat context, that's 0.15 boatbuck...
Brian W
What kind of sailboat do you own?
A SouthCoast 22. That's a swing keel. I keep it at the house. But it
wants three people for anxiety-free mast raising, and that's a problem.

My younger son has a better way. He recently rented a lake-front place
with a personal mooring out front for his Hunter 25 - and space for a
trailer too....

Brian W

Brian, for what it's worth, I could 'walk' the mast up on the O'Day 25
with the side and aft standing rigging in place. It was designed to
pivot at its socket. I'd run a line near the top with a quick release
knot and have my wife cleat it to the anchor cleat on the bow when
it's upright. then I could attach the forestay and yank on the free
end of the line to release it. The boom goes on after all of that. It
may be your mast is a lot heavier or it didn't pivot into its socket.

I would not want to go through that every time we went sailing, but
the boat once rigged stayed that way all season. It did not trailer
well, I wish it did.

As bought, the boom and sails were available, but the mast was gone.
There had evidently been a mishap, cos several of the stays were broke
near one end. So I found a mast from a Hobie 16 - which had a slightly
longer (25 ft?) and rather stout mast. Actually an old boy offered me
the whole ball of wax on a trailer for next to nothing, because the
trailer had been sitting out front too long...
I rigged a jack staff with a second winch at the trailer head, and
made a wooden tree to fit in the rudder pintle, so that fastening the
winch line to the forestay allows the mast to wind up without too much
stress on the mast footer. But half way to vertical, the mast is apt
to sway sidewards way too much, without a steady line on the foot of
each side stay held by an innocent bystander...

Brian W
p.s. Obligatory flying note: with the thermometer standing at 33 deg, I
thought I would fly the plane in the hour before dark this evening.
...If I could start it....
There was a placard by the ki-gas primer: "Positively One stroke only
in ANY conditions" and biding by that rule gave me several stuttering
start/stops in previous chills.
So I finally got the bit between the teeth, and treated it more like my
previous C-150 which took FOUR ki-gas strokes on a cold day. This time,
with THREE strokes, and a follow up with one stroke, it was running on
the second pull (of the manual start handle)

I think I know why that placard was there - despite low hours on the
engine - one cylinder had been replaced after perhaps 100 hours by the
prior owner.
The easiest possible way to need a pot replaced, as you may know, is
to over prime and get not a stack fire, but rather a back fire. *Bang!*
and it's gone...

Pumping the throttle can do that....

Brian W

"brian whatcott" wrote

I rigged a jack staff with a second winch at the trailer head, and made a
wooden tree to fit in the rudder pintle, so that fastening the winch line
to the forestay allows the mast to wind up without too much stress on the
mast footer. But half way to vertical, the mast is apt to sway
sidewards way too much, without a steady line on the foot of each side
stay held by an innocent bystander...

I have a solution for that problem. Rig a loop on each one of the side
stays with a short section of wire rope and U-splice fittings, (or some way
of your own choosing to attach extra lines) up high enough that you can
still reach it when the mast is up. Fix up a rope with two hooks the right
length that you will fix to an added eye on the rails of the boat, exactly
abeam of the mast pivot. If you do it right, you can find the right place
and lengths to keep lines tight on both sides, all of the way up.

You get the picture, I hope. Using your method to wind up the mast, the
extra temp rigging will prevent any and all movement of the mast side to
side. Once it is up all the way, you can switch over to the correct stays.

I also had an O'Day 25, for quite a few years. Added an inboard, with my
dad, after we got tired of the 9.9 kicker packing it in at the most
inconvenient times. I did get pretty good at coming into the slip under
sail! g

I kick myself for selling that boat, sometimes.
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:
"brian whatcott" wrote

I rigged a jack staff with a second winch at the trailer head, and made a
wooden tree to fit in the rudder pintle, so that fastening the winch line
to the forestay allows the mast to wind up without too much stress on the
mast footer. But half way to vertical, the mast is apt to sway
sidewards way too much, without a steady line on the foot of each side
stay held by an innocent bystander...

I have a solution for that problem. Rig a loop on each one of the side
stays with a short section of wire rope and U-splice fittings, (or some way
of your own choosing to attach extra lines) up high enough that you can
still reach it when the mast is up. Fix up a rope with two hooks the right
length that you will fix to an added eye on the rails of the boat, exactly
abeam of the mast pivot. If you do it right, you can find the right place
and lengths to keep lines tight on both sides, all of the way up.


I have thought about this kind of setup, more than once. The problem is
the geometry of this particular hull. The mast pivots on the cabin-top,
and the stays fix at the toe rails which are perhaps 2 ft lower, so the
mast goes floppy on the way up. So I sniffed around the internet,
when Richard wanted me to help dropping his mast (Hunter 25)while
afloat. I was struck by a uTube video of a guy raising and dropping mast
while under way to traverse low bridges - single-handed. He rigged an
a-frame whose feet pivoted abeam the mast foot and whose peak folded
down to the pulpit. The peak of the A-frame fixes to the fore stay foot,
so that you could rig a jib halyard back to a cockpit winch. The idea
behind this a-frame is that it starts providing support against
side-sway from about half way down. The first 2 or 3 feet of drop is
still a swaying issue though. The single-hander bear-hugged the mast
with one hand, and loosed the halyard with the other. Neat! This
approach worked for us too using a jury-rig a frame of two spars
fastened together and to the toe rails.

After writing this, I reread your suggestion, and finally got it.
your rig pulls the slack out of the stays on the way up or down.
Yes, that's the idea I needed!
Thanks

Brian W
p.s. Aviation content: with the thermometer at 36 degrees, three primes
gave a start on the first pull last night! I have got it beat...