Yo, By Invitation. Your Boat???

[Alan Wheeler]

Hi Invitation. Is that your boat you are posting pictures of over on another site. Big congrats if it is. She looks just gorgeuose. I love the color and especially the goldy strip with the frilly bit at the bow.
Oh and the chain plates look real nice.
How about posting the sequence of photo's here in the gallery.

[By Invitation]

Alan,

Yes that is my boat, l will post some pics later today.

Scott

[By Invitation]

Alan,

I added some of the pictures, I just don't have access to all of them from this computer. I am going to be doing some major stuff in the next couple of weeks so I will add more photo's then. I am going to be installing my new port lights and painting the cabin sides, doing some glass work on the cabin top to add a main sheet traveler and the base for my new dodger. I am also pulling the engine up to install a new transmission, oil pump out system and alternator conversion to double belt. The list is extensive but I keep at it - 2 years to go and we will be sailing our "new" boat. My Cape Horn windvane just showed up today - what a nice piece of equipment Yves has designed and made, I am very impressed with the quality - can't wait to sail with it.

Scott

[Alan Wheeler]

Keep us upto date Scott. I for one am very interested. But I really have little time for that other site nor it's spin off.
Sadly my wife and I don't have Children. A decision earlier in life, not a medical one. But I would just love to be cruising with my family. I reckon it has to be the best way to bring up kids. So I view Sailing forums as a place for all ages to be able to view. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind Nudity, but some of those wierdos over there are just plain over the top and there are one or two, I would never let my kids (if I had them) near. They are creepy. Ooops, I am rambling,

[By Invitation]

Alan,

Your not rambling, I agree with you on all accounts. I am here to discuss sailing stuff - find what others think and work on my boat.

[Alan Wheeler]

Hey Scott, I just saw some more pictures of your bow sprit. Veeeery cool. What is the timber by the way. Looks lovely. Mate, the whole job looks awesome. You must be real proud.

[By Invitation]

Alan,

The bowsprit is solid teak with a SS316 custom bracket underneath for addtional support. Hope to finish it up in the fall. Right now I am working on the portlights ( all 9 ) which I want to get installed so I can heat the inside of the boat during the winter so I can work on her. Last year was too damn cold for way too long so this year I want HEAT ! I have a real cute Newport diesel heater to install.

I have stripped the interior. I had lots of water damage on the teak paneling so I removed all of it. All the teak trim has been stripped and is being varnished to be re-installed. The sides of the cabin are now off- white. I hope to have this project done by the end of this month.

I am not in any rush with any of this, I am doing this as a sanity project and just having fun. I will launch the boat when I feel that she is really ready to be launched and no sooner.

[By Invitation]

Hey Alan,

Gotta ask this - how long have you lived in NZ ?? My wife has always wanted to go there and threatens my kids when she is really pissed at them that we will sell everything and move to New Zealand. The place sounds wonderful - can you tell me some about it?

[Alan Wheeler]

Well Scott, I am a natural born Kiwi. I am Fourth generation that I can trace. All four generations lived in Canturbury(mid South Island area and the largest area of flat land in NZ) and I am the first to later move to another part of the country. I guess like anybody around the world, they are proud of their home land. But I will try and keep as "neutral" as I can as I describe the country.
Firstly, I have always considered that there are other parts of the world that are as, or more beautiful. Yet I am always amased at the number of visitors I meet that are awestruck with NZ. I "think" and guess it is for the following reasons.
Firstly, we are a diverse country. Both geographicaly and population wise. NZ is ruffly the same size as Japan, but with only 4.5million people. It's Long and narrow. We have a huge mountainouse backbone running through the middle. Mt Cook being our highest mount at 12349ft. That isn't high when compared to others around the world, but it is majestic looking, because it rises to that from sea level, and is permanently covered in snow and Glaciers. We have live and extinct Volcanoes littered length wise of the country. Many Tourist comment about how green things are. Well to me, ain't grass and tree's supposed to be green? I never get that comment.
We are sourrounded by Ocean, Pacific on one side, Tasman on the other. Thus we have a keen boating nation. We have a cool ocean current running from deep south up around the country on the East(pacific side) and a warmer current running up the west(tasman side). This means our west coast, which is wild and rugged and beautiful, has a very high rainfall. Yet tends to have a more "tropical" climate. It is rich with Lush native bush and timbers.
Fiordland has one area that boasts and average rain fall of 7m(25ft)/yr. We have dry area's that are also called deserts, although they are not sand like you would imagine a desert.
Auckland is our biggest city with over a million. If you are not an aucklander, you like to think of Auckland as a pacific island, with none of the advantages of a Pacific island
We have flora and fauna that are found no where else in the world, especially our flightless birds, like Kiwi, Pukeko, Takahe, Kakapo and Kea.
I can ramble on and on, but I guess the key to our country is, it is so varied in such a small area.
Check this link out.www.newzealand.com/travel/destinations/national-parks-home.cfm

[BC Mike]

Just wanted to add the the Tui ( a NZ bird ) is the nicest and best singer in the world.
My X has a Border Collie named Tui.
There are some parts of Auckland that might cause a conservative North American a bit of culture shock. Friday night in some of the larger pubs is a eye opener. Better than the movies, my brother would say.
Michael

[MaryBoo]

Can you please give the address to the site where we can see your boat? It sounds very interesting.
MaryBoo

[By Invitation]

MaryBoo,

I have pictures of the on going restoration of my boat at www.renegade-cruisers.org. Go to the pictures section and find the post - S/V Invitation - Scott & Juli's on going project and dream.

I keep this site updated more than anywhere else and I will post more pictures in the next couple of weeks when I finish my portlight installation and a few other things. Progress has been slow this last few weeks because I have been working on our Herreshoff 15 to get her in the water !

Scott

[By Invitation]

I just posted some more pictures of my progress on the renegades site http://www.renegade-cruisers.org.

I appologize that I have not posted here but it takes time to do this and having everything on one site is much easier for me.

Scott

[Alan Wheeler]

The process is looking great. Mate, it's a shame to hide a prop away below where people can't see a work of art like that eh.
I will be interested in how the prop performs.
Now how exactly do those things work. Do you have some sort of special prop shaft within a shaft to work the gearing? or what?

[By Invitation]

Alan,

The prop is a self feathering Vari Prop, simply changes the rotation of the blades by the rotation of your prop shaft. As the load of the shaft rotates, it also rotates an inner sleeve which in turn moves the gears which rotates the blades, when they hit their stop point the prop starts to rotate. Takes about 1/3 of a turn of the shaft to accomplish it. It's very simple really. You don't need any modifications to put one on any boat - just need $. The stop points for Forward and Reverse are easily adjustable to change the pitch.

If you check out http://varipropusa.com you can see how it works.