Recent Sailing Stories

[DriftingNowhere]

This is the story about two different sailing vessels. I want to know your opinions and suggestions. A few months ago I saw this boat on USauctions:


1999 36' Harasty Fixed Keel Ketch Sailboat .



Somebody apparently bought it for $2,830.00 and had it splashed into the water. It was a hurricane Ike survivor and not a bad deal on a cool boat (if you're into that sort of thing).

Today I was reading a link on the fishing forum and I saw something that looked a little familiar:



I don't know how it got there, but here is another story (with great pics) about a different sailor on a different boat, that mentions the green boat above...

ps - that green hulled wooden ketch that beached the same night as Jojo was a recent purchase from the US Auction inventory of Hurricane Ike salvage @ Paradigm Marine (I knew she looked familiar).

Okay, i hope that's not too confusing. Once you read the story about jojo it will all make sense... I have to go to work now... Just thought it was funny seeing that poor green boat back on land... Hurricane Ike SUCKED and apparantly she is afraid of the water now!

[lalan]

The rudder was damaged and before I could get the anchor down for the 4th night out, the boat hit a sandbar. Anyway, the other boat was craned off the beach, this one was taken off by jacking it up and laying it over on a truck. It was taken to a boat yard in Bolivar. Johnny Dufante's place. The issues on the hull from the hurricane were fixed, and with the tabernacle masts and perfect cold molded hull it takes 0 water and stays dry. Except for a leaking porthole which I am trying to find. Thanks for the forum! After winning it on Ebay for 2850 I have put another 8K into it. It is in galveston. This is the site I found when I bid: Custom 36 yacht for sale

It is better now just for deck stepping and redoing the masts, and everything else. There was really no bad storm, there was fog you could cut with a knife and barges were sounding on all sides. So i was hoping to anchor shallow, and when the tide went out it looked like a football field. There were no lights ashore because Bolivar was wiped clean. In any case it was totally beached about 50 ft from the road after I left it. Thanks!!!! That is one heck of a double ended design. She loves the water, if she could just stay in it! Pics at: Leonard Alan Publishers & Elated Moon Productions

The engine is a brand new Beta Marine and the boat did get a little water but just about a foot. Nothing on the motor. I did have to replace the battery isolator.

[lalan]

I sailed it to New Orleans across the Gulf. It self tails with the smaller longer racing rudder that cannot get stuck. I have since painted it and sailed the lake for a couple years. This boat is incredible. The Beta Marine is still under 100 hrs. I kept it in Galveston for a year to sail there and moved it last Fall to New Orleans.

It takes on no seepage of water as the cold molded fiberglass was redone in dry dock after this second grounding. Just amazing design and building. Great to live aboard with a small ac in the top. I painted it with two coats of AwlGrip Snow White. The latest is the gouge it took on the bow from Isaac in the Lake. So 3 hurricanes and counting and still sailing perfectly. I am going to haul it soon to fix the gouge and replace the chain with a new cable as original. 6 lines broke in Isaac, but 3 still held. They were really loose though as a last resort.

I love this place!

[jeanathon]

Good to hear the rest of the story.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, lalan.

[boatman61]

Hi lalan... Welcome to CF
Long may you stay happy...
Just looked at your link for the pictures... Nice boat you have there mate...

[lalan]

I went in for a bottom job and to redo the feathering prop. Still arguing with the yard. LOL. Thanks, it was a long trip and I learned a lot. We jacked it up with boards and bottle jacks and layed it over onto a flat bed truck and trucked it to the yard. Then we jacked it up onto the stands.

What a Christmas that was. The fog in the Houston Ship Channel set in at noon in a freak change in the direction of the wind. Have you ever heard 50 supertankers blowing their Fog Horns? Shiver Me Timbers Batman! I was dropping anchor 2 miles off, but with sandbars and so much there was no way out. So I beached it straight away up to the road. After a few weeks I noticed at high tide the water was over the road. At low tide it was like cement for 100 yards.

Sort of a strange way out of this predicament.

It was in New Orleans on Lake Ponchatrain for a while.
I was out of the dry dock and saillng the Lake Ponchatrain in some really nice wind. Usually I put up the Fore,Jib, and Mizzen but this time I went with the main and took whatever tack was max. The lake is huge, and in some abeam wind with all 4 sails up just to see. 8 knots for like 3 hours. OMGoodness. Then everyone wanted it and its been a war. LOL. Its been chained and sold and I have worked to find it and get it. So let me know if you have it and find it too strange or tough. In the meantime I will argue to get it back.

Thanks yall. That rudder gets overpowered, but it is so good in the open water set and self tailing. The very wide rudder was broke in Ike and I didnt even know it. Quite a time I must say. I hope to get the issues straight. I sort of fashioned the design of this racing rudder after a Rodgers Racer/Cruiser I had for a bit. I think we over rudder by design. Maybe there is a reason but for most times the course can be set with the sails and the rudder together it seems.


If in all this nonsense someone has this yacht, I would love to get it back. I cannot explain, it is just ridiculous!

[lalan]

This is the video on the lake. After that all sorts of intrigue at the boatyard which closed. So still working hard and looking for this boat. LOL. Its wasnt much but it was all mine!

[lalan]

Oh I found some video of the fog I will put it up. I was going east back to Louisiana and the wind changed and I decided to stay on the western side of the ship channel but the sand bars were like beaches for miles out toward the channel. So there was a lot of tactics tried but nothing worked. So I decided to run it up to the road. Can you believe that! I still hear those Fog Horns.

[lalan]

There was a listing for the boat before Ike. The owners had put a new Beta Marine in just a month before Ike.

Custom 36 yacht for sale

I wont get into all the details, but we had the boat about 15' from the road. The truck pulled next to it. We considered a board run and opted to get a bulldozer and operator that was clearing debris on the Bolivar beach and was so happy to help get the boat off. So he pushed the truck trailer a few nudges.

This might be a very interesting solution. There were three sailboats on that beach after that fog and storm. One was removed by a crane. One was taken apart, and this one was trucked to the boatyard. Sorry I posted some of the same pics twice. It is a very interesting design, and I really liked the boat. I hope in the end I will be sailing the lake and maybe into the gulf again. We sailed it from Galveston to Grand Isle, and motored up the Barataria to New Orleans.

Thanks for all the great comments and concerns. Happy Sailing!