Rann,
Really, glad that my post have been usefull to you. I sure wish I had been told this stuff from the get go! (rather than have to figure it all out) I do however owe John Marples an awfly lot, for his help over the years.
I have a head full of all of this information, and my fellow Searunners is all that can use it. I just feel like I've been blessed, & it's good to give back.
Truth is, that during my last two projects (18 years of work), for most of that time, I subscribed to from 18 to 20 magazines or trade publications / month, read dozens of books, and spent several thousand $ on phone calls to guys who could answer my questions. (sometimes experts in other countries) As totally nuts as this sounds, the reading was trerapy, to stay "stoked" in my project, and the money & time spent on preventing doing something stupid... AGAIN, was money well spent. A lot of my setbacks were just BAD LUCK, but here's hoping that this information can improve others luck?
Mark

Mark,

I have been away from the forum for a long time now, and just got back on again after getting an email from Jack Molan in Alaska. Wow, have you posted a lot of useful information in your recent posts. I hope to get back to the LA area sometime later this year and get back to work on my 34.

Rann

Mark,


I am going to go back and re-read all your posts to glean what I can to help me in my refurbish job. I did put in new blocks for the centerboard just because the old ones were looking quite sad and one had frozen. I found some heavy duty stuff at a yard that sells all kinds of used boat stuff in Newport Beach and I adapted them to the trunk. They were working fine when I left last time down. I will try and get some decent pictures of my replacements on the next trip.

Thanks again for all the info in your posts. We all appreciate it.

Rann

Mark,

I never did answer your questions about the Sea of Cortez as a place to retire to. I think Jack would be a better person to comment on that than I, but I do feel it is a great place to winter. Summers can be dreadfully hot. My goal is to get ETAK down to San Carlos and do as Jack does: leave her on the hard on a trailer during the hot season and return each winter for several months of sailing when it is cold and gray here in western Oregon. I think the safety issue fine just like in the states. You need to know where NOT to go in Mexico and avoid those places. Mainly they are Ciudad Juarez across the river from El Paso, Torreon, and parts of Tijuana and the border areas where drugs pass through on their way north.

Rann

Sounds Great Rann, Let me know how the rigging job works out. This weekend was supposed to be a fun one anchoring out... but my CB down line, aft control block, "blew up", (3rd one), and now I am trying to figure a way to replace this "submerssed" cheek block, in an area with only flukey wind driven tides, and without prematurely hauling out the boat. Fun, fun, fun.
I am an East coaster, but have wondered if the Sea of Cortez is a good area to retire to? I understand that there is a community of Gringos, on old Brown & Cross "woodies" down there. I loved Isla Mujeris! Is the living cheep, safe, & fun?
Thanks, Mark

Mark,

Great report you posted. Thanks for it. Jack Molan and I will be splicing a bunch of Dux for my Searunner 34 ETAK soon. He lives in Oregon, as I now do, and we will get together next week or so for this project. My boat is in the Long Beach, CA area and in need of lots of refurbishing. I go down each winter and get some of the work done. This winter I hope to finish up enough to move the 34 down to where Jack has his in the Sea of Cortez.

Rann
Harrisburg, OR