"Howdy Buffalo Bob".............

If you are old enough to identify the source of the above quote and coincidentally also the title of this blog entry and if you can recall and place Andy Devine and SABU The Elephant Boy and if you are a long time sailor who loves sailboats  and sailing then you probably remember when the America's Cup was a competitive but congenial SAILBOAT race between high falootin' yacht club types for  bragging rights and a funky silver cup, the Americas Cup, which was first awarded in 1851 and today is the oldest active trophy in international sport.
The old boats were envisioned and created from the genius minds of preeminent naval architects , Olin Stephens, W. Starling Burgess, L. Francis Hereshoff, William Gardner, William Fife, Nathaniel G. Hereshoff,  and Charles Nicholson to name a few. The names and the majesty of their creations evoked romance and adventure and nobility and mystery, and magnificence .....America, Livonia, Shamrock, Gretel, Valkyrie, Magic, Aurora, Intrepid, Countess of Dufferin, Courageous, and Rainbow are just a few of the nautical monikers that reflect the Golden Days of the Cup.
You probably know that the opening date of the 34th running of the Americas Cup on San Franciso Bay is officially July 4, 2013. Awesome! Right? Well???? Maybe to some. Not me. Why....? Let me expound a bit:
You've got to ask yourself... are these huge, ginormous, computer created, foiling catamaran rocket ships really yachts? Don't forget the Cup was originally a yacht race! Are these electronic aberrations of high-tech CAD technology even sailboats?  Or are they just magnificent sailing machines that have no real purpose or design element and invoke no emotion from a romantic soul. They just haul butt for no other purpose than hauling butt......Don't get me wrong here!! There is nothing wrong with the new evolution of these racing machines but they bear no resemblance to and possess none of the character and soul of the  vessels that made the Americas Cup one of the greatest sporting events in the history of progressive, civilized , and industrialized man. How can a person get the warm fuzzies for an Americas Cup challenger referred to as AC 72?
You young folks are probably thinking this guy is some kinda old fart....well, I guess I am.
"Happy Trails To You Until We Meet Again"...............
Take care my friends

Gettin' Cheeky................!

My preference is for tiller steered sailboats....tillers are simple, virtually foolproof and cheap to operate and maintain and are relatively easy to rig up some fundamental self-steering system.....although, the Sailing Pundits often remark that the difference between a YACHT and a boat is that a YACHT has wheel steering while a  boat is maneuvered with the lowly tiller .........OK so ZOSHA is a boat........nobody ever referred to her as a yacht anyways.....Didya ever notice that these these friggin Sailing Pundits and Forum Holes are experts and have an opinion on everything!!............this said................As we travel our destiny's path there are certain things that seem to often reoccur in our lives that work  to interrupt the flow of our Yin and Yang or is it Ying and Yan ????  Whatever!! You know what I mean.....For instance, for my friend Mike its flat tires....this guy has had hundreds of flat tires throughout his life...He'll buy a new set of tires and go out the next morning and one of them will be flat!! Brand new tire flat!......He told me that this type of tire thing has happened to him countless times throughout his life.....the tire fairies do not like this guy! Another near and dear person to me who for the sake of anonymity, I'll call Tana.....has a reoccurring confoundment with Garlic Bread......no matter how hard she tries to not burn it....something always occurs in her existential presence during the few minutes that the bread is in the oven and  the next thing we know the bread is ready because the smoke alarm is going off!! BURNT UP DUDE!!!! We're talking charcoal here............Its not her fault....she tries to get the it right.....its just that the garlic bread FATES are having none of it.  Mike tries to take care of his tires and rotate them and keep the air pressure right and buy new ones at the first sign of dry rot, but again some cosmic interference won't let this happen......WHY?  Don't know...
My haunting is cheek blocks......you know those two pieces of wood bolted to each side of the rudder that keeps the tiller in place ?    ZOSHA, my current boat is tiller steered. When I bought her one of the very first things that I examined carefully were the cheek blocks......why?... you ask.....because on my two previous tiller mo gated sailboats, the cheek blocks rotted and had to be reproduced and replaced....A big, expensive, time consuming, PITA, bolt holes don't exactly line up project especially when you're in the water. So with extra special attention to the cheek blocks which were at that time as solid as a Ronald Regan handshake, the decision to make ZOSHA my new love was confirmed.  Alas, a beautiful boat with terrific Cheek Blocks.......I'm a happy man!!!! Fast forward a coupla years and attached  are some shots of the current state of my cheek blocks.......

 

Nasty............. !!

 

I LOVE boats....."Break Out Another Thousand".....

 

Wonder if I mixed up a little West System putty??  Ya think??

 

Just another day in the life of an extremely happy man! Oh Oh! gotta go....the smoke alarm is going off.....we're having spaghetti for dinner tonight.....

 

Take Care my friends...................



Don't Tread On Me Part 4......

Did you ever get so lazy that you embarrass yourself ? I've been this way for a while now....just can't seem to get the motivation to get anything done....I'm putzing around with the deck redo and its getting there....I want to take all the hardware off the boom and paint it....the Main is off at least...I sent it off to a company in Pennsylvania to be reconditioned and repaired...I couldn't believe how awesome the sail was when I got it back about 5 weeks later.....it looked and felt like a new sail.....this company has a process the revitalizes the sail....it feels like new....all crispy and stiff...
The cost of the reconditioning and repairs, couple of slugs needed to be redone, some tears, and the bolt rope on the foot had to be restreched to get the belly out and get the shape back. Anyways the whole cost with shipping was about $700 which I thought was a good deal because the sail maker bandits around here wanted $2200 to $2600 for a new sail.....Rolly Tasker, Lee Sails and some of the other internet lofts wanted around $1600 before shipping.....anyways, I think I got a good deal. The guy at the company told me that even cruising, I should get about 10 more years outta the sail if I take care of it......Mmmmm...wonder how long it will last sitting here at this friggin dock?

I did manage to get a bottom job....for 30 years I've been using Interlux Fiberglass Bottomkote in black and was real happy with it.....it typically lasted about three years in our waters....this time I changed to Interlux Ultra upon the recommendation of the boat yard manager....new technology?? We'll see....!! Bottom looks great....no blisters !!!


                                    

 

SWEET LINES !! wouldn't you say??

 

 

One day this beautifull boat butt will be facing the trades...I promise...Soon!!

 

Rain here for the next few days...nice weather next week till Thursday....I'll tackle this on Monday.............

 

 

Don't cha LUVIT ??

 

Take care my friends.........

 

 





1.  

 

Don't Tread On Me Part 3

 

Well, my teak deck removal and re non-skidding project is still progressing at a snail's pace. Some of you might recall my whining over the extremely poor condition of Zosha's teak decks. They were pitiful when I bought her. Some or all of the past owners of Zosha, there were three before me I think, totally screwed up the decks. As a result the bungs were popping out, the wood was all deeply grooved out and they were leaking......thankfully not into the deck core. I probed every screw hole with a dental tool and they were all solid but water was pooling under the wood deck.



Starboard side deck before demo....

 

Port side deck before demo......

 

 

 

 A little obligatory boat project blood.......owie! that smarted!

You can see all the mud and dirt and crap that was under the decking......the entire deck looked like this after the teak was removed.....a real mess!

This project is not for the timid-you gotta do some rippin'....!

Side deck before final cleaning and detail......

 

aft deck new non-skid applied.....looking good!

This last photo shows a portion of the aft deck  with one coat of the new non skid applied. The color is a light gray. It looks real good and is aggressive without taking skin off of bare feet, knees and fingers. This is an epoxy paint and primer and is very temperature sensitive during application. Its been too cold lately. Hopefully moderate temps are around the corner so I can finish this project and move on to the next.....a new stove installation!!  Can't wait..........

 

I'll post the pics of the completed deck ASAP.....

Take care my friends.....its 40 degrees here today which to us down here in Texas is

COLD BABY!!!  



 



Holiday Greetings to you...!

Hello my friends......again, I begin a blog by apologizing for not posting for awhile....what can I do?....my life here has resorted to a unrelenting tedium trying to get everything done that is necessary to leave cruising. It looks like the final hurdle for me and Tana should be overcome in March......hope so.........those Islands are calling for us!   For now...............

We want to extend our sincerest wishes to all of you for a  Happy Holiday Season and a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year.........talk to ya soon

My Girlfriend-Tana

Hello my friends.....I do know that there are a few of you who check in with ZOSHASWAKE on a semi regular basis and I do know that I have been remiss in my responsibilities of catching up with those of you who care about what we are doing....we have not left for the Caribe yet....just got the boat outta the yard for a bottom job and for some ordinary maintenance...thank GOD for giving me the insight not to have bought a bigger boat!!!! AMEN!!!! ............................You know?  Let me tell you something...OK???..................I got the BEST Girlfriend!!!..........What you say!!! Yeah....Whats makes the BEST GIRLFRIEND???...............In my opinion it's what kinda stuff they know about...everybody knows a little bit about nothing important or unusual....just crap... what celeberity is doing this or that...or what politico is doing this...or what sports team or star has this going for them...or what some reality TV personna is up to.............you know what I'm talking about??...you've been around  and conversed with these people.............HO HUMM.....the other day someone for some unknown reason  brought up the topic of North American /tribal Shamanism..........Well let me tell you dude, my girlfriend was all over it...........she knew everything about it...........from the prehistoric beliefs of the early cave men to the pueblo dwelling inhabitants of 18th century southwest.........Whoa, impressive, right?............coupla weeks later, we are someplace and someone mentions Chinese Numerology and.............well, TANA explained the significance of numbers and the meaning of certain numerical combinations and how they impact human endeavor......WHOA DUDE!!...........sometimes later......can't remember where we were but the topic of Astrology came up and ...........somehow my GF ended up explaining to all the basics and history and evolution of the topic............she reads TAROT cards..............She knows all about Vampires..............She is an established professional musician............she is a poet and author..........you wanna know about the mugrations of native peoples in ancient times?......ask Tana....she knows a whole buncho other stuff that I can't recall right now because I been drinkin' ...but take my word for it Dude....she's AWESOME..and I love her because she knows so much cool stuff and because she has the sexiest little feet in creation.
Take care my friends..........








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Keeping Track....

It's been a while my friends...........I've been so remiss in keeping this dialogue open....it's my loss.....I'm sorry................I hope this finds you all well, happy, and prosperous.....today, I was reading one of those minamalist blogs and the writer was talking about all the things in our lives that we need to keep track of on a regular basis............thinkaboutit???     If you really contemplate the subject, you come to the conclusion that peace of mind might be not having to keep track of anything.   Many of us dream of casting it all off and going sailing....talk about keeping track of stuff .... sailing around the place on a permanent basis is work! .....it's a myriad of permutations and combinations of critical details! ......wind, weather, communications, navigation, boat maintenance, engines, electronics, customs, big ships around you, waves, charts, waypoints, radio frequencies, tariffs, currents, unfriendly peoples and officials, money, radio protocol, family obligations, this list goes on and on and on and we've 'chucked it all to go sailing'?   In our case, we still haven't left .......I've developed some health issues that unfortunately for the time being I need keep track of ........................take care my friends.........