The Cape Dory Board

Thanks to everyone who wrote with kind words, or who sent pms with suggestions for help. We truly appreciate it. Thursday was a gloriously beautiful spring day in San Francisco. We chartered the sailboat Ruby. The captain had the tact to go below and leave us to our selves, and we drifted, and we dr...

My brother is- was- a longtime resident of San Francisco. He had always said that someday, when the time came, he'd like to have his ashes scattered out over the Pacific or over the Bay that he loved. Tragically the time has come. I know that there are probably commercial charter operations that do ...

The others above are correct in that generally the main is cleated off on the stb side: if this causes the halliard to jam, and it appears to be off-center, I am wondering if maybe your main halliard is rigged through your jib sheave at the masthead, and vice-versa. This was your first time out? Con...

With all due respect to the afficionados of pressurized alcohol, I'm with Troy and Ckreitlein on this one. See, I have no doubt that pressurized stoves work. And I understand, theoretically, that the esoteric arts of pressurized alcohol stovery can probably be mastered by anyone who wishes to apply ...

Hi Bruce Before I ripped it out, my alcohol tank used to be in a bracket just above the diesel tank, port lazarette. I think I still have it in the basement somewhere, if you should need one. It's painted green. Just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason why you might wish to put one of t...

John- On my setup, the feet sit on the lazarette lids and press up against the seatbacks. But it doesn't really matter- you just want the feet to butt up against something that prevents them from sliding further apart, as that would affect the height of the structure. You could probably even make on...

Ideally, yes they should be carpeted. However I have allowed myself to become somewhat less rigorous about the carpet thing as I should, as the years go on... I was a stickler for carpet the first couple years I had my boat... The thing to keep in mind is that the plywood tops don't (or at any rate ...

Hi John. I'd be reluctant to consider myself one of "the experts on this board", but I have built for myself such a mast crutch as you seem to require- possibly something like it might work for you as well. My mast crutch is made from two lengths of 2X4s crossed in an X shape (with the 2 s...

Neil, Michael: Point taken about using the speedlog to determine current. As a Great Lake sailor, currents aren't much of an issue for me so I hadn't thought about that. Also, back to the original topic, I think Shipscarver should consider adding a VHF radio to the short list of "necessary elec...

Hi shipscarver. I'll go out on a limb here, and say that a cheaper, lower end chartplotter is a pretty great thing to have, although the top shelf ones are probably pretty great too (I wouldn't know). Get the sort where you can buy a chip or card for your cruising area. Since I installed mine (incid...

Thank you all for your quick replies. Bill, yes- the 30 has a continous headliner except where it is interrupted by the bulkheads around the head. The handrails in the 30 are aft of the head, so they don't really come into play here. Carl, I am glad that I'm not the only one who has found snaking a ...

Earlier this season, I re-wired my mast to universal acclaim within my marina. However I am sad to report that those rewired wires are connected to nothing, because I'm unable to discover the secret to running those wires inside the headliner back aft, and I'm far too much of a wuss to drill a hole ...

I've only just recently been working on my ice-box. In mine, the original box was insulated with fibreglass batt insulation inside the "shell", and some sort of cork insulation underneath the countertop. As a dockmate gave me a used Adler Barbour machine, I decided to add insulation inside...

I've read with interest previous posts regarding the Sensibulb (although I suspect "Dollarsibulb"- if not actually even "Beelzibulb"- may be a name more in keeping with the Truth-in-Advertising laws) and given as how I've just spent a ridiculous sum fitting an LED tricolor/anchor...

Thank you all for your splendid advice- the suggestion to use a stay was an inspired one- not only did it answer admirably to the task at hand, but also pushed through a prodigious amount of spiderwebs, waspsnests, etc. I had had no idea our multilegged friends found the inside of a mast such a desi...