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Our Sailing Hideaway Blog and YouTube videos will remain active. Join the HideAways as we tell, through blog stories and videos, what life really is like on a small, 23' Com Pac sailboat. We'll show the joys, thrills and chills of the sailing life, but also what it takes to maintain a boat, trailer and truck. You are just as likely to learn how not to do something correctly as to do it right. That's important too! New! The Hideaways take to the road! Follow Traveling Hideaway: Winds of Wanderlust Transitioning from Sailing Hideaway to Traveling Hideaways as sailors learn to travel without heeling, well, not much, anyway. The Paint Wasters Society unlocks the art of paint squandering with sheer delight, free from the shackles of remorse or guilt. Trust me, a century down the line, nobody's going to bat an eyelash, so why not indulge in some paint splattering shenanigans today? Let's turn those pricey pigments into a canvas of laughter and joy.

Monday, May 16, 2016

How to Lose Your Sole - Compac 23

Of all the projects on the long and growing refit list perhaps the most dreaded is the replacement of the cabin sole.  The other large projects, cabin painting, compounding and waxing the hull, painting the topsides etc. were at least things I’ve either done before or could wrap my remaining brain cells around.   Ripping out a substantial chunk of the cabin was something to put off even with the acknowledgement that the project was not going away. 

My Sole Extraction Project Began with a Brush

I was painting something at the time, and well, you know how that goes.  You just can’t stop or you’ll have to clean things.  It doesn’t take long in the heat that is spring in Florida to dry out an ill placed dollop of paint from a fully loaded brush dropped in response to my sole achieving a bond with one of the smaller digits of my left foot.

If You Can’t Laugh At Yourself You’re Missing The Best Part Of The Show

The fairly outsized piece of sole protruding from one of my smaller toes was removed without remorse by the admiral from the foot hanging over the gunnel that belonged to the shoeless painter and staked out by an insistent sole all the while providing entertainment to the post woman and snickering neighbors whom happened by. 

So my friends go below to find my offering described with talking moving pictures of how to remove your very own sole.



 Part Two- Finding Your Sole should be a real hoot.

SMALL BOATS ROCK!

Saturday, May 7, 2016

BCYC Spring Sailing School - Docking





It was the last day of the spring Sailing School.  The final lesson is piloting a glass boat up a narrow channel in gusty winds to an immovable object.  This lesson involves all points of sail while developing your nerves of steel.  What could be more fun?


SMALL BOATS ROCK!! 

Friday, April 22, 2016

Turning Fiberglass into Wood

oh, you mean the PAINT
I like the the blues I said - So do I-she said - make it blue!
Whats wrong with this picture?  For one thing its too sterile, besides being awash in blue, it has no personality .  Since adding real wood was beyond my skill set, risk tolerance and time line I resorted to the cure of most ills; another coat of  paint.  OK, many coats of paint.

Sailing HideAway refit
MAKING A MESS IS WHAT I DO BEST
 Not just any paint will do the job I had in mind.  It has to be artist's quality professional level to maintain the most basic of sailboat maintenance requirements-  It has to be expensive!

The real reason though is that professional level artist paint has no fillers.  That means you can mix colors accurately.  It's not easy-as any artist will tell you- art is a very painful thing. .
painting below the deck- FiberWood
It's easy to attach the trim- just use a paint brush!
I have to do some work on the trim pieces but so far I really like the effect.

below deck paint
SV HIDEAWAY PORT SIDE WOOD FINISH
I used the rough surface to add color and texture to the  FiberWood.  Like most things in this world, it looks better from a distance.  Yes, I see the port has some paint on it- I don't claim to be neat! I can remove the blemishes later. 

SMALL BOATS ROCK!!

 Custom Wood Photo Cube
Custom Wood Photo Cube by MACmedia
Look at other Vacation Photo Cubes at zazzle.com
We've sold several of these as gifts for Mother's Day
Just add your own photos/art- It's easy- I did it!

Thursday, April 14, 2016

It Is What It Is - Com-Pac 23 Refit Update

Forward cabin before refinishing compac 23
FORWARD CABIN COMPAC 23
It the beginning of the refit I had a notion to update hull #2 to a more current version of the Com-Pac 23. It should be relatively easy I reasoned since the hull and house of all CP 23s are made from the same mould after all. Perhaps all I need do is cover up the rough parts below with wood and plastic and voila  I'd have a older version of the 23 that at least looks younger.

A Nautical Fountain of Youth

Its not so easy though. The early boats were not designed to have a fine finish. The cabins are, to be kind, rough.  So rough in fact that any attempt to cover the cabin house walls with wood panels require either grinding down the fiberglass errors or shimming out all six ports.  Add in the strange peeling of the  cabin top limits any significant improvements.

cabin top of SV HideAway before painting

Like Her Owners, HideAway is Getting Old

We both look better from distance and we are both of work boat decor.   HideAway at least can be made to look much younger with some paint, fillers and some new parts.  Can't make the same claim for us though.

What's More Important: Yachting or Sailing?

I'll admit the new boats have much nicer looking cabins filled with wood cabinetry and the slide out galley and an actual table stored below.  Though, if you look at it  through black and white eyes much of the cabinetry makes comfortably sleeping in the main cabin near impossible for normal sized Americans.   And this normal sized American is not going to sleep where you go - if you get my sniff.

Add in our concerns of cooking below decks, the utility of coolers and practicallity of  hatch boards as tables, then the newer cabin interior looks great but has some functional issues..Either that or we have just adapted to the work boat decor environment of less is truely less and would be lost within the luxury of the yacht like improvements.  
SV HideAway interior painted- not finished

The Sailing Fun Factor Does Not Change

The cool thing about mass produced fiberglass boats is that they are all essentially the same hull and topsides. That means low numbered hulls will sail with the same vigor as the new.  Albeit not as shiny and yacht like.

So, my friends the HideAway is what it is and we rather like it that way.

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SV hideAway cruising

SMALL BOATS ROCK!!


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