The Nor’Sea27 Owners NewsLine
The Newsletter of Inspired Nor’Sea 27 boat owners.
Issue # 19                   Oct., Nov., Dec. 1999

Highlights
Notes on trailering from OneList
Book reviews
Nor’Sea upgrades
Owners Inquire

Inside
Dean Wixom provides the secret of SPEED!
Trailering Safely by Bob Garbe
A Trailerable Sailboat By Nancy & Gale Saint
A Nor’Sea goes to Cuba by Clyde & Loretta (Part 1)
Upgrades
Editors Locker
Owners Inquire
Points Beyond
For Sale or Wanted




FOUNDERS FEATURE
By Dean Wixom
The Key to Speed, KEEP IT LIGHT!

This particular column will probably be heeded as much as a fart in a gale, but your founder needs the relief.

We are all carrying too damn much cargo.  Think about it; when's the last time you took something off your boat?   A new Nor’Sea is a joy to sail.  It's not just the new shine and smell, its the sparkling performance.  It's blasting past "racer-cruiser" boats.  It's smart tacks and sensitive steering.  A light Nor’Sea is indecently fast.  The prismatic coefficient Lyle designed in, the flat buttocks lines and yes, the lapstrakes, allow a light Nor’Sea to lift up and plane a bit.  We used to keep a "ringer" Nor’Sea around for racing.  It was tricked up a little with internal halyards, etc. and helped establish the Nor'Sea's reputation as a sleeper.  We had spinnaker runs with a constant 8+ knots, 10 on a surf.  The boat never felt on the verge of a broach.  It was light, the lockers were empty.  Contrast that with my own "Chinook".  When we returned to the U.S. I had raised the waterline three times.  4 1/2 knots to windward was cooking.  6 1/2 knots downwind was possible but seldom seen.  The boat just felt like it was forced and made unnatural motions.  It had become a 5 knot boat.  It was 5 inches below design waterline.  It was a slug.

While in the U.S. we did a refit after 40,000 miles; it was due.  We invested 2000 labor hours and dollars beyond counting.  The best part?  We took off everything we hadn't used or could do without and the waterline raised three inches.  The boat sails again.  It is still ready to go around the world, it is just intelligently loaded.

The lesson?  Disregard the articles you read about preparations for voyaging.  They are written by people with big boats.

I learned a couple of astonishing facts cruising which changed my outlook on packing a boat.

1.  Where there are people there is food.
2.  Where there are boats there are resources to fix them.

People eat.  Distribution systems have gone world wide.  South pacific islanders have forsaken breadfruit and yams for canned meat, cheese balls and Tyson frozen chicken.  You can get staples anywhere.  They are usually cheaper than at home.  Load up on fetish foods if you must, but be flexible, eat what the locals eat, save space, weight, and money.

There are boats in paradise and they get fixed there.  Sometimes ingeniously and often cheaply.  For every port with simple smiling natives in dugouts there are a dozen that keep local boats, fishing fleets and [especially in paradise, charter fleets],running.  Big Yanmar dealers ship worldwide and Fed Ex,UPS and DHL go to places you wouldn't believe.  I'm all for self sufficiency, but pack injectors and gasket sets, not manifolds and exhaust elbows.

The Nor’Sea will carry weight.  Astonishingly so.  The design water plane allows about 600 to 800 pounds per inch of immersion.

If Lyle Hess knew how much his design was crippled with loads he'd be apoplectic.

My own "Chinook" hit the water from the factory at near 10,000, then I sank the waterline four more inches.  13,000? It carried the load safely and sailed, but not well. `Chinook has recovered nicely, thank you.

Don't load your 27 footer like a 36 footer, and make it sail like a 20 footer.  Keep it light, lively and near design waterline.

Like the fart in a gale, everyone preparing a passage will disregard this, but I feel better.

Fairwinds
 
 


BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
Owners Report TRAILERING SAFELY
By
Bob Garbe

As a former and planned future Nor'Sea 27 owner, and continuing addict, I periodically read the Newsletter on the Internet.  I offer the following article that I thought might be of interest to owners that trailer their Nor'Sea's.  Might help some in their quest for safely transporting from point to point.

As a automotive engineer, former (and future, I hope) Nor’Sea owner and experienced trailer puller (Boats, RV’s etc), I thought that it may be useful to discuss some of the tips I have learned about the trailering of very large and cumbersome things about the country.

In the 4 years that I owned my first Nor’Sea, I put over 6000 miles on the trailer (a 2-axle EZ loader) and could barrel down the highway at 70 or more MPH,  with complete stability using a lowly Suburban as a tow vehicle.  But it didn’t start out that way.  When I first loaded my Nor’Sea on the trailer hooked up to  my Chev 3/4 ton Suburban and headed down the highway at 50 mph, the rig began to do the highway shimmy.  It was REALLY scary as many of you have reported.  When I finally got home several hundred miles later, and pried my white knuckled hands off the steering wheel, I immediately began an engineering analysis of the problem and researched the solutions.  There are a number of ways to reduce the sway and “hobby horse” problems, but all of them act on the same engineering principle.

Have you ever wondered why medium and large RV trailers have load equalizer bars, but boat trailers don’t (I think it’s just that boat trailer MFG’s forgot).  Also, why are 5th wheel trailers intrinsically stable?  The reason, in a nutshell, is weight distribution and intrinsic stability.

When you go out and buy a large dual wheel pickup truck, you are buying a tow vehicle with a large degree of intrinsic stability.  So much so, that weight distribution doesn’t matter much.  The triple axle trailer helps with this somewhat also, but not as much and not enough.  If you are expecting to tow a 12,000 pound rig with a 6000 pound vehicle, such as a Suburban, without a one-ton capacity and dual wheels and or a 5th wheel apparatus, it is essential that you do three things;
1) Measure and make sure you have at least 1200 pounds of tongue weight (e.g. 10% of total weight); AND
  2) Install the largest, strongest equalizing hitch (Reese or Pullrite or JC Whitney or whatever) you can find;
AND
  3) Set up the equalizer bars to transfer approximately 1/3 of the hitch weight to the front of the truck.

There are several ways to determine this weight transfer setting, but the easiest is to measure the front and rear bumper deflection before and after putting the trailer on, and then adjusting the equalizer bars to bring the bumpers midway back to the original set point. In this method, you will end up with one third of the trailer hitch weight on the back wheels of the truck, one third on the front wheels of the truck, and one third on the wheels of the trailer.  This makes for a very stable marriage between your tow vehicle and the trailer and very little sway.

Sway bars are unnecessary and a waste of time if the above is done correctly.

I should point out that many boat trailers are not easily equipped with equalizer bars, but it can be done with some head scratching.  It is completely beyond my understanding that boat trailers of any size at all are not equipped with an equalizing hitch right from the git go.

There are some very informative technical articles put out (years ago) by the REESE MFG company that may explain some of the interesting things that trailers
do when they are unstable and why the above approach or similar works.  These articles were published by the Society of Automotive Engineers in the 50's and the science of physics has not changed since then.  I can attest that you can pull a very large rig of up to twice the weight of the tow vehicle with a large degree of stability at any speed you desire.  But you also have to be able to stop it when you need to, and that is another question.

I would be happy to correspond with anyone with specific questions, and drool over the fact that you have a Nor’Sea, and I currently don’t.

My E-Mail is garbonz@ix.netcom.com

  Bob Garbe
  6202 Chimney Rock Trail
  Morrison, CO 80465
  (303) 236-7112

Notes from OneList on trailering

From: AP5050@aol.com

In my ever so humble opinion, the dually set up is not a requirement with the triple axle trailer nor is an equalizer hitch. A lot of the stability and excellent tracking comes from the distance between rear and front axle on the trailer. Also, the 3 axle is not just the old 2 axle with an extra set of wheels, it was totally redesigned and engineered for the Nor'Sea (Pacific   Trailers 909-902-0094) and the GVWR is now 14220 lb which makes a world of difference in the handling. I have not towed with a suburban but with a 1 ton   Ford mostly and never had any problems even at 65 mph when the roadway allows (not in Mexico!)
PS: my 1 ton Ford is not a dually.

Alain Provost

From: unkyowl@home.com

Hi, I'm Al Barnes 1/2 owner of hull No. 42, Njord. Since Njord and I have traveled on the highways about 20,000 miles in the last 20 years, I feel that I may be able to put some meaningful input into the conversations on trailering Nor'Seas. First of all, the only trailers that we've used have been two axles.  The first one being a Trail-Rite, and currently an Ez-Loader, both of which are sadly lacking in the tire department in any kind of warm weather.  Maximum load ratings on the tires and maximum air pressure are essential for any kind of temperature control.  The trailer axles should also be as far aft as you can possibly get them and the boat unloaded as much as possible with NOTHING in the aft cabin, if you have one.  The three axle trailers, thankfully, should solve most tire heating problems though not necessarily adding to stability if the tow vehicle is not right.
    We tow Njord with a Ford 350 Dually Turbo Diesel up and down the West Coast from Southern California to Washington with no problems at all under 60 mph, but over that, the tires just plain get TOO hot.  We don't use any special tow hitches because they all interfere with the surge brakes working properly and there are a lot of mountains between here and  there.  In the old days I did use all that stuff you've been talking about on the net but it was just too complicated and didn't really do the job I wanted it to.  I now have a good heavy-duty sway bar on the rear axle and have installed airbag overloads in place of the overload springs.  I think the bags to a much better job than the air shocks and easily control the weight of that trailer tongue that you've put as much weight on as possible.  Heavy-duty shocks are also a good idea but I'd leave the airbags off the ends of these and stick to the more substantial ones I've mentioned above that replace the over loads.  You! can get all this stuff at almost any good the R V. supply store.  I bought most of mine at Camping World for not much more than five hundred dollars including an onboard air pump and cab controls to regulate the pressure anyway I want it while underway.  Well, maybe around a grand including installation labor on some of the things.  No more white knuckles with this setup, winding roads are no challenge, maximum highway speeds if the weather is cool or you have three axles, and the trailer tongue doesn't look like a welder's nightmare.
I really believe the dually, heavy-duty sway bar, airbag over loads,(forget the E-Z Lifts, I almost lost a finger in one once), it is the optimum setup.  You can even retrofit your pickup or suburban or whatever the with a dually kit if you don't already have one.  This way everything is fairly simple around the trailer hitch, the brakes work right, and you should have really good sailing right down the old interstate. I hope this might have helped, any questions gladly answered.

Good Luck, Al
 
 


BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
Owners Report A Trailerable Sailboat
By Nancy & Gale Saint

 “What a cute little sailboat!”  “Oh, and its trailerable?  Wow.”  I’m sure you have heard the comments about your Nor’Sea.  As Gale and I sailed the 300 miles from Chicago to the North Channel of Lake Huron, we began to ask ourselves why we were not taking advantage of the trailerable part of our Nor’Sea 27.  A trip back to Bloomington in the midst of our summer adventure allowed us to pick up the trailer and bring it back to Mackinaw City, Michigan.  A return trip to Chicago via Suburban and trailer would give us extended time in the North Channel.

We found our first cruise of the North Channel to be just as breathtakingly beautiful and enjoyable as many sailors had promised.  The northern section of Lake Huron is protected by large islands, and then sprinkled with hundreds of small rock islands covered with pine trees.  The fresh water is clear and warm enough for swimming in late August.  Over the years, the run off has filled the bays with mud, which makes it great for anchoring.

A few small town marinas on the Canadian side of the lake provide fuel, laundry and consumables at a very good exchange rate currently.  The busy season is from July 1st to mid August.  There are several good guidebooks, PORTS, Richardson’s Charts of Lake Huron, as well as Canadian and NOAA charts.  We are members of the Great Lakes Cruising Club, which produces a notebook full of information about each of the 100 plus anchorages.

Bob and Cheri Hartman, Ariel #73. who summer in East Jordan, Michigan are great sources of information on the North Channel as well as Joe and Betsy Butera, from Gowanda, NY, on board Stina, #173.

Nancy & Gale Saint

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
Owners Report
Tralering
From: garbonz@ix.netcom.com

Thanks to all who offered tips and words of encouragement on the Internet, as I made the trip from Las Vegas to Denver with my "New" Nor’sea in tow.  It was uneventful (except for the 1 1/2 hours in the Nevada DMV office for an $8.00 transit permit). Some of my observations are.

The three-axle trailer really does a great job and followed behind my Suburban without any hint of instability.  I brought along some weight equalizer bars that I was going to jury rig, if necessary, but never needed them.  I don't know how much tongue weight it has but the tail of the truck only dropped one inch.  Brakes work very well, but you have to be careful how you apply them on the downgrades or they will smoke.  Found that a gentle touch in 10mph increments (wait till 50mph and slow to 40 then wait till 50 again, etc.) worked well and allowed some cooling between.

I installed a huge transmission cooler (24,000 gvw) and put a autometer gauge in the pan. Trans temp went from a normal 190F or so to 230F when towing, but would easily rise to 260-280F on upgrades.  Trans fluid kept it's pink color.  The trans cooler is essential, and the more the better.

I installed helper donuts to help level the rear axle loading.  The one's I found were made by Timben, INC. and were rubber donuts that look like air shock on heavy duty trucks.  They worked great and took one bolt and 10 minutes to install.
I spent quite a bit of time in 1st gear and 25 mph (22 straight miles in Utah) but the trip went surpassingly fast.  I was also reduced to 11 mph on the Eisenhower tunnel on I 70 at 11,000 ft.  Any slower and I would have had to get out and push.

Put the boat in, with the help of another Nor’sea owner in the marina and have had her out a couple times; great feeling to be behind the tiller again, but I had forgotten how SLOW she turns under power.  The mast is still a pain in the A-- to put up without a gin pole.  I need to design something better; thinking of an A frame out of aluminum tubing or something.

The other Nor'sea owner is Matt; his is a 1986 with a gray bootstrip and blue dodger, he's had it for 4 years and picked it up in San Carlos, I think.  Great guy and he has been very helpful.

Well, just some thoughts

garbonzo


BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
Owners Report
A Nor’Sea goes to Cuba
Clyde & Loretta
(Part 1)

Ahoy!  Loretta & I finally made it back to Tallahassee, sailing capital of Florida.  Unfortunately, Sandpiper is still in St. Pete.  We’re landlocked for the next few months while we attend to her personal stuff, fix the boat, and replenish the cruising kitty.  You know, the usual crap.

Anyway, we had a wonderful journey.  Loretta did very well.  And she also put up with me.  Not bad for a rookie.  After working our way down the west coast of Florida, we arrived in Marathon on Easter Sunday.  We spent almost six weeks there.  But, we did take two weeks off to help one of the local church groups deliver humanitarian supplies to Nicaragua.  Our ship was an old converted fishing rust bucket, Two Sons.  I found myself humming the “Gilligan’s Island” song the whole trip!  This was our good deed for the year.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend any real time in Nicaragua.  Just unloaded and left.  The cook and I went into town to resupply.  The entire area was very poor and run down.  The worst part of the trip, besides the noise and smell of diesel, was that Loretta hurt herself pretty badly.  She was trying to keep up with the boys, partly due to my coaxing, and instead of jumping off the boat, she slipped and actually hit the rail!  Everyone freaked!!  When she surfaced, we got her on board as quickly as possible.  I expected to see broken bones all over the place.  She was lucky.  But both legs had very, very nasty bruises.  Four months later, they’re still not completely healed.  Poor thing!  But what a trooper!

The crew was quite interesting.  Keep in mind, that everyone, except us, were born-again Christians.  And recent converts.  Not that that’s bad, it’s just not a group I’ve spent a lot of time with.  (You can start humming the “Gilligan’s Island” song now.)  There was the ex-Navy submarine captain and his wife. (The captain didn't believe in charting our position, even near the Nicaraguan reefs, “Just use the GPS”.  Plus he confiscated our Nicaraguan beer.)  The vegetarian cook, who read the bible for three hours each morning, lectured us on the evils of meat, processed foods, non-organic vegetables.  To make his point, he chucked three pounds of good beef overboard.  Great cook though.  (And he was the one who smuggled a gallon of wine on board.)  Then there was the 81-year-old mate who kept banging his head on his bunk and falling asleep on his watch.  He also had eagles tattooed on his chest.  For entertainment, he could make them soar.  (Night watch was long.)  Finally, we had two maintenance men on board.  We had a lot of fun with them.  Luckily though, nothing major broke.  If they couldn’t fix something, we would pray together.  Never seemed to fix the problem, but it did make us feel better.  In all honesty, though, it was a good bunch of people.  And for the most part, we all got along.  Overall, it was a very nice and spiritually rewarding journey.

After we recuperated from our side trip, we headed west.  Really enjoyed Looe Key (great snorkeling) and Sand Key.  Didn’t really care for Key West.  Too many people, cars, tourists, powerboats, jet skiis, etc.  And quite expensive.  We first tried to sail to Cuba from Key West, but after 17 hours we still weren’t halfway there, and were getting pushed farther east by the Gulf Stream.  So, we turned around and had a great seven hour sail back to Key West.  We then headed for the Dry Tortugas for another try  We loved the Tortugas.  Closest thing to the Caribbean I had seen in the entire trip.  Turquoise clear water, white sand beaches and steady winds.  Maybe too steady at times.  The first night, a squall came through and three boats dragged, one onto the pilings.  No body hurt, fortunately.  We met Ray Jason (Aventura), who writes for my favorite sailing magazine, Latitude 38. I’ve been reading his articles, or vignettes, for six or seven years now.  To earn money, he juggles bowling balls in Key West, or wherever.  Interesting way to pay for your cruising, don’t you think?!  Ray took us in his boat to Loggerhead Key, where we spent the day snorkeling “Little Africa”, a really beautiful spot with thousands of fish (including some 5 foot  tarpon) and huge brain coral.  Ray is quite a character.  Would love to see his juggling show sometime.  He was wearing a little yellow Speedo bathing suit he calls the banana hammock.  It’s from one of his stories.  Very funny.  After spending several days exploring Fort Jefferson, snorkeling, and just hanging out, we took off for Cuba again.

This sail was much better.  Marina Hemingway, and the wind, of course, were both southeast of the Dry Tortugas.  So, we headed southwest.  It was almost perfect.  The Gulf Stream pulled us east, so that by daylight we could see Cuba.  By 11 am, we were sitting at the custom’s dock in Hemingway.  Wow!!  In only about an hour, we had been cleared in by the five different government agencies.  It had only cost us a couple of bags of candy and soft drinks/beer and some “souvenirs”.  We got off easy.  They must have figured that we didn’t have much or why would we be sailing this little boat to Cuba.

Marine Hemingway (MH) was ok.  Nothing great, though, but you can tell they’re trying.  We just tied up to a concrete dock.  It’s tidal, so we had to be very careful that our toerail didn’t get caught under the lip of the dock.  The day we arrived was Lorreta’s birthday, so we celebrated with a Cuban Lobster.  There were a couple of dozen boats at MH.  Only a few from the US, though.  MH had several restaurants, a boat yard, grocery store (called a dollar store), a couple of shops, and a few small hotels.  Keep in mind, that even though Americans are not supposed to be spending any money, the official currency at all the tourist places is in US dollar.  This really pisses off the Brits and Canadians, who spend billions of dollars in Cube, to have to convert their money into ours.  But, that’s the way it is.  The dollar stores are quite interesting.  The US law under “Trading with the Enemy” that says we aren’t supposed to do business with any company doing business with Cuba.  However, in the dollar stores there are Carnation products (from Canada), Heinz (“restaurant pack- not for resale”), Dole (Thai pineapple not Hawaiian), Coke, Marlboro, Jim Beam, and even Paul Newman’s salad dressing.  Just like being in the old US of A.  Prices weren’t too bad either.  However, the best product we found was a mosquito repellent from good old California.  It really worked.  I doubt it would pass the EPA tests here, though.  We would spray the mosquito net at night and the next morning, we would watch a fly get entangled and start to zip across the boat.  About halfway, it would go into a tailspin and crash onto the cabin sole.  Dead!  No wonder it’s not legal in the US anymore.  But the stuff worked.  There is no shortage of bugs in Cuba.  There are a lot of US products in Cuba.  Not to be  political, but doesn’t this make our stand against Cuba somewhat hypocritical?

When we were in the Tortugas, while trying to bum some ice (can’t drink a vodka tonic without ice), we met Roger, who has a girlfriend in Cuba.  Problem is, their letters never seem to reach each other.  So, we hand delivered his letters to her.  She was ecstatic!  It was so cute.  Unfortunately, she disn’t speak English and our Spanish sucks.  But, we did pick up a letter to mail to Roger when we got back to the States.

We spent two days touring Old Havana.  What a beautiful city!  Hundreds of old buildings, some from the 1500s.  And the Cubans are still living in them.  By our standards, they are quite poor.  But, having lived near the Oakland ghetto, Cuba was considerably nicer.  And safer.  At least there is virtually no crime and the buildings have character.  In addition, the government is spending millions of dollars renovating the entire city.  For a large, third world city, Havana is extremely clean.  There’s virtually no graffiti and they have street sweepers everywhere.  One street sweeper, when he discovered we were American, held out his broom and started singing opera to us! Right in the middle of the street!  Kewl!  Havana must have been an awesome city in it’s day.  It’s like walking through some of the old cities of Spain.  Hopefully, they’ll be able to continue restoring it’s beauty and charm.

One of the strange things about Havana, and Cuba in general, was the lack of churches.  There were many old churches, but very few of them were being used.  I guess it's a communist thing.  But it was very strange, especially for what was once a Spanish and Catholic, colony.  There were plenty of churches, monasteries, and nunneries, but almost all were empty.  But the architecture was beautiful!!  Unlike both Mexico and Spain, everything was open on Sunday.  Nobody was walking around in his or her Sunday best.  The families weren’t gathered together.  Having spent quite a bit of time in Spanish speaking countries, this was weird sight.  However, we did see posters of the Pope on walls and doors, and many people had pictures of Jesus in their homes.  We were told that the Cuban people were allowed to “officially” celebrate Christmas last year.  So, I guess religion is not totally dead, but it sure isn’t conspicuous.

Another aspect of communism that is strange to us Americans is all the security.  There are police and military everywhere.  In the nicer areas, they have their own buildings, which are more like small watchtowers.  However, very few of them are armed.  We did feel quite safe.  But, while I was touring the Museum of the Revolution, Loretta met a couple of college kids from Cuba.  They were both English majors and had “permission” to talk to tourists.  They were actually given a special card.  This was how they practiced English.  Even with this card though, the young man had been arrested and interrogated for three hours.  The police wanted to know what he was talking about.  Several times we noticed that the people we were talking to would keep looking around.  It was a strange feeling.  Big Brother is alive and well in Cuba.

Havana was the only place we saw beggars, though.  But, then, it is a big city.  And, in several cases, it looked like a scam.  These little kids would walk up to us with a very forlorn looks, motioning to their mouth for food.  It was almost impossible not to give them something.  But then we’d see them go up to their mother, smiling and laughing.  She would have two or three kids out begging.  From our limited experience, it doesn’t seem like the Cuban people are starving, but most of them, especially in the city, are on a subsistence level.

By the way, we got to know the harbormaster at Marina Hemingway.  He told us that he makes 354 pesos a month, which is about $17 a month.  And this is one of the better jobs.  However, their medical is free and so is their education, even college.  Their food is also subsidized.  But, still, it’s hard to splurge on $17 a month.  So, it’s easy to see why college professors and doctors are working as waiters and bartenders.  There, at least, they have access to tips in US dollars.  Right now there is no middle class in Cuba..  However, that will change as tourism increases.  The  middle class will be the taxi drivers, waiters, etc.  You can see it slowly happening already.
Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed Havana, but were ready to move on to the smaller and quieter parts of Cuba.  We had to delay our departure for a day because the military was doing “boom-booms” to the west of Hemingway,  Oh, before we left, we did have one negative experience.  It had been raining daily.  So, one day I hung my shorts and by favorite Latitude 38 shirt on the lifelines to dry.  As we were leaving, we noticed three young black kids jumping into the canal.  Considering how strict the guards were about Cubans entering Hemingway, this seemed strange to us.  So strange, that I decided to go back.  I got to the boat just as the kids were stealing my clothes off of  the lifelines.  By the time I could locate the guards, the kids had hightailed it out of there.  Everyone was very apologetic.  The guard even came up to us that evening and personally apologized.  He moved his chair right next to Sandpiper and that night aimed his huge spotlight right on the boat.  Nothing like being the center of attention!!  Oh, you want to see our boat, just follow the spotlight!

See part 2 next issue!

Added note from Clyde:
Regarding the trip to Nicaragua, I made a comment about being the only non born-again Christian on board. It wasn't, and isn't, my intent to disparage any of my fellow sailors. These were really nice people. I'm afraid some readers might be offended. I would like to apologize to anybody who was offended by my comments.

Thanks,
Clyde



BOOK REVIEW
By Lon Zimmerman
Aboard Ettle Dree

Here are two great books for those of you floating around without a care.

The first book is non-fiction titled  N by E by Rockwell Kent.  This book caught my eye because I sail on Resurrection Bay, a body of water watched over by  Seward , Alaska. Mr. Kent and his 9 year old son spent the winter of 1918 on rocky storm lashed Fox Island, about fifteen miles down the bay from Seward.  But that is the subject of another of his books.

N by E is the tale of the attempt by Kent and two shipmates to travel from New York to Greenland by means of a wooden 33 foot sailing vessel in the year 1929.

It is a tale well told and wonderfully illustrated by Kent.    A quote is required to help you realize his lyric quality, to tease the yet uninitiated --

"Once in a while {fog} lifts and shows a shore of mountain ranges.  There is a forbidding glamour, a terribleness about the scene."

Book number two is fiction:  The Celtic Ring  by Bjorn Larson , a Swedish writer and sailor.  This work is a mystery, which involves sailing about the coast of Ireland and Scotland in the midst of druids no less.   Those of you who are passionate about good literature and sailing will find this a very good read.

Here is the obligatory quote --

"On land, according to MacDuff, people always give themselves an importance that is actually unwarranted.  They try to leave traces of themselves behind, ……………    But people of the sea understand that such efforts are useless.  When a ship passes, the water closes again in its wake and all becomes precisely as it was before."


UPGRADES

Got some information and we have all got some possible help from Bob Loiacono. He is in the process of refitting hull number 28. In the process he had to replace the fuel tank and sent this in:

Atlantic Coastal (a manufacturer that will fabricate US Coast Guard certified fuel tanks) has my tank done. I had it made 1 inch wider at the top, tapering into normal size 1/2 way down. This was based on the extreme wedge shape of the foam removed. Foam will still be wide enough to be removed in the future (if the boat needs it 20 years from now!) The capacity I think they said is now 36 Gallons. My old tank remains there as a model for them to work from. Now that I invested in sending it there, all Nor’sea owners can benefit from it as needed!

-Bob

Editors Note:
Bob also designed and built three tools to aide in the tank removal process. He has sent them to us, and we are in the process of removing our tank! When we are finished, The tools will be available for the next user.


EDITOR’S LOCKER

Speaking of fuel tanks and major projects. When we took over the files from the Saints, there was a lot of information on engine and fuel tank removal. Way more than would fit into a copy of the NewsLine. Since then, we have gotten even more info from other owners. And, we have just removed our own Yanmar and are in the process of removing and replacing the fuel tank!

So, we are planning on putting together two additional and special “Tech” issues of the NewsLine over the next year that will capture all this GREAT info. One will be on removing and replacing an engine. The other will be on replacing the fuel tank. Hope this will be of interest to a few owners.
 

We were recently contact by Gonzalo Medina from Chile. He is very interested in the Nor’Sea and asked:

This November I am going to Boston, do you know if there is a place in Boston or near Boston where I can see a Nor’Sea 27.  May be a marina.

Sincerely
Gonzalo Medina Vogel
medinag@entelchile.net

He may also be in Miami Fl. Can anyone help him?
 
 

The Nor’Sea27 Owners NewsLine now has a new service that allows us to use the power of the Internet to stay in contact with any and all readers.  You may now: e-mail us at norsea@onebox.com or phone or fax us at: (650) 503-3092 Extension 0019.  By using this new address and phone number we can get your message from anyplace.  It will also be possible to pass this address and phone number along to the next NewsLine editors so, once you have it in your system, it should not change even if the editors do!


OWNERS INQUIRE

Gale & I are wondering if any owners have installed solar panels on the Nor’Sea.  Where did you install them?  We are an aft cockpit.  What kind, flexible, or rigid? Did they accomplish what you envisioned?

Thanks for any comments - Nancy  NO NEWS  #76
 
 


POINTS BEYOND
Iorana, from Tahiti

Doug and Jenn aboard Freya, their great little Nor’sea 27 have been having a great time in French Polynesia. Look for a big E-mail soon that Jenns Dad will send for us, French computers are crazy!!

We are safe and will go to Bora Bora for the final two weeks of our visa, then onto the cook island, and Tonga.

Nana, Doug and Jenn
 
 






EQUIPMENT FOR SALE or WANTED

From Steve J Halsey

We have a Nor’Sea built by Heritage Marine  ... 1977 model with aft cabin. The chart table in the main cabin is forward of the heater, etc etc.

We do have something to pass on to other owners ..... We have a custom built shipping cradle for our Nor’Sea ... for loading on container ships etc. Maybe other Nor’Sea owner could put it to use??? We had "Tandem Cay" shipped back from New Zealand and it would be such a waste to have the cradle cut up for scrap metal ... 10 and 12 inch I-Beam construction ....
I think it may weigh more than the boat!!!

We are in Hawaii so there must be someone that is looking for an excuse for a downwind run to the Tropics and would like to ship their boat back without a whole lot of hassle???

Please contact me at: halseykmp@juno.com
 
 

I am a future Nor'Sea owner. I am in the market for an aft cockpit version. Do you know of any on the market?

PLEASE contact me at: A1mikejr@aol.com

Hope to join you soon.
Mike Mortell
 
 
 

Kalolina,
Hull # 16 is reluctantly for sale! Health reasons force us to part with our 27'Nor'Sea center cockpit. This is a factory boat, restored to original, New; cushions, upholstery, finish. Engine has 20 hrs since complete factory distributor overhaul, batteries 1 year old, new running rigging, radar, GPS, Loran, VHF, stereo, Autohelm auto pilot, propane oven and range, new Sealand head, Lexan replaced in all hatches, teak boom gallow, includes new sailcovers with color choice and free bottom paint after survey. Have to see to appreciate condition.  $39,900 Ready to go cruising.

Call for more details, diagrams, pictures and background

Frank and Carolyn Hooper
408-734-9003
page 1-800-807-1393
e-mail fghooper@ix.netcom.com
 
 



Published, edited, typed, and stamped aboard Guenevere (Nor’Sea Hull #80) by:
Greg & Jill Delezynski
660 Bair Island Rd. #24
Redwood City,  Ca.  94063
(650)261-1391
g-j-delezynski@worldnet.att.net