HEAT!! (for your feet...and hands...in the garage) Topic is solved

[RickHaleParker]

Sailing in MT?

Sure, that is what a Prairie Schooner is for.

[BlackBart]

Sailing in MT? Always a challenge,.....Flathead?

Always been a big racing and classics fan. Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, Wooden Boat School in Maine, NW School of Wooden Boats Port Townsend. My dad built a tiny wooden El Toro in the 60s and raced it all over Colorado's high mountain lakes; that's what we learned on. Grand Lake, 8000' up! So we're just lowly dinghy racers, mostly Lasers. All those years in Seattle and I wait 'til I move to MT to buy a boat?? I tried for years to drum up interest in Flathead Laser racing and was a NW class official. ONE year we got 35-odd boats on the line for a Flathead Laser Championship - CA, OR, WA, MT, and Alberta. Lot of big square states with bumpy edges. But interest faded. And no dedicated facility to host something like that except a private YOT club.

Flathead is a big big lake, 30 miles long, cold and deep. Very clean and clear water. Only the top 6' heat up in the summer. Surrounded by mountains. Close to Glacier Park. Makes it's own weather, which can be very interesting. We've been almost caught in some nasty stuff, including a squall that sunk a keelboat at the north end and blew a Hobie Cat end over end 100 feet inland. But it's low at 2500 feet, and the water tempers the surroundings so that famous Flathead cherries are a big crop on the east shore, and there's a vineyard on the SW shore.

There's a posh guest lodge on the NE shore that has two original Q-class boats from the 20's. Completely restored on-site, all wood, 60 feet long and narrow. They take lodge guests out for wine and cheese, but we Laser kids got a private sail on one of them. They have a minder who runs the boat, but he let us take her out into some real wind and sail her ourselves. We got her right up to max hull speed, gybed her and got a big stern wave into the cockpit. Oh, we had fun. Everybody got a turn steering. He said, I don't think I've ever seen her go that fast! And man, to feel a big 61' boat accelerate like that is really something. Great memories!



FROM SPACE!! That big island at the lower left bay is called Wild Horse Island. It is state-owned public land, no camping or fires, and it has, yes, wild sheep and horses on it.

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Wind? ...what wind?

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The Nor'Easter when she was completed and launched...

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Pure race boat - nothing below except sail storage.

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Our grand day out. The light blue shirt is a highway patrolman and tri-athlete and a wizard sailor. Unbelievable how he'd skunk us. Raced in San Francisco Bay.

This fine young man was the race steward at the big yot club at the north end. Very very good sailor. Teaches sailing in Seattle, captains charter boats in the Caribbean in the winter.

This fine young man in the red hat used to work for Ted Hood in Marblehead in a former life. Raced big boats on the Great Lakes and Atlantic for many years. Now I try to beat him in a Laser.

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Q-boats in Marblehead back in the day...

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The sister boats, Questa and Nor'easter

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LONG answer to a short question!

[BlackBart]

This is more my speed....

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[abscate]

I have a pan ERICSON 32 cruising boat on Lake Ontario, race Harpoons on local lakes I upstate NY, but my favorite boat m drum roll, is the infamous M26; the boat sailors hate

We take it to the Cape 3x in summer and spend a week on Cuttyhunk Island on anchor

[BlackBart]

Fun! Cuttyhunk is a great name for an island!


My eyes!! The light!!

I've been cleaning for an hour because I can see all the grit and sawdust and spiderwebs! A treasure trove of Alfa parts in boxes under there. Who knew? I tied up and anchored all the light cords to the ceiling or beam. Inspector came by and signed off on everything. We have a GFI on both outlet circuits, and a master GFI on the overhead power.

After running the heater an hour it was sweater weather in there, but the envelope is just leaking heat like crazy. Need to budget for insulation soon. We'll have to drill holes and blow it in to the plywood ceiling and far wall. Front wall I can do batts. Garage doors are foam, which is better than nothing.

It's transformed! How many years have I put this off.

[BlackBart]

Ocracoke is also an excellent name for an island, and home to not Black Bart, but Blackbeard the pirate!

I gave 3 garage tours today. My sportscar buddies want to see the light, and see if that heater is going to work well.

[abscate]

If I can find a flatbed cheap rental.p, I’m going to drive down to CT and steal Dirks garage.

I’ve already sent him a free part with a Trojan horse tracker

[BlackBart]

Ooo, the electrical installation bill was steep, $900, but well worth it for top notch work.

[abscate]

Ooo, the electrical installation bill was steep, $900, but well worth it for top notch work.

Yeah, those guys aren't afraid to bill , are they?

Shocking!

[BlackBart]

He's very fair, but it adds up. A heavy duty GFI outlet is $20 now. Many many feet of armored cabling and conduit and fittings.

I feel like I should be out there fixing something, funny, instead of working at the far end of the house. My wife flipped on the lights and completely organized her gardening shelves, threw a bunch of junk away! I need to do the same.