Messages

This spring I will be putting my old Commander on the hard and restoring/refitting it again. My health has returned and i miss sailing the old boat, but have I have another more important reason. I am a member of the DAV Chapter # 22, Disabled American Veterans. I met a   young Marine at a 7-11 here, a few blocks away from the Naval Hospital Portsmouth Virginia, The young Marine was missing the bottom part of one leg, and still bandaged. No one in the store helped him in the door, most ignored him turning away their eyes, even though he was having trouble getting in the door...I got to him from my car and helped him with the door, he seemed very despondent. I gave him my card and told him I lived near by and if he needed anything Got to talking while getting him coffee and found out that he sailed but thought that it would be too much to sail now.
I told him that he could still sail and tried to encourage him. I told him that I wished that my boat was sea worthy and would have either taken him out for a sail or lent him the boat for a day. Well,  I am going to get my boat back in shape and make it easier to sail and donate it or offer sailing outings/lessons  to our returning and disabled veterans. The Commander is the perfect day-sailer for doing that with the large cockpit and comfortable cabin and I cannot think of a safer boat. I plan on doing somethings to the rigging besides the usual chores, maybe  a furler/hoyt jib boom, small Yanmar in place of the outboard, and whatever else I need to make the boat safer, easier to sail and more comfortable. I also like the idea of a gull-wing sail without a back stay....any ideas would be appreciated.

After a couple of rounds of surgery these last three years and not sailing my Commander for two years, it  is in need of some maintenance. I am looking to share my boat with another/other sailors who appreciates this boat and willing to do the work or form a group to sail it. The boat is docked at Nautical Boats here in Portsmouth, Virginia. Motor has less then ten hours on it, a Nissan five horse, four stroke and is need of maintenance. I am doing very well now but need partners keeping up this wonderful sailboat and expenses. :rolleyes:

Health conditions are preventing me from sailing and keeping my Commander in good condition. I have come to the very sad conclusion that I must sell the boat. Included is a Nissan 6 hp four stoke with less then 20 hrs running time with two props. Two good main sails one is the original, two foresails, one a 120 and the other a working sail. Also a spinnaker, spinnaker pole all  in very good condition, also very good professionally made  new thick interior seats and many other extras.  Extras include  Commander engine hole plug, five installed  antique Crittenden brass 1:" thick glass bronze portholes that replaced the old  port lights and a antique bronze deck bit.  The boat can be seen at the "Nautical Boats" yard here in Portsmouth Virginia. I can be contacted at 757-397-3380 or emailed at rlemasters1@cox.net  Price is very reasonable, the boat needs some work and the engine has not been run in over a year and a half...price is open to negotiation  to forum members... See photos that I have posted before or If need be I will post them again. I am very sad to make the sale announcement, very sad indeed.

Get well soon sailor. You will sail again. I myself still have health problems that aren't quite over yet and I have enjoyed reading your contributions to this forum very much as I have many others. I haven't met any of the members here but feel that I know some of you all. Get well, do what the doctors tell you.

Port lights , port lights. Boy they were a problem, the originals, I mean.  Thin aluminum with plastic that degrades over time (to the point were you cannot see out of them), cracking and or leaking, and they don't open for ventilation. Style wise the originals look like something for a camper not a boat. I had to replace the damaged and degraded ones on my Commander. I replaced them with old Wilcox & Crittenden 5"  bronze portholes  instead of the original style ones. These W&C portholes are very well made with 3/4" thick  tempered glass (not plastic)and  marine grade bronze. They open and by design are water tight. They evolved over many generations as to design and materials for the saltwater marine environment. I installed two on each side of the cabin and another one aft, five altogether. I must say that I enjoy them very much, they are functional, well made and If I might add improves the looks of my ol'  boat. There are some pictures somewhere on this site. These old bronze port holes are plentiful to be found and the cost is reasonable compared to new originals, besides being sea worthy and functional. Installation is not much of a problem though cutting out the attachment rings (teak or epay) was a real time consuming chore as were getting the right size bronze bolts, nuts and washers(not being made in Communist China). These ol' Pearsons are well made, beautiful and have stood the test of time. But what I like is the fact that there so much quality and goodness of hull design that it is worth  the effort of making whatever  improvements the owner deems worthy. I probably would not have gone to all of the trouble, after the storm damage, fixing any other sailboat.

Commanderpete: Yes the bow pulpit would have to go, but I have wanted to clean up the deck...remove the lifelines. The pushpit has already been removed because of damage...Mike Goodwin has it somewhere.I was looking at the 2" pvc pipe and fittings...it seems that everything that would be needed to put together a jib boom is stock items and cheap. When no one was looking I tried to bend a 6ft section with an elbow..should be more then strong enough and the elbow would be the right angle. There is even some stock fitting (other sizes)that with little modification could be attached to the deck as a base with a below deck secured section. The boom itself would be cut to a custom length  for the Commander and it's jib instead of the Hoyt stock lenth. From info on the Hoyt-Alerion web site there should be a gain in power on most points of sailing comparable to sailing with the genoa. The Commander should sail something like the Alerion 28 and be self tacking. A little slower. Except for our long deep keel instead of the Alerion's fin keel  our hull shape is excellent... should work. I don't plan on crossing the Atlantic anytime soon or racing, so I may give it a shot.:rolleyes:

I just got back from Lowe's hardware store. Looking around the plumming section, this may seem crazy, I belive that one could fabricate their own jib boom from stock (large) pvc pipe without much trouble. I don't think that there would be a weight or strength problem. The other hardware needed would be off the shelf  marine. Except for the right angle of the boom to the base , it would not look all that bad.:rolleyes:

Al, I know what you mean about our Chespeake summers, hot, humid and hazy with less moving air than doing boot camp in the summer and the only breeze you got was when a company marched past you... and you were thankful for that. I will be keeping my clinched on sails for now. I have a very good Genoa and an almost new spinnaker with a pole. My boat is rigged for a spinnaker. I believe that with the jib boom in place I should be able to set the genoa (130%) or the spinnaker. If the jib boom works as well as Mr. Hoyt says and everything that I have read; I will then install a jib furler with the smaller working jib. I can buy the Hoyt jib boom for my Commander for about $900 plus shipping. Placement is 10% of the "j" length from the bow stem. My idea is one day to be able to handle all of the sails single handed from the cock pit. I would really like to sail the Alerion 38 (sail drive)...but $315,000 base price for a day sailer when I am very happy with my ol' Commander dosn't make sense.

Last summer  I single handed my ol" Commander most of the time (which wasn't very often) as I will this comming summer. I want to make sail handling as simple as possible and sail a lot more.I think that the Hoyt Jib Boom could make sailing single handed for me  more easy and in our light summer winds more efficient. I have a working jib that is in good shape and shouldn't need much if any adjustment. I don't plan on changing to a furler at this time. I will be pulling my boat to clean and repaint the bottom in the next month or so and that would be a good time to install the jib boom. Any thoughts from you old salts would be helpful as I have been very much taken in by the Hoyt Jib Boom vids on the Alerion web site. By the way the Alerion 38 is very impressive and so is the price... for only $315,000 you can sail one home today. I believe that the lines of our Commanders are just as beautiful as the Alerions.  :confused:

"Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk"- Thoreau. Yes, maybe another class of red wine and I'll understand something about what he was talking about..maybe not, after all this small room is so very crowded and I'm all so perfectly alone.:confused:

ebb:There comes a time when an object is taken beyond functional form or craft, where form and function become secondary, and the object enters into something that is recognized by most as art. Your ideas and hard work have created, in my opinion, a wonderful work of art. I have gotten a lot of pleasure and a surprize or two following your progress. Well done. I can't wait to see the final form that your boat will take. More photographs please.

Howard, I can now see that it is a cat, thought it was a mono hull. There is a lot to be said about cats, saw one sailing down the river in good SSW wind the other day and he was flying.

Howard...your sailboat looks to be about the same size and shape as an old wooden runabout I had as a kid, it was a great boat, had a 33 hp Scott Atwater outboard engine that was very fast in those days. There is 18 ft bildge keel sailboat here in the yard that belongs to a friend of mine for shallow water.Does your boat have a retractable keel? Looks good and fun.

ebb...That sounds about right.I did notice that at the dock the wind and waves knock the 26 boat around more than the Commander, a lot more in fact. I have yet to sail the 26 boat and my bother-in-law, Richard, who I bought the boat for has never come down to even see it. I plan on pulling it this spring if Harvey( the owner and manager of the yard gets around to it( here in Harvey world). The boat needs some work: bottom needs cleaned and bottom painted, spreader needs to be replaced (have made one), furler is locked up solid, all lines need to be replaced, inside cushions are being made, could use a new set of sails, rudder seems to be ok for this boat, small cockpit deck is somewhat soft...whew. I have friends and neigbors that I am trying to get interested in forming a sail cub or something for the 26 boat so that the boats will be used and to share expenses. I had a few heath problems that are now almost behind me and I had little time to sail or work on the 26 boat. I would not trade my Commander for anything but the 26 boat has more room and is a better sailing boat in the light/very light winds we have here all Summer along with the heat and humidity.

Commanderpete, she -who-must-be-obeyed does most of the fishing on my ol'boat. It is a fire drill when she hooks on to something in the boat..a line, a cushion or me...or some big stripper. But she catches them, cleans them and cooks them. The problem I have is where to store all of her rods and tackle. By the way I went out to the Grumman airfield (Indian head or River...at the end of Long Island) to put an engine in an Navy F4j back in the early 1970's. I was an aircrewman, Navy A3d 's (all three dead) but also served with Strike Aircraft Div. Pax River (test center)  we had A6's, A4's, F4's (even a Blue Angle Phantom 839) F-14's, F-8's, Harriers,. I even put together an Army Bronco..oh and when we were attched to the test pilot school had a B26 or 17 the two engine one from WWII, painted red, used to test something. Great photo of your good ol' boat, she looks great. I like the flag flapping on the stern, nothing looks as good as ol' Glory on a sailboat underway.