Sarasota Summer

As Spring blossoms into Summer, the pace has picked up on XYZZY and it seems that new, exciting steps are happening almost every day. Crews of five and six people are now working six days a week. With our sights set on an early fall launch date and a debut at the Fall 2014 Annapolis Boat show, we meet several times a week with our builders to measure progress and stay ahead of what needs to be purchased and installed next.
 

The best ideas happen on napkins with drinks!

 
Living just down the street from the boatyard has had definite advantages, and Dennis goes off to "work" there almost every morning, doing whatever tasks and errands Rian will give him!  Leaving in the morning, he'll promise to stay "just an hour or two", and then walk back in around 7:00 in the evening, covered in sweat and fiberglass dust, but grinning from ear to ear!  Clearly, programming has lost its siren call!
 
We've been seeing a lot of Mike and Shawn of Cabinetry by Mike Reed lately; now that most of the messy sanding and gel-coating inside has been finished up, it is time for them to step in and begin fitting the beautiful cabinets and frames they've been working on in their shop these past few months.  True artists of wood, their considerable skill and craftsmanship is evident in each and every piece they create, and there are no shortcuts taken.  Once these cabinets are fitted to the openings, they will be whisked away to the finisher for final staining and sealing.  In the pictures below, the trim is a wood called Anigre, while the panels are carmelized bamboo veneer over super-light plywood.  The Anigre will receive a light stain in addition to the semi-gloss sealants, to make it blend with the bamboo.  The result will be a light, yet warm wood interior topped with creamy soft walls and headliner. 
 

Finished Sample, stained and sealed

 



Giving life to bare walls, Mike is a master
Here trim is still unfinished and appears much lighter

  

Mike and Shawn are an expert team

 

Looking down the stairs into starboard hull

 

Starboard side cabinets

 

Mike is also crafting a cockpit table for us as well, and here Mike and Rian are discussing shape and placement of the design.
 

 

 

 
 
Our wrap-around front windows have finally arrived from Australia, but will need to wait crated until almost the very end, as they are one of the last items to be installed. 
 
 

 

Our hull windows have arrived and are ready to be fitted into the custom design we opted for, rather than going with traditional small portholes.  These tempered glass windows have the portholes set into them, and will allow the hulls to be bright and airy, yet strong enough to withstand blue water passages.

 

 

 

 

The engines, which have been here for several months already, can now be fitted into the engine compartments (Dennis euphemistically calls them "engine rooms", but they're really NOT rooms, believe me!) to ascertain where all the mount points and connections will be.

 

Tim carefully lowers the engine for final fitting before completing the compartment

 The helm seat has arrived, and it looks like our eyes were a bit bigger than the space allotted for it!  When we hoisted it up, the seat back just barely fit under the coach roof, and would not have been able to move at all!  Looks like we should have ordered the petite size!  But after a bit of (tense) collective head scratching, plans were made to lower the base plate into the generator compartment underneath, enlarge the opening for the mini-roof above, and send the helm seat legs back for a slightly shorter version.  With a bit of thinking outside the box, the day was saved.

 

Uh oh!

 

 

Ingenuity at Work!

 We encountered a similar problem when we realized that several items (AC unit, Lithium ION batteries) were slightly too tall to fit under the salon seats as we had intended.  For equipment we didn't already have, we mocked up replicas to determine positioning, but alas, we were short a couple of inches! However, another round of brainstorming brought an easy solution: cut the seating unit and lift it up to the required height, to gain back needed room. 
 

A Battery Mock Up

Another Uh Oh!

You may be saying to yourself, "didn't these people have drawings, didn't they measure?"  Well, of course we did, and 95% of the build has come to fruition exactly as planned, but there are always a few surprises, and the true skill of Rian and his team shine in their ability to adapt and rework as necessary, without any compromise to the integrity and quality.  I remember building models from kits when I was younger, and how frustrated I was when my completed (horse, airplane, dollhouse) never looked like the picture on the box, even though I'd followed the numbered instructions exactly!  Any builder worth the title can follow plans, but it takes a craftsman to confidently tweak, adapt, and adjust to achieve perfection even better than the "picture on the box". 
 
One of the next big projects will be wiring the boat, and with our combination of Mastervolt C-Zone units (kind of like electrical routers, for my networking friends) and lithium batteries, we felt investing in a professional electrical design team would be money well spent to have the electrical/electronic system function as it should.  We have engaged Boksa Marine for this effort, and although XYZZY is probably the smallest "yacht" they've ever worked on, we are really impressed with the level of professionalism and attention to detail they bring to the table.  Since we have both a DC system and an AC system, we had to supply lists of equipment and placement for both, and then let Mr. Thomas Boschart work his magic to produce wiring diagrams and load analyses for us.  We have something close to 700 wire leads between the two systems! Once the theoretical design is complete, then of course the challenge will be to install it as per the drawings! And hope the lights turn on :)

 

In between all these projects, we've been getting to know the Sarasota Bay area with our new little dinghy, putting her through her paces, each time happier with our choice!  Plugh is a quiet, dependable tender, and her 20Hp Honda outboard gets us where we want to go while staying dry and comfortable.  We've been able to anchor off the beach to snorkel, or zip across the bay for dinner and a sunset.

 

 

 
Lastly, July 7th will be a milestone day in our build: Mack Sails is delivering our mast and rigging, and will be stepping the mast to test the rig and measure for sails.  While I know it will then come back down again until time for launch, this will be a major step in turning XYZZY into a "real sailboat"!  You all can count on another blog entry devoted to that day!  And if anyone plans to be in the area at that time, please plan to come by and watch!
 
 


Summer Storm over Sarasota Bay

                        "Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made."
                                                                                                             ~Robert Rose  

 

Big Moves!

The beginning of Spring has come and gone, and since I haven't updated you all in...wow, 5 months...I figured it was time to catch up on all the progress!

November and December last year were filled with family trips, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and our grandson's first trip to Florida! We were not able to visit our Fusion boat-in-progress until after the New Year with so many occasions to celebrate.  Work proceeded apace without us however, with the interior being sanded and fiber glassed.  Each time we saw glimpses, it seemed the vast open interior was slowly coming together into a comfortable living space of our own design.

Uncle Jon, Autumn and Josh - Thanksgiving in NYC

 

Christmas in Cocowalk

 

The last Jansma Iron Chef Christmas in Miami

 

Josh's First Swimming Lesson

Another milestone approached, however: our lease in Miami would be up on February 15th, and before then we had to sort our lives into four buckets: Goes to Boat, Goes to Storage, Goes to Kids, or Goes to Goodwill.  Although I had cleared out a few drawers and closets before "the holidays" hit in earnest, and although I was smugly assuring myself I had it under control, when I resurfaced after New Year's, I was totally panicked!

Our general plan was to send some items to each of our sons, to put a few "can't part with" pieces into storage, and to sell or give away the rest.  This sounded so easy in theory, but the task at hand seemed completely overwhelming! Breathe deep.  I began with books, boxing up over 300 hardcover and paperback books. My original thought had been to catalogue them and sell them on Amazon, but as February got closer, mass donation to a library seemed a better solution.

A Well-Organized Storage Unit with just a few items for "Life After Boat"

Eventually we assembled piles on each level for Kris, Jon, Storage, Goodwill, and Boat, packing boxes and tagging furniture.  Clothes were a difficult category; we each had gone through our drawers and closets at least twice already, first clearing out things that obviously no longer fit, or that we didn't wear, and making a second and third pass on items we rarely wore.  But there were still too many clothes! On the last pass, we became ruthless, taking only what we saw ourselves using in a cruising lifestyle, with limited outfits for colder weather and business meetings.

As I opened each drawer and closet, I would hold each item and remember where it had come from, who had given it to us, what it commemorated.  It was harder than I imagined, to decide where each memento would go, and place it in a box.  But as the packing gained momentum, as boxes were sealed and labeled, a magical thing happened: I felt my shoulders, my step, my heart become lighter and lighter as each decision was made, as each item was consigned to a pile.  At the end, we had American Van Lines come twice; first to pick up a load destined for Austin TX (Jon) and Brooklyn NY (Kris), and then again to take a load to our storage unit. This left us with a small trailer and a fully packed car to take with us to our interim home in Sarasota.  Most of that would be going in the boat; the apartment we're renting short term is fully furnished so we only added our clothes, our office, and a few kitchen items. I've read so many other accounts of cruisers-to-be selling off their items and wondered how this part of my own adventure would go; I think the best analogy is that it was like heading down a long tunnel, knowing we had to come out the other end, and had no alternative except to keep sliding!  We knew that 5PM on February 14th was the deadline; we drove away from the spotlessly empty apartment at 4:55.

Empty at last!

Pulling away with only the possessions we towed behind us, truly I felt free of all the accumulated "stuff"; things that weighted us down, kept us from spending time pursuing what we loved, grounding us in one place.

Now in Sarasota, we've been able to become more involved with XYZZY's progress, visiting the yard several times a week, weighing in on all the decisions that need to be made now that the interminable sanding, fairing, and gel-coating is winding down.  Here are some pictures of what we've been working on.

Our New Family "Car"

We picked up our new "family car" from 84 Boatworks and delivered her to her new home in Sarasota.  She is a 10.5' AB aluminum hulled inflatable with a center console.  Of course, with a 20 hp Honda engine. 

 

Dennis tries out his new steering wheel and throttle, seeing where they'll fit on the helm station.

Bob Touton from Pompanette is working on our portholes, hatches, galley window, and sliding door.  Here we are laying out the window templates along the hull for placement, before cutting.  His company is also designing our helm seat.

The rudders are in!

 

Designing the forward anchor box

 

The first through hulls go in the boat

 

 

As sanding draws to a close inside the boat, gel coating begins, and soon the interior is transformed from pink fiberglass to a glossy white finish.  Now Mike the carpenter can get started turning all the beautiful carmelized bamboo veneer we bought into cabinet doors and drawers. 

 

 

We make a trip back to Stuart FL to visit our mast and roller furling boom now under construction at Mack Sails.  Discussion ensues about how all of our electronic devices will be wired through the mast.  It will be outfitted with AIS, VHF, cell phone extender, wi-fi extender, radar, and a mast mounted camera.  Lots going on up there!

 

 

 

We visit the construction of our custom salon table, being designed by Release Marine of Savannah, GA.  The table they've created is one-of-a-kind, built to raise up to dining height, or lower to coffee table height, with inside compartments powering and housing our laptops and transformers, all cords tucked out of sight.  Since the salon area will be our office, our dining room, and our entertainment center, we wanted a multifunctional table that will fit all these roles, and Matt & Tonya have risen to the task!

 

We're starting to purchase some of the interior fixtures that will turn our boat into a home: lighting, sinks, mattresses, microwaves, and a stove top.

In the coming weeks, we'll be starting the installation of systems: plumbing, electrical, and steering.  We'll be laying out the deck hardware and solar panels, getting engines installed.  Check in with us again soon as XYZZY becomes our home.

Farewell but not Forgotten, Coconut Grove!

And there's that one particular harbour
Sheltered from the wind
Where the children play on the shore each day
And all are safe within
                                                                                                          Jimmy Buffett