The KitttyKittty beckons . . . pointed out by Mr. Love at 10am from the front seat of his golf cart while on Photo Safari at St. Stephen's Episcopal School.
Upon closer inspection, she's a 1981 Catalina Capri Omega. Let's just say I've seen many a vehicle in better shape than this Capri!
Decided to purchase her over lunch, somewhat impulsively.
Captain Hammett gives her the once-over, and it's two thumbs up.
Today is a glorious day! Ken Love sells me his 14 foot
long Capri.
I decide to name her The KitttyKittty after my nickname.
When I was 4 I thought I was a Kittty and meow'd all the time.
Captain Hammett tells me it is bad luck to re-name a boat, so it is a
good thing she came un-named.
Ken Love & Brad Powell, previous owners
The Catalina Capri is also known as an Omega 14. I'm having a heck of a time finding anything on the Web.
Ugh! Moldy, musty, and manky. Mr. Carter aids in disassembly of the rudder and tiller and assorted lines.
Trailer tire disintegrated from dry
rot.
Boat Specs:
Length . . . . . . .13' 9"
Beam . . . . . . . . 5' 8"
Draft:
Board Up . . . . . 4"
Board Down . . .3' 6"
Sail Area . . . . . 108 sq. ft.
Wt. Approx . . . 295 lbs
All Fiberglass
Anodized Mast and Boom
Stainless Steel Rigging
Excellent Flotation
Completely Self Bailing
Changing the tire, $29.99 from Academy.
Tip of the tire iron to Mr. Love for his help.
Before:
Old winch is rusty and inoperable. The rope is brittle and tears easily (lower left).
After:
New winch, $19.99 inlcudes black strapping. Shopping with Mr. Wilson. Easy to install!
The Trailer light covers and their bulbs are broken. Seems like the easiest way to get a ticket. Especially since I don't know how to drive a trailer anyway.
Many thanks to Mr. Chovanetz and Mr. LM for re-wiring a new light kit and tumping the extra water out of the KitttyKittty with a back hoe.
Can't seem to mount the trailer to the car. Mr. Laws graciously lends his strength, and Mr. LM replaces my 2" trailer ball with a 1 7/8". Who knew there were different sizes?
The KitttyKittty is ready for her trip home. It is Friday afternoon and crazy fish-tailing ensues on 2222. Backing her into the driveway proved even more difficult.
Untangling the ropes, lines, and straps . . . before the big hose-down to happen very early Saturday morning.
I'm excited and trepidacious at the same time.
Mr. Patterson kindly disassembles parts. I snap a couple of pix for putting her back together. Have been on a sailboat only once since getting stuck in the middle of Lake LBJ in 1977 at Camp Champions on a Sunfish.
The lines (all of them!) need replacing. Need to visit the Sailboat Shop . . . will take measurements soon.
Srubbing the oars and other bits and pieces. Tried to stay away from bleach, but the other cleaners weren't working.
Before:
After an hour in the bleach solution.
After:
Center piece all clean and tidy.
Cabin storage is chock full of muck.
Cleaning the moldy wires.
| Boat + trailer | $200.00 |
| Domain Name (kitttykittty.com) | $7.75 |
| Line (Rope), 16 ft. at .63/ft | $10.08 |
| Epoxy | $25.90 |
| Hardener | $12.45 |
| Fiberglass Cloth | $12.24 |
| 900 lb. Winch with 20 ft. Strap | $16.99 |
| 8" 4 Lug Galvanized Trailer Tire | $29.99 |
| Submersible Trailer Light Kit | $24.99 |
| 1 7/8" Trailer Ball | $6.97 |
| 48" Post Hole Digger Handle | $7.44 |
| Bleach | $1.29 |
| 30 foot rope (line in boat-speak) | $23.70 |
| 1 manual | $7.50 |
| 1 package fiberglass for centerboard | $27.80 |
| 1 bottle spray wax for weenies | $3.99 |
| 1 package of three flannel wipes | $2.99 |
| TOTAL | $427.52 |
Before:
Swabbin' the deck, Matey. I have my brushes, hoses, and other accoutrements.
After:
2 scrubbings and one bleaching . . . and she's a beauty by Sunday evening!
All the woodwork is in poor shape.
Coaxing and peeling off the old fiberglass.
Fiberglassing on a Monday evening. Note glass of wine and respirator (Ms. Speitel's), essentials. Oh, and rubber gloves.
The new rudder in the works! She's drying from the porch rafters, spinning idly on a string. Sticky mess.
Replaced the tiller handle with a post hole digger handle. Sum total $7.44, Lowes.
Post hole handle is the same size and everything.
Mounting the tiller to its bracket.
The rudder is drying nicely. Need to trim the edges a bit.
Next up is re-furbishing the centerboard.
Morning: Now that she's all clean, it's time to wax. Waxing for the lazy! Visit to the auto parts store. Bought new fiberglass for the centerboard at the Sailboat Shop.
Assorted odds and ends in a wheelbarrow in the driveway. Anchor + mysterious black straps and wires.
Afternoon: Looked all around town for seat belt strapping to replace the old moldy stuff. No luck.
Found an old roll of army strapping, about 35 feet long in the laundry room. Not sure if it's waterproof or will work, but it's free, and I'm quickly approaching my $500 limit.
Attached the strapping to the back of the boat (see left) and then up through the center. Screwed in the center thing.
Leaves have already fallen over my beauty! Deduction leads me to believe straps are for the feet.
End of the day, watching the Naked Chef make salmon. Easy peasy, 4 minutes one side, 1 minute the other. Right-o, Mr. Brit.
All I got was burned one side, completely raw the other.
Have been reading a used copy of Royce's Sailing Illustratred: The Sailor's Bible Since '56. About a third of the way through.
Highly recommended! Thank you Cap'n Hammett.
Grabbed the old gloves from last week to start the 2nd coat of epoxy & fiberglass on the rudder and 1st coat of epoxy & fiberglass on the centerboard. Recommend using a respirator.
Here's yours truly, the original Kittty, wrapping the fiberglass on the centerboard. The rudder (foreground) is already coated and drying. Smaller strips seem to work better.
Drippy mess underneath the drying boards. Didn't use the epoxy fast enough, aka, I stopped for lunch between the rudder and the centerboard, and my mixing pot had already hardened up stiff as a rock. Bummer. I hope I have enough to finish the project.
Tomorrow is a test drive . . . going to put the KitttyKittty in the water (sans sails and rigging) to test her stability and make sure she is sea-worthy before continuing the project.
Alright, I'm trying to figure whether I can put the KitttyKittty in the water tomorrow without her centerboard (which is still drying).
I did a search on "boat float without centerboard" on Yahoo and on the first page I found The Rachel . . .
The Rachel, A Versatile Dinghy:
"I wanted a boat that would tow easily,
be seaworthy in the manner of a dory, be easy to build, be rugged yet
lightweight, unsinkable, row easily, sail, stow essentially all gear within
the boat, be attractive and stow on the limited foredeck of my 30 ft.
sloop."
You can buy plans for Mark
Anderson's Rachel dinghy for $25. Sounds like a fun project for next
year!
On the Rachel, by the way, the water will squirt through the slot sans
centerboard, also called daggerboard . . .
I'm so eager! Still looking online with help from a friend.
From Cap'n Hammett's Google Search on sailing without a centerboard:
"We also figured out that sailing without a centerboard gasket is very slow.
We first figured out we were gasketless when we started to sail out to the race course. Water was shooting out of the centerboard trunk and filling our boat.
We quickly opened the bailers and decided to return to the beach for an inspection. We turned the boat over and found the centerboard gasket 90% off.
We took it the rest of the way off and decided to go racing anyway. We knew we would be slow, but we also knew it would still be good to work on boat handling. To stop the flow of water out of the centerboard trunk, we stuck my life jacket in the back of the trunk.
This seemed to stop most of the water flow, but eventually the water would push the life jacket back out of the trunk. So we had to shove it back in after every race."
It's getting dark already! Snapped a couple of pix to discern whether the KitttyKittty has the necessary gastket:
Not sure from the top!
Looking like a big "yes" from the bottom!
Well, it's raining today.
Decided to go for varnish on the rudder and coat #2 of fiberglass on the
centerboard. Will have to wait a few days before I take the Kittty on
her test run.
We hold these things to be self evident, you will trash your scissors
while fiberglassing.
I've also learned to avoid my perfectionistic tendency to pull the odd
string here and there.
Said string causes any beautifully laid sheet of fiberglass to unravel
and completely muck up the 30 minutes of smoothing you just did.
Complaints aside, I've found the whole process to be meditative.
I found myself returning to my youth when I had this ACE bandage which
I wrapped round and round my ankle again and again. Mind you, I never
actually had an injury, just a bored only child! The strange things you
forget.
Fun side project--I used the leftover fiberglass to fix a huge $250 ladder I found in big trash day. The contractor neighbor accidentally backed over it in his truck and the City saw it on his work site and fined him $2000.
I've had that broken ladder since 1999.
A big splash of the oar to Mr. Patterson for his reconnaisance work down at the boat docks today.
He found another Capri so we can try to figure out how to rig the sweet Kittty. Boy am I glad she's de-molded!
