Whats-New

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	The sailing season is drawing to a close for many so it’s time to start planning what you’re going to work on this winter to make the sailing next season even better. There’s a great group of photos and details from Cap’n Bill on the super nice job of improving the boom control on his Halman 21. Check near the bottom of the “Projects” page. You’re going to appreciate this one. There’s also a nice photo of a “Lynaes” rebuild project just below “Cap’n Bills” photo on that same page with a link to several more really nice photos - Check out both of these projects and get some new ideas for your boat while you’re keeping warm by the stove!



	Subject: His and Her Diary for the Same Day! Her Diary: Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment on it. The conversation wasn't flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn't say much. I asked him what was wrong; he said, 'Nothing.' I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said he wasn't upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it. On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly, and kept driving. I can't explain his behavior; I don't know why he didn't say, 'I love you, too.' When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem distant and absent. Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he came to bed. But I still felt that he was distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else. He fell asleep -- I cried. I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster. His Diary: Boat wouldn’t start; Can’t figure out why ???

Take a look at the work being done on the engine for “Atlantis” - There’s still a lot to be done yet, but it’s improving with each step of “progress” towards having a good engine to put back in the boat. Look for the link at the bottom of the “Projects” page.

At various times, several different readers have written with questions about their projects in rebuilding their engines. Most of the time, we don’t pay much attention to them if they start up, don’t smoke up the neighborhood and don’t shoot flames up and around where you may be sitting with your rum swizzler - but they will - if you don’t get your hands dirty once in a while to take care of them!

Another entry in the “WWWTP” (What’s Wrong With This Picture) contest. Not because I like to poke fun at someones best efforts but because in all of our efforts we tend to show something that others can learn from.

When I watch someone in front of me in line with their pants hanging off the bottom half of their cheeks... I learn something and might check to see that mine are still “above the centerline” and that the belt holding them up hasn’t suddenly broken in half!

We have multiple opportunities to learn every day if we simply pay attention.

This photo is from a boat that is listed for sale. Apparently the owners are in a hurry to sell up and solve that “four foot itius” problem again but in their haste to move on, they’re leaving several genuine mysteries and some further headaches for the new owner. Oddly enough, most photos of boats are taken to show them in their best “light” - meaning you want to buy that boat right now and put on that blazer and white hat for the social meeting tonight! You can, but you’d better find out why the green wires and the black wires and the red wires don’t have a place to call “home” and the longer you wait, the more surprises “Murphy” is going to have for you. Maybe that key is for the ignition and it’s the only one there is... and when it falls (because your first step on the deck caused the boat to heel over about 18 degrees) it will find some new home UNDER the wiring, the battery, the old oil bottles, the chain and the 32 brands of boat polish that the previous owner tried. Or maybe it’s just one he found last year and is still wondering what it will fit. Either way, it’s something to wonder about and when you’re shopping for boats, you have to ask yourself this question - Do I want to “wonder about it” at the dock or out on the water... then make your choice!

What’s new with you.....

It’s a common phrase - one that often preceeds many good conversations and as well some that are necessarily brief - but when someone says to you “What’s new” - how you answer says a lot about you, your state of mind, your interest in dicussions at that given time and is the opening for you to reciprocate and sometimes find out more than you really wanted to know!

If you are in the process now of making some plans for a boat in your future, then the reply might be “I don’t have time to waste right now because I’m doing my “homework” on buying a boat” (not likely but possible) and if you are that intent on doing your “homework” without the benefit of companionship, coffee, a warm stove to sit around and listening to someone you can actually learn something from, then ... you’re missing the whole point! Some people are “talkers” for a variety of reasons while others manage to maintain the role of “listeners” (hopefully at the right time) and when boats are concerned, listening is good. If the boats at the marina or the rafting group you were tied up to last summer could replay the conversations they heard - WOW - You can’t even find some of that stuff on the internet! Whatever you’re planning for 2011 will require both aspects of those communication efforts - and a healthy degree of filtering capability to keep from getting overloaded with “too much stuff” and not enough “meat and potatoes” type of details. With patience and practice, you’ll develop the skills to separate the BS from the GS (Good stuff) and that’s where the learning begins.

I ran across a phrase recently that was intended for a completely different audience but it still applies and I think especially so to the sailers and builders of all types of things that are intended to float in the water...

Good decisions come from experience .... experience comes from bad decisions!

As we all gain another year or so, we can look back and appreciate some things more. Made me think about one of the first boats I ever got in and expected to go somewhere... it was made out of two car hoods (something like 1948 or 50 Chevy’s) that had been recut on the back edge and welded together so it looked more like a Umiak that had been squeezed too hard in the ice. It did float, but every stroke of the paddle tended to make it spin in circles even more - (no keel and no stability) so I guess it was from that brief learning experience, I’ve kept an interest in learning more - your emails and sometimes more extensive exchanges over time are what learning is about. My thanks to those of you who like me, are pleasantly aging students who still enjoy learning - L. May

Are you interested in taking a vacation and picking up a Nordica-30 - maybe you can even sail back “home” - wherever that is!

Try this link - [ http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1983/nordica-cruising-sloop-2137228/langkawi/malaysia ]

Give them a call ahead of time and they can have the paperwork ready for you... You never know where you’ll find these boats!

Quite a few months ago, I had added a small note on the N-30 page with the lat/long. coordinates generally around a harbor in the Azores where this boat was for sale. A “traveling” reader of this site sent it to me even though they were cruising aboard a considerably larger (i.e.$$$) boat, they took the time to send a couple of photos.

There’s not many N-30 owners anywhere it seems, but consider the travels this boat and crew have already made to end up for sale so for from home. This hull has some unique features that I’ve not see on many other N-30’s and must have some stories to tell - “if the hulls could talk!”

So do you think your wife knows more about “housekeeping” than you do?

Then you better give her the keys to the boat and ask when you can visit!

Here are two good examples of paying attention to the details but in different ways.

You can click on either of the photos and see a larger view that will show what’s basically good and then “not so good” about both views. In the case of the “battery wiring issues” - this is an obvious detail your marine surveyor should point out to you as it represents multiple violations of not only good common sense practices, it’s in violation of USCG recommendations and would likely have a serious impact as well with your local insurance agency.

The rules and regulations are created to try to help “save your bacon” whether you’re comfortable at the dock or in the middle of the worst storm you’ve seen!


	Check the N-16 page for some new photos of rigging on the N-16’s - there’s also a web address for the “Yahoo groups” for N-16’s and N-20’s - It’s a good opportunity to learn something new about your boat... there is a chance for that isn’t there?

Quite a few new photos added - Check out the nice Halman-27 photos (Halmans page) plus some other “mystery boat” details that you might help to solve.

If you check the “Q&A” section, there’s a link to a bit more of the background on the “Tilsynbog” boat that was shown there. It’s a real treat to have heard from the new owner and to know that the boat is being “reborn again” for another generation of sailing.

User ads have been listed, sold, removed, replaced and if you’re buying or selling, it’s a good place to see if one of those listings has your name on it. Sometimes you can’t really tell until you stand right next to the boat and absorb some of the “nautical karma!”


	Here’s an interesting story from a former Nordica Dealer who still sails today in a boat called “Hagar.” Dave was kind enough to take the time to write and tell me about his past, his boat and after 30+ years, his love of sailing the same boat that he rescued earlier!


	Click on this one ----------------------->

Here’s two photos that you might take a casual glance at and ask “what’s unique about these?” If you’re a Nordica 20 owner, you might notice the oval hatch and lock in the photo on the left and if you’re a Halman owner, you might also notice the profile of the leading edge and the slope of the ports in the photo below.

If you’re a reasonably good detective, you might ask if this is the same boat, but I doubt it! This has come as a bit of a surprise to the new owners but yes, it is the same boat and these aren’t the only two differences found. There is a tag in the aft locker that defies ownership by either of the two companies and says it’s a “1978 Nordic - built in Hamilton, Ontario!

So this didn’t come from the factory in Beamsville or the one in Exeter and she’s apparently a bit of a cross-built from both the Nordica deck and cabin shapes but with the Halman hull.

There’s a story somewhere behind this but right now it’s a puzzle to Cap’n James and his crew. She’s got Nordica sails and the Cap’n is still working on trying to track some of the history via the registration data but doesn’t have much else to go on right now.

If you know anything about a few hulls that escaped to the Nordica factory or a few decks that made their way to the Halman facility... let’s hear from you. The boat floats and sails nicely and the final name is pending.....

Check out the new mystery boat - photo at the bottom of the “Q & A” page. She’s not necessarily from the Nordica or Halman factory, but she’s got some lines that are familiar to most of us. In spite of that, it seems that no one can identify the manufacturer of this boat. She’s in the process of being restored and the new owner (and myself) would really appreciate your help in finding out more about her.

Seems that most lately, she came from Venice Italy - and was being used (without the bilge keels attached) as a “motor yacht” and without the keels, she was a bit “unruly” in her maneuvering capabilities! So now she’s on the “straight and narrow” path to returning to life as a sailing vessel and we will have some restoration photos in the future to share with you.

If you believe you know who built this boat... send me an email - Thanks. [Lmay@nordicaboats.com]

Sometimes it’s easier to define “what’s new” more effectively by showing “what’s not so new!” This attractive piece (mix) of technology (and yes, it was the latest and greatest at one time.. just not now) is a part of a boat of “elderly vintage” that was listed for sale.

The most interesting notes to read would be those of a well informed marine surveyor when he wrote the report on this one. Do you think the company providing the glass handled brass knifeblade switches ever expected they would see their products in use so many years later.

I suspect almost everything actually works sort of and who’s to say that a new shiny plastic panel with a bunch of idiot lights does the job any differently! I especially like the attention given to the bilge pump... at least we know where to look for it now.

From M. Webster’s dictionary - we find the word “yore” - which in some parts of the country could be used in a sentence like - “Is that tobacco juice on “yore” shoes or did you just get a shine?” - In other parts, you might hear “Why “yore” an absolute @#$%&* for droppin’ anchor in that spot!.... but that’s not it yet. Maybe something more like “Yore ship, sir, she is a sinkin!” could be the way to use it, but I don’t think so. So we’ll do some official consulting like the dictionary....

Main Entry: “YORE”
Pronunciation: 'yor
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from yore, adverb, long ago, from Old English gEara, from gEar year -- more at YEAR
: time past and especially long past -- usually used in the phrase of yore

So I figured that most of what we’re going to read here is older than 6 weeks anyway, so “Stories of yore” it is......

And if you be the one with some har raisin “stories of yore” own... send them to me and we’ll find a spot to store them on the site.


	Did someone tell you about “Cap’n Paul’s” story of working at Exe Fibercraft - and now you’ve got time to read it... well, it’s moved to another page called “Stories” - click on the icon to the right and enjoy.


	Storiesof yore’

If you’re internet connection is just a bit faster than your hull speed thru the water, this might be a problem but you should try it anyway..... There’s a really neat video of Cap’n Andrew sailing - rail down - in his Nordica 20. Turn the lights down, spray ice cold water all over yourself and turn up the volume for the ride.

It’s at [http://ochaye.strangepics.net/supersailing.wmv] - nothing strange about it for a sailor! Turns out that I couldn’t remember if both of my socks matched on a daily basis, but did remember the name of this boat “Ochaye” and that it was owned by Cap’n Andrew who had exchanged several emails with me in March of 2006 (actually I only remembered the boat name, the rest came thru saved records on the computer!)

Andrew said he was sailing “full and by” in the Strait of Juan De Fuca in about 25 kts of wind with a working jib (100%) and a single reefed main. He said the only thing he had wished for was a dodger for a bit of spray protection but otherwise, he could probably have made it to Anchorage in few more days!

He has now passed “Ochaye” on to other hands to enjoy but he remembers how well she sailed and how solidly the Nordicas were built. He thinks of that often when he has had opportunities to sail other boats in the same range of size and can easily tell the difference. Andrew has found a different way to satisfy is boating appetite for now... and you can see more details at his website - [http://ochaye.strangepics.net/coble/] - Something tells me we’ll hear from Cap’n Andrew again. Thanks Andrew

A reader we’ll call “Cap’n Scott” enjoyed the story about all of Cap’n Paul’s experiences so much that he fessed up to some of his own rememberances... Seems that when he was 13 and had an 8 foot punkinseed hydroplane that he thought would benefit from a hard bottom coat, he went to work! After mixing the hardener he was a bit slow about applying it. In a moment of “fast hardening confusion” he quickly dumped the entire can on the bottom of the hull and then tried to lay it down with a spatula from his mothers kitchen drawer. He ended up with a big lumpy mess which took him a few hard weeks to remove. He lost his allowance for 3 weeks to replace the custom hardened spatula, pants and sneakers. He does admit to learning a good lesson about hardeners... less is better when in doubt and NEVER apply it in the direct sun! Thanks Scott


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