Endeavour Members Forum News
APRIL 1997
This is our second attempt at delivering news and information from the Forum. THE ENDEAVOUR OWNERS GROUP seeks to provide a place for owners of ALL Endeavour sailboats to get together and meet other owners, share experiences, and discuss issues relevant to this line of sailboats. The Forum was originally set it up for owners of E32's (because that's what I own), but it has quickly grown to include all Endeavours from the 32 through the 43, although the name does reflect it yet. You can find THE ENDEAVOUR OWNERS GROUP at: http://members.aol.com/endvr32/home.html
IN THIS ISSUE
1. News
2. Membership Statistics
3. Security, Security, Security
4. Rendezvous
5. Member News
6. Story by Robert and Sandy Warren
7. Pour Another Round
8. Need Info
NEWS
Well spring has certainly sprung for us northern latitude sailors and with it comes a myriad of projects that need attention for getting underway once again. I've personally been replacing the seacocks and replacing water intake and fuel lines as this seasons special projects. And of course the regular spring commissioning list hasn't grown any shorter.
Special thanks needs to be extended to Carol and Lee Elwell, whom some of you know (they publish the Endeavour News), for sharing their membership database with us. We recently sent out a mailing using their list which has enabled our online group to significantly grow over the past month. We have also had a number of new members find us by word of mouth, using online search engines, and reading about us in other forums. As a result, our membership is growing and the online reviews have grown as many of you have been really filling out the comment and review sections. Another benefit is that with the expanded list and owners representing all sizes of Endeavours, we are going to begin developing specific areas on the site for each size built and will be soliciting your help.
In other news, two of our members are getting ready to embark on circumnavigations, and we are planning our first Endeavour Rendezvous this summer, both of which you can read about in this newsletter. Also, if you haven't heard, there was an article in the April 1998 issue of Cruising World (Classic Plastic, p. 50) that describes a mathematical process called Fuzzy Logic as a starting point in determining quality offshore sailboats. In the 38-43ft category the Endeavour 42 makes the list!
Lastly, if math has never been your friend, you will find a link in the Endeavour Information area http://members.aol.com/endvr32/dscsn/info.html that will take you to The Eighth Sea Boat Calculator. This online calculator will calculate your theoretical hull speed, displacement/length ratio, sailarea/disp ratio, as well as a capsize screening formula. You can go there directly: http://eightsea.com/boatcalc.shtml
MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS 5/98
By and large, the majority of Endeavour Owners in our Forum are located along the East and Gulf Coasts (80%) with a smattering on the Great Lakes and West Coast (20%). Out of 110 members in our database, 51 are online and receiving this newsletter.
SIZE NUMBER YEARS REPRESENTED 32 25 1975-1984 33 6 1984 35 5 1983-1986 37 17 1977-1981 38 9 1985 40 13 1981-1984 42 26 1984-1991 43 9 1979-1984
Several interesting items: Almost all of the owners, regardless of size, indicate that they are really happy with their Endeavour. It is also interesting to note that most feel that they are woulderful to sail when the wind picks up, and that despite their decidedly heavy displacement, they can really move. However it seems that the owners of the E32s are of the overwhelming the opinion that there is a weatherhelm issue when the wind picks up. I too, an E32 owner, have noted this and find that much of it can be tuned out. No doubt the replacement of my 18yr old (but cared for) sails would help a bit too. As we say in Chicago, "Maybe next year!"
SECURITY, SECURITY, SECURITY
Because we now have owners representing every size sailboat that Endeavour made, we would like to begin building seperate areas on the site for each size boat. We've initially done this for the E32 and would like to expand it for all Endeavours. If you have brochures, sail, plumbing, electrical plans, or other descriptive printed material that you can either 'lend' or copy and send to us, we would greatly appreciate it. As many of you know, just gathering the information can be an enormous task, and it would serve to benefit those owners who are in need. Also, color photos of the boat(s) under sail and of their interiors are a great asset in helping others to relate words to something tangible. If you can or would like to help please contact us through any one of the ways listed at the bottom of this newsletter. We will of course return any original items.
RENDEZVOUS!
Well folks it's true. We're going to have our 1st ever Endeavour Rendezvous! It will be held in Chicago the weekend of July 18-19 and is being held to coincide with the Tall Ships Festival and the start of the Chicago to Mackinaw Island race! Should be one heck of a weekend. The tall ships will be sailing southern Lake Michigan from July 16 thru August 10th and will visit Chicago (IL), South Haven (MI), Milwaukee (WI), and Racine (WI). There will be celebrations and tours of the 15 or so schooners and square riggers. They will arrive in Chicago on Thursday, July 16th and depart on the 20th. Fireworks will be on Saturday night and the Grant Park Music Festival will be in full swing all weekend. You can read more about the Tall Ships at: ASTA - Homepage Last summer the Pride of Baltimore sailed into Chicago and tied up at Navy Pier for the 4th of July. What a ship! You can see photos of her at this link: http://members.aol.com/paulcu
As for the Endeavour Rendezvous, transient moorings will be available (beginning May15th) in Monroe Street Harbor (Buckingham Fountain/Grant Park/Navy Pier/Chicago Yacht Club) at $.50/ft/night. These are 'cans' accessible by tender service (water taxi) and are without electric/water but offer an incredible view that you won't soon forget. Slips are available at Burnham Harbor which is a short walk or sail south (Adler Planetarium/Shedd Aquarium/Field Museum/McCormic Place/Yacht Club) at $1.25/ft/night + $5 for electric (under 40') and $10 (over 40').
If you are interested in attending, I would suggest that you make a reservation very soon as it will be a busy weekend in Chicago. For those interested, there are a number of moorings in the 35' to 50' range near us (on the hook) in Monroe Harbor that we can block out as a group (our mooring is SF-16). Let us know early however, so that we can block them out. Slips are a 10 minute motor, sail, or walk south of Monroe St Harbor, and rafting for the festivities is a possibility--but not overnight.
If you plan to come by land or have any questions about the rendezvous, please write or call and we'll help you find accomodations however we can. Hope to see you!
Monroe St Harbor
Joe Williams, Harbor Master
312-742-7643
Burnham Harbor
Melane Tank, Harbor Master
312-747-7009
MEMBER NEWS
Jerry Bernath (NC) is getting 'BIBI,' his 1988 E42 ready for a cruise in the Bahamas. He recently helped a bring a boat back from the Abacos and writes:Paul, I just returned from the Bahamas. A great trip. I met a couple on a Endvr 42 while there. They found a like new 1985 on the Hudson River about a year ago. I am back on board my 42 and found a 33 at the boat yard last night. I will see the guy again and will give him the web address on your recent card. I had never seen a 33 before.
The Abacos were great. I was on a Liberty 38, full keel cutter and after 5 days having fun in the Bahamas, got on with the return to the USA. Sadly, we had to motor sail all the way from Green Turtle Key to Charlston, about 400 miles. We did ride the Gulf Stream for about 300 miles off shore so our over the ground speed was 7 to 9 knots much of the time. Caught Spanish Mackerel and three Big (5 ft) Barracuda. Friday, we went off shore and were able to sail all the way to Wilmington, NC (125 miles) with South to SW winds, following seas and 8 + foot rollers! We also dodged several thunderstorms. This was the best sail of trip!
Tim Cropley (OH) is also readying his E32 and plans to bring it out east from Ohio. His current plans are to bring it down the ICW as far south as his time permits this summer, and then decide if they want to keep going. Good luck Tim!
Doug Kessler (GA) has been 'fighting' a water problem on his 1985 E42. He's looking for help and writes that: "there is a leak in the pressurized system somewhere. I have checked all of the fittings, ok, all of the visible line, ok, new pump, new water heater, air supply line is free of obstruction. Still the lines are loosing pressure causing the pump to come on and stay on until the line is bled again. Any idea's short of replacing all of the water supply lines?"
Speaking of leaks, Wayne and Jan Turk (FL) on 'SEA YA' a 1983 E40 have been trying to find out how water is getting into their fuel tank. He writes that the tank isn't leaking fuel but that in 30-60 days he can pump out a quart or two of water. They are also looking for feedback from other E40 owners on installing a washer and dryer.
Wolfgang Harms (NJ) is currently on the SeaLife Out Island Rally cruising the Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos during April, May, and June. He's aboard 'Sealife', his 1984 E43 and as of May 1 was scheduled to pull into Pitts Town. His special hobby is underwater photography and you can check in on him at his web site: http://www.sealife-rally.com
Daniel Hawryschuk (SC)writes that he has sailed everything from dinks to America Cup boats. He's spent 3 years creating algorithms for sail shapes for sailmaker's Cad programs, and worked briefly on the America's Cup. He grew up sailing on Lake Ontario, started ocean racing in 1994, and is also preparing for a circumnavigation. Dan owns 'Nomad' a 1978 E37 and has some very specific ideas as to what needs to be done to Endeavours for blue water sailing.
OUR INTRODUCTION TO INTRIGUE
BY BOB AND SANDY WARREN
Intrigue E32-389
This is more a historical than news item, for it occurred a little more than a year ago when we purchased Intrigue, a 79 Endeavour 32, and brought her down the bay from Annapolis to her new home in Redart (Mathews County), Virginia.
By way of background, Sandy and I owned and raced a Flying Scot in Madison, WI. for over 20 years before retiring and moving down to the Chesapeake in 1996. We knew we would want to have a cruising boat as well as a one-design boat, but fought back the urge to look until we were settled in. We like traditional looking lines, such as Cape Dorys and Bristols, but we only have four and a half feet at our dock on a normal low tide, so many such boats had to be discarded.
We began looking around the area (Gloucester Point and Deltaville) in late fall but found little that interested us. 1997 came; we ratcheted up the search and headed for Annapolis on January 10. Saturday morning we woke up to a couple of inches of fresh snow; it was cold, windy and not a great day to be out. Nevertheless we descended upon a yacht broker, cold (in more ways than one), and convinced him that we were serious about getting a boat. He reluctantly left the warmth of his office to show us a few boats and make us go away until a nicer day.
We needed to look at a lot of boats to see and debate pros and cons of various layouts, rigging arrangements, and such. Our cruising experience had been limited to a couple of trips on the bay in a friend's boat, and a week charter in the BVI and despite much reading we were not sure what we wanted for cabin layout. As luck would have it, the first boat we looked at was Intrigue. She was there in the yard just a few hundred feet from the brokers office. We climbed aboard, knocking crusty snow aside, looked her over and really liked her. She had been well taken care of, and we liked the light-colored teak, the openness of the layout, and all the opening hatches and port lights. We then were taken to a couple of other spots and looked at some other boats.
We made two more trips to Annapolis and one to the Eastern Shore during January. We compared each new boat to the Endeavour and she came up on top. I had been initially concerned about engine access, and thought I would prefer additional storage to having a quarter berth. As we looked at more boats we concluded that the engine access may not have been the best, but was better than many of the boats we saw. We also concluded that a quarter berth would be a dandy place to stack milk crates with provisions for a cruise. By now we had validated our initial first impression and made an offer.
It was accepted and we returned to Annapolis for a survey and sea trials on January 29. It was another cold day, in the mid-thirties, and Ego Alley was egoless. The mooring field had been taken up and we had Spa Creek to ourselves sailing back and forth in front of the Naval Academy. We were the only boat out and I wondered whether the midshipmen took note.
On March 17, Intrigue was launched a little before noon. The boat yard left her in the travel lift area and she was hemmed in by lines behind her tying other boats. We spent the afternoon provisioning and picking up needed items from West Marine, Boater's World, and Boat US. AS it was St. Patrick' s Day, we had corned beef and cabbage at Chick and Ruth's, a landmark deli in Annapolis that you should not miss. We slept aboard that night with a small electric heater running full-tilt all night. We awoke the next morning to skim ice around the dock. Our plan was to make Solomons Island in one day and complete the remainder of the trip on a second day. We started the engine at 0620. Our first boat-handling hurdle was to untie the dock lines of the other boats in order to get ours out. We were also concerned about how Intrigue would back. We were fortunate as it was calm. I was gentle with throttle and helm and she backed out fairly straight. Sandy held a bow line while I jumped ship to reattach the dock lines of the boats we were leaving behind. We departed Intrigue's temporary home, the Annapolis Harbor Boat Yard (Eastport) at 0642. Wind conditions were calm and the temperature was 35 degrees. We had acquired a thing or two in Wisconsin which proved useful. Sandy had on one of her downhill ski outfits and I wore a snowmobile suit which had seen previous duty iceboating. Our destination of Solomons Island was approximately fifty miles down the bay. I was disappointed that there was no wind but Sandy was relieved that we were not going to sail her for the first time ourselves in weather that cold. The Yanmar sped us along at 4.3 knots according to the GPS. Intrigue came with an Autohelm 3000, which I thought was nice but far down my list of equipment priorities. However, we broke it out, hooked it up, and learned that it could steer better than we, particularly on a day when the grayness of the water, sky, and shore made them all blend together and offered little to steer by but the compass. We sat back and read, with a look around every five minutes or so to check for traffic. We saw one cargo ship that day, "United Will", from Monrovia. We were the only pleasure craft on the upper bay.
We made the mouth of the Patuxent River at approximately 1430. The Navy aviators were practicing touch and go's at the Air Station as we came in. We took the right-hand approach into the Solomons harbor area and arrived at the Spring Cove Marina at 1500. We noticed that the osprey had just arrived and were starting to build their nests on the day markers. They stayed put as we went by, as opposed to making a ruckus and flying around as they do later in the season when there are young in the nest. We took on fuel and used 2.3 gal for approx. 8 hours of running. I was embarrassed about bothering the marina for that, but I had no idea of what the consumption would be, and we made up for it anyway by docking for the night. The marina employees indicated we were the first visitors of the new year.
A light rain began just as we docked. It provided a good opportunity to learn where the leaks were. They were many. Both hatches leaked, apparently between the teak and aluminum frames. All port port lights leaked except for the one in the head. All starboard port lights were leaking except for the foremost one. The v-berth did stay dry, though. We plugged into shore power, fired up the electric heater to warm up the cabin, and later walked around Solomons in foul weather gear. We had dinner at Naughty Gull, a restaurant near Spring Cove
After dinner we listened to the VHF which said bad weather was predicted for tomorrow. There were to be high winds, particularly below Windmill Point.
We awoke on March 19th to drizzle (mixed with snow) which continued until late in the day. We can tolerate weather being either cold, or wet, but not both, so elected to remain at the marina. We had a leisurely breakfast at the Captain's Table, a nice restaurant near the Comfort Inn motel and marina. We then visited the Calvert County Maritime Museum. It had an interesting aquarium and good exhibit on workboats, as well as one of the original Chesapeake Bay screwpile lighthouses which had been relocated there. Unfortunately the paleontology exhibit was closed for remodeling. We spent the afternoon reading in the marinas rec. room/library (much warmer and dryer than the boat).
That evening we cooked our first meal aboard the Intrigue: Dinty Moore beef stew, so much for gourmet cooking. We found we had mastered the fine art of lighting an alcohol stove burner. For variety, we tried the saloon settees and decided they were narrow but OK.
Solomons to Stutts Creek -- 3/20/97
It was cold and raw but the rain had stopped. I wore two sweaters and long underwear under foul weather gear. Sandy stuck to her ski clothes. We started the engine at 0615 and departed 0645, motoring out the Patuxent and turning down the bay. About 1000 there was enough wind to raise the sails so we did so. We sailed for about half an hour at 3.5 knots with 6-7 knots of wind according to the instruments, and then motor-sailed which gave us 5.5 speed vs. 4.3 with motor alone. The wind died off at the mouth of the Potomac so we dropped sails and motored the rest of the way with our friend the Autohelm doing much of the work. It was another gray day. The sky and water were nearly the same color and it was very hard, particularly through binoculars, to find the horizon. We saw two Navy tugs, two commercial tugs (one towing, other pushing), a large Navy boat (S39), and one in distance due east of Potomac mouth. I subsequently learned that this was a target ship. We saw one sports fisherman and some work boats drudging near Reedsville (about 10 miles south of the mouth of the Potomac). The rest of the day was uneventful. We arrived at the Hole-in-the-Wall 1745 and proceeded up Stutts Creek about a half hour before sunset, with Sandy fog-horning to signal our friends on both sides of the creek that we were safe and sound.
Since then we've made several overnight cruises, run aground a couple of times, and made some progress fixing this and that on the boat. We've tried out various sail combinations, and are still tinkering with how to reduce weather helm. Our love at first sight feelings continue, and we are looking forward to venturing further afield in the bay this coming summer.
POUR ANOTHER ROUND!
A friend of mine who is not a sailor, received this from her brother-in-law who she describes as "sitting around all day with computer nerds at DEC".
As you are aware, ships have long been characterized as being female. Recently, a group of computer scientists (all males) announced that computers should also be referred to as being female. Their reasons for drawing this conclusion follow:
- No one but the creator understands their internal logic.
- The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
- The message "Bad command or file name" is about as informative as, "If you don't know why I'm mad at you, then I'm certainly not going to tell you."
- Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.
- As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.
However, another group of computer scientists (all female) think that computers should be referred to as if they were male. Their reasons are:
- They have a lot of data, but are still clueless.
- They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem.
- As soon as you commit to one you realize that, if you had waited a little longer, you could have obtained a better model.
- In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.
- Big power surges knock them out for the rest of the night.
NEED INFO
Just as a reminder, we would like to expand the Endeavours Owners Forum so that there are specific areas for each size Endeavour. If you have brochures, or other descriptive printed material that you can either 'lend' or send to us, we would greatly appreciate it. Color photos are a big help as well. If you can or would like to participate please contact us.
If you have a story, would like to share an experience, or have a bit of humor or sailing knowledge you would like to share, please send it to THE ENDEAVOUR OWNERS GROUP. And by the way, I don't make any overtures about the accuracy of the information in the newsletter.
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Paul Uhl
Endeavour Owners Group