ALBERG 37 INTERNATIONAL OWNERS ASSOCIATION
Tom and Kaye Assenmacher
a37ioa@sylvaninfonospam.com
(Please Remove 'nospam' Before Sending) www.alberg37.org
VOL 20,
NO. 3 (SUMMER-2010)
Happy
Happy Independence Day To Our
American Friends
It’s Nearly Rendezvous Time
Again!!
The 18th Annual
ALBERG 37 FALL RENDEZVOUS
Saturday/Sunday,
(Boats may
arrive on Thursday or Friday)
at the
ASSENMACHER DOCK
Hampton Hall Branch, Yeocomico River
(On Virginia ‘s Beautiful and Historic Northern Neck)
GPS Coordinates:
38-01.262 N
076-34.417 W
NOTE: ALL POSITIONAL INFORMATION IS APPROXIMATE – DO NOT USE FOR NAVIGATION
Click
Here for Previous Rendezvous Write-ups and Photos
SHEARWATER
And Crew Are Back
By
Tom and Kaye Assenmacher
Kinsale, VA
After nearly a 7 month
'sabbatical', Kaye and I have finally returned home to Kinsale in early May.
We left Kinsale on
We spent a few days
'weathered in' at Elizabeth City, NC awaiting passage of some nasty weather and
seas on the
Shuttle Launch
Shortly after our arrival in
We spent Thanksgiving
(American) at the Vero Beach Marina which was a grand event. About 100 'Southbound Cruisers' attended an
amazing 'Pot Luck' dinner on Thanksgiving afternoon hosted at a nearby city park by
the Vero Beach Marina.
On 9 December, we left Vero
and then proceeded in company with PIKA and MISCHIEF (Kip and Linda Newbould’s 1970 MK-I Yawl) to West Palm Beach, FL, where we
made the Gulf Stream crossing (uneventful and easy) on 13 December to Great
Sale Cay, Abaco, Bahamas. From Great Sale Cay, we proceeded to Green
Turtle Cay (by way of Hawksbill Cay) arriving there on 15 December where we
checked into Bahamian Customs at New Plymouth (settlement), paid our $300
cruising fee, and lowered the yellow ‘Quarantine’ flag and raised the Bahamian
courtesy flag. We had anchored just off
the settlement of New Plymouth and dinghy’d in to go
through Bahamian Customs – when we returned to the boat to go into the
anchorage at nearby White Sound, we found that our transmission had failed
AGAIN (our 4th)! We managed
to get into the anchorage, and the next day took the boat into the Green Turtle
Club Marina, where TJ swapped out the BAD transmission with our spare
transmission (yes, we carry a spare).
We stayed in Green Turtle
through New Year’s Day, having celebrated Christmas with a lot of cruising
acquaintances, and where we took part in Green Turtle’s JUNKANOO (which was
great!) on New Years Day.
Leaving Great Sale Cay in
early January (2010), we then proceeded through the “Whale Passage” to Man O’
War Cay, where we’ve spent a lot of time over the past 4 years.
Although the weather in the
Abacos wasn't the greatest, we thoroughly enjoyed our time here! In December, January, February through mid
March, we had 'rip roaring' cold fronts pass through the area every 2-3 days
with occasional squalls of 40+ kts. Thankfully, we
were able to spend most of the time on very secure moorings the well protected
While on Man O’ War Cay, we
did make a few short side-trips, although one needed a ‘weather window’ to go
anywhere last winter. Included in our
side trips were several short runs to
In early April (2010) we left Man O’ War and began
the long trek back home to Kinsale. We spent several weeks back in Green
Turtle Cay with our friends Lou and Jean Wayne who decided to leave PIKA (1967
A-37 Sloop) on the hard at the Abaco
Yacht Services (AYS) Boatyard in Green Turtle (they plan to return to
Green Turtle in December (2010) or January (2011) to continue cruising the
Bahamas without making the long trek down the ICW and the Gulf Stream Crossing
from Florida). From Green Turtle, we (along with crewmembers Lou and Jean) left
Green Turtle for Powell Cay and then to Great Sale Cay from which we
successfully crossed over to
We spent a few days in
Anyway, the failure occurred
at about 2230 in the evening (we were planning on reaching the Georgetown inlet
at slack tide the next morning at about 0700 to catch the flood current into
Georgetown), about 25 miles south of the Charlestone
inlet. Not wanting to enter Charleston Harbor at night, and as the weather was
great, but only a very light wind, we decided to sail (at about 2.5 kts) toward Charleston, and have Tow Boat US (we had just
upgraded to the ‘Gold’ towing service vice the regular ‘Unlimited’ Towing
package) meet us at the inlet at dawn. Consequently we had a tow into
Tom and Kaye back home in
(Ed. Note: We plan to post photos of our 2009-2010 Bahama cruise on the website in the near future –
SHEARWATER is currently on the hard at Port Kinsale Marina awaiting
installation of a new TWIN DISC marine transmission.)
New Members
Shawn Sprinkel, of
Dan and Johanna Lord of West
Gabriel Bonventi
of
Lucie and Benoit Fauteux
of
Eric Illsley of
Tibor and Eva Halasz, of
Ed. Note: We may
have heard from other ‘Albergers’ while we were
cruising in the
News From Members
We
recently heard from Robin Phillips who is on cruise from
"Just wanted to drop
a line and thank you for assisting me with acquiring a mainsail from the Newbould's. Let them know that
I left the west coast of
I have renamed the boat back to the original name
given when it was launched "Katydid".
I will someday do up a complete list of the work I
performed on her during the last two years of ownership and submit it to you as
an article. Lots of mistakes and things I learned and would like to pass
on. I may have more time now that I am in
The boat of course is awesome, I weathered everything
from no wind to plus 40 knots off the
I am glad you're winter went well. Wish I could
come to the rendezvous and meet everyone. Wrong coast and to
far away though.
Thanks, again
Robin Phillips
S/V KATYDID
Alberg 37
We recently received an email from Tom McMaster and
Rose Hansmeyer who are
cruising aboard their 1985 MK-II Sloop SOJOURN
in the San Blas Islands off the coast of
“We are heading back to
West San Blas after going 120nm to Colombian border
town to renew visa for another 3 months.
We have had a great trip to
When you have
time can you please put a query on the Alberg site to ask others if they have
heard of issues with the Volvo 2000's series diesel engine? We understand the transmission/gearbox has a spline issue without any warning. The spline
between transmission and engine gradually wears out and doesn't work. We haven't had this issue yet but we have
heard from other cruisers that have had this replaced.”
Jack Vanderloo who owns the 1977 MK-II Sloop SOUTHERN CROSS recently
reported: “This email is coming to you from still-on-the-hard in Sydney, Nova Scotia,
having sailed (no that's an exaggeration - motored) down the St. Lawrence and
around the Gaspe last year (mid-June) in weather that
was acknowledged by locals all along the way as the coldest and wettest and
generally lousiest in 25 years!!! My first "all up" sail
was between Buctouche, New Brunswick, and Summerside, Prince Edward Island, 31 days after setting out
from Iroquois, Ontario. Strong to gale force winds out of
the NE the whole way down the St. Lawrence, out of the S past Bay de Chaleur, through the Northumbeland
Strait and down to the Strait of Canso, and out of
the SW, and in pea soup, all the way to Halifax and Lunenburg.
Sailed
back to the
Back
in January, we heard from Mark and Debbie Crowe, who are cruising in the
Cheers Mark and Deb”
A-37 IOA Hosts
Visiting Alberg 30 Association Cruising Group At Kinsale
The Alberg 37 International
Owners Association hosted a cruising group of the Chesapeake Bay Alberg 30
One-Design Association at Tom and Kaye Assenmacher’s
home and dock on the
Alberg 30
Association Crab Feast
A-37s For Sale
(Please
check the Alberg 37 web site (A37's For Sale/Wanted)
for the latest postings.) (Ed. Note: Several
Alberg 37s have recently changed hands – so there are people out there looking
for these great boats.)
Current offerings include:
FOR
Blue
awlgripped hull with white decks; Repowered with 4cyl 42hp Vetus/Mitsubishi diesel and
transmission with less than 200 hours; Replaced standing rigging and
lifelines; Complete sail inventory with new 155 Mylar Genoa, 125
Furling Dacron Genoa, Fully Battened Mainsail with Dutchman Reefing mounted to
a Strong Track on mast for effortless raising/lowering main, Dacron
Mizzen, Red/White/Blue Asymetrical Spinnaker with
dousing sock; Optional wood trim added by manufacturer in cabin; 12V
Adler Barbour Cold Machine. Many more accessories.
Great Condition for proven regatta class winner and beautiful
cruiser. Owner downsizing. Pictures
available at - http://picasaweb.google.com/dawalker14/GoodNews?feat=directlink
Lying in
After
20 years of owning her, John Volk is offering "STORNOWAY"
for sale. She is a MK-II,
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/volc/S1/Stornoway.html
. Price is $65,000 CDN.
FOR
PHONE Dan Lord:
978 462 1112
Gear For
MK-I Interior Cushions - "As a result of re-jigging the interior of my
1967 MK-I (# 18) VECTIS, I had to
have a whole new set of interior cushions made. Bad planning as I had only replaced
the covers on the existing cushions, 2 years prior. So I have a complete set of
cushions for sale which are like new, 2 years old in Sunbrella, a blue and
white stripe. The new cushions cost me $3500! so I
figure the older ones have got to be worth $1000. Any offers? VECTIS is a Mark I and the cushions are
for the original MK-I configuration (although I believe configurations varied
slightly). Buyer will need to pick them up in CT.
Contact Ian Dunn Email: iandunn@optonline.net
For sale - Zodiac, 4 man offshore valise liferaft. Never deployed, purchased new in 2000. Always stored inside and is in great condition.. Buyer responsible for shipping and repackaging, however if it cannot be repackaged for any reason send back and we will refund the purchase price (shipping not included). Asking $800 USD. Contact Bill and Debbie Horne: serenade2ATsbcglobal.net (replace AT with @). For photos of the liferaft, go to http://www.alberg37.org/gear4sale.htm
Dodger
Frame For Sale, Geoff Cunliffe of
NOTE: This
dodger frame is NOT for an Alberg 37
Web Sites of
Interest
Good Old Boat - The Sailing Magazine for the Rest Of Us (http://www.goodoldboat.com/)
Salty
Southeast Cruisers' Net
(http://cruisersnet.net/)
Solar Panel Installation Aboard
SHEARWATER
By
Tom and Kaye
Kinsale
About
4 years ago, prior to our 1st cruise to the
For further discussion and more photos, please visit
the online version at: http://www.alberg37.org/Project%20DB/SHEARWATER_Assenmacher_Solar_Panel/Solar-Panel-Installation-Aboard-SHEARWATER.htm
We are happy to report that the solar installation 'worked
like a charm'!! We rarely had to run our
engine in order to charge our 450 Ampere Hour (A/H) house battery bank during
our recent cruise to the Bahamas (October, 2009 - May, 2010). Although we did a lot of motoring/motor
sailing going to and from the Abacos, we spent considerable time either at
anchor or on a mooring (in Man O' War Cay).
Even on cloudy days, the solar installation provided some power. We figured that our daily power consumption
was approximately 90 A/H, of which about 50 A/H was used by the refrigerator (1976 vintage
Adler-Barbour Cold Machine). We have had
NO problems with the solar installation!
Our next highest consumer of DC power is our HP laptop, which draws
approximately 4 amps when in use. Another
high impact DC power consumer is our ICOM 710 SSB transceiver which is used,
primarily for Sailmail (Email via Pactor Modem/SSB) in the transmit mode. The SSB receive mode (for monitoring weather
reports, cruising nets, etc.) uses very little DC power. Over the past few years we have converted all
the cabin lights to low energy consuming LED lights, along with an LED anchor
light. The DC power consumption of the
LED lights is minimal, and a great saver of DC power - the new generation of
LED light bulbs are excellent in that they give off bright and warm light, not
the cold/blue light of the first generation LCDs
Additionally, we recently applied
additional insulation to our refrigerator box (see Refrigerator
Insulation - http://www.alberg37.org/Project%20DB/SHEARWATER_Refrig_Insulation/SHEARWATER%20PROJECTS.htm
for further discussion and more photos of this project). We also installed an 'Hour Meter' to the
refrigerator circuitry to monitor the number of hours per day that the refrig
compressor ran. We also installed a Radio
Shack wireless thermometer inside the refrigerator (which transmits to an
exterior temperature monitor) in order to monitor the refrigerator box
temperature. We found that the
efficiency of the box was improved approximately 10-15% (based on refrigerator 'running' time)
with the improved insulation. With the
addition of the wireless thermometer, we discovered that we were wasting energy
by keeping the refrigerator too cold. Also, the addition of a small 'muffin fan' (very
low power consumption) inside the refrigerator to circulate cold air inside the
box kept the box at a more uniform temperature (the jury is still out whether
or not the addition of a circulation fan decreases power consumption).
Spindrift
By the Editor
We are always looking for articles
(cruising, racing, maintenance, etc.) and photos of your boat for inclusion on
the website and newsletter. Send the articles
via email attachment in MS WORD and the photos in .JPG format if possible. We are still on a ‘Dial Up Modem” here on
The A-37 IOA participates as a cooperating group with BOAT U.S.,
and members receive BOAT
And,
You
Aren't
Getting
Any
Younger!!
Have a great Alberg 37 SUMMER! See you at the Rendezvous in October!
Tom and Kaye
Assenmacher At Home In Kinsale, VA