ALBERG 37 INTERNATIONAL OWNERS ASSOCIATION

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Tom and Kaye Assenmacher
P.O. Box 32 Kinsale, VA 22488


(Please Remove 'nospam' Before Sending)
www.alberg37.org

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VOL 23, NO. 3 (SUMMER 2013) 25 JULY, 2013

Upcoming Rendezvous Events

The 21st Annual

2013 ALBERG 37 FALL RENDEZVOUS

Saturday/Sunday, September 21-22, 2013

- REVISED -ONE WEEK LATER!

DUE TO PRESSING COMMITMENTS!

SATURDAY/SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28-29, 2013

(Boats may arrive on Thursday or Friday)
at the

ASSENMACHER DOCK

Hampton Hall Branch, Yeocomico River
1006 Brook Ave.

Kinsale , VA.

On

Virginia’s Beautiful and Historic Northern Neck)

Contact

(804) 472-3853
OR
A37ioaATsylvaninfo.net – (replace AT with @)

Click Here For Additional Rendezvous Information

If you plan to attend, please contact us at the above email/phone number no later than 7 September, 2013.

New Members

Welcome aboard to Mario Blondin of Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, the owner of the 1976 MK-II Sloop KANDACE ROSE (Hull # 168), which was formerly owned by Sonny and Petra Power of Mulgrave, Nova Scotia. . KANDACE ROSE is normally berthed in Sorel, Quebec. Mario recently wrote in an email: ‘We are in Bahamas, heading north to go home.’

Welcome aboard to Rowan Murdoch of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, the owner of the 1980 MK-II Sloop HENRY (Hull # 210) which was previously known as TIME PASSAGE. We’ve had a good amount of correspondence with Rowan the past month or so.

Rowen recently bought the boat in Ontario, and is doing a good amount of refurbishing in Gore Bay, Ontario. Work includes work on the rudder, installing zincs on the rudder shoe and gudgeon, along with the cutless bearing housing,. Rowan found the maintenance information, especially the ‘Project Database’ to be of help in his work on HENRY. The last report from Rowan is that he is ‘Heading South’, and may be attending the A-37 Rendezvous in late September – we hope he can attend!.

News From Members

Rick and Tracy Sidoni of Snyder, NY, the owners of the 1967 MK-1 Sloop SILK PURSE (who recently purchased the boat- previously named PIKA - from former owners and long time A-37 IOA members Lou and Jean Wayne of Rochester, NY) recently moved SILK PURSE from Rochester to Wilson Harbor, NY.

The boat has recently undergone major ‘refurbishing’ including exterior painting, new bronze opening ports, and other improvements. The boat (then named PIKA) was the Featured A-37 in 2004.

Also, Click here for a short slideshow showing the boat leaving Rochester, and also showing some of the work done on SILK PURSE.

We recently received the following from ‘Michael’ (no name of boat or owner’s name):

“We have an Alberg 37 ketch! We saw on one of your old news letter that S/V SAFARI was the only one. We were wondering if you know the sail dimensions as we are in a restoration project with ours S/V PROMISE. Thanks Michael”.

In response, we sent ‘Michael’ the following:

“Michael, We know of 3 A-37 ketches. Unfortunately, we have no real info about sail plans, etc., only 'hearsay'. We have no record of an A-37 (Sloop/Yawl or Ketch) by the name of PROMISE. Without knowing the hull ID number on PROMISE, we don't know if she had been renamed somewhere in the past. If you could fill out the "Join Us" form on the Web site (http://www.alberg37.org/join_the_association.htm), we could perhaps find your boat with the info provided by the form.

The following is an excerpt from the Summer 2008 Newsletter (http://www.alberg37.org/Newsletters/Vol-18_NO3_SUMMER-2008-web/Vol-18-No3-SUMMER-2008.htm): "Joe Miller, the owner of the 1973 MK-II Ketch (yes, a ketch) PELAGUS, recently wrote: “I am curious to learn of any other Ketches still on the water. Joe Miller, Corpus Christi, Texas.” Joe also sent a few photos of his ketch.

Ed. Note: We know of only 3 A-37 Ketches:

SAFARI, a 1973 A-37 Ketch, Hull # 120, last known owners Lynn and Robert Gambrell, of St Thomas, USVI (haven't heard from them in about 5 years).

MY GIRL, a 1979 A-37 Ketch, (no hull #), belonging to Ron and Kaye Surley of Dallas, TX.

PELAGUS, Joe Miller, Corpus Christi, TX.

Don't know much about the A-37s which were built as ketches, and don't know if there were any more built and/or modified. We had a talk several years ago with Alex Magnone, who recently retired from WhitbyBoat (he had a boat refurbishing business in the original Whitby facility in Whitby, ON), and who was the A-37 shop foreman during most of the A-37 production. Alex said "we built a few as ketches, but I don't remember exactly how many". We don't know for sure whether all of the above listed ketches were 'factory built" or were modifications by previous owners. Ron Surley says his boat was built as a ketch by Whitby. Any members having factual historical info regarding Alberg 37 ketches would be welcome.)" That being said, you might want to contact one or all of these owners.”

(Ed. Note: If anyone knows ANYTHING factual about Alberg 37 Ketches, please let us know.)

Jeff and Janet Dickie of Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, the owners of the 1974 Mark-II Yawl TRUANT III, recently wrote: “We would so love to meet you both in Lunenburg, however we should be on our way down the coast in August. We have every belief that we will meet up with you somewhere along our way, possibly in the Abacos or somewhere warm and dry ...It is the best part of sailing, getting together with new friends, and especially common owners of Albergs. Have a wonderful time on the east coast, until we meet,

Janet & Jeff

P.S. keep us posted on your travels”

(Ed Note: Kaye and I are planning on taking a ‘land cruise’ to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with our ‘Casita’ camping trailer, and plan to attend the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival in Lunenburg, NS in early August. We’ve done this trip several times to escape the Hazy/Hot/Humid August weather here on the Chesapeake Bay. We hope that Jeff and Janet will be able to stop in Kinsale in September, possibly for the Rendezvous.)

We very recently received the following from Bob and Pam Prescott, of Marshfield, MA, the owners of the 1980 MK-II Yawl THULE:

“Hi Tom and Kaye,

Thule will be home in Jonesport Maine in late September but she will send her regards. We just returned from Yarmouth Nova Scotia and are wiser about fog and tide than we intended to become.

The trip was great in many regards. We visited Joshua Slocum’s boyhood home on Brier Island (and reread his book on the rest of the voyage). We went to Machias Seal Island to see the puffins but the rip was fierce and we stayed just a half hour (twice; coming and going). Between Grand Manan and Brier Island we saw finbacks and were followed by a pair of humpbacks (discretion being the better part of valor, I increased sail and moved away).

So THULE came home to Deer Isle Yacht Club and we will do short trips the rest of the summer.

I am hopeful that I am not too old to sail around Cape Sable to Bras d’Or next summer.

Best regards,

Bob and Pam”

(ED Note: We have ‘land cruised’ up in the Deer Island, Grand Manan, Brier Island, Bras d’Or Lake areas of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia quite often, and love the area. In fact, we are planning to leave next week (31 July, 2013) for that area again to escape the HHH (Hazy/Hot/Humid) weather here on the Chesapeake Bay.)

Maarten van Hasselt, of Houston, TX, the owner of the 1975 MK-II Yawl JOAN III recently sent a photo of their boat:

“This one is last Saturday’s Lakewood Yacht Club Shoe Regatta on Galveston Bay. We only use the mylar headsail in races. I inherited this from the previous owner. I don’t think it goes very well with the classic nature of the A37 but it is a fast sail (we call it the secret weapon). We need to renew the sail wardrobe as it becomes difficult to trim adequately to get them as flat as we want.

Kind regards, Maarten”

(Ed. Note: Check out Maarten’s web site for some additional photos.)

Ryan and Adrian Mann of Martsons Mills, MA, the owners of the 1976 MK-II Sloop AVALON sent the following email requesting some answers to their maintenance questions:

“I was enjoying your (cruising) updates immensely, living vicariously through your adventures. I missed them as they ended, but am so glad you had a good trip. Avalon came out of the water in early November and immediately I started picking away at the list of things to fix. From little projects like new LEd nav lights, to big projects like sanding the bottom down to glass and barrier coating her, Avalon had a great deal of work completed this winter. At close to 40 ( with 10 of those years on the hard) she is still in need of some upgrades and repairs, but she is back in the water and quite a bit quicker with her new bottom. I followed your instructions and removed and cleaned the fuel tank, ran new fuel line and the engine sounds amazing! I changed out the cutlas bearing, but did not have to drop the rudder. She has about 60 miles thus far on her this year and I fall in love with her every time we take her out. She will be racing the annual Figawi Race to Nantucket over Memorial Day weekend along with L'ammare #91 owned by Robert Mintz. I have not met the boat nor Mintz, but am looking forward to seeing another Alberg racing. Cape Challenge, the seamanship program I run will be taking a few overnights on Avalon this spring and I have offered the Boy scouts of America to take youth out this summer when they visit the Cape. I plan to race her Wednesday nights throughout June and July at the Hyannis Yacht club before prepping her for our big trip to the Bay of Fundy with several kids from Cape Challenge. Her sails are old, her decks creak, her bright work isn't perfect, but we are looking forward to a great year with Avalon. We look forward to the newsletter.

If you get a chance, can you send me the key you have that goes along with your provisioning diagram? Always looking for tricks for storage! Also, I was looking this winter at many of the pictures online and noticed that some of the rudders rake back flat with the keel line. Others seem to have the traditional half moon shape. Do you have any insight on this? Our Rudder is good for now, but it does have a little sag in it indicating that it will need to be replaced in the distant future. Best wishes to the both of you from Cape Cod and I look forward to details from your trip once you recuperate!

Sincerely,
Ryan and Adrian Mann

S/V Avalon-Alberg 37 # 162

(Ed. Note: We replied to Ryan and Adrian with the following: We made the 'Provisioning Diagram' by scanning the interior layout from an old Whitby brochure into Photoshop Elements, then assigning 'numbers' to each nook and cranny (or just about all of them), and printing out the diagram. We never did actually 'describe' the locations, but used the diagram as a guide. We actually built a database (MicroSoft Access) using only the 'location numbers' from the Provisioning Diagram, not the actual description of the locations. After building the database, we then went through each physical location ID and actually listed the contents of each location. It would be fairly easy to add another 'field' in addition to the 'location ID' in the Database such as 'Location Description' . The database is 'searchable' by either 'Item Description' or by 'item location'

Unfortunately, we haven't been very diligent in maintaining the database (inertia set in), but it's still quite accurate, as most of our 'boat stuff' is in the same location as it was when the database was last updated. Some rainy day, we'll update the database. It was (and still is) quite valuable to have on-hand, and we keep a printed copy of the database (sorted by location and sorted by item description) on board.

Regarding the rudders, don't recall any A-37s with a 'rounded bottom', but we've not seen very many out of the water. Seems that a rounded bottom would be advantageous in a grounding.)

If anyone out there would like to have a copy of the ‘Provisioning Diagram’, and/or the ‘Provisioning Database’ described above, we’d be glad to send you a copy via email attachment. The database requires “Microsoft Access” to run it.

Additionally, AVALON was the first Alberg 37 to join the A-37 IOA way back in 1992 – She was owned then by Gerry and Lea Warwick, of St. Michaels, MD who were the original owners – both of whom are now deceased.

Bill Richards of Pittsburg, PA, the owner of the 1982 MK-II Yawl EUPHORIA recently had a question:

‘I installed a new Beta engine when I bought her, and find that I now have more power than prop, with a LH 13 x 14 prop now. I would like to invest in a larger prop to reduce rpm and better match the power curve to efficiency. I see from the last newsletter that you are sporting a 14-11 prop. Did you have to make any alterations to the aperture to fit the 14 inch prop? It looks pretty tight on my boat; the clearance would be rather small. Can you provide any comments on your setup? EUPHORIA has the angle-down transmission with the Beta engine. Do you have the normal min clearance on between the prop and the hull, roughly 10 percent as I recall? I would prefer not to have less than the recommended one-half inch between the prop tip and the hull.’