GIR Day 4

[john goodman]

First half of the day had light winds and it was very hot . It was a good opportunity to put up the bimini which helped a lot! After leaving Paul's Mott we took the inter coastal waterway to marker 31, then we sailed to Panther Reef Cut. Going through there we saw a big school of redfish about 36 inches big that were probably spawning (they were stirring up the bottom). Then we headed for South Pass to Army Hole. We outpaced a Core Sound 17 and a Sea Pearl 21 . We were the 2nd boat to sail in (we don't have a motor) after a Hobby 16. We docked at about 5ish in a beautiful slip in Army Hole and enjoyed the rest of the day.
Tomorrow will be a short day and we might just wait till the wind picks up before we set out.
We should be arriving around noon.
GIR out.

[john wright]

That is truly a beautifuly built boat and by all acounts, one of the fastest in the fleet.
It was a pleasure to talk with you at Paul's Mott and your parents at Magnolia Beach.
Beautiful people, all.
john wright

[John Turpin]

Very pretty under sail.

[moffitt1]

I have a confession to make; saw your boat on the trailer at Magnolia Beach and no one was watching. I fondled all those beautiful joints and wood laminations. Wow! What a rush!

Un Abrazo,
BIll

[duckworks]

His boat is gorgeous, his sailing is impeccable, his wife is beautiful and his kids are well behaved. That's just not right.

[kenp]

Chuckie--has anybody ever told you that you have a bit of a twisted sense of humor???

[mmonies]

The GIS was beautiful workmanship. I have never had the courage to do a varnished finish on the inside cockpit of a boat. Paint hides a lot of sins. There were NO sins on the Goat Island Skiff!

Mike Monies

[john goodman]

We enjoy the kind words, but I wish I had better weather.
Hurricane Alex has changed and slowed my attempted 500 mile trip. With the coastal waters/winds being so unpredictable I will be headed to one of our long rivers. I plan to drop in at Columbus, Texas on the Colorado River and float down river to the ICW. I hope to have better weather after a week on the river so I can finish sailing the Texas coast.

Does anyone have an idea on how to build a dolly (cheap) for a boat like our Goat? There are a few low water dams and 1 big one that I will have to portage around, not to mention the ICW locks.

[Boatmik]

Chuckie--has anybody ever told you that you have a bit of a twisted sense of humor???

He is just a very naughty (nautical?) boy.

MIK

[piccup]

You have a flat bottom, so could use a 2 X 6 with carpet wrapped around it long enough to extend six inches past the sides . Add some padded 2 X 4 pieces screwed to the top of the 2 X 6 to hold the hull in position laterally. Cut some 2 x 2 angle aluminum sections and bolt them to each end of the board, with one angle facing down. Find some BMX bicycle wheels with plastic rims and bolt them to the angle pieces. Add an eyebolt inboard of the wheel on each end. Put the dolly at a balance point under the hull and use a racheting tie down strap over the gunwales to the eyebolts.

The real question on a portage for a large boat and equipment is how steep are the banks where you make the portage. You should check out every one of the sections you intend to portage, rather than trust to luck. Are you intending to motor and leave the sail rigging off?

Stan

[Boatmik]

Good description of a Dolley above.

Most of the weight should be carried by the chine area

MIK

[Donald Barnett]

i have a dumb question for the folks on this years t200.
whats the deal with burning that pink boat on the beach ?

[Andrew]

i have a dumb question for the folks on this years t200.
whats the deal with burning that pink boat on the beach ?

Ask Andy Linn. Basically, Laguna Cinco (Sink-o) was cut out and dry-fitted in Oregon, then knocked together on the beach at Port Mansfield as a publicity stunt to prove that the design was so simple and cheap to build that it was feasible to build a "throw-away" version. His total costs in the boat were less than a couple hundred dollars, and by end of the week, it was leaking an estimated 25 gallons an hour.

[john goodman]

"The real question on a portage for a large boat and equipment is how steep are the banks where you make the portage. You should check out every one of the sections you intend to portage, rather than trust to luck. Are you intending to motor and leave the sail rigging off?

Stan"

My wife dropped me in at Bastrop, Texas on the Colorado River. Rowed 97 miles over 3 nights and got out a Columbus, Texas before the first portage. My portage cart would not work on a practice portage I tried along the way. My Goat is just too clumsy on land and I needed some much larger balloon style wheels or an anti-gravity machine to make it thru the mud . With all the rain I had there would be no way for me to haul the boat up any slope covered in mud. The Colorado River has plenty of mud along it's banks which is made worse by all the cow poo. Lots of cow poo.

I carried only the mizzen with me as a sail to help steady the boat and keep the nose pointed into the wind. Of course the wind was always on the nose. I built a short daggerboard and used my normal rudder to act as a skeg. This arrangement worked very well. One of the reasons I pulled out before the first portage was I was finding it hard to keep the rain water out of the boat. Over night I had what seemed like 5 inches of water inside the boat from an all night rain storm. (I camped on the sand bars) After a morning bailing, I watched the boat slowly fill up as it poured down in buckets during the day. I arranged my sun awnings to cover up about 2/3 of the boat and that helped slow the amount of time needed to bail. It also gave me enough shelter to allow me to nap during the worst of the storm while pulled up on a sand bar. The river was rising and there was a flash flood watch for the area so I called it a day.

I had a good time and enjoyed the solitude. Learned a lot and have a few new idea's that I will have to work on to make the boat more serviceable for long distance travel.

Still like my Goat.

John

PS. None of the dams are on public roads so I have to do far more research to see if the can be portaged with a large boat. The LCRA, (Lower Colorado River Authority) says all but one can be portaged, at this point I do not think it can be done with a Goat. The other dam is now protected by Home Land Security because it's the water source for the South Texas Nuclear Power Plant. Go figure?