Making Lemonade out of Lemons

I admire people that I meet along the way who, when faced with adversity, make their life and the lives of others better by turning their problems into a cure so that others may not have to deal with the same "lemons".

Bob Preston is like that. Bob, already a Back Cove 33 owner, came to me at a show a few years back and said that he wanted to purchase a Back Cove 37 but really needed to have a way to stow a dinghy on the transom of the boat so that he could keep his access to the transom door. He went on to explain that he was going to be facing "some mobility issues" in the near future. My father contracted Parkinson's Disease when he was 55 and I lived with Parkinson's for a very long time after that. I know the difficulties that PD patients face, I recognize the signs and the symptoms. So it is that I asked Bob if he was suffering from PD and told him that I had a lot of personal experience. Once that bond had been made we were off and running.

Bob has set off on his very own voyage for a cure. While he is at it, he is fund raising for the Parkinson's Society. Last summer he left his homeport in Rhode Island and headed East as far as the Maine port of Eastport. He then did an about face and began the southerly cruise of a lifetime from Eastport to Key West. We spoke yesterday and they were tied up in Georgetown, South Carolina. The trip has been a dream and everything has gone very well. Bob and crew are having a blast.

When I asked how his fund raising is going he replied that he has raised $70,000.00 to date. That's an amazing feat and an even better piece of news is that one of Michael J Fox's supporters has agreed to match dollar for dollar everything that Bob raises.

If you want to follow the cruise and the cause you can "Friend" Bob Preston Cure PD on Facebook. Bob has made a lot of lemonade since he was diagnosed. My hat is off to him. 

The Back Cove 34 is launched

I know, I have not been as good as I should have been about updating the Back Cove 34 as it went through the various stages of construction. Time got away from me and boat show season started before I could say "new model".

The 34 is sensational. Every change that was made from the swim platform to the new island berth, just works so well. The boat was shown in a local show in Rockland two weeks ago and the response was outstanding. Next we are off to Newport, RI, Norwalk, CT and Annapolis, MD on the East Coast and to Seattle - Lake Union in the West. Our boat show calendar will give you the dates of these shows.

 
 

 

See you at the shows !

Open Boat Yard Days

As an active member of Maine Built Boats, Sabre Yachts wants to be sure you are aware of Maine's Open Boatyard Days coming up in August. Many of Maine's boat builders who will participate in the event. If you love boats you will love this inside look at our yards.
The 2nd Annual "Open Boatyard Days" will be held August 15 & 16, 2011, in boatyards and boat building companies across the state. The public is invited to tour the insides of companies which include boat builders, boatyards, and affiliated businesses across the state of Maine. This is a unique opportunity to learn more about boat building in Maine, and to see first hand the passion that boat builders have for their art. The dates will build upon the Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Show, held in Rockland, August 12th-14th. People can visit the show and see a very broad array of boats, then go on to visit the boatbuilders, boatyards, and affiliated businesses at their location. More details will be posted as they become available.

Fuel Economy; the Back Cove 37

We recently had a report from John and Jane Linscott who ran their beautiful Claret colored Back Cove 37 Maine Event, from Ft Myers, Florida up to Portland, Maine. The distance was 1946 miles and the fuel consumption was an astoundingly low 1255 US gallons. They averaged 20 knots of boat speed.

Back Coves are very reasonable on fuel and with fuel prices where they are today, many boaters are considering a change to a single diesel engine vessel like the Back Cove 37. When we calculate fuel consumption for this boat at those rates of speed, we come up with a 1.3 mpg burn rate for the Cummins 600 hp QSC 8.3 engine. However, fuel rate on these engines is calculated by the internal computer and not by a flow meter. John and Jane's actual fuel rate was 1.55mpg so they burned 242 gallons less that we would have predicted for this voyage.

Do the math and you'll see what they saved. I loooked up fuel consumption rates for a boat of the same size built by another US manufacturer with twin diesel inboards. Their boat burns 30 GPH where as the Back Cove burned 13 GPH ! That's half the fuel and every bit as much fun! 

Boating with a Purpose

My own father contracted Parkinsons when he was 55 years old and I always wished for him that he could have done more once he was afflicted. But at the time drug therapies and treatments were not what they are today. Bob Preston is the owner of a Back Cove 37 and he too has Parkinsons. But Bob has made it his mission to do as much as he can as long as he can. I found this article from the Providence newspaper very inspiring and I hope you do as well.

 

Back Cove 34 Build Begins

 
The first Back Cove 34 will ship in July so the work that needs to be done to create her new IGU (Internal Glass Unit) has begun in our tooling shop. In tooling work you either start from square one or you make a glass master of another part and modify that to give you what you want for the new design. The 34 is, as we have explained before, an updated Back Cove 33 and most of the changes are inside the cabin where the Vee-berth changes over to a pedestal berth. Were this an entirely new hull mold we would be doing all of these new tools from scratch but in this case the work can be accomplished much more quickly. Still there are plenty of details to be built into the plug and that is what you see here.

 

This new interior pan is being built from a splash part (white gelcoat) and the modifications can be seen in wood. The change has already been made to the vee-berth and the hanging locker which was built of timber in the 33 has now become part of the mold and will be built in FRP and then be faced with a cherry wood door. New steps are now built in to provide easier egress into and out of the berth.

Look for more updates over the weeks to come as hull #1 goes into production and flows through the assembly process.

Stop the Snow

When you live in Maine you get used to people from away saying, "my God you guys are getting buried this winter." Even people from New York assume that since they are getting hammered that we in Maine must be getting "double hammered." This week there are people from Oklahoma, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit and everywhere in between who are sharing in the "joys" of winter. So for all of you who have asked me this winter if I can still find my car just suck it up and enjoy what nature is dropping on your roads and roofs.

Rarely does a day go by when someone does not try to rub it in and today's culprit is from the Gold Coast in Australia where this trio of Back Cove owners is spending a warm afternoon anchored together in this beautiful setting. "Thanks a lot" to the Hogans, Byrnes and McKeerings.

Time to go and shovel some more snow. Grrrrr !

 

2009 Owner's Rendezvous

Back Cove is planning a big get-together in early 2009 and all owners are invited to attend. The 2009 Rendezvous will be held on the weekend of April 4th and 5th at Grand Bahama Yacht Club at Port Lucaya, Grand Bahama.