THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER

Alan Sullivan’s comment (long since deleted, alas) on Hunter sailboats makes me laugh: "Their boats are very curvaceous. They were designed to titillate heterosexual men, who constitute an overwhelming majority of yacht buyers. Specifically, they appeal to the type of man who picks a babe for a wife, without wondering how she’ll perform over the [...]

Having sold the family sloop, we no longer pay much attention to the ups and downs of the reservoir called Lake Travis. It has been quite low in previous droughts, but seems to be trying to set a new record in the ongoing one. It is now at six hundred and fifty-five feet below above [...]

The money I got for the family sloop last month yesterday paid for new adobe-colored, porcelain ceramic tile for the rancho’s family room. It looks good. Photo to come. Coincidentally, minutes after we got all the furniture back in place, Colby, the sloop’s new owner and neophyte sailor called to chat about his latest experiences. He’s [...]

Tom, OCS buddy and rare reader who cannot make the TypeKey comment system work, reminds me that I have not written much about sailing this year. The reason is I haven’t been doing much of it since April, for various reasons, mostly involving rancho chores, family travel and driving Mr. B. around to baseball, summer camp and, now, basketball [...]

Tom, OCS buddy and rare reader who cannot make the TypeKey comment system work, reminds me that I have not written much about sailing this year. The reason is I haven’t been doing much of it since April, for various reasons, mostly involving rancho chores, family travel and driving Mr. B. around to baseball, summer camp and, now, basketball [...]

Tom, OCS buddy and rare reader who cannot make the TypeKey comment system work, reminds me that I have not written much about sailing this year. The reason is I haven’t been doing much of it since April, for various reasons, mostly involving rancho chores, family travel and driving Mr. B. around to baseball, summer camp and, now, basketball [...]

Good sail this afternoon. Partly cloudy, warm, gusty 5-15 mph winds. Just cruising along. It’s a good thing I kept my outboard engine maintenance manual, because I bought a new Mercury 2.5 hp yesterday from regular reader Steve who keeps a Hunter sloop on my dock at Anderson Mill. I gave the trolling motor a [...]

Steve, a rare reader who recently bought a used Hunter 22 sloop at Anderson Mill was using scuba gear to inspect his new craft’s bottom Sunday and afterwards swam down a few slips to check ours. Said scrubbing the algae off revealed clean blue paint from the cleaning job we got done at Commander’s Point [...]

To get the new trolling motor’s power lead to the midships battery on the family sloop requires extending it about eight feet with six gauge wire, according to the manual. I got the wire at Lowe’s easy enough. but then the fun began. Lowe’s doesn’t sell six gauge insulated ring terminals to attach the wire [...]

Finally got the new battery charger installed under the dinette table in the Catalina 22 family sloop. Now to complete the wiring to extend the power leads on the new Minn Kota 55 to the midships battery compartment. That it will all be worth the trouble was confirmed yesterday as I walked out on the [...]