# Union Pacific, 48' schooner



## UnionPacific (Dec 31, 2013)

Hello everyone. 
I have not done a "who am I" post in a good long time.
I am a crazy powerboater, who sails. So with that out of the way (I really am crazy), I will tell you about me, us, and our life, and will try to keep it short.
I have been a powerboater for many years. mostly playing around on our 22' bayliner. A neat little boat that got the job done for years. I had stepped up from a 3 person jetski to that. 
Well after a few extended trips, including 30 locks on the Erie canal, all I could think was i wanted more, much more. I had a few key places i wished to visit.

Japan, Madagascar, Cook Islands, Galapagos, a theme park in Australia, Europe.
When i started the planning, I wanted to build a Cat myself. I had plans for a 65' Bruce Roberts cat, and was well into the planning stage, when I got married. With the price of diesel, and the uncertain future of diesel, we had to get a sailboat.

After i got married I scrubbed a few of my plans. The motorcycle trip from LA-Alaska, and building my own boat.

So i started shopping for what was the right boat for me. I had thought about a conversion, I even gave thought to using two hulls from aluminum power boats to make a cat.

I spent a good deal of time on dockersfourm (lol) i got the big boot after biting back for the fifth time when someone called me an idiot. What a joke of a forum. you have about 10% active cruisers, 50% of those know what they are doing, and are nice, 20% are jerks that think they know a lot, and the other 90% of the forum are inactive. Be it dock lovers, or cruisers from a bygone era. Those basically sit on the forum all day and tear people apart, calling them stupid, reckless, hubris, and saying they will get everyone killed.
The boot, was my last straw. I still check the classifieds there, but i doubt i will ever return, even after my vacation is up.

Frankly I am a learn as I go type, and like a challenge. I am not afraid to ask the embarrassing questions, or the dumb ones. I feel a lot of people keep these questions in their head, in fear of being town apart from asking them.

In the mean time we are living the dream. We have bought a boat, we have made our first few offshore passages, we do live aboard now, and we are settling in. We are learning what we do like, what we do not like, and making some good mistakes.

I am a diesel mechanic, a wood worker, Computer builder(who started when building a computer was hard) and a general sponge head.

So if you dare, follow me, and our family on our shake down cruises. So far we have gone from Albany NY, to Charleston, SC.

We have a blog, 
www.svunionp.blogspot.com S/V Union Pacific
that is updated when there is news, or when we are doing a passage, 
and a youtube channel,
www.youtube.com/user/scoobertjoo
always stocked with fresh videos, with over 110,000 views.

Our latest videos from sailing can be found there, including my fun this evening on our dingy!

So I hope you welcome us to your forums. I am always available for diesel advice, so feel free to ask away, or stop in, I can do a quick repair, for cash or a trade of a valuable skill.


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## desert rat (Feb 14, 2013)

schooner is a work that will get me to read almost any thread. Please describe the lady.
Spritz, keel, winches, anything at all. I an landlocked and schooners (I can not afford what I want) send shivers up and down my spine.


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## UnionPacific (Dec 31, 2013)

Well, its a bit odd. There is no bow spritz at all. There are photos on our blog.
there is a boomkin thou. Our boat has a funny setup, and it took a long time before we realized she was in fact a schooner. When we bought her this year, in june, the PO told us she was a level headed ketch. We spoke to a rigger, with 40++ year experience, who told us it was a schooner, because both sails provided propulsion. They both do.


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## UnionPacific (Dec 31, 2013)

The keel is a fin keel, and the bottom sits at about 6.5' we have had that on the ground, many times.


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## UnionPacific (Dec 31, 2013)

Winches.... we have 11 in total, and that is not enough. If we rigged every piece of cloth we could, foremast genoa, foresail, foremast working jib, mainmast jib, stay sail, main sail. then we would be 6 winches short. So now i must take the time and add clutches. At this very point in time, the boat does not have even one. Its ok thou, we are very new to sailing, and at this point, in the ocean, in the cold, we have not flown more then the foresail, and the jib. On our next passage, I hope to use the genoa for the first time at sea, the foresail, and the mainsail.


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## UnionPacific (Dec 31, 2013)

When I brought the yacht home solo, I had all three flying. I have a video on my youtube of that. I was close to 8 knots.


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## UnionPacific (Dec 31, 2013)

All i can say DR is get out here now. Get what you can afford, and move out here. Many boats are free, you may not end up in a big PITA schooner, but you will have something. Something, is something. You can anchor out, enjoy life, because tomorrow may never come.


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## desert rat (Feb 14, 2013)

lovely collection of videos on you tube. ELEVEN winches, finally gets me thinking about all those lines on a schooner and how to organize them. That could be a real project for the lone duck that i expect to be.


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## UnionPacific (Dec 31, 2013)

yes, it is. and they do not run to the cockpit. the foremast has winches on it too. so raising the foresail requires a trip up on deck. reefing is the same. i want to run them all aft, but that will require 1000's in new line. plus clutches.


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## Vasco (Sep 24, 2006)

Hey Scoobi,

I see you've moved over here after they booted you out of the other forum. I think they deleted your thread but it was interesting reading. You still stuck in Charleston? Will be difficult to get further south without the support and guidance they gave you at every turn. Good luck.


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## UnionPacific (Dec 31, 2013)

Vasco said:


> Hey Scoobi,
> 
> I see you've moved over here after they booted you out of the other forum.


Yes, I think I covered that in my introduction, Thanks for the re-hash thou.


> I think they deleted your thread but it was interesting reading.


Yes, but they put it back after removing the inflammatory posts, and sending out strikes to the flamers.


> You still stuck in Charleston?


It is all on the blog 


> Will be difficult to get further south without the support and guidance they gave you at every turn.


I highly value local knowledge (what marina is best, what inlets to avoid, where the shoaling is) However, beyond that information, the site was merely entertaining. The adolescence there was unfathomable. Even the woman with the lagoon 420 was told she would basically be dead, and no one moderated that. Turns out that her journey was very safe, and she made good decisions without forum help. I do miss the few good friends i made there, several that i have regular email contact with. Its amazing how a rose can grow in the middle of cow plop, isn't it?


> Good luck.


Luck is not required, I live on prayer


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## 34crealock (Dec 30, 2012)

Welcome aboard Capt Scoobert. I am pleased that you are out and about. I look forward to your reports as you get underway again.


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## UnionPacific (Dec 31, 2013)

34crealock said:


> Welcome aboard Capt Scoobert. I am pleased that you are out and about. I look forward to your reports as you get underway again.


Thank you
We cannot wait to leave. If not for the major accident in my truck, we would have been in JAX right now. Fighting with insurance companies is hard work.
We still need to stop in JAX, as our prop shaft is most likely bent.


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