May 21, 2023 Tardis went to Maine yesterday, she looks great, the new engine installation seems to be working fine. I am exhausted. I left for a week for my sister’s 50th wedding anniversary on May 4. I had been glassing, fairing and painting every day when the temperature was up above 50, and drilling holes and running lines every day when it wasn’t. Hank Robinson, Brown’s Boatyard owner, even lent me a jig so I could drill the holes for the engine bolts. And Don Kacenski, Brown’s super-experienced mechanic showed up to pretty much confirm that my new engine control and hydraulic locations w ..read more

April 25, 2023 Pat Harris, a follower and great supporter of the Tardis Project, passed away recently. I knew Pat for 43 years. He was by boss, my business partner, my sailing buddy and most of all, my friend. He helped me get Memsahib across Canada from Georgian Bay clear through to Killarney, we ran between Norwalk and Newport many times either on Memsahib or his incredible trimaran Gypsy Heart and our last boating adventure was crossing Lake Okeechobee on Tardis. Pat was a talented and successful business person and we worked together on many groundbreaking projects in the media world — an ..read more

April 25, 2023 When we last left the transom relocation project, the new transom was built and glued in, the new bottom was roughed in, the longitudinal stringers reinforcing the transom were all in, and the top of the splashwell was tabbed in. Not much to go, right? Wrong as always. Because of the Memorial Day weekend, my intrepid hauler Kevin needs to take Tardis to Maine May 20. And I will be in Washington State for a week for my sister’s 50th anniversary. So cool weather, rain and what seems like a huge amount of glassing, painting and fairing for such a small project are stretching the t ..read more

October 13, 2022 The new transom is roughed in, tabbed and watertight enough to get it through the next couple weeks until the winter cover goes on. The pictures look pretty rough, since the two-part undercoat and topside paint I used were just miserable to grind off, so I only took it down to glass where I would be gluing and tabbing. Tardis looks pretty rough, too, after two years in Maine without serious paint and varnish maintenance. This took a lot more time than I thought, since with any fiberglass job, you put in a piece, glass, let it cure, put in another piece, glass, let it cure, et ..read more

September 22, 2022 Tardis was due to come back to Connecticut early for the rebuild of the transom, but I did get in one last cruise up Damariscotta River and John’s Bay just to the west, with a stop across the Sheepscot at Indiantown Island to start getting the boat ready to travel. Coming out of John’s Bay I went through the “Thread of Life,” a 50-yard passage about a mile long lined by huge houses on one side and ugly rocks on the other. Typical Maine cruising: heart thumping, eyes on the plotter, “I hope this is right;” but in reality, 85 feet of water under the keel, well-charted and extr ..read more

August 20, 2022 A great summer of Tardis cruising regardless of continued control problems threatening to sink it! When Molly and I got back from land cruising up to the incredibly scenic Rangely Lakes, it seemed that the basic problem was that the throttle cable was completely frozen due to salt water occasionally getting in through a tiny gap in the engine housing that we think was put there to ease access for servicing. That was easy enough to fix, everything seemed okay. So I took off from the dock for a cruise west of the Sheepscot into Harpswell Sound and the New Meadow River — with no t ..read more

June 14, 2022 At least the dock is in Maine. Tardis went in the water last week after a winter in storage at Derecktor Robinhood. Inside storage cost a small fortune, but it meant the boat came out in great shape. I was all provisioned and ready to take off for a short cruise, when during a routine engine check, I couldn’t move the throttle. So I tore the controls down hoping that they just needed lubrication, but woe is me, the Teleflex cable was shot. Normally, I would just get a new cable and fix it. But the cables twist and turn all through the bilge and Morse controls are real antiques, a ..read more

March 7, 2022 The email version of the last post isn’t loading the pictures correctly, so here is the most important one: the Master Builder Sytse Douna ..read more

March 6, 2022 On our way to Florida for a month out of the cold, Molly and I stopped off to check the progress on Arnhem, Sytse Douna’s superb Olga 28. And we got a wonderful lunch from Rosemary, Syste’s wife, and great electrical tips from his building partner and electrical systems designer Ton Schoenmakers. The construction and level of detail is just incredible. Styse runs a cabinet-making business and Arnhem could be a waterborn showroom. The pictures show the beautiful work, but here’s what I particularly like about Arnhem: — The cabinetry is all solid, book-matched wood, much of it harv ..read more

January 11, 2022 Work on Sytse’s Olga 28 “Arnhem” to convert to a transom mount for his 115 hp Mercury is proceeding well. He was able continued the “V” part of the hull all the way aft. Starting with a boat that’s already done, I think I may go with a flat piece between the two engine stringers, but we will see. My boatbuilding friends are aghast that I am planning to cut out a big chunk of my beautiful mahogany transom, but I really think the way Sytse has done it looks pretty nice. I will be down in North Carolina to see the boat in a couple weeks, so more pics then ..read more