Blogger site: We have a decision

NOTE:
I have imported every member of our blogger site over to our new site. You as a subscribing member of this site, Island Spirit on blogger, should be seeing our emails now being sent from our new site at svIslandSpirit.com. These are sent from the MailChimp app a tool in Wordpress we are using. 

Eventually, I plan to stop posting here, on blogger, and only post on our new server and our site. So for right now, as I perfect the transfer, you may be seeing these double post. Please allow me time to complete the full transfer.

With that said, we just posted a very detailed blog update on our decision for our mast repair. You can read about our decision and our summary here:

http://svislandspirit.com/our-mast-repair-decision/

Thank you

Hayden & Radeen, preparing to head to Puerto Rico, Sun, Dec 3, with a launch date Dec 5.

2018 IPYOA Calendar is OUT

Remember, we have moved our blogging over to our new Wordpress site here:
http://svislandspirit.com/ so please update your bookmark.

Nov 24, 2017, we released our 15th Island Packet Yacht Owners Association Calendar.
You can see the 13 pages and the write up here:
http://svislandspirit.com/2018calendar/

Here is the 2018 Cover page.
Click the image for more

Video: Week 1 of Repairs Puerto Rico

We spent a week inspecting our boat and working on repairs as we decide what to do about the mast damages and our repair options. Enjoy this 6-minute video of photos as we narrate the adventures.

Video: Day One Damage Assessment

Video: Our Hurricane Repair Options

Again....please follow us over on www.svIslandSpirit.com as we are moving from this Blogger site of 10 years over to our own server with Wordpress. Thank you.

Video: Intro 2017-18 Cruising Season

We created this intro video on our YouTube channel outlining the launch of svIslandSpirit and our plan to raise funds via Patreon. All the funds raised are NOT for us! We will be using the money to help people in need after the hurricanes in Puerto Rico, USVI and the BVIs. We hope we can help someone. That is our goal this 2017-2018 cruising season. Enjoy this 2-minute into., and please become a Patron and make a small donation.

Thank you!



Please become a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/svIslandSpirit

svIslandSpirit is Launched

Radeen and I have redesigned our ten-year-old blogger site and we imported all the content into our new WordPress site located on my own server at www.svIslandSpirit.com. Then we reworked our Twitter account and our Instagram account to reflect this new svIslandSpirit design. Next, we create a Facebook page for svIslandSpirit and published this with the same banner and profile picture. Our final step was to build a Patreon donation page where our followers can contribute to help us meet our new goals of helping others.

Radeen and Hayden arriving and taking down the Q flag

The goal is to raise funds via our blogging, photo essays, and YouTube videos. Each time we produce new content, we can offer it to our Patreon members who can make a contribution of their selection being $1, $2, $5, $10. As these funds build up, we will present a balance sheet under the donation menu link. The money raised is NOT for us. We will be giving away all the money to people and families and organizations that we discover who really need help after the destructive hurricanes of IRMA and MARIA. We are hoping to organize hundreds of our subscribers under Patreon generating funds to donate to those in need. Again the balance sheet will be here. Please join our project by liking and following our Facebook page, then please join our Patreon page. While you are at it, please follow us on Twitter and Instagram. We are applying the power of social media to help others in need.

We hope you like our idea and we know people have enjoyed our blog for many years, now we are hoping to put this to work to help those in need. Thank you for joining our team. Please look over all the new social media links above and Like and FOLLOW our accounts. We will do our best to help.

Sincerely,
Hayden & Radeen

Our Tagline:

"We know we can't help everyone, but everyone can, at least, help someone."

Island Packet 380 PLAN SEA for sale

...Hayden and Radeen, a Whiteaker Yacht Sales team...

Many of you know us as Hayden and Radeen, the Island Packet owners and sailors who have sailed IPs since 1986. We first charted an IP 38 out of Rock Hall, MD, in the summer of 1986 and fell in love with the product. Since then, we owned IP 27 # 056 named Cinnamon from 1991 to 2001 and then bought IP 35 # 165 and named her Island Spirit. During all these years of IP ownership, we built several Island Packet focused web sites of which our largest is www.IPYOA.com.

During our 2013 IP factory refit in Florida, Ed and Debbie Whiteaker invited us to join the Whiteaker Yacht Sales team and I became a broker. Our primary task is to promote Whiteaker Yacht Sales services as we cruise around. What we have discovered is that many Island Packet yacht owners already love the WYS team and we are very proud to part of the staff. We wanted to let every Island Packet owner know that Radeen and I are a yacht broker team. We would love to help you find your dream yacht and to help you learn all about the wonderful IPY "family" of owners. Radeen and I have over 30,000 nm under our keel and have sailed many IPs as crew and on charter vacations and we feel there is no better cruising yacht. We know the history of the company and the product line is very familiar to us. We look forward to helping sailors make their Island Packet dreams come true.

Please allow us to introduce what we feel could be the most pristine and well maintained used IP on the market today. Island Packet 380 PLAN SEA is in MINT condition.


The owners, Jim and Loretta, are dear friends of ours and we have sailed together many years to the Bahamas from Florida. We first met in 2003, when they commissioned their boat in Rock Hall, MD. We have been on many IPs over the years and we have never seen a boat that is this spotless and in such like-new condition as is 380 PLAN SEA. Jim and Loretta have owned this yacht since 2003 and they have sailed her from Maryland to the Exumas and back to Florida where they now live. They would steam clean the salon settees cushions, steam clean the factory custom carpet, wax and clean the fiberglass, polish the stainless and then store the boat. This boat has been cleaned and polished twice a year, usually for one to two months at launch and then one to two months at haul out. The boat has only been used for part of the year, every year. The boat has always been emptied and the lockers have always been cleaned every year. This alone is a massive task, but it shows the way this yacht was maintained. We honestly can say that this Island Packet 380 is truly in like-factory new condition. If you are looking for an IP in the 35-40 foot range, then we feel this is the best yacht on the market, simply due its incredibly excellent condition.

Radeen and I shot over 800 digital photos of this boat and we processed these 800 down to 150 beautiful photos showing every single aspect of the boat. We show the lockers, teak finish, stainless polish, the hull and deck wax, the polished engine bilge, the emptied sail lockers and the like new dinghy and Yamaha outboard motor. If you study the photos, you will notice how clean and how perfect this yacht is. We are very proud of the listing details and the photos we published because we are proud to represent such a well maintained yacht. The owners, Jim and Loretta, are moving on to land yachting and other travels and they felt it was time for someone else to enjoy life aboard IP 380 PLAN SEA.

To view all the photos and to see the listing details, please share and follow this URL:

http://TinyURL.com/380PlanSea

Here are a few great photos to show off this yacht. 

To view all the photos and to see the listing details, please share and follow this URL:

http://TinyURL.com/380PlanSea

College Roomates Beach Bums

Anita, Radeen, Joanne and Gail ....college roommates gathered for a weekend of fun in Bethany Beach, DE.
Not pictured....Mark, Hayden and Mike. Jim, we missed you!
We had so much fun cooking delicious meals together, relaxing on the big screened in porch,
walking the neighborhood and going to the beach. We also went to a fun craft fair in Dewey Beach.

Hard to believe it has been 44 years since we met at Millersville State College on the first floor of Gilbert Hall.
Very thankful for our enduring friendship!
.Friday afternoon was spent celebrating with live music and drinks at an outdoor bar.

Selfie and Smiles in the Sand and Salt Air

We all love to walk, so off we went to The Big Chill Beach Club for a breezy Sunday afternoon at the Indian River Inlet.
Hayden met us for another drink and great live music at Hammerhead's Dockside at the Delaware Seashore State Park.

Joanne's family beach house.....so charming and comfortable!
This event was rescheduled several times over the last few years....thank you, Joanne and Mike, for not giving up on us!

Puerto Del Ray, Coolaroo Cover, Air BnB

...Radeen with IS35 at the haul out...

After 6 days in the docks preparing the boat to be hauled out, we finally reached the travel lift at 0830 on Monday, May 22, 2017. The lift operators did a great job as they expertly moved our Island Packet 35 from the water all the way up to the yacht storage yard. The interesting new aspect was how they transferred the 17,500 lbs of boat from the travel lift down onto an 8 wheel diesel hydraulic trailer that they then used to back the boat into a storage location.



They use these wireless remote control hydraulic trailers so that they can place the yacht within 12 inches of the next yacht. If the stored yacht is placed with a travel lift. then the spacing between the yachta is much greater due to the width needed for the full travel lift. This entire transfer from one machine to the next took nearly 1.5 hours but it increases the yard storage by at least 25% in my observation. This was a very challenging transfer due to the Island Packet rudder support bar interfering with the machine's structure. They wanted to remove our rudder support bar and I requested that they figure out another way. They managed to work around this non structural portion of the keel and kept the structure of the trailer from hitting it. Due to this, our boat ended up blocking much higher off the ground. I am guessing our blocking is 24" underneath our keel. This created a challenge for us covering the boat as what was normally 5 feet off the ground is now 7 feet and up. More on that later. Overall, the haul out process went very well. The boat is now strapped down with 7 hurricane straps attached to concrete footings with steel bars. We are working with Quino Sanchez, the rigging expert, to watch our boat and monitor it through any storms and downpours. The boat will remained closed and locked and his only job is to pump the hand bilge pump in the cockpit. The solar, wind and battery bank are disconnected and there is no need to go inside the boat.

Here are photos of the haul out.

This is the hydraulic trailer. Here you can see the boat has been transferred from the travel lift to the trailer

The travel lift pulls away and can go do another lift. The remote control trailer can now drive the yacht into place.

The Island Packet rudder strap would hit the trailer structure, so the yacht must be blocked higher over this back bar

The hydraulic remote control trailer is backed into position

Each wheel is on a hydraulic piston so the yacht can be leveled once it is in position.

We placed the bow high to make sure she drains well. Here the trailer is moving out.

After haulout and blocking, we immediately started on the sun shade, Coolaroo cover. We began this work around 11 am and by 3pm we had the sides up and the front bow covered to the mast. We also had worked out the aft top piece and how it would go under the boom vang but over the whisker pole. By 4pm, the afternoon sun was so intense and hot that we called it a day, and headed off to our condo to shower and cool down. The next day we began at 0630 and we were able to complete the cover install and sewing by 1330. Overall this process of covering the boat with Coolaroo took us 9-10 hours of work, mostly all done by Hayden while Radeen was working below on cleaning, storing and packing gear for the summer storage time. The cost this year for this was $175/roll and we used 2 rolls. We use a 6' x 100' roll for the sides. From this, we make two pieces 6' x 40'. For the top, we use a 12' x 50' roll, which we cut into 12' x 22' for the mast to bow and 12' x 28' for the mast to the stern. We use UV black zip ties to stitch the fabric together and this year we hand stitched it with the Coolaroo rope and needle and that will be a back-up in case the zip ties fail due to the sun. Once this was on the boat, temperature inside dropped from 106 degrees F down to 95 degrees F. Day two, in the same outside sun and temperatures, the boat never got over 89 degrees F, so we are sold on this fabric protecting the boat from the heat and the sun. We are now hoping for no direct hit hurricanes to land on the east side of Puerto Rico. That is our current risk and we are fully insured via Markel with an added named storm coverage for this area.

Here are photos of the Coolaroo process.

The 6 ' x 40' sides wire tie to the top life line bow to stern. Very easy

12' wide x 22' long covers from mast to 2' over the bow pulpit

The bow piece is stitched to the aft top piece

Davits folded in, whisker pole tied to top of davits

Top aft piece. Mast to stern is 12' x 28' and rests on top of whisker pole.

This year I raised the whisker pole to cover the coils of my new reefing lines

The top piece is zip tied to the outside of the side pieces

I sewed this seam as I moved aft, after using the zip ties.

The top pulls tight aft. As I work my way back, I pull the top tight over the sides, too.

This is 1,200 sq. feet of fabric and it works great.

Cutting around the bimini frame takes time

The 12 foot top just so reaches across the beam at widest point

We used an 18 foot ladder to wrap the bow

Coolaroo makes clips that snap onto the fabric for attaching lines.

Ropes pull from one side to the other side

Once finished, I made cuts for the hurricane tie down straps to attach to the cleats.

Looking forward, the boat is now in full shade

Looking forward from seated at the helm, the pole is high enough to sit under

Job complete. LOOK at the waterline, it is OVER my head.
That is due to the 24" high blocking. This is the highest blocking ever!

Radeen under the bow and the 18+ foot ladder

Coolaroo Sun Cover worked again, this is great!

I booked a really cool Air BnB studio overlooking the marina. It has a small kitchen, bathroom and a totally tiled separate shower room and also a beautiful pool. We enjoyed making a hot breakfast each morning and in the evening we prepared simple dinners with food we moved off the boat. This has worked out very well. Imagine, a shower with unlimited hot water and a toilet that you simply push a lever and it flushes. WOW, what a treat! 

Photos of our cute room...

The steps down to our room overlooking the harbor

Our kitchen and dining table, gas stove and small refrigerator.

One room, one space, works for us

Can you find the Island Packet?

The view of Marina Puerto Del Rey from our patio. The pool is shared with the homeowner who lives upstairs
and one with one other rental unit.

Our private patio for wine and cheese. There is a lovely breeze here every evening.
At night, we are lulled to sleep by the tree frogs peeping. Such a lovely spot!