Armada Relocation

signal charlie

Well-Known Member
Staff member
The last Sunfish out of town for our Armada relocation was Skipper's 1965 Alcort Sunfish WAVE, she kept watch in the cargo hold of a 26 foot UHaul.

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Towed the Drascombe Lugger behind...

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Last boats out of town, they rode great.

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The Armada is reforming in their new Mid Atlantic homeport, near Hampton Roads, Virginia. 4 more boats coming in a Pods container next week and a new Sunfish Shack coming soon.

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You're moving to a great place, I think. My son lived there for several years while in the Navy, then moved back to Illinois (who knows why?) last year. I enjoyed all of our trips there to visit him.
My kids keep moving to cool places, but then move back to Illinois. I did the same thing 40 years ago, but I thought I'd enlightened them to do better. :)
 
The last Sunfish out of town for our Armada relocation was Skipper's 1965 Alcort Sunfish WAVE, she kept watch in the cargo hold of a 26 foot UHaul.

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Towed the Drascombe Lugger behind...

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Last boats out of town, they rode great.

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The Armada is reforming in their new Mid Atlantic homeport, near Hampton Roads, Virginia. 4 more boats coming in a Pods container next week and a new Sunfish Shack coming soon.

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We had 17 people here last week and 2 outboards failed, the paddleboat broke the chain and my Sunfish is still being worked on so I can appreciate the backup fleet you have there.
 
The last Sunfish to arrive was the first to depart, 1953 Alcort Sunfish ZIP slipped out of the PODS container today, 5 months to the date when she left Florida. Skipper was in charge, we used the combination Sunfish Finishing Dolly and catboat strongback to get ZIP down the first few feet...

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...the Skippervisor taking a break...contemplating her next move...

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...here's her next move...

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We slid WINNIE out next (not shown) and then put our 1950s Alcort Super Sailfish TRACKER onto the strongback.

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Skipper on her JD 130 named WILEY, I trailed behind and steered, like the fireman on the ladder trucks.


You'll notice some pavers and 2x6 lumber in the video, approximately where the Atlantic Squadron Sunfish Shack will be built.

The Catfish SMEDLEY took a few punches to her pontoons, she'll need a patch. The glass is thin on the Catfish, we think there is more gelcoat than fiberglass on this generation, Alcort trying to keep the weight down...Details to follow.
 
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Test fit, 16x16 deck footprint, roof will be 18x18. Out plan is to store a few boats on hoists made from old Sunfish mainsheets, go vertical with storage vs horizontal. After lumber prices come down maybe we spread out horizontally a bit, we definitely have the room but maybe this will give folks some ideas who don't have the acreage. 256 sf is also the max allowed for a shed before we have to get a permit, and who wants to mess with that? There was no mention of how many 256 sf sheds one could have... :)

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Had to go work for a few days, and didn't want to leave ZIP (Sunfish) or WINNIE (Standard Sailfish) outside...

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Furniture dolly from Lowes.

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WINNIE is also on her side on a furniture dolly, sideways in front of the Mustang SUPER SALLY. Skipper's Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE is hosting spars and sails until we get the new spar shelves, Sunfish Shack and Carriage House built.

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Good point about the winds, we'll throw on an extra line. We are surrounded by tall pines and elm, so far 12 mph has been the max we have seen vs the unabated wind we'd get off of the bay on some days.

Insert random caboose photo here...

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Metal roof going on...and a few more deck boards. The Penobscot 14 is getting special treatment because I didn't put in a drain plug when we built her, so we are trying to keep the rain out of the bilge and avoid bailing her out every few days.

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Right now the plan is to put slat walls on 3 sides, to keep most of the sideways rain out but still allow air circulation and light in, and to put a rain fly on the front of the shack

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Gorilla Cart, highly recommended for off roading the tools.

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Let's see, we got the deck and roof finished. Added the rest of the ramp pieces and put some pavers down to get an easier slope up from the yard. All of the boats wanted to try out the Mid Atlantic Sunfish Shack.

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Once we get the new carriage House built the Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES and the little punt SCUPPERS will probably move in there, and the hoisted Sunfish MADISON can drop back down onto her dolly.

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We hoped to have room to make a U turn in front of the Shack, to pick up boats, drop off trailers, etc...and we have it!

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Next up, we are considering adding sides and a back wall to the Shack.
 
Skipper keeps mentioning "She Shack" more than Sunfish Shack, so we are going ahead with putting up siding, so "She" can hang out with her boats year round. We priced some cedar siding and a few other options and chose LP SmartSide 38 Series Cedar Texture 8 in. OC Panel Engineered, Treated Wood Siding. To match the lap siding on the house we turned the panels sideways. We'll add windows to let light back in from the sides and back, and maybe sell hot dogs and snow cones out of one of the windows. Barn sash windows are one option.

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The back side finish is OSB, not sure if we'll leave that alone, throw a coat of varnish on it or paint it.

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Sides are, front will stay open. We may or may not have a rain fly on the front, we like checking on the fleet at a glance.

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Spare part storage

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Our canoe SCOUT on guard duty. Slider windows come next so you can place your parts orders :)

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Things are about to get real interesting for the back .40 acres, Curtis showed up with his Takeuchi skid steer with forestry mulcher attachment.

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Parts and Service windows going in...

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We always have simultaneous projects going on, as the Sunfish Shack nears completion we will turn our attention to the recently cleared area behind our back yard. The last few days we have been building an arched bridge across the river gorge. Skipper Skippervised.

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Channel marker chairs.

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Squint hard and you'll spot the 12x16 slab that we found under 2 inches of leaves and roots. Garden shed might appear there.

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Is SC glad to be clear of "panhandle- Florida" next week? Nine to 12 feet of tidal surge...10 feet of waves in nearby Louisiana. :oops:

Ida's track is similar to Laura's of last Hurricane season.
 
Signal Charlie was building infrastructure for our new Mid Atlantic Station this week vs pulling boats off of lifts and prepping for surge/wind/or rain....hiding boats in the Carriage House...

Skipper's version of "V" for Victory.

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We actually planted some coreopsis by the new bridge over "Contentment River". When we were back in the Panhandle we had planted some coreopsis in the yard and came out to find them uprooted by a Tropical Storm that had passed about 40 miles East. Here is SCOUT smelling the flowers.

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SMEDLEY got a new parking spot so he doesn't park in the mud anymore, we are slowly grading parts of our new yard here to get a nice slope down to our drainage ditch (Contentment River). Back in Florida Mother Nature undid most of our temporary yard projects near the shoreline. Through our decade of living there we slowly replaced 22 feet of shoreline that had been eroded dating, back to Hurricane Ivan in 2004. In 2019 we had the seawall repaired and improved, that was a big help during Hurricane Sally, or else we may have lost several large pine trees that were danger close to the house. Those trees are helpful in buffering the wind.

The Sunfish Shack also got trim placed around the second window on the starboard side. This is a temporary spot for SMEDLEY, once we get our fence installed behind the Shack and up by the house, SMEDLEY will move to a spot where we can see him from the Living room and the new deck will be the spot for the kayaks and canoe.

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We had our first offer from a friend who would like to live in the Sunfish Shack.

You might recognize that 5x8 section of deck. We built it back in Navarre, put legs on it to place in a PODS container, so we could store MADISON underneath and load more of our junk over the top of the Sunfish.

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As of yesterday, all of the boats are stored in a spot that keeps them off of the yard, now we can let the grass grow and bring in some sod to cover up some low lying mud pit areas.

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I really like the progress on the new Sunfish shed. Seeing the pictures is getting me motivated for our move to Florida. My wife and I are way behind on our move because I was too slow cleaning out our old house I also lost motivation when two of the houses we wanted to buy on the Keys sold before we could get down there to buy. A house just popped up this morning next to L&VW, but there is an open house tomorrow. I assume we will miss out on that one too. At least my house in Boston is sold and has a closing date for Sept 8th.
 
I really like the progress on the new Sunfish shed. Seeing the pictures is getting me motivated for our move to Florida. My wife and I are way behind on our move because I was too slow cleaning out our old house I also lost motivation when two of the houses we wanted to buy on the Keys sold before we could get down there to buy. A house just popped up this morning next to L&VW, but there is an open house tomorrow. I assume we will miss out on that one too. At least my house in Boston is sold and has a closing date for Sept 8th.
Send me a message and I'll provide the name of a seasoned realtor who lives in the neighborhood. Plus, a number to a nearby residential acre where you can live in an RV with hookups to water and electric. Or buy my partly-gutted 24' RV and move it to the residential acre mentioned above.

There's nothing like living on top of the housing market where you want to live! I did it when I bought there, but renting a canal house was very costly. :oops:

A restaurant nearby has noisy, "smokey" parties every Friday, so be careful where you buy. :eek:
 
L&VW, I have my eye on 31218 Avenue E that was just listed today.
150 Palmetto looks nice, but it will need 10K in sewer hookups making it way too over priced.
My wife kinda liked 80 Sands RD, but it's gone now.
73 Cunningham Ln was interesting, but it's gone now as well. I thing I would have offered a few bucks less on that one as well.
 
We finally got feet wet today, kayaks on the James River's Burwell Bay.

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We used the kayaks for recon, and now we have to figure out how to trailer a Sunfish and dolly on this 6x10 trailer The fold up ramp is the issue, but it can fold flat. With the ramp flat a Sunfish can sit on a dolly on top of the ramps, with 2 feet hanging off either end. We either muscle the Sunfish/dolly up onto the trailer or maybe we buy loading ramps, or find 2 planks or...? Any ideas

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When muscle is needed, one pulley on the bow handle makes loading much easier.

At the lake, I store my Sunfish on a steep--but wetted--wooden ramp, where one single- and one double-sheave block work great. The single-sheave "snatch block" is attached to the bow handle. (Loading "wet" by myself, the boat slides right off "dry" with one hand).

Raising your ramps at loading is a different problem. Maybe at home, roll an oil drum under the ramps, and drive forward? (back to unload--at launching, hinge a couple of "sharp-angled" 2x4s) Bungee the 2x4s to keep them raised for traveling.

Make the two ramps into one--slide one of those one-piece, cast-aluminum "trailer-jacks" underneath to raise/lower?

Can't tow using only the dolly? How far is the drive?
 
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L&VW, I have my eye on 31218 Avenue E that was just listed today.
150 Palmetto looks nice, but it will need 10K in sewer hookups making it way too over priced.
My wife kinda liked 80 Sands RD, but it's gone now.
73 Cunningham Ln was interesting, but it's gone now as well. I thing I would have offered a few bucks less on that one as well.
Winter traffic noise affects me, and I'm a half-mile from the traffic! Winter parking in "The Avenues" is tight.

I've been inside 31218 Avenue E at a yard sale! (Pending a sale about four years ago). "Roomy" lot.

Fourteen years ago, I put a deposit on ~30188 Avenue J, up the street, waited the three days for acceptance, only to find it snatched out from under me! No offers for 18 months--inside shopping at the realty? IDK...But they may have done me a favor???

I've since discovered that that shoreline occasionally collects thick "storm-tossed" dead turtle-grass mats which rot in the sun--sending an invisible, but stinky, cloud of gasses over the area that drives older folks to oxygen!

Be sure to check out the nearby quiet "Coral Shores" neighborhood. Even in winter, there's nobody there. Ask for realty-agent, Prevatt.
 
With the ramp up...

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...the bow is about 2 feet too far forward.

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...With the bow and dolly clear of the tow vehicle, the stern won't clear the ramp when the ramp is raised.

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One suggestion was to cut a rectangle out of the ramp for the transom to poke through. I'll have to do some measuring to make sure that leaves enough ramp for dolly wheels and lawnmower tires. We could keep the cutout section and add some type of flange so it could be put in place when the ramp was down, then stow the insert for transit.
 
1) I like the hole-cutting idea.

Leave a lot of vertical room for "jounce". With TWO sets of pressurized rubber tires and stiff springs it'll need this-->Bolt in a two piece "jounce kit", Crown Automotive, about $30 from Amazon. Maybe less from an auto-supply store. Or...

2) Don't put the ramp all the way up.

To hold it at the desired angle, use two angle-irons with bolts and [cotter] pins.
 
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The portable ramp idea is definitely banging around in my brain housing group.

Port side portholes going into the Sunfish Shack aka Fort Alcort.

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We camouflaged Skipper's cannon with our Christmas yard art.

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Why the move from Florida to the Tidewater region? We're training new grandcrew :)

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