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March 28, 2009
After a busy Friday with Toby sanding Pearl's bilge and applying a coat of prekote primer, Chis and I did our weekend trek to Huntington to work on Prana today. With Boston-based Jeff and Elise joining us for dinner tonight, we didn't have a full day to putter around. We asked the taxi driver to stop at Home Depot to get a step ladder. We planned to polish the topsides, if not this weekend, next. And we had been borrowing a ladder in the yard that didn't appear to belong to anyone, but was rickety and unsafe. So we grabbed a lightweight fiberglass 6-foot stepladder at Home Depot and tossed it into the back of the mini-van taxi.
We arrived at the marina and the winds had kicked up from the northeast about 20 knots. Removing the plastic shrink wrap was going to be a challenge. We decided to start downwind, at the bow, and cut short strips. Rather than big pieces that would catch the wind and cause us some grief. It went smoothly without a single piece blowing away in the wind. We connected the topping lift to the end of the boom and removed the frame. The cleanup took longer than the removal! We tied all the bits together and took it to the curb for recycling.
We worked a bit on the rig, put the wheel covers on to protect the leather, and stowed the dock lines and fenders that the dealer had left lying on the deck. We tidied up a bit down below, and she started looking ready to splash.
Next weekend, we will polish the topsides, finish touching up her bottom paint, and finish polishing the brass through-hulls. The dealer has to replace the through-hull for our air-conditioning, which has corroded significantly.
We told the dealer today that we plan to move her to Stamford on the Easter weekend. The pressure is certainly on him now to deal with our warranty issues. So far, he has not taken care of a single one. Our confidence diminishes every time we visit her, and we are fearful that another series of letters to Beneteau's president are going to be required to get them addressed.
Our fingers are crossed. Meanwhile, we look so forward to sailing as soon as we can!
Posted by dave at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2009
It Must be Spring
We had been visiting the boat about every six weeks to charge batteries. But since we expect to put Prana in the water in the next two to three weeks, we have begun the flurry of activities to ready her for launch. Today we applied a coating on the propeller called PropSpeed. It prevents marine growth from bonding to metal surfaces below the waterline. Propspeed works because it is slick, not because it is toxic.
Application of Propspeed is a simple two step process beginning with a catalyzed etch primer followed by a silicone based top coat. It is an environmentally safe product and does not contain copper, tin or any other toxic substances which may cause environmental pollution.
We applied it to Platina's propeller and noted a slight increase in speed and energy efficiency, but most notably, no barnacles and other marine growth settled in on our prop. We'll see how it does for our Prana.
Here are photos before and after the application today!
BEFORE
AFTER
Posted by dave at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2009
An Explanation?
I'm not sure who wrote this, but it's circulating through email:
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans). Word gets around about Heidi's drink now pay later marketing strategy and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar and soon she has the largest sale volume for any bar in Detroit. By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral. At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on security markets worldwide. Naive investors don't really understand the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, their prices continuously climb, and the securities become the top-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.
One day, although the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the bank (subsequently fired due his negativity), decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. Heidi demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed they they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Therefore, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKIBOND drop in price by 90 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %. The decreased bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans.The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment extensions and having invested in the securities are faced with writing off her debt and losing over 80% on her bonds. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 50 workers. The bank and brokerage houses are saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock negotiations by leaders from both political parties. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by a tax levied on employed middle-class non-drinkers.
Posted by dave at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2009
The Undoing of the Human Race
I have been watching the US government’s support of AIG with a certain degree of cynicism. There are as many arguments for the appropriate solution as there are sides to a pair of dice, and about as many random outcomes. I started to devote some time to dissecting the information that is out there to try to make some sense of it.
Now, I am generally an optimistic person. I try to find the positive spin on almost everything. I am solution-oriented, not problem-driven. I have a highly analytical mind. But I am also pragmatic.
Yesterday, I completed a review of the four trips to the taxpayer well that are described in AIG’s various press releases. I was horrified to find a pattern of opaqueness in disclosure and inconsistencies in the facts. I watched as AIG’s share price rose 17% in early morning trading to $0.49 and subsequently to $0.42 in after-market trading. The backdrop to this scene was tumbling equity markets.
I watched CNN while I made curried lentil soup for dinner. Lou Dobbs makes me crazy but his ridiculous right-wing attitude toward absolutely everything confirms my gentler, calmer, more peaceful liberal attitudes. CNN was discussing AIG and got as many of the facts wrong as they got right.
No bloody wonder that Americans, and I daresay it, the world, are confused and angry.
I am devoting more time to figuring out the AIG mess, because I am beginning to believe that AIG is at the very heart of the dislocation in financial markets. I think this is why the government continues to support it, and why bankruptcy was not an option. Too, I believe that neither the government nor AIG’s new management team has a clear picture of what’s at stake.
We used to worry that nuclear war was going to be the undoing of the human race. It’s still out there, what with North Korea and Iran allegedly attempting to build weapons capability. Lately, I have worried that what we are doing to the environment will ultimately lead to our demise. My hopefulness translates into my unflinching commitment to reduce my carbon footprint.
But I can’t help but wonder about what greed has done to the human race. I think this recession is going to get worse before it gets better. And I look at what has caused this recession and who is to blame. The reality is that we are all to blame. We consumed beyond our means. We bought houses we couldn’t afford. We leant money to those who couldn’t pay it back. We borrowed against our future to live more fully in the present. We believed that all of this would bring us happiness.
In an interview in Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911”, Marilyn Manson tried to explain his theory of American consumerism. He said that it’s cultural. That Americans are taught at an early age that you must live the American dream – big house, big car, big job and lots of toys. And if you don’t, you are a failure. Therefore, people consume because they fear failing at the American dream.
I think he’s right. But the fear of being a failure (which implies that someone judges you as a failure), has now been replaced with a different kind of fear. A fear of losing your big job, big house, big car and the toys. It seems that American consumerism is changing. For the better I think, but a lot of businesses will struggle and even fail in this systemic shift. A healthy degree of responsibility is creeping into the American psyche. I hope that Americans drop their fear of failure, and engage in some responsibility and accountability for their financial house.
Buddhists believe that greed is based on incorrectly connecting material wealth with happiness, caused by a view that exaggerates the positive aspects of an object. In other words, acquiring material objects has less impact on our happiness than we imagine. Beyond the basic level of material comfort, more wealth does not increase happiness.
Greed got the world into this mess. I don’t think it made us happier. If it remains unchecked, my worry is that it will be the undoing of the human race. My hope is that people will find a less materialistic way of life that focuses on the community rather than the self.
Posted by dave at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)