Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Callisto’s Story, from Bob Allen, owner


Callisto
Originally uploaded by ellenjohnrubicon.
As far as what led us to the boat, she was in a boat yard in Annapolis when we first saw her. It was not love at first sight but we kept coming back to her. Once we looked at the interior we decided to make a low offer, and it was accepted. We were very fortunate as our boat was in great shape. She'd been lovingly maintained be her previous owner.

Callisto had been listed for over two years before we found her and suffered from the lack of use. We removed everything piece of equipment from the water line down and replaced the shaft, prop, and dismantled, inspected cleaned and greased all the sea-cocks.

The original builders, Oceancraft, Cornwall, England, did a wonderfull job of building and coating the boat to prevent rust.

We painted Callisto an off white, mainly to keep her cool. Metal boats are generally not as fair as fiberglass boats so dark colors tend to highlight any plating deformity however small. The nonskid on deck is a light grey and in sunlight gets very hot.There is a paint scheme on the original drawings that most Ebbtide owners seem to adhere to. It tends to minimize the appearance of the chines. We chose a different scheme as we don't mind the hard chines. Callisto receives many complements on her lines and appearance. The Ebbtides are very good looking boats.

We sailed Callisto to the Bahamas for the winter. She's been a good boat. She has manners under sail and the Ted Brewer comfort index for the boat is a very high 41, by comparison our previous boat, a C&C was 19.

She doesn't rock or roll much with sail up. Her slack bilges and lack of form stability make her a very comfortable boat in a seaway.

Our boat came with a Perkins 4108. Ours is the 3k RPM model and is rated somewhere in the area of 38 hp.

We're dealing with the rust with the Correseal and paint. Although we don't have much.

We have added a solar panel (85 watt Kyocera) that we are very pleased with. We just received our Campbell Sailor Prop to replace our Michigan MP prop which had a lot of drag. A feathering prop was not in our budget and the Campbell seemed an acceptable compromise.

We are adding a Bimini Top but that's about the only changes we're making. The previous owners of our boat sailed her around the world and equipped her much the way we would have.

We are currently out of the water for annual bottom painting and maintenance in Annapolis, MD. We are retired live aboards. We sold everything and moved aboard in August of last year.

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