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Ted Brewer and New Member Hello

DRynning

New Member
Ahoy Morganeers, I’m a M392 owner and New Member here, though not actually new to the forum, or our boat.

I was saddened to learn of Ted Brewer's passing in the Seattle Times newspaper. He's special to us in the Morgan 38 community of course, and one of the luminaries who've made the Pacific Northwest their home port at one time or another - people who have designed boats we love to look at. (Mr. Brewer's legacy is in good company here with other locals like Bill Garden, Ted Geary, Norman Blanchard, Ed Monk, that wacky hippie genius George Buehler....)

Speaking of boats we love to look at, Mr. Brewer's nice memorial write-up was a reminder for me for me to finally join this community and say “Hello from Poulsbo WA”, where our 1981 M382 (#260) Vixen lies. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm only just now joining this awesome group. My wife Heidi and I purchased our boat in June 2015 (formerly Windsong, a San Francisco boat who we renamed Vixen in 2019). I discovered this forum right around then, so I feel like you're all friends - who don't actually know me yet!

A 2006 Cruising World review of the Morgan 382, while praising our boats, also stated "They may not turn heads in harbors...", but we answer admiring questions about our M382 all the time, since they're comparatively rare out here. She's way prettier to my eye than any of the ubiquitous "Hunte/Bene/Linas" floating around here. Classic Plastic rules!

There's so much useful info in this community; it’s only my expert procrastination that kept me from setting up an account and logging in with my own questions and offers of experience.

Windsong had no operations or maintenance logs when we acquired her, but she surveyed sound, was clean and simple, and included the Morgan owner's manual, factory electrical/plumbing/rig schematics, Lewmar and Adler-Barbour manuals, a measured layout for fabricating the custom port-mounted anchor pulpit, and both the small owner's brochure and full shop manual for the Perkins 4-108. Her interior is "original" with good cushions, a blissfully simple Raritan manual PHII toilet, and the deluxe touch of teak ceiling lining the forward berth, bookshelf, and pilot & quarter berths. I replaced a derelict stove/oven with an almost-new Origo 6000 that I got at an insane price at a local swap meet; we're quite happy cooking with alcohol, and to have zero LPG plumbing onboard. As a sailing machine our boat came equipped with roller furling, rigid vang, full-batten main on luff sliders, lazyjacks, spinnaker pole, 5 bags of hank-on headsails, dodger & canvas, linear-drive Autopilot, electric vertical windlass, and no fancy-but-outdated MFD-type electronics. (I'm no luddite but am USCG licensed to 100 tons and enjoy the independence and satisfaction of getting around using charts & plotter, compass, wristwatch, depth sounder, binoculars, and occasional glances at the GPS/chart plotter app on my tablet for SOG; the fascinating subject of navigation is deeper than Puget Sound).

The cockpit came equipped with digital instruments for Autopilot, wind, depth, and "boat speed" (largely useless for accurate navigation in our local currents). There's a digital GPS repeater at the chart desk along with a new VHF/GPS/AIS/DSC station that I installed last year. I love Vixen’s end-boom sheeting for single-handing and have no plan to change that. She sails almost like a dinghy in the Force 2-4 conditions that are prevalent during the (long) Puget Sound cruising season. (However, five years in, I'm still learning how to get her into a slip without some kind of drama, due to the furled headsail “wind-catcher” and insistent port-walking reverse - some days are better than others...)

Vixen’s home slip at Port of Poulsbo, in Liberty Bay, is an easy 80 minutes from where we live and - Toph3r and Leonard Parks take note- we got our permanent slip there less than 13 months after signing onto the wait list. Although Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle is a fantastic location for sailors, it’s more than double the monthly rate at Port of Poulsbo! And though picturesque Liberty Bay is relatively small, it accommodates keelboat day sailing (on a full tide) and affords practice in short-tacking and minding the depth gauge. (There are three marinas on Liberty Bay, including PoP, Poulsbo Yacht Club, and Liberty Bay Marina.)

My "Priority 1-2-3" project list includes replacing the original main AC breaker with 30a ELCI, swinging the compass (Windsong came with no deviation card), replacing the main & spinnaker halyards and Edson steering brake pads, re-bedding deck hardware, having the standing rig surveyed, replacing the six opening portlights, leading the main halyard aft to the cockpit, investigating a Solent rig.... yes, the list is at least 38' long! Fortunately, I've hooked onto a very friendly tech who is ABYC-certified in Electrical and Corrosion - and conveniently also a tenant/neighbor in our marina. This spring (because Canada is finally opening for us) I will purchase the expensive FCC station license required for an international MMSI# (the MMSI offered for free through BoatUS is not legal in foreign waters including Canada).

I know I write too many words! I promise subsequent posts will be trimmed down, succinct, efficient, economical, focused, concise….

I also know there are at least three of us up here in the Salish Sea including Toph3r/Alpinisto and Leonard Parks/White Wolf(?). Mpearson/Zia is nearby, down on the Columbia. And I send a hail to Dick Kilroy and his Vixen "over there". I'm proud of our boat and can't wait to show off the new Morgan tee shirt I ordered this week! (Black of course, as befits piratical scoundrels such as m' self)

Cheers and fair winds,

David Rynning
Renton Washington
 
Hi David, and I'm glad you surfaced!

Also on the list of Northwest M38s is Terry Thatcher on Adavida, also out of Portland. He has a heck of a lot of miles and years on Adavida. He and me/Susan absolutely love cruising the Salish Sea and all around BC, etc. Zia has done summer berthing bases in Nanaimo and Bremerton and long trips out of those bases. We've been lucky enough to sail in some of the most spectacular places in the world and I'm convinced that the northwest US and BC is one of the best cruising spots in the world. Not always a lot of wind during the summer, but it makes up for it with scenery, wildlife, nice people.

There are some other M38s in the northwest but I'm drawing a blank on their names right now.

Yeah, I read that article about "not turning any heads" back in the day and I have to say our experience is totally opposite too. She gets plenty of stares when we pull into harbors.

Do you have any plans for long term cruising? I think we'll be spending a couple more years exploring the NW. But then we will eventually "turn left" when exiting the Columbia River and go places that are a little warmer/drier in the winter. Probably Mexico and south.

Anyway, thanks for contributing!
-Mark
 
Welcome! Eliana hails from San Francisco, but currently we are in Portsmouth, VA. About to head south to complete a circumnavigation. I leave Monday or Tuesday, and plan arrival in SF in May or June.
 
Welcome David and Vixen,
Sonata is also on San Francisco Bay. I only knew of two other 38x from here. I'm sure there must be more. BC and the PNW are a dream of mine as well. We have spent time areound the San Jauns sailing years ago and vactions in Vancouver BC and Island more recently. The area is truely spectacular in so many ways! I really would like to get Sonata there for some long term sailing.

Warren, Safe travels and fair winds. I'll keep a weather eye out for your return.
Mitchell
 
welcome to the group! Our Vixen has been a member of this community since it was started by Gary Reiche back when. Believe Gary now does some writing for soundings. We can live with two Vixen’s here. Met another one in the Caribbean a number of years ago and it was one of those X’s yachts, I don’t remember the size.

Dick
 
Welcome David
I bought Alpinisto up in Bellingham in 2020, but moved to Shilshole last winter, so I know the painful cost of moorage there! I thought I would try something closer to home for a year ;)

I would love to get together sometime and share 382 notes :). My partners parents live in Poulsbo, so it’s a familiar trip.
 
Thanks for the welcome! Dick, our boat came to us as Windsong (SF); she took three years to tell us who she is in our family up here in Puget Sound. We brainstormed a list that got to be 30 or 40 names but Vixen stood out early. There are stories behind her name, I'm not sure if any are true!

We'll be in Poulsbo next Thursday 2nd thru the weekend, their Julefest celebration is on the 4th. The local Sons of Noway host a Nordic arts & crafts bazaar, folk dancing, lefse, Lucia Bride procession (landing of course from a longship crewed by burly Vikings), Solstice proclamation and a huge waterfront bonfire at dusk. Poulsbo is a fun, boaty little port town and we're there pretty often during winter. We live in Renton and one son lives in Ballard so meeting up would be easy on the Seattle side of the Sound too.

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
 
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