May, 2010

Greetings to current and former Kettenburg PCC owners, and friends:

WHAT'S NEW:

As reported in the last new letter, SELENE, PCC # 3 owned by David Rice
lost her mast during the PCC National Championship in June 2009. David
wrote to explain the situation in the last news letter. This is David's
follow-up:

"So the mast is in the boat. It looks great. I can not tell the difference
between this and the original. It is a little odd looking at it after this much
time (and money) and not seeing any difference.

The mast project took longer than anticipated. Doug Jones has a
permanent spar bench set up. It must be 70' long so the new 60' spar fit
on it easily. The bench is outdoors, so the rain we have had in San
Diego this winter held up progress some.

Doug came up with the original Kettenburg drawing for the spar. Typical
of Kettenburg drawings there is very little detail on the drawing. We
had managed to get the broken spar back to shore and so measurements
were taken from it to fill in the necessary detail. Doug was able to
find seasoned Sitka spruce in 40' and 20' lengths. The lumber was nice
clear and straight grained. The milling, shaping and glue up all went
well. We built new lower spreaders and tangs. The
tangs were just too badly bent to use. Matthew at Benchmark straightened
out the spin pole track and vang. Richard at Pacific Rigging built and
installed the new standing rigging. Every surface was marred in the
dismasting so the boat has all new fresh paint. My son Greg and I
reinstalled all the deck hardware that I had removed for repairing the
finish. I had Matthew polish the stainless and got the bronze chromed.

It all came together the morning of inspection at San Diego Yacht Club.
SELENE was recognized on Sunday of Opening Day as the Best Maintained
Classic Yacht. I has been a year without sailing her ... but all is well
that ends well, I guess."

CURRENT EVENTS:

RICOCHET, PCC # 21 has been sold to Brent Ash, Jim Graves, and Bernard
Werner of B.C., Canada. This group intends to complete the needed work.

BELLE of the WEST, PCC # 19 has been sold to Archie  Contreras. BELLE is
still in Idaho, but Archie will start on completing the restoration some
time next year. Archie's current goal is to complete the restoration
work on his PCC # 12, BALLERINA.

Note: I bought BELLE last August to keep her from being cut-up because
of another "walk away". I feel good about being able to save another
PCC, and I know Archie will do an excellent job finishing the
restoration. BELLE was one of two PCCs that were originally sold to East
Coast owners. The other PCC sold to a East Coast owner was # 17, CYANE,
which was originally owned by Henry B. duPont. BELLE won the 1950 SORC
race.

There are currently no PCCs for sale.

The Kettenburg Regatta will be held June 6th in San Diego.  See the
Ancient Mariners Sailing Society web site for details. Jean Alexander
can not enter LARK, PCC # 16 this year, and David Rice can also not enter
SELENE, PCC # 3 this year. This means that there will be no PCC Nationals
held during the Kettenburg regatta this year. The hope is to have a PCC
Fleet Championship during the Jessica Cup held in San Francisco in
October.

PCC MODELS FOR SALE:

I have been in contact with an individual by the name of Ken Kramer, who
lives in Florida. Ken builds museum quality models. It is recommended
that the completed model be put in a glass case, which he also builds. I
have seen examples of his work first hand, and the models are outstanding
in quality and detail. He does color matching to each individual boat.  A full
hull 24" long with complete rigging is $3,400.00  He also builds 36", and 48" hulls. 
Anyone interested in more information should contact me directly.

GEAR FOR SALE:

Original PCC equipment from PCC #18:
Mast w/ standing rigging $3,500
boom $750
winches, deck hardware, etc. TBA
Contact Steve Barber at [email protected] or (916) 847-9064

Kettenburg Burgee: High quality white nylon with the Kettenburg logo (red
"K" in a red simi-circle) $30.00 Contact Steve Barber at
[email protected] or (916) 847-9064

I hope everyone has a great summer. Until next time..........sail on

Neil