Guy, what kind of hobbies do you have?

[Big and Bashful]

Kirbstone,
That's a nice looking boat, you have something I don't have, I am going to miss having a spinnaker because I ain't got one. When I was younger I used to enjoy playing the spinnaker, after being the spinnakerist on dayboats racing in my local Sailing club, when I sailed with friends on a 27ft Pegasus we realised that I had the strength and weight to work that masthead spinnaker on that boat as if it was a dinghy spinnaker, one sheet in each hand. I could do this until the wind hit about Force 5, then we had to start using the winches. I could concentrate on the spinnaker for hours, so I got stuck with the job!
With my boat now, (still in need of a better name, I do not like "Good Golly") I suppose I could rig a spinnaker, but it is a bit pointless, since most of the time there will only be one or two people on board. She moves well enough when goose-winging so that will have to do!

This Winter, the plan is install the Galley, replace standing and running rigging in the mast, fit a tillerpilot and sort any hull defects revealed by the survey which is just about complete.
Oh yes, and finish rebuilding the floors at one end of my hoose.

Do you still have that boat?

[Kirbstone]

Sailing: At the risk od boring the pants off everyone I submit the following:-

The GK29 Get Kool was purchased between three of us from a friend in 1976 (from whose yacht, a Trident Marine Challenger 35, I took those pics.)

We had a lot of fun with her, racing her round the cans in the Solent and round the Isle of Wight once. One year we did a 'Fastnet+, i.e. a sail via the Scillies and Cape Clear to Ballinskelligs in Kerry and back with change of one crew. Four up, we could do two on & two off, four hour watches on the 24-hour trip to Cape Clear from the Scillies, and on the return.
Another year we took her up to Anglesey, and a few weeks later did the trip to Skye, returning via Staffa. Otherwise it was across to France every time ( only 9 hours from the Needles to Bray Hb. on Alderney. A further day down to Jersey &c.).....
We sold her in 1985 and just hired boats when we wanted a sail together. in Ireland, France, Turkey and St. Lucia (Caribbean).
In 2003 one of us got rich and bought HavaSupai, a Bavaria 44, brand spanking new, which is still based in Marmaris, S.W. Turkey.

The same year I joined a five-man syndicate and we bought a 1997 Moody 40, ( 'Vivienne) She's a very commodious barge, but has serious bells & whistles in the inventory. Costs are split 5 ways, so nothing hurts too much. I get plenty of use out of her.

I have no remote shots of either boat underway, alas. Our own little sailboat in B'skelligs is great for teaching the grandchildren to sail, but a bit big to let them take out on their own. In dinghies the bodyweight comes into play in the balancing act.

I'd say that Accessory No. 1 has to be the tiller autohelm. We had one on Get Kool and it was like having another very competent crewmember aboard.........Then you can easily fly your Spinnaker or whatever.


Tom K.

[Big and Bashful]

Kirbstone,
Excellent! right, I will make room for someone elses hobbies, for a bit anyway!

[Gmerc]

Right, I'll take advantage of B&B's invitation to bang on about my hobbies & interests.

I am a bit of a petrolhead & I love driving, so much so that I have taken a number of courses & tests to enhance my own skills. Have to say they have have made driving, even on the UK's crowded roads, much more entertaining & enjoyable. All too easily will I succumb to watching motorsport on the box. Following the petrolhead theme, I am interested in cars per se & for my last birthday I booked a driving experience at MercedesWorld - what a hoot! 'Please take our £85K car & hurl it round our track'. 'Oh well, if you insist...' They have a museum & sales team on site - museum is good & the sales thing is excellent - one is allowed to clamber all over any car with its windows open & the sales staff will actually talk to you, quite animatedly, even though they know you have no intention of buying anything. Excellent day out for free - except for the driving bit.

As I've said elsewhere, I'm a practising christian so a lot of my time is taken up with aspects of that; reading, writing, counselling & I'm up to my eyeballs in helping to set up a new church which is, for me, huge fun, challenging and very rewarding.

I don't like to be stuck in a rut so I've taken up a challenge from one of my friends at church who wants to see if I can be taught to sing - that one is fairly scary in the cold light of day but who knows... I've always wanted to sing & soon I'll find out if I can.

Shopping - yep, I quite enjoy it, always have & always will - just have to remember to leave the credit card at home. I always said that if I wanted to become part of dating site I would ignore the gsoh box & simply say 'I am a man who enjoys shopping & can do colour co-ordination'. Alongside that is an increasing interest in fashion; could be something to do with skirts but my dad was something of a dandy so maybe I got that from him?

Sad Man time now - I still do & enjoy Airfix - great for long dark winter evenings.

I dabble with theatre, cinema & opera when I can afford them & I seem to be spending a lot of time here, reading, learning & posting.

That's it for now

Graham

[DALederle]

Oh, my! I'm impressed by all those hobbies! How I wish I could do half of all that!
Does fighting with my computer count as a hobby!
I do that more than anything else!


Dennis A. Lederle
Grok?

[Kirbstone]

The thing about airfix is they're only for looking at....They can't fly. But money can, off the end of a credit card. I got that in One.

Another thing that can fly also is a Merc. I'm envious of your day at their test track. That must have been a seriously adrenaline-pumping experience, and safe, too. I have a lengthy love affair with my daily transport, which happens to be an E-Class Estate, now of 'a certain age', but still doing exactly what it says on the tin, and quietly with it.
In a earlier incarnation I lived and worked for eight years in Germany, where one encounters daily their cars doing what they were designed to do, and legally, to boot. I enjoyed my motoring there like nowhere else, since.

[Jayce]

I can't afford a sailboat, a yacht or even a dingy. My hobbies include: Chess - both competing and directing; marching in Drum Corps - playing a Soprano Bugle, a Mellophone or a Trumpet and collecting "Quotes." As an avid reader and "internetter" I save more than 200 quotes a year. Every August, I send copies of my Quote Collection to family and friends - at their request. Jayce

[Mugs-n-such]

Gmerc, I'm thinking we have more in common than I had at first realized, because I also enjoy cars, reading about them and driving them. I have a 1994 Miata and a 2007 Hyundai Accent. I have a book on the history of the Miata but haven't finished it yet. If anyone is interested I'll try to post some pics of them, now that I've (finally) learned out how to do it. Of course as an afterthought, how many men AREN'T interested in cars?
Jayce, I love chess...play it regularly at chess.com and also redhotpawn.com. I'm fairly good, rated about 1530 or so. Are you up for a game sometime? I'll meet you at a chess spot of your choosing!

[Big and Bashful]

Aha, Thanks to Google!

So Miata = MX-5. now I know what it is, always fancied something like that. The nearest I ever got to a sports car was an old Porsche 924, which unfortunately never got as far as being road legal. Too many faults I couldn't fix.

[Gmerc]

Dennis, I think anything counts as a hobby if you spend more time & money on it than is strictly necessary; so I'd say computer fighting counts - big question is how often do you win? I always like Zaphod Breeblebox's approach in Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy 'Computer, open this door now or I am going to come down there & reprogramme you with a very large axe.'

Kirbstone, you're right, they can't fly but I still get the same buzz from the building & painting them that I did when I made the first one back when I was 10 have forked out the princely sum of 2/- (10p) from my accumulated pocket money. I'm currently wondering if I dare start the 1/72 B36 - finished it has a wingspan of over 3' & this is quite a small house... ho hum... one day.

The merc thing was great, I paid extra to have it filmed & there are some lovely shots of buildings whirling past as I lost it on the skid pan - finally got it right. Only disappointment is the sound. From outside when my mate Kev & I were watching, the noise as the cars acclerated up the straight was wonderful but it was much more muted on the inside - still, I have a volume control!

Momentary tangent - anyone wear heels when they drive? I wouldn't, simply for safety's sake & keeping my leg in a vaguely human shape but one of my business partners wears 3" heels & she drives in them, I think. Any thoughts... or should I move this to the road safety thread?

The main reason I came back here this morning was to add in my major 'hobby', exercise. I used to join in with my dad when I was a kid & the bug stayed with me. I do aerobics, lift weights & will be running again in the spring. My heart decided to play silly beggars last March (25 years of exercise & mostly healthy eating & it suddenly became a jazz fan & ran to a beat no one else could work out or keep up with!) So, one major operation, two minor ones, lung & blood infections & three run ins with grim reaper later, I am so pleased about the years of bending & stretching as I was told I probably wouldn't have survived if I hadn't been as fit. Do I mind getting all sweaty 5 days aweek? Not really, as the artificial valve will need replacing in 28 - 30 years & I want to be in good nick for that one too!

Enjoy your hobbies, girls & boys!

[Big and Bashful]

I recently uploaded to Youtube a video taken while single handed sailing my wee boat, on the Clyde, between Kilcreggan and Gourock. These are truly my home waters.
There are no fancy camera angles or creative tricks, because I had to steer the boat and don't know how to use the latest editing software I have (Nero 10). If anyone knows how to fade and crossfade video, do tell!

Anyway,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5PtHvUsyi4

is it, so it is.

For acoustic guitar people, I have seen Clive Carroll play that music live at a guitar festival, one man and a guitar and a simple loop, wonderful. He is also to be seen playing this track on Youtube at the Bath guitar festival, Ooh! he is good. I didn't realise that guitars bent so much! The track is "Oregon". He is him, and he is dead good, so there!

[Jayce]

Jayce, I love chess...play it regularly at chess.com and also redhotpawn.com. I'm fairly good, rated about 1530 or so. Are you up for a game sometime? I'll meet you at a chess spot of your choosing!

Chess & Brass Instruments pluck my heartstrings --> right after my wife, kids and grandkids. I think I may be addicted to chess....but alas my skills are not as good as my enthusiasm. I have an account on chess.com - I play there as JMull. We could try an online game...with several days to move - that makes it convenient for both of us. One of my sons is FIDE rated over 2000 across the board and 1980 by the U.S. Chess Federation. My youngest daughter got a Chess Scholarship to St. Joseph's College in West Hartford, CT for four years. I haven't beaten either one of them in the past decade. Jayce.

[Mugs-n-such]

Aha, Thanks to Google!

So Miata = MX-5. now I know what it is, always fancied something like that. The nearest I ever got to a sports car was an old Porsche 924, which unfortunately never got as far as being road legal. Too many faults I couldn't fix.

Sorry about that B&B, for about a year I had an old 1980 MGB that I intended to make road worthy, but I never did...I moved to Oklahoma City to help my sister-in-law and sold it. It left a kind of empty spot in my heart though, and that's why I bought the Mazda Miata MX-5 (I guess the 5 because it's a 5-speed, don't know where the MX comes from). It's street legal and I drive it nearly everyday but I need to do some repairs on it, mostly dent work, but the driver's turn signal needs replaced. It works, but has broken lens (outside lens I mean...lens cover?).

Chess & Brass Instruments pluck my heartstrings --> right after my wife, kids and grandkids. I think I may be addicted to chess....but alas my skills are not as good as my enthusiasm. I have an account on chess.com - I play there as JMull. We could try an online game...with several days to move - that makes it convenient for both of us. One of my sons is FIDE rated over 2000 across the board and 1980 by the U.S. Chess Federation. My youngest daughter got a Chess Scholarship to St. Joseph's College in West Hartford, CT for four years. I haven't beaten either one of them in the past decade. Jayce.

Fascinating, as Spock would say. Please let me know when and if you want to play a game or two.

[Kirbstone]

B&B, Thanks for sharing that lovely film of sailing the Clyde. You have rekindled my interest in filming, which I haven't done for some time now. I must dust off my camcorder and have a go. You managed to put that film together very well, with titles &c. I also like your choice of relaxing appropriate music to go with it.
When you get your 'George', you can belay that rope on the tiller, give him a compass bearing and prowl up and down the boat filming or whatever to your heart's content.
I've been looking up TS Royalist, and at 23-odd meters in length she's too small to have chandeliers, mirrors and sweeping staircases ! You're right.

Jayce, Interesting to see you are a chess instructor & very busy with family and grandchildren. I too play chess, but have few real opponents these days. My eldest Grandson, (now 13) is promising and gives me a good game now, but that is at 'our' level...not all that serious. I fear I don't use the computer enough to embark on chess using it, but I'd be interested in how you lock horns with Mugs-and-such on the Net.

[crfriend]

I recently uploaded to Youtube a video taken while single handed sailing my wee boat, on the Clyde, between Kilcreggan and Gourock. These are truly my home waters.

That's some nice footage, B&B; thanks for sharing.