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I have the same question.  How does one reef the main using this 3-lever set-up?  Can someone give us a play-by-play?  Please?  Thanks.

Hi Sam!  Welcome aboard.  Congratulations on your recent purchase of “Varuna.”  We discovered some time back that your boat shares #324 with Jose Salvador’s “Capella.”  Do you have any inside information from the previous owners about how this happened?  By the way, is your boat still pretty much the same now as it was when it did it’s famous circumnavigation?  Has a lot been done to it since then?  We're looking forward to having you join in with us.
Mark Smith
#342 Caprice

Hey Kristin!  I have come to the conclusion that finding the right prop ends up being a roll of the dice.  Like you, I have been struggling to find just the perfect prop for my new 1GM10.  After doing a good bit of research and reading all the comments on this board, and talking to several prop experts, I finally decided an 11RH12 3-blade by Michigan Wheel was the prop for me.  In our sea trials this week with the new engine and prop, and with two people on board, we were pushing along at 4.5 to 4.8 kts into a pretty stiff head wind.  With no wind, we were doing 5.0 to 5.1 kts.  This was at 2900 rpm.  I am working to find another 500 rpms or so from my engine.  If I can get my rpms up to around 3500, then that should edge my boat speed up a hair more.  I am not displeased with my prop selection, but I am thinking maybe another prop might give me a touch better performance.  I won’t truly know until I work with the one I have for a while in a variety of conditions.  In the end I had to just take the plunge and get the prop I felt was most correct.  I thought if I didn’t nail it the first time, it wasn’t gonna be the end of the world.  I figured there would be plenty of opportunity during future haulouts to spend a few more of my precious presidents to change it out for one that hopefully by then I knew would be a perfect match.  We battle some pretty potent currents here on San Francisco Bay….probably not as stiff as the ones that rip through your area between islands…so I understand fully what that extra knot of push can mean to you in terms of safety and maneuverability. Good luck to you as you make your choice.  You'll probably land the perfect prop the first time!  The 11x13 sounds like a good choice.  Be sure to let us know how it turned out for you.

Hey Christian!
Love the DVD!  The academy messed up!  'Scuse Me should have won best picture!  Every Contessa 26 owner should have a copy of this video.  Very well done and well worth waiting for.  I am sure you will sell out!  Congratulations!
Mark

Hey Bill!
I think my earlier post got lost in the switchover.  Anyway, as I was saying, there is a guy hawking manuals for the single cylinder Bukh engine on eBay.   I think he wants $25 for them plus $5 shipping.  This might be what you are looking for.  They are in CD Rom format.  You can do a search on the word Bukh on eBay and you should see his listing. Cheers!
Mark Smith

Hey Peter!

The $1195 CDN ($1030 US) is line with what I paid last year for my Genco dodger.  By the time I added the grab rail and side rails to the dodger frame and had the zip-on bimini awning made (just like Shannon's) with zip-on side flaps that hang down about a foot on each side, and a zip-on windshield cover, the whole rig came to about $1900 US.  By the way, Shannon was a great resource for me when I was looking to buy a dodger.  The measurements she took for me were almost identical to the ones Genco used for the frame.  Before I ordered from Genco I attended a couple boat shows and talked with several canvas people around the SF Bay Area.  Even accounting for the currency difference, they were all higher and none of them had ever done a Contessa 26.  The favorable exchange and the fact that Genco has done a ton of Contessa 26 dodgers over the years is what led me to place my order with them.  In retrospect, I probably could have done without those bimini side flaps.  And, of course, I didn’t have to have that grab rail or those side handles.  But I reasoned that since I plan to keep Caprice till death do us part and I was only gonna do this dodger-thang once, I figured what the heck...I might as well go for it and get all the meaningful options I could.  Besides, I had to keep my reputation as one of the world’s greatest impulse buyers.  Now that the pain of paying for it all has long subsided, I am pleased to have everything I ordered and I am finding it all most useful.  Anyway, good luck with wherever your dodger search takes you.  I am sure you will end up with a great piece of quality equipment.

By the way...has anybody seen Merrill?  His last post was December 2.  Did he sell Lucy Ann and just drop off the planet...or what?

Mark Smith

There is a very good book out about folkboats.  It was published in 2002 and is called "The Folkboat Story - From Cult to Classic — The Renaissance of a Legend" by Dieter Loibner.  There is a chapter in it that talks about the Contessa 26 and the forward was written by Tania Aebi. I know we've talked about "The Folkboat Story" somewhere in this forum in the past, but I thought I would toss it out there again.  It is an enjoyable read.