The DownEaster
For Owners of DownEaster Yachts

This site is a non-profit, disorganized group of owners of DownEaster yachts who are banding together here to find shelter from the harsh reality of owning and keeping up a boat—DownEasters in particular.

   

December 2006 -- New How-To's

We have several new contributions from owners about how they solved a problem.

1. Fuel tank cleanout and repair by Jason Rose

2. Composting Head Installationby Carl Wood

3. Propeller size increase on DE38 by Rick Stierer

4. Comments about standing rigging dimensions.

5. Boat photos of Santaria in Long Beach, California.

Also, thanks for all the posts I have received to the Owner Registry since recent changes. This is working much better.

 

September 2006 -- Owners Registry Improvements

Yes, I have been AWOL from the site for much too long. My apologies to everyone who was wondering where I was. The world caved in on me about April and I'm just now getting back on track.

We have about 20 new members and updates to the Owners Registry which has been my first catch-up job. I think keeping that list up to date and informative is one of the most important parts of this web site but it has also been very time consuming for both Gerry and now me. So I have automated the whole process a bit, both from your side and mine. You'll find a new form for both new members and updates. Please don't hesitate to use it for updates because it delivers the information in a format that is much less time consuming for me to process.

Every time you use this form, all the information on the form replaces the prior information about you. So all the relevant items on the form should be filled out each time you use it. However, having just said that, let me add that starting immediately old information is being saved in a database so that there will be a history of ownership, location and names for each boat.

If you provide an email address you will be emailed whenever this site is updated which I hope will occur at monthly intervals in the future.

I have also included a field for you to enter a URL to your web site if you have one. If you provide this information, people can click on your name in the Owners Registry and go to your site. This is a good way for you to provide all the additional contact information of your choosing for other members.

Finally, it has occured to me from some of your emailed comments and my own observations, that we need more publicity for this site so that Downeaster owners who don't know about it will find it. This is where all of you can take it upon yourself to come to the service of The Downeaster. I'm mostly talking about getting links to this site onto other sites. The site Mother of All Maritime Links is a good example. As far as I can tell, we're not on it. So, you are all hereby deputized by me to go forth and multiply links to this site at other sites. If you see a site where we should be represented, follow their procedure to contact the webmaster and advise them of The Downeaster owner site. The links should be to the home page (the page you are on now; http://www.downeastyachts.org). This is important even when someone searches for us on Google because Google gives higher rank to sites that have lots of links to them from other sites.

Its good to be back. Regards to all.

Gene

February 2006 -- New Webmaster

Greetings to all Downeaster owners;

Taking my engine out. circa 1991.

I am Gene Allen. I have taken over webmaster duties from Gerry O'Donoghue who we all owe a great deal of thanks for the work he has done for Downeaster owners worldwide. As you can see, the web site appearance has changed but a web site is nothing without content and I am extremely grateful to Gerry and everyone else who has contributed to this site. I have preserved all the previous content that I am aware of. As I get up to speed on the web site you'll see some changes as I try to build on what has gone before.

As you can see by the picture, I like to take things apart and put them back together again. Web sites included.

My goals for the web site are;

1. Improved navigation (i.e. menus) which you will already find at the top of each page now. Hopefully the content on the site will grow to where this kind of navigation is essential.

2. A "How-to" section or "How-I-did-it", if you prefer. This is where we can share how we fixed and improved our boats. You might think of it as a Downeaster maintenance manual written by the owners. I have consolidated all those kind of pages from the previous site there. I've contributed two stories of my own already. One about transmission maintenance and another about engine removal. Keep your digital cameras close by and photograph everything you do. I'll have more on this later.

3. Involvement of more owners. The Owner Registry is far short of even a majority of owners. The site needs the input of as many people as possible. I encourage all of you to keep us up to date on what you have learned about these great boats and keep an eye out for any Downeasters you find in the marina who don't know about this site.

As for myself, I have owned a Downeaster 38 for 16 years now. I bought the first boat that the first boat broker showed me and I've never regretted the decision or entertained the thought of another boat since. It has been my "lifeboat" during times of turmoil and I lived aboard during most of the 90's in southern California, very near Santa Ana where Downeasters were built. My boat is named Ocean Cloud which was its original name and I kept it. In 2000 I trucked Ocean Cloud from California to Florida and it now lives behind my house on a canal in Fort Lauderdale. This is a great place to do boat projects and you'll see lots about what I'm up to as I try to prime-the-site for greater owner participation by all of you.

Being the webmaster of a cruising boat web site is a paradox if you ever intend to go "cruising". Perhaps one day, I'll pass this job to one of you.

Sincerely,

Gene

 
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