Greg's Commodore 17
"Widget"

Last Updated: June 27, 2004


HIN: XYVSM050M84D

XYV = Commodore Yacht Corp., St. James City, Fl.
SM - Skipper's Mate
050 = Hull Number (Probably 50th built)
M = Model Format
84 = Model Year 1984
D = Month Built is November.(Probably 1983)


Greg has added homemade trailer guides to his trailer.

The Widget has found a new home.

On May 2nd, Chris towed "Widget" to her new home - my house. I left her in the driveway and started to unload all the equipment we got with the boat and prepared the garden hose and a pressure washer. While washing we got few nice comments from the neighbors - sure the boat looks pretty.

After washing we proceeded to wheel her into my garage - and this is where my first project started - the #$%^ garage door opening is half an inch too low and the boat will not clear.

I came up with two potential solutions:

  1. Lower the boat on the trailer - bunks and rollers probably could be adjusted maybe an inch, giving required clearance.
  2. Use smaller wheels - The trailer came with 5.30x12 tires, quick search on the web showed that if I can get C load rating tires 5.70x8 I shoud be able to lower the boat two inches. I opted for the easier option.
After few phone calls I was able to locate the wheels 25 miles from my house - the Northern Tools Company store in Marietta. The irony of it is that I had been half a mile from this store, when we were picking the boat from Chris earlier this morning. I was able to get there before they closed.
Here is a comparison of the sizes of the old and new tires: I hope I should still have enough clearance for regular trailering.

And here is Mighty Widget tucked snugly in her new "bed". With Greg's long garage, he will be able to store the mast on the ceiling of the garage with the boat.

So in reality it was a trailer project not a boat project, but this was my first opportunity to spend some "boat bucks" so I count it as my first boat project.


Here Greg has put up the mast and boom and raised the mainsail. As you can see, he has also practiced putting a reef in.

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