An enthusiastic group of 28 Dickerson sailors and their guests participated in the Dickerson Maintenance Forum and Luncheon held at the Annapolis Red Lobster Restaurant on December 6, 2014. Over 300 "person years" of experience in maintaining and sailing Dickerson sailing yachts was represented by a panel of Dickerson Owners consisting of Randy Bruns, Barry Creighton, Pat Ewing, Dave Fahrmeier, John Freal, Teddy Rivkin and Joe Slavin.
Teddy Rivkin on his electric propulsion Dickerson 36 Koshka.
The Forum discussion included presentations on "Dickerson 36 Electric Propulsion" by Teddy Rivkin, "Rot and Bright Work" by Randy Bruns, “Rebuilding My D40 "VelAmore" by Pat Ewing, "Rebuilding the Cabin Top and Replacing Port Holes" by Dave Fahrmeier and "Navigation Made Easy Techniques using an I Pad or Smart Phone" by Barry Creighton and "Use of a Garmin Aquatic watch to measure boat speed and course" by Rob Holmes.
Jeff Gray and Dottie Woytowich talked about the problems of cutting out wood work to remove the fuel tank from their D37s and John Freal, Joe Slavin and Randy Bruns discussed “polishing” diesel fuel to keep it clean and the use of an electric fuel pump and a duplicate set of filters in parallel with a vacuum gauge.
Teddy Rivkin concluded that the Electric Propulsion System performs well for day sailing and Bay cruising and is quiet and economical, especially if a combination of electric power and solar, wind and gas or diesel generators are used to charge the batteries. A detailed presentation on the installation is available in the Dickerson December News Letter on the on the Dickerson Owners Web Site http://dickersonowners.org/.
Teddy plans to come to the Dickerson Owners Association 50th Anniversary Rendezvous at Oxford, MD on June12-14, 2015, where all former and present Dickerson owners and associates are invited to attend. For details on the Decades of Dickerson Memories 50th Rendezvous contact Dickerson Membership Committee at [email protected] .
-Joe Slavin, Dickerson Membership Committee
