Calling all Reliance 44 Owners

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Nov 24, 2008
10
Wanderlust V Reliance 44 Vancouver
All, we have updated our user info and will now be known by our new login ID,
Wanderlust V

Thanks, again to everyone.
 
Jul 2, 2009
14
2 Reliance 44 Portsmouth
Hi there, we bought hull #10 (for sale out of vinyard haven MA as AIRLIA) in last fall. It's great to see some activity around the Reliance 44's. Renamed LYRA, we are living aboard in Portsmouth, RI. Projects include refitting systems (lighting, diesel heat, shower, electronics, refrigeration, water system, etc etc. LYRA is beautifully owner finished, inner forestay ketch rig, and has been circumnavigated. We have a lot of work to do, but the boat is in good sailing condition.
 
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Sep 4, 2009
1
Reliance 44 Niagara
My dad..

My Dad is also a Reliance 44 owner. He bought the bare hull (I don't remember the hull number) about 8 years ago. He's almost finished construction - and is expecting to start fitting the interior this Fall. My guess is that he'll launch in 2011, just in time for their retirement.

He's not online a lot, so I thought I'd pop in and tell you all about him. And I'll definitely let him know that there's a forum out here.
 

mm08

.
Dec 21, 2008
17
Reliance 44 - -
Re: Your Dad

Hi Daughter,
Welcome and good to know your dad is building one too. I had thought I was the only one left still building so its good to know I'm not alone. Thanks for posting.
Neil
www.neildunder@yahoo.com
 
M

Member 41673

Re: Your Dad

Neil -

Please post pics of your progress.

Bye

Rick Goltz
S/V Voyager
Reliance # 3
Labuan, Malaysian Borneo
 
Feb 4, 2010
7
Reliance 44 Cutter Toronto
We just bought our Reliance 44 (Eku III) last summer. It's cutter rigged. The club foot (for the stay sail) is missing; and I have not seen her rigged with running backstays. Does anyone have pictures of their club foot and/or running backstays?
 
Aug 16, 2010
1
Reliance 44 Shelburne
Hello fellows Reliance 44 owners, my name is Dick and I have owned hull #27 (I believe) for the past 21 years. The photos of this boat were used by Pierre in his 1980 company brochure for the 44. My wife Pat and I cruised on this boat for 15 years before returning to Vermont with her in 2008.
I visited the Galatea, now owned by Axel in Holland when the German carpenter he speaks of had the boat half finished in his back yard near Montreal. I have crossed paths with Jim and June on Canadian Sunset in several places with the most recent being Turkey in 2001 just before they headed south to the Suez on their west to east circumnavigation with their beautiful 44 which after they returned to Vancouver is now for sale.
I last crossed paths with Mary Jane a beautiful sloop in 2003 in Majorca. I first saw Mary Jane in Bayonna, Spain on the Atlantic coast as she was being delivered to England for sale. The next day after I tied up next to her in Bayonna she was purchased on the spot by a visiting Irish yachtsman.
My boat 'Mad River' is a ketch and is on the hard here in Shelburne, Vt. for the summer. I drive 10 minutes to the boat each day with my lunch for my days work. I am stripping 20 years of varnish from the entire exterior which includes full cockpit, 7 hatches, 3 dorades, 4 handrails, hatchboards, steering wheel, cockpit table, winch pedestals, companionway slide and seahood, and bowpulpit seat. And oh by the way, the 95 feel of toe rail. Here, the middle of August, I am now into the final days of getting the 4th coat down. I expect that she will be very presentable when launches spring of 2011.
And no, I'm not getting her ready to sell! Unless something unforseeable happens I expect that my wife or daughters will be left the job of saying goodby to Mad River.
 
Nov 24, 2008
10
Wanderlust V Reliance 44 Vancouver
WLV for sale...again

I noticed wanderlust is for sale why ?
Unfortunately, my wife and I have split up and our beautiful Wanderlust V is for sale so as to more easily divide her as an asset...beats cutting her in half, I suppose! I will own and sail another cruising sailboat one day, but for now I have swallowed the anchor and have purchased a quarter section of land upon which my new partner and I plan to build a small house. If anyone is interested, our boat has an owner finished interior that is getting tired and could use some updating. Her systems are in pretty good shape. The boat was completely rewired 3 years ago, has a new diesel generator from the Watermaker Company (35 hours), a sweet running Perkins 4108 main engine, 1200 amp hour battery bank (12 x 6v), hi-output Leece Neville alternators on both main and generator, 3500 watt inverter, ample power charge controllers, Raymarine radar/chart plotter, below-decks autopilot, 1200w windlass, and a nice 4 burner propane stove to name a few things. Her tanbark sails could use a recut but are otherwise in good shape. I would replace most of the blocks with garhauer stuff if I were keeping her. She has a 10ft Zodiac Yachline dinghy with 10 hp Mercury motor on stern davits. As discussed here, the black iron chainplate attachments moulded into the hull need refurbishing or replacing at some point in the future. All standing rigging (including both masts) were replaced in 2003 and is in great shape.
As you can tell, I am going to miss her immensely! I only hope that the new owner, whoever it may be, will take care of her the way she deserves.
It has been wonderful to exchange ideas with some of you here and I wish all of you the best of luck in your future sailing endeavors. Season's Greetings to all!

73's

cheers,

Mike
 
Dec 23, 2010
7
Reliance 44 Chester
Just found this Reliance 44 site and would like to exchange correspondence with other owners.
We have owned Isola Naida, (Hull #15) for about 15 years. We have been doing continual annual upgrades to Isola Naida, but are currently still land based in Chester, Nova Scotia, Canada.
There are two other Reliance 44 in this area that do not appear in the posted comments.
 

mm08

.
Dec 21, 2008
17
Reliance 44 - -
Hi Carrol,

Glad to find another owner out there. I just Google mapped Chester and see you are up near the land of the high tides. It would be nice to know more about the work you have been doing to the boat and what you are finding as you do it.

Welcome,
Neil
www.neildunder@yahoo.com
 
Dec 23, 2010
7
Reliance 44 Chester
Re-Building

Hello Neil, thanks for your reply over the festive season.

Your comments on high tides apply mainly to the Bay of Fundy and Main coast. Chester area has about a six foot tide. The three recent storms with high surges certainly added to that height this past month.
Our works aboard Isola Naida have involved more re-building as the vessel was originally finished by another owner. The works have been an annual evolution as budget allowed plus we wanted to sail the vessel each summer throughout Newfoundland and the Gulf of St Lawrence area.
We have replaced all the stanchions, bow and stern pulpits with higher and stronger materials; which entailed removal of all ceilings to access backing plates.
All fuel lines were removed from two tanks and replaced with filters and valving now located under the cockpit area.
We have installed new alternators and associated wiring with one system for the house batteries and another for the start batteries.
The bottom was sanded down to the gel coat and epoxy barrier with new anti fouling added. With the cold Newfoundland temperatures and winds this was more of a pain than originally anticipated. The efforts paid big dividends as we have not had to repaint until this summer; fifteen years later.
After arriving in Nova Scotia we had a boat builder install a new sole in the main salon area. This included glassing new supports to the vessel throughout.
We have had the vessel long enough to be replacing the electronics with third generation equipment. How did we navigate without chart plotters!!
The usual dodger, cockpit cushions, bimini, below deck cushions with upholstery done by my wife have consumed hours of time and many dollars.
As we access chain plates we have ground off the rust that Reliance is notorious for and painted to prevent future issues. These chain plates are a weak point in an otherwise strong vessel.
Last summer we installed a below deck auto pilot and this year are adding a furler.
Whew! When I sit and list all of the works it appears to be far more than when it was being completed.
I do not know how to add photos to this site. Will add some once this hurdle is overcome.
This is probably enough to bore some readers so I will close for today.
 
Jul 2, 2009
14
2 Reliance 44 Portsmouth
Chain plates

Hi Carrol,

It's good to see another owner here. I am very interested in your chain plate experiences - do you know what type of stainless was used? Lyra has a lot of miles on the original chain plates from 1975. Also, are you sloop or ketch rigged?

Regards,

Green
 
Dec 23, 2010
7
Reliance 44 Chester
Chain Plate Material

Hello Green,
The glassed in chain plate material on our vessel (#15) appears to be 1/2" thick mild steel; which has rusted.
From the two below deck steel pieces a piece of 316 stainless is bolted which extends through the deck. These were originally covered with a piece of teak to spread/support the caulking. We found water had gotten under the teak covers and infiltrated down the SS deck penetrations; so have removed most and are now caulking directly to the fiberglass deck. Part of our annual maintenance is to check and re-caulk any that appear questionable. So far this appears to be doing a better job as we can see any problems.

Carroll
 
Jul 2, 2009
14
2 Reliance 44 Portsmouth
Chain plates

We appear to have the same chain plate setup. I am looking into an xray in place but will otherwise be pulling them this spring sometime. Having lost a chainplate at sea on a previous boat (it looked great except where it went through the deck) I have a great interest in knowing what's there!

We are a ketch as well, hull #10. I am still waffling between building a hard "potato chip" dodger or keeping what we have. If you have a system for a bimini over the helm, I would love to know how you do it. Much of the above choice will hinge upon where I can mount solar.

Thank you!

Green//
 
Feb 4, 2010
7
Reliance 44 Cutter Toronto
Chain plates

Green and Carroll, last winter we replaced all of the soft steel attached to our chain plates, with 316 steel. It was a very big job. An excellent boat yard (Wiggers) in Bowmanville, Ontario did the work. Here's what we found on our cutter rigged boat:

1. Each chain plate was attached to a piece of soft steel extending down from the chain plate to a soft steel bar embedded horizontally in the fibreglass.

2. The soft steel bar was about the same width and thickness as each piece of soft steel to which the chain plates were attached, except the steel bar extended from the position of the foremost chain plate to the aftmost chain plate - several feet - let's say about five feet but I know that dimension is not exact.

4. Where the soft steel was exposed (i.e. not embedded in the fibreglass), the corrosion was bad enough that we knew there was a serious issue.

5. Where the soft steel was embedded in the fibreglass, the corrosion was much worse and in places had no strength at all -- i.e. crumbling in your hand.

6. The boat yard fabricated new 316 steel to replace all of the soft steel, and re-embedded the horizontal steel bar in the fibreglass.

7. They also replaced the soft steel at the stern, to which the deck fittings for each end of the split backstay were attached. Again, using 316 steel.

Kind regards, John and Debbie
 
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Feb 4, 2010
7
Reliance 44 Cutter Toronto
Here's a couple of pictures of what we found in the portion embedded in fibreglass. If you look at the lower left hand corner of the picture of the keel, you can see a portion of the two soft steel bars which were embedded in the fibreglass. You can't see much but it reminds me that the dimensions of these horizontal bars are smaller than the dimensions of one of the two bars leading to the chainplates.

The last three pictures in this series shows some of the soft steel after one of the bars was removed and a bit of the fibreglass was chipped away.
 

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