Alajuela 38 Database
Carl & Debbie Gaines
I am (very belatedly) posting a database of A38 owners and other vessel information. Thanks/apologies to to Pierce Ostrander, Wabi Sabi #63, Diva's younger sister, who passed this on to me in about 2003. Pierce, thanks for being the custodian and apologies for my tardiness. But Better Late .... Thought a number of you might be interested in updating this and perhaps in future updates. I will be happy to be the custodian with the proviso that being an extended cruiser who has limited online capabilities aboard (the term liveaboard is no longer applicable, especially if one wants to anchor in our home state of Florida). I do have internet connection from the vessel whenever my 7db WiFi antenna is near enough a land signal, or when I go ashore to civilization and get "on the grid" and I generally try to make that happen about once a month. If a land-based owner, or other interested party, with better access/resources, would like to assume custodianship, I
will, reluctantly, consider relinquishing the task, for the good of the group.
More apologies to my compadres whose boat names I know, but am not familiar enough to place them into the database. Of course, Maya, Dennis & Kaffie, I believe to be hull #6, Symba, Frank & Lynda, who I note have hull 15 (per a recent posting), but little else and Vagabundo, Ted & Andrianna . I wanted to get this off for everyone's editing/use and so I did not do much research.
What to do with the database:
Please review the data and send me updates at cgai...@yahoo.com. I recommend not posting your response on the Groups site because it would clog that up with info that will be more efficiently compiled and posted in the one database file. The database has been created in Microsoft Works Database and also saved in .csv and .txt format. I believe that Works can be imported into Microsoft Word and that .csv can be imported into OpenOfficeBase (available online for free at OpenOffice.org).
Note columns for "E-mail" addresses and "H(ull)I(dentification)N(umbers)". Also "Notes" should include 1) names and dates of former owners/boat names, if known, 2) special vessel information such as major, non-standard configuration/modifications, 3) construction history (such as sold as kit, but not completed for sailing until ...) and 4) cruising history, races, etc. In including such information, please consider whether such information would be of general interest to the average Alajuela owner. I will be liberal (but not total) in my inclusion of such information, trying to balance interest and size of the database/records. I would be interested in suggested new fields in the data base. The "Notes" field can be a "catch all" and its display size for viewing/printing can be adjusted by the user. While we individually may be interested in voluminous entries, I think this database, should be limited in scope to items of general interest.
Your response will help me determine 1) whether or not such a database is helpful and 2) if so, to what degree. A separate general history and/or hull-by-hull histories is/are possibilities, but would be a much larger task and not within my job description.
Separately I am interested in a general history and have some information on that. If you want to include general Alajuela history, please send it to me and I will try to compile and share that separately. I have 1) Best Boats by F. Mate, 2) the Cruising World's Feb '99 article "The Mighty and Graceful Alajuela 38", 3) a copy of an early brochure and 4) a one page, "History of the Alajuela 38" which came with the database. And I believe that Rod's several postings on the subject are in the Group archives.
Caution: I will likely not be available on the grid for the next two-three weeks while, hopefully, cruising the Jumentos Cays and Ragged Islands in the SE Bahamas. So be patient.
Carl & Debbie
s/v Diva
Carl & Debbie Gaines
Just a small correction, the reference to .csv format should be changed to .odb format for the version that is openable in OpenOffice.
Carl & Debbie
s/v Diva