Hi: This is the website for Owen Carter, a British guy who has been living in Amsterdam for the last 11 years.
I'm afraid there is nothing earth-shattering here, no solutions for World Peace, no cures for peoples ills.. Just a few of my photos and ramblings.
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 July 6th, 2009 |  OwenI got the keel of Coppelia painted yesterday, two coats of ‘POR-15‘, she needs a final topcoat today (a nice blue to match the rudder) and she’s ready to go back in. Another huge job, hopefully I’ll be doing that later this week
 The keel weighs 110 kilo (240lbs) and is made of a single piece of cast iron, it was very rusty when I took it out and has needed quite a lot of cleaning, the paint I used is a specialist rust covering/proofing coating that should protect her for some time. To do the painting I needed to hang the keel by it’s mounting points from the roof of the EHDC clubhouse, this let me paint all of it, but makes me nervous as hell. Despite my best efforts I could not really smooth it off, although it is good enough for cruising. Maybe that is a job for the future; ideally it should be fibreglass clad.
 I got a load of other minor things done, the new keel winch is in place, I have now baseplates on the sheet winches so that they can be fitted to the existing holes in the hull, rather then creating new ones. All that is left are the toe straps, painting the cockpit floor and then rigging her. Which will be fun, all the rigging was stored in the dry and looks good, but new halyards and lines will need to be brought. The sails are good, but maybe a bit baggy and I think ther eis a rip in the spinnaker. If she sails OK with the existing rig I might try to get a roller-furling setup for the front and a new mainsail.
June 21st, 2009 | Owen Hectic weekend, 10 Miles running on Friday night in the Midzomernachtcross (Midsummer Night Race, not strictly held on the shortest night, but rather the Friday closest to it). It was a really good run held in near perfect conditions. I posted a good time: 1 hour 43 minutes and 43 seconds. Within seconds of my personal best time at this distance 
Then on Saturday I had a dragonboat racing afternoon in Amlere; with the EHDC, I’m shattered! We managed to avoid the wooden spoon in the 2km race, which is quite satisfying.
June 2nd, 2009 | Owen  Coppelia being lifted I lifted Coppelia yesterday and removed the keel. A hundred kilos of cast iron, pretty awkward to handle but lifting the boat was actually quite easy once I’d worked out the correct way of securing her.
The keel will now be renovated, it’s the last really big job before I can sail her for the first time in many years.
More photos in my gallery; here.
May 21st, 2009 | Owen The bandwidth is terrible, but it’s free, and the view of the coast of France is good.. though not deeply exciting.
Looks like they only open a few ports though, no SSH session to my server, and Instant Messenger (MSN) protocols are blocked too.. which is not so good. Google came back in Swedish/Danish by default, but this is a Scandinavian owned ferry, and Google is no doubt detecting that the request comes from Maersk’s IT department.
Still, full cludos to Norfolkline for giving some access anyway.. and for not charging me when Belgian stupidity forced me to miss my booked crossing, they just smiled and put me on the next one.
Edit: On the way home I noticed another passenger using MSN (Windows live) quite happily (I didn’t peer too closely over their shoulder, but it was definately working for them) so maybe I caught them on a off day.. or aMSN on linux has particular issues.. I also had a meal in the restaurant and it was not exactly great value for money, SeaFrance is much better for food.
May 20th, 2009 | Owen Off to the UK for a few days, a good break for me and some family stuff to do too. Pretty happy with my Ferry ticket, 56 Euros all-in from Norfolkline, Dunkirk to Dover and back. I used them earlier this year too and it was a good crossing, I even had internet access on board
May 7th, 2009 | Owen Hummm.. Tomorrow I have the Fundarun. 10K, then another 10K on Saturday, wat leuk! . I hope I survive this.
Edit: Day later… Well, I survived the first (under an hour, not bad for minimum preparation). But my knee gave me some pains so I abandoned the AMC loop on Saturday and had a bath instead 
May 1st, 2009 | Owen What fun, started with Cava and ended late. I watched a friend playing his guitar on the corner of Nes and Grimburgwal, and things decended from there.
I’ve put a few choice pictures in my gallery;
 Playing to the crowd...
January 16th, 2008 | Owen
March 6th, 2007 | Owen
March 3rd, 2007 | Owen Back to the Configuration Management merry-go-round!
For all your Web Application needs, try Mirabeau
February 16th, 2007 | Owen
January 27th, 2007 | Owen Slightly surreal story here, Dangerous places laboratories! Shocking for the girl involved, but it does make me think of Fawlty Towers!
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Posts
The keel weighs 110 kilo (240lbs) and is made of a single piece of cast iron, it was very rusty when I took it out and has needed quite a lot of cleaning, the paint I used is a specialist rust covering/proofing coating that should protect her for some time. To do the painting I needed to hang the keel by it’s mounting points from the roof of the EHDC clubhouse, this let me paint all of it, but makes me nervous as hell. Despite my best efforts I could not really smooth it off, although it is good enough for cruising. Maybe that is a job for the future; ideally it should be fibreglass clad.
I got a load of other minor things done, the new keel winch is in place, I have now baseplates on the sheet winches so that they can be fitted to the existing holes in the hull, rather then creating new ones. All that is left are the toe straps, painting the cockpit floor and then rigging her. Which will be fun, all the rigging was stored in the dry and looks good, but new halyards and lines will need to be brought. The sails are good, but maybe a bit baggy and I think ther eis a rip in the spinnaker. If she sails OK with the existing rig I might try to get a roller-furling setup for the front and a new mainsail.
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