I actually had more spare time on my hands than I thought and got the site up and running with all the old data and information that I could find on the web. I started this when I found the old websites for the Downeaster yachts had disappeared. If you are a Downeaster owner and have any information not on here, I would love to have you submit it to me, or point me in its direction. I hope the website to be a comprehensive resource for owners of any of the Downeaster yachts. I have used the Internet Archive to recover some of the information from the old websites that people had submitted over the years and have posted here under “Old Website Information”. If you are the owner of one of these old articles, and do not wish it to be listed here, let me know and I will remove it. Conversely, if you are the owner and wish to resubmit it in complete form with photos I would be very happy to have you do so.
I have included a forum on the site here. I know that there is another Downeaster forum at http://downeasteryachts.yuku.com/directory. However, it seems to be mostly unused anymore. I posted on there a few weeks ago, and I noticed someone else had posted a question recently. Neither post has been replied to as of this morning. It leads me to think that the site is mostly dead. I don’t intend to step on anyones toes that has been maintaining the forum. I thought that a forum integrated into the website where this information is being consolidated might generate more activity by other owners of these boats.
One of my goals here is to have this not be so much my website as a community website with many people contributing information, with the core of it being technical information. However, I would also like to see this used as a central social site for owners of Downeasters to meet and talk. The forum component is expressly designed for this. I am also thinking about letting other members have the ability to add pages and posts to the main website with me just maintaining an overall control on layout to keep information easy to find and topical for the area of the website where the information is posted.
As you will notice, the home page is a chronological list of posts. I envision keeping it like this as it will present an ever changing homepage that everyone will be able to visit easily. The content would be notices of changes to the website and articles by members of voyages they have made on their boats, or other Downeaster related material. Stuff, that is very technical that would be good reference for other owners, will be copied, or moved to one of the static web pages so that it is readily available to everyone without having to search through a long list of posts. I would like to create categories by boat name for all the members that post like this and when you create a post, set the category to your boat name. This way, people wanting to see a chronological listing of articles about your boat can do so.
Many owners have websites or blogs of your own. I would encourage you to cross post stories and such here as well as on your blog to help foster a new interactive community of owners and enthusiasts.
Welcome to the new Downeasteryachts.com website.
Scott & Zsanic Carle
DE38
sv Valkyr
The site looks great! Thanks for all of the hard work.
Great to see the website up & running again, I use it all the time, the information is great.
Thanks
so glad to see a website again. They are such great boats. We have a downeaster 32. My wife and 2 small children are hoping to move aboard and go cruising in 2010. We have created panels for the inside of our boat that are removable. It makes it much easier to deal with leaks on deck or adding new hardware.
I just got the full data download on the old site from Gerry the web master from the old downeaster website. Talk about a great windfall. I will be sorting the info and putting a bunch of it up over the next week or so. some of the posts I have already put up from the Internet archives will be redone with Gerry’s data as his has pictures etc…
Cool!!!!! Glad to see the site up and running again. I was around for the first one and am glad to be here for the second one. I do have the original DE32 book if anyone needs info and I have done lots to our DE32 over the years. One thing I do need is the U-bolt for the cutter sail as mine is soooo rusted, anyone know where I can get one?? Our DE is going south on a truck on 10-21-09, leaving Lake Superior for warmer waters again. Good to be here!!!!
Cheers Scotty
Scotty,
ask about the ubolt on the forum 🙂
hopefully someone has an answer.
scott carle
I am very happy to see this up and running again. It looks great. Omo’o is a Downeaster 38 Ketch based in Burlington VT but now on it way to Florida.We’ll be checking in while on the trip. Thanks again.
Bob
Bob,
if you get anywhere near southport, nc or little river, sc you should give me a holler and we will visit I live near there.
scott
Hi Scott and all,
Scott, thanks for taking this on, the website has been of tremendous help to me over the years. Hopefully we will do something to our boat that warrants posting it to the site someday, meanwhile I will keep on looking and getting ideas for our boat. Good luck.
Carl Wood
Scott,
Will you do me a favor and update the hot link for the Blue Sky website. The current link is very old. It’s the link on the owners registery. The link should be http://www.thevoyageofbluesky.com
I also have all of the original blueprints for Blue Sky. I have them on adobe and will email them to you if you’re interested.
Thanks,
Jim
Scott,
Excellent job with this, I had thought the old site was gone for good. Here it is reborn! Thanks for all the effort.
Scott Maxwell
I’m glad to be able to do it. Given that I do this sort of site for a living it is much easier for me than most people. I hope that you will start posting on the forums and sharing your experience on your boat with us.
Scott Carle