Tonight:
Fix Cabin hatch top.
Drill Out Tangs for Shrouds.
Look at Second Bilge pump, and get working.
AM.
Cut up Oak to replace shitty cockpit stuff.
Make up 1 X 3’s and 1x 1’s
Look for Ply for Two replacement seats. And try to Cut.
Varnish Cabin Hatch first thing.
Bring sails
At West Marine get:
Flares, (Must carry approved visual distress signals for both daytime and night-time use.)
one throwable Type IV device
Two B-I type OR one B-II type approved portable fire extinguishers.
1 3” 3/8th lag bolt.
Smaller Pulley for Jib.
That’s the list. With that short list marked both what I had done, and what I hadn’t. I’m not sure that everything is in order with her, but it is worth a shot at a little sailing.
I said good-bye to my dad who had been helping me all weekend, parked my car, grabbed a big pail of Sawdust and headed off to the dock. It had been a hell of a day. Vanessa was pretty pissed that I had spent all weekend consumed by one thing, and not paying attention to her. She came up for a long (and much deserved weekend for her) thinking that it would be lots of smooch-ums and good times. I on the other hand was at the very end of 1 month of hard labor.
I love projects…well, I’m not sure that I love them, but I’m drawn to them. They are what get me through each day, and each month, week, or year. This was just another in a long list of fairly ambitious projects that I have undertaken. Some are successful, and some haven’t quite gotten finished. Anyway I have been restoring a 1958 Nordic Folkboat that I got for free a couple of months ago. It is a 25 ft lapstreak beauty of a little sail boat. They are simple, Spartan, and sail well.
By the time I had walked down to the dock I was totally discouraged. I had done my thing, and gotten this bug out of my system, but I had also pretty much given up. My boat was still leaking like a sieve, and after 3 days the wood had no intentions of swelling further. A quick check of the AC Zimmer pump showed that last night hadn’t made a bit of difference. It was a beautiful Monday, but being Labor Day, the dock was active and happy boaters weren’t going to let a little wind get in their way of having fun. Did I mention that it was blowing like hell? Point Bay Marina faces South West, and if the wind is blowing just right, there is a good couple of miles of straight water for the waves to build up some size. Today the marina was taking a pretty good pounding, and my little red boat was getting the worst of it. The air was clean and dry.
It used to be that springtime, April or sometimes March if the seasons are quick, was my favorite time of year. Who knows, maybe next year it will be. But right now, that turn to fall is a wonderful thing to feel. Almost as if on queue the sun took on the golden glow that marks its transition from overhead, to low on the horizon. (I know it doesn’t happen all of a sudden, but all of a sudden you notice it.)
Especially on the lake the golden light transforms something beautiful, into something magnificent. But anyway the wind was blowing like hell despite the sun, so it was hard to get a feel for the day. I was already sick of bouncing around on the dock by the time I had the boat kinda ready for a quick outing. My idea was to head across the cove, and hangout in the lee of the land. I didn’t have a chart, and I hadn’t wired my depth finder yet, so I was going to “feel it out.” I got the outboard started with two pulls, and let it idle down. I uncleated the stern line, readied the bow line slowly pushed the boat off the dock, un-cleated the bow line, and jumped aboard. It was a clean get away, and I was happy that I made it look easy. (though I have been around boats, I haven’t had much time at the tiller of a low heavy keeled sailboat {the Folkboat has 54% of her weight in the keel})
First I headed east, and was going to go into what the guy at the dock called the “toilet bowl” he made it sound pretty easy to get into, and I thought that would be plenty calm. As I sat on her back deck it felt good to be at the helm of my own boat. Despite weighing around 5000 lbs the little Mercury 7.5 hp outboard moves her at a good clip. She was being pushed around a bit by the waves (around 2ft) but sailboats are only really happy when they are under sail. As I got out I realized that there were two islands between me and the toilet bowl. I only remembered one, so it made me kinda nervous. There are a couple of reefs in the bay, and I didn’t want to stick my boat on one of them. I brought her around and headed west towards the mouth of the bay. It was much wider there, and I knew I would have plenty of room right up to the shore. It took about 30 minutes for me to go the mile or two to the other side, and I headed for a bunch of big powerboats the were rafted together. I figured if they were ok, there should be enough water for me. I moved in close to shore and dropped my anchor in about 10 feet of water. I found out later when I raised the anchor that it was mud and weeds.
I felt better being “on the hook” and safe. I was still nervous being alone in my boat, though really there was no need. I worked on a few things, and tidied the cockpit up. The boat is still a total mess, with tools, pieces of wood, and other crap kicking around on it. There doesn’t seem to be enough room on her for all my tools, and something is always in the way. Actually I think that this is true of any boat, and the only answer is to keep her shipshape. Maybe next year I will be able to do the same.
I filled my battery box full of sawdust, put on my bathing suit and got ready to jump over. I was still a little cold from the hard wind that was out on the lake, so I decided to take it easy for a couple of minutes. As I was looking around I realized that most of the people on the powerboats nearby were naked. Something about being out on the lake makes having no clothes on seem really appealing. I pulled my shorts off, and lay in the sun counting the number of times my bilge pump cycled on and off. (5 minutes on, 20 off, or roughly 1 gallon of water every 2 minutes) I noticed hidden under a seat a couple of beers that had been left from a few days before. Though warm it hit the spot, and I put the others into the bilge for later. One of the good things about having a leaky boat is that you have a bilge full of water. On mine the float switch is set up so that there is around 10 inches of water in the bilge. Just enough to cover a beer… those Scandinavians are always thinking…
I finally decided that I was ready to jump into the water, so I put on my shorts. By this time there were other boats around, and I didn’t want to offend. I put on the two dollar K-mart swim goggles that I bought earlier in the day (before I got the speeding ticket) What the hell do you say to Cops when the have you pulled over. I always try to be nice and very polite, but I have never found a way to break into conversation with them. I have heard that you really need to, but what the hell should I say to officer straight pants while he is watching me fish for my registration in a glove box that is filled with crap… Plus my dad was sitting next to me, which really sucked. There was nothing that he could do, and somehow it just didn’t feel right. Shit always comes in piles. I will fight it though. That seems like my best chance at getting off, and by jaysuus it is my right as an American!!! Should I be mocking America on Labor Day? Did we really win any rights? The average American works more hours now than they have at any other time in history.
So I jumped over, and grabbed the battery box. For some reason I was very jittery about diving around my boat, and my first attempt at the saw dust distribution was a total failure. I got out and rigged up an oar with a Tupperware container tapped to one end. If you are wondering what the hell I was doing with sawdust, it is used to stop leaks in old wooden boats. If you empty out a container under the keel, as the sawdust floats up it gets sucked into the cracks and fills them. The idea is that once it’s in there it will swell, and become tight. So the oar rig worked well, and I emptied about 15 gallons of sawdust under my boat. To my amazement it actually worked. Most of the leaks had stopped, and that water wasn’t coming in anymore! For the first time in a number of days I felt like I had actually accomplished something, and that I might actually be able to keep her in the water. I then dove in and tried to apply some “slickseam” which is a waxy substance to the places where she was leaking. I wasn’t very successful with this, and it is hard to apply underwater.
I came back aboard, drank one of the beers I had stored in my bilge, and contemplated what to do. After while I decided that there was only really one thing, and that was to go sailing. I bent on both the sails, and got them raised while still on anchor. It took some doing, and some running back and forth between the tiller and the mast to get everything straightened out, but I did it. At first I think that the whole sailing thing is better accomplished with two people…anyway it is a good way to get to know your boat.
I motored out of the lee, but quickly I had more air than I could deal with. I was on a broad reach heading back to port going at hull speed when all hell broke loose. The track on the boom that holds the sail started to pull out. First one screw, then another. Luckily the track was still holding though badly bent and pulled up about two feet from the boom. I brought her up into the wind, and started the motor. The wind had really started to pick up by now (probably 20 –25 mph with big whitecaps) The sails were luffing like hell, and beating me, the boat, and everything else up. At one point I looked back and saw one of the battens in the sail go flying off in the wind. (I guess I will need to replace that one) I decided to head up to one of the islands and hopefully be able to drop the sails there in relative calm, but this was a dumb idea. As I headed towards the island I couldn’t get into the lee without tacking a couple of times, which was out because of the broken boom track. When you hear about sailors is bad storms you really need to think about what wind means with really big sails. They have so much force that it is simply amazing. It is so much stronger than you can imagine. So the boat is shaking its-self apart, the backstay was loose, and I was getting a little panicked. I was heading for the island, but it offered no safety, and probably lots of danger, and it was very rocky around it. I fell off into the wind, and stopped luffing. Basically I needed to run close hauled in order to miss the island that was approaching very quickly. All to soon I found out the main sheet was tangled around the traveler, which meant that I couldn’t let out the main sail nearly as far as I wanted to. At this point I was in real trouble. If I kept going into the wind I would run straight into the rocks on the island. If I fell off, the wind would fill the mainsail, and I risked breaking the mast, boom, tearing the sail, or knocking over the boat. All this because of a tangled mainsheet. It is too long right now, and the very first thing that I’m going to do before I ever try sailing her again is trim it to the right length. I ended up bracing myself and taking the full brunt of the wind. I had the rail in the water and lots of speed, and I still went very near to the island. Luckily the boom track held, and nothing broke. After a couple of minutes of this I was back near to where I had anchored, and I managed to drop and tie down both the sails, but more importantly take a much needed piss. I apologized to my boat for being un-prepared, a poor sailor, and a fool. I hope that she forgives me.
The motor back to the marina was uneventful, and docking in large waves wasn’t all the bad. A few more dings in her paint, but hey its only paint. The sawdust that had fixed my leaks had gotten knocked out by all the pounding, and she was back to her leaky old ways.
At least I got one sail in this year, and it only cost me around $1000. Hopefully I will have the gumption to fix what is wrong, and try my hand next year. For the time being she is going to get pulled out, and I’m going to start on the rest of her problems. I have learned that don’t go sailing when everything isn’t shipshape, ready to go, and don’t cut corners (like not tying in your battens)