Getting Ready to Sail
June 2, 2019

The boat was in good shape when I got her, but 4 years in a barn didn't do her any good. I needed to clean her up. Bleach-based products work GREAT. But not on rust stains.

These water stains were pretty stubborn, too. Don't know if they were there before or from the time I had her.

Boat cleaning draws the attention of neighborhood urchins. Trevor was amazed at how much room there is inside the cabin.

Bright and shiny topsides.

And it ain't perfect, but the insides look damn good, too.

I've owned this boat for 4 years and I've never looked at the sails. Cool trident.

Let's start with the jib. This is the tack shackle. Guy who owned the boat before me liked quality.

Nice hanks. I might replace them with bronze - the heavier hanks make it easier/quicker to drop the sail. I like sails that drop quickly.

Here's a puzzle. The jib halyard is too thick to fit through the nifty cleat. This is . . . not usual for the previous owner. Everything else is glorious, why is this different? In any case, I needed to make it work, so I found some 1/4" to make the swap.

I have this nifty rigging knife, a gift from a friend. Once of the nicer things I own.

Legend has it, a mariner can lay a line over a varnished handrail, set the knife over the cut point, smack the knife, cut the line and not leave a mark on the rail. I am not a mariner. I don't have varnished rails and I smack that knife hard enough to bury it in a 2x4 (burn marks are from practices on pouring the lead for the keel on this boat.)

Jib clew. These are bronze spring clips. Nice. Ain't that cool? It;s set up with green-flecked line to port, red-flecked line to starboard.

Jib's up, and purty.

Up on the main sail, things are interesting. Up at the for'd end of the boom is this, a vang. I've never had a boom vang before. Or any vang before.

At the aft end of the boom are 3 blocks. That's a lot of blocks and it took a bit of figuring out, but it works.

There it's up, but . . . if I raise it to the top of the mast, the boom is WAY above the cockpit. Too high - I mean it is called a boom for a reason, right?

There's a solid foot of space up there.

OK, let's finish this off. The head of the swing keel pokes up through the cockpit sole. During cleaning, it was fine to leave it open as all the water drained out. But if water can drain out, it can splash in under sail, so the hole gets covered. I'll start by setting the pivot bolt firmly

Lots of caulking under the flanges and screw it down.

There it is Nice and purty.

There she is, looking pretty. Time to get her into the water.