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The Yard Sail The Port of Toledo has been donated two exquisite wooden sailboats - the Teak Ladies. These are 19 ft ocean crossers, made of all teak in Hong Kong. The Che Hon was built in 1936 - the start of the production run, the Ma Zu was built in 1956, at the end of the production run. We set up the Teak Lady Society to help with the care, maintenance, and use of these lovelies. You can find out more at their Facebook page: Teak Lady Society.
The care, maintenance, and use of these lovelies takes money, So we decided to hold a Yard Sail to get the bits and pieces necessary to carry these babies through the winter. Rules were simple: Bring something nautical to sell, sell it, buy something else, and some percentage of the transactions goes to the Teak Lady Society.
I got there a little early on Friday and was met by David (l) the President for Life of the Teak Lady Society, and Matt (r) an adventurer who is looking for a crew to do the Race to Alaska. If you remember, I did the first leg of that last year. Feeling a little salty? Drop me an email and I'll get you in touch. You'll notice the Chuckanut over on the right.
Today (while waiting for things to sell at the Yard Sail) was the day I wanted to cover the top part. There was just one little problem . . .
The cloth was just this much (finger really close to my thumb) too narrow. It was either use another 15' of cloth or figure out a way to make this piece work.
With nothing to lose, I figured it ought to be OK to slit the cloth down the middle. I drew a line to keep me more or less on target.
Holy crap! This might actually work. It was draping more or less OK.
OK, enough boats - we headed across the street to Pig Feathers for a little grub and a beer. Man, it was a pretty night.
In the morning we laid out our goodies. We had some nice stuff an we were selling it cheap.
Geoff came by and we got to work skinning the top part of the Chuckanu. This was all new - all guessing. We started stapling down the port side. It . . . worked.
Paul and Patty happened to wander in. They live in Bend but have a commercial fishing vessel and want to know where they can pull it out and get it serviced. Port of Toledo - that's where.
Jackie had stopped by on Friday evening, interested in purchasing my canoe (read the name, understand why I'd bought it) but I told her no sales before noon on Saturday. She was there, with her checkbook. That canoe will have a happy home.
Brief interruption as a family stopped by to see what was the hubbub, Bub. I showed them the Teak Ladies.
Dominick is a sailin' man - even had a rigging knife and fid on his belt. We were selling those slicks for $10, an absolute steal.
Dan came by - he's the guy who commissioned the Chuckanu and is a great friend of the Boathouse. It's been taking longer than anticipated for me to finish this boat, and I was happy to have him see what we have done.
I love Skin-on-Frame construction - so light, so beautiful.
There's were I ended up on Saturday - the Chuckanu skinned (need to stitch the ends and heat shrink it) and, at that point, about $350 raised for the Teak Ladies. After I left, I got a call saying the 3.5 Tohatsu Longshaft that had been donated brought in another $350. The Ladies will be able to ride out this winter in style. |
