Catching Up

So its been a busy couple of weeks in Marblehead for me. In addition to working on the boat and dealing with renovating our house, I also agreed to fill in as the Program Director at the Pleon Yacht Club, which means that my days have been long. But, as you can see, the boat is in the water, so I can't really complain too much. The terrible weather continued in August up on the North Shore, which meant that in order to have the boat in the water at all this summer, I had to make some sacrifices. Among these, I opted to forgo varnishing the exterior woodwork this year, and also ended up using a tape instead of painting the boottop, and the covestripe is still bare. Also, for the decks, I ended up just putting one coat of paint on them, with no primer, which while not ideal, should hold up for the next couple weeks. Not to mention, that one coat of paint came late in the evening the night before the boat got launched.

So, with that said, the boat finally went into the water on Thursday, August 14th. I couldn't actually be there because of my duties at Pleon, but I am assuming that everything went well. My mom called me shortly after the boat splashed to tell me that it looked fine, but there were "3-4 inches of water in the bilge. " I still couldn't leave work to check on the boat, but assumed that if it was really an issue the yard would call. So, finally I was able to leave Pleon, and when I got to the boat, there was really maybe 1/2" of water in the bilge, which was left from the rain early the day before. Relief. I quickly looked over the boat before running home to grab the engine some other goodies.

As for the engine, I decided to use the Johnson 8 HP engine that I used to use on my inflatable, but had sat dormant in my garage, unserviced, for the last 2 years. A little nerve wracking, but it had always run well in the past, and I just hoped it would continue doing so. It took some wrangling to get it to fit into the engine well, but after unbolting the tiller arm, it was in. And, through some miracle, it started on the second pull.

I took the boat around the harbor, and rinsed it off at the yacht club, before putting her on the mooring for the night. On Friday, the weather was miserable, and I left the boat untouched, but I could see it all day from my desk at Pleon, so I knew it was safe.

Early on Saturday morning I headed out to the boat to begin cleaning and putting everything together. While I might have gotten the boat in the water, it was far from actually assembled. I started by installing the seahood, the moved down to the winch bases, assorted deck hardware, the compass, and finally the cockpit coamings. At this point, I brought the boat into the dock and loaded the shelves for the interior back onto the boat, along with a bunch of other interior stuff. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning down below, and then headed home to put the final coat of varnish on the boom.

By the way, my camera has been out of commission for a while, so that's why there aren't pictures for any of the work between August 5th and August 17th. My mom did grab some pictures right after the boat went into the water, but they are still on her camera for now.

Here she is at the dock.
The cockpit, looking aft.

The cockpit, looking from the top of the cabin.
The front of the cabin house, looking aft.The boat, at the dock, from the top of the pier.After I have put the main on the boom, with the old blue sail cover.
Also showing the mast. The mast, as it turns out, wasn't in as good shape as I thought, it really needs to be stripped and refinished. Next winter...
Cockpit, with the mainsheet, back on the mooring.
View from the after quarter at the dock.So while I obviously didn't update exactly everything that happened in the last two weeks, hopefully it shows most of the major projects that took place to get her in the water.