In the Water

Its been a very busy two weeks, but thankfully the boat is in the water now, and the sun even came out for a few brief moments in the last week. Before that could happen, however, there were a whole host of small projects that had to get done before I could even consider launching the boat.

I took advantage of the one sunny day in the last half of June to get a second coat of varnish on the toerails and coamings, and more importantly, finally paint the cove stripe. It was definitely a rushed job, but you can only tell that it was really rushed if you are inches away from the covestripe. Applying 3 coats of paint in one day was not the intended plan, but when there is only one day of sun, that's the way it has to go.
Midway through the painting/varnishing escapade...

Despite how nervous I was about the way the paint was applied, when I pulled the tape it actually looked really good. There are a couple spots where the paint bled under the tape, but I will scrape those off later, and the boat now looked much more complete.

On Monday, I decided the boat would go into the water on Friday the Third, and scheduled the launching. This step is typically what dooms me, but it really motivated me to take advantage of every break in the weather to get projects done. That afternoon I was able to get the companionway reinstalled (after seven coats of varnish at home) which made the cabin more or less watertight (the dealights still leak a little).

The next day, I painted the bottom in the morning and then before a host of other errands, picked up a bunch of new parts for the boat - most importantly new halyards and a new tiller.

On Wednesday, I decided that it was time to reassemble all the pieces of the mast, carefully installing the sail tracks, masthead and shroud fittings and assorted other parts. With new halyards, cleaned up hardware and fresh varnish, the mast was really looking good.

The tiller also required pretty significant attention as well. I began by shaping the butt in a similar fashion as the old one, and then brought it to the boat for a test fit to check the desired angle. With that confirmed, I took it home and began to fit it to the original bronze rudderhead fitting.

The original fitting, which I neglected to get a picture of, is an unusual size so that I couldn't buy a stock tiller in the exact width. As a result, I centered the tiller in the fitting, created a mold with the fitting and then used epoxy to fill in the gap. After letting it cure, I removed the fitting, and cleaned it up. Now the tiller snugly fits in the fitting and the whole assembly looks pretty smooth too.

Thursday was one of the busier days of late, as I worked to put all the pieces together and get everything cleaned up too. I had left the tape on the areas to be varnished hoping to get at least another coat on before launching, but the coat never happened, and the tape was nearly impossible to remove. My mistake, but frustrating nonetheless. I also needed to get the engine on the boat, bring the mast back to the boat, get it secured on the boat, reinstall all the standing rigging, check the seacocks, and give everything a quick rinse since I hadn't done that yet this year. By the time I was finished it was well past sunset and, no surprise, raining again.

I woke up early the next morning, to drop the sails and boom off at the boat, get gas for the engine, and some other last minute parts and by the time that was wrapped up, the Marblehead Trading Company was there picking the boat up.

Here are some pictures I snapped before they arrived - definitely an major improvement over last year...

Here she is getting picked up -

...And then driving through town. Although it was nice to be there this year, it also was a little more nerve wracking having to follow the boat through town. It wasn't until they had pulled the boat out of the yard that I noticed how out of alignment the legs of that sawhorse were, which made me nervous for the whole trip. Thankfully, the boat made it in one piece.

I was really looking forward to watching it splash this year, but I ran to my car to grab something, and by the time I turned around, I had missed the moment - so it goes. She was floating very nicely, and the seacocks were not leaking, so that was a good sign. I watched, nervously, while they stepped my freshly varnished mast, and in short time, everything was set.

Then came the real moment of truth - the one thing I really hadn't checked, the engine. I have had this engine for 9 years now, first using it on my inflatable, and now Adagio and it has never given me a problem. Unfortunately, that streak ended, as none of my tricks could get it to start. Probably would have made sense to check this ahead of time, but I was much more interested in getting the other aspects of the SAILboat ready, so I just assumed. My mistake, again, but thankfully, there was a gentle breeze, so I bent the main on and hoisted it. Needless to say, all the workers in the yard were surprised/nervous, but it felt pretty good to just push off and sail to the mooring under my own power.

And we're off-

So I made it to the mooring and got everything tidied up. I spent Friday afternoon racing on the Charles in Boston, and then raced on a freind's boat for the Fourth in Marblehead - pretty hard to complain about that. On Sunday I spent the day cleaning up down below (which received almost ZERO attention so far this year) and capped the day off with a little harbor cruise. As my 92 year-old grandmother pointed out in a brief moment of clarity, "there are few things in life better than owning your own sailboat." Couldn't agree more - tomorrow I will try to fix the engine, and then hopefully get some sailing in. And someday, when there is some sustained sun in the forecast, finish varnishing. But until then, I hope to just keep enjoying the boat as much as possible.