Balancing Act

Prior to the completion of the survey, our intention had been to motor the boat back to a nearby yacht basin and have it hauled out, have the mast removed, and let her sit for the rest of the season while we sailed our Grampian. We thought she needed too much work to sail, but the surveyor completely disagreed. Upon his recommendation we took her home and we have been sailing her for over a month now with no regrets. Have there been some major mistakes? Absolutely. But there have been some triumphs too. We are getting the hang of handling a bigger rig, which has a proportionately bigger load on it and thus requires a tremendous amount of force to control. We entered and completed the Sippy Cup, an overnight regatta from

Just north of Turkey Point to Annapolis. We set the batteries on fire and then put the fire out. We set the kerosene stove on fire and put that fire out. We replaced the batteries and we are going to get rid of the stove. Meanwhile, at every turn the prior owners have kind of exceeded our expectations. They spent a tremendous amount of money and time maintaining and repairing the boat, and some of their additions are really quite ingenious. 

For one, the hull has an airex core. When they bought the boat in the 90s they had the entire bottom stripped, blisters removed, and much of the fiberglass replaced. They also had little ports put in on the interior of the hull so you can easily and regularly check your airex foam for water infiltration. ! Brilliant! 

They also had the rig altered according to plans they had drawn up by the designer, Stan Huntingford. I have the blueprints with the hand drawn alterations. The new rig includes seriously heavy duty outboard chainplates. 

They added the most interesting cockpit cushions. When I first saw them I was dismayed and thought I would immediately replace them. They are heavy foam covered in sling fabric. Sling fabric I tell you. But it's the only fabric known to man not to stink after being submerged in bay water. All of the cockpit cushions double as large floating loungers. And they DON'T STINK. Brilliant! 

We are finding some issues that are going to have to be addressed this winter, for instance the wiring is pretty deteriorated so electronics are all quite unreliable. Whenever something works it's pretty exciting. 

But all in all, this has been a smashing success so far.