Launch, Re-launch, Victory!

Originally we were under the impression that high tide was at three PM -- so we went down Friday night, with an appointment to have the boat launched at "high tide". We were scrambling along trying to get a few last minute jobs done that really required electricity when Bill, who had agreed to launch us told us he would put us up in the hoist at noon so we could paint the bottom of our keel. This sounded like a good plan, but as always we were running a little behind and really needed to finish packing our gear onto the boat and unloading our tools onto the ground when around 11:30 we were faced with the business end of the boat lift. I hastily threw our pile of food, sails, clothes etc from right next to the boat to a spot out of the way, and Matt handed down the drill and extension cord. With help from a few other members we hung bumpers on the starboard side and prepared to be moved. Bill, handling the lift was a pro, only took once and he had it lined up perfectly. She was in the slings and in the air in about ten minutes.

I dabbed paint on the rusty keel bottom while Matt finished attaching the handrails up top. The jack stands were all heavily set in old dry mud and grown around with vines. After about forty minutes Bill announced that the water was there and we were ready to go. Again, we shifted all the gear we could and we were off.

Another skipper helped Matt knock the stands down, as they had to be wrenched free of the vines.

Just one hitch -- since she'd been put there 7 years ago the trees got a little taller.

A few quick turns had her free though.

Everything looked hunky dory here, so we got some help from Dale, another kind member who took pity on us and helped us start the motor and power over to the loading dock. We were tied there for about ten minutes when Matt announced that our solitary through hull was leaking. He went to find some caulk to try a quick fix when a 35 foot yacht and another member in an inflatable dinghy cruised up to the dock with very little control and collided with the outside of the Dalloway, crushing both our boat and the other boat's owner between the floating dock and the larger boat. Thanks to the quick responses of two other members, to whom I am exceedingly grateful, disaster was narrowly averted as they pushed the larger boat back to release the trapped owner and back the yacht off of our bow.

After a subsequent conference with several senior members, it was determined that the original through hull needed to be removed and re-bedded with an improvised backing plate. This called for another ride in the slings, which ended with us climbing back aboard with the lift parked behind the clubhouse. In a record time of less than forty five minutes Matt fabricated a backing plate, removed the old through hull, rebedded it with 4200 and reattached it. In the hustle, I lost our extendable ladder and 50 foot extension cord, but we got the boat back into the water, and floating nicely. Again, with help from other members, we took a brief but awesome tour of the area, and then settled at our mooring for the evening.

Double time under a deadline

We're planning to launch this Saturday! I finished up the last two cushions today and Matt is working until all hours trying to finish the dinghy. I think it's taking longer than projected, but when it is done we will have a seven foot dinghy with two skegs and wheels to make it easy to launch. We still don't have charts, but I'm going to give the Iphone INavX app a try. It's only fifty bucks and has great reviews as a chartplotter/gps.

Everything is coming together

The water tank is installed and plumbed, the sink and faucet are installed and plumbed except for one fitting that just came in the mail today. The curtain tracks are in and the curtains are up. The running lights are hooked up and Matt fabricated and installed an instrument bezel for a cockpit light, the switch for the light and the running lights, and the depth meter. He also sewed the new halyards onto the ends of the old ones and put them over the mast so we now have completely rope halyards. He even put eye splices on with all new shackles. We have a lot of old blocks, some very high quality old ones, some mediocre newer ones. All but one appear salvagable. The chainplates are back on and bedded in butyl tape, but we didn't re-attach the shrouds yet. Matt also installed the sole in the head and I painted it with alkyd enamel. He ran the wire for the transponder for the depth finder, and installed the puck up at the front of the keel.

Last but not least, the bottom paint is now on, and I shined up the hull with vertglass.

I finished the curtains

Booyah!

Fairing Compound Finally Going on

Matt applied 4200, barrier coat, and fairing compound to our gnarly keel joint in that order, this weekend. It's looking pretty flat now, so if we can get down there some evenings after work this week we might be able to finish it up, but with work and all we probably won't be down this weekend.

The clouds rolled in though, and things started to look bad, then worse, then extremely wet.

So we did some stuff inside instead. I added some more spar eurethane to the new bulkheads, teak oil to the old ones (until I ran out), put in the quarterberth cushions. Matt wired the bow running lights and would have done some plumbing but we can't get the through hull for the sink drain attached because the stowage is too tight and it won't turn to screw in.

And last but not least, I got the name decal attached. It was dark so the picture looks a little creepy.

Electrical is not my area

Good thing matt had lots of practice when we were working on our house. He fabricated a little hinged panel for the fuse box. Nothing hooked up yet but the bilge, but that's really the most esssential thing right?


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It's allliiive

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The bilge pump

Is installed and so is the float switch, well, almost. We got a battery and a fuse box and now all that's left is to get all the wires in. Meanwhile my little job was to finish painting the window frames and the bootstripes.


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WTF

We got a package today.


It is a ten foot piece of PVC with tape over the ends, containing my curtain tracks.

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