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Project Log:  The Week of June 22-26, 2015

Monday dawned gray and with heavy rain showers, which I'd thought were supposed to have been long gone the evening before.  Fortunately, the  showers passed through quickly, leaving behind a rather unsettled day with clouds, some sunny breaks, and some wind, though the forecast was for light and variable.

This was to be the last day of the project for all intents and purposes (don't you love it when people say "for all intensive purposes"?), as Lively Heels was headed to the water once more, finally, after a long hiatus that began with her unfortunate (for her previous owner) sinking back in about 2007 or so.  It had been a long, usually fun, sometimes torturous road since 2010 when I originally bought the boat, and of course a lifestyle and directional change that came to a head in early 2015 led to me selling the boat to a new and excited owner in April 2015. 

My time with her was past--had been now technically, if not in activity for some time--and now it was truly time to turn over the reins, as it were.  I agreed to tag along for the launching, and some basic initiation, but would now take on the role of observer and suggester, no longer the responsible and most active party.  

After some final loading chores, we settled in to wait for the transporter, who arrived quite late after having to stop beforehand and replace a hydraulic hose in the trailer.  With the trailer under the boat, and getting ready to load, amazingly enough they blew another hydraulic hose--the twin of the one that was replaced earlier--ending the chance of transport on this day.  This was disappointing, but as I'd set aside quite a bit of time during the week for launching and related tasks, I found I could easily set aside the disappointment and just wait for the rescheduled pickup.   Later in the day, the owner informed me that the boat would be picked up on Tuesday at 1100.


Tuesday the weather was poor:  heavy rain, with the threat of thunderstorms, possibly even severe, at least as the morning's forecast allowed.  Certainly not conducive weather for launching and rigging a new boat, but so it goes.  I hoped there might be a bit of a break in the afternoon to prevent the job from being too miserable. 

1100 came and went, with no sign of the owner (who had indicated he might not come to the shop this time around) or the trucking company, and no other information forthcoming.  Finally, after 1130, I texted the owner to see if he'd heard anything from the trucker, and found out that the pickup had been postponed once more because of the weather.  The owner had sent me a text to this effect, but it hadn't sent properly, which of course meant that I'd not received it.  Technology can be at once wonderfully helpful yet incredibly inconvenient if over-relied upon.

In the event, I was pleased to be free from launching worries on this day, but frustrated by yet another wasted day.  Meanwhile, the rain continued through the afternoon.


Late in the day, the transporter arrived to pick up the boat, happily during a break in the rain.  This time, the loading went smoothly, and before long the boat was ready for the road.  The plan was to launch first thing in the morning.

         

         

Wednesday morning, June 23, was glorious and perfect:  sunny and clear, light wind, and just beautiful.  I arrived at the ramp a bit earlier than the 0700 planned launching time, but the truck was right on time and soon Lively Heels was in the water.  While she was still on the trailer, we jumped aboard to check the usual:  stuffing box, rudder stuffing box, and all through hulls.  All AOK.

         


Fighting a falling tide, we had no time to waste to get the masts step and then get the boat away from the launching area and onto the owner's new mooring.  The mast stepping was uneventful, except that we discovered to our horror and wonder that the new headstay and furler--which had been patterned after the old--was 18" too short, requiring us to keep it disconnected and use a halyard to support the mast for now.

Once on the mooring, our first order of business was to spend a couple hours straightening the masts, which had been set up loosely at the dock and now required the usual tweaking to get them straight and raw-tuned.  We were surprised at the amount of movement in the mizzen mast in the unsupported area between the radome and the deck; perhaps the intermediate shrouds needed to be tighter (they were already more than hand tight).  This process would continue going forward.

         

    

    

Next, we rigged up the booms, sheet tackles, and rigid boom vang.


Afterwards, we went ashore for lunch break, and to run a quick errand for a couple things for which we'd identified a need--namely a new lower block for the vang tackle, as the one supplied with the unit had no cleat for the line (designed to have the line run aft), but with no easy nor desirable way to run the line aft here, we opted for a new block at the vang base to allow control from the deck.  Our trip to town also gave the first opportunity to soak in her appearance from the dinghy.  With empty aft tanks, the stern looked a bit high, but I imagined she'd come down nicely on her aft waterline once some fuel and water was added to the tanks.

         

         

Back on board later in the afternoon, we changed out the vang block and sorted out a couple other details, and later I ran the mast wiring through the deck and made the final connections in the junction box below.  This brought us to the end of launching day.
 

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