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