Easter is early this year and so is the start of the HBBR season. We are heading back to Barton Turf on The Broads at the end of April which I'm looking forward to. We'll be in the company of the Open Canoe Sailing Group which will be interesting and I'm wondering what they'll make of Katie Beardie. Of course the answer to that is "not much" unless she gets a new set of sails.
A quick rifle round the rafters in the garage unearthed a sail I'd forgotten I'd made, quel surprize! and confirmed that I must've given the mast away with Polythene Pam.
I've now put an APB out round the HBBR for any old windsurfer masts I could use as spars, and I'll be getting the carpet tape and grommets out soon to make the mizzen.
The latest thinking is top have a smaller Main-Sail with a shorter foot which keeps the boom out of my face, but keep the high aspect to catch some Broads breeze above the reeds. The Sprit Mizzen will feature the new BrailoMatic system if CW and I can make it work.
I can report that at least four old windsurfer masts have been tracked down all be it at quite a distance away, and not all in the same direction. there are also a couple near at hand on a well known on-line auction site so I my make a cheeky bid.
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Prior to my casual glance at the calender, and the ensuing panic, I had stopped work on Slack Alice and brought the Coot in from the cold, stripped of all her hardware, and started to rub down her bright-work before re-coating. I say re-coat rather than varnish or paint as the jury is still out on what finish will be applied. All I can say is I'm really beginning to hate varnish.
And what of Alice? Well I'm really coming at that one twice around the houses. Having made the full-size half-model I now have a set of templates from which the proper planks could be simply copied. However I want to make a set of plans and instructions for Alice, because sometimes life seems so easy you just have to make things more difficult for yourself. So out with the old etch-a-sketch and here is a preview of what I'm aiming at.
So who says men can't multi task?
Oh and the garden needs tidying, and the car is due a service, and the garage doors want painting and................................................................
3 comments:
Nothing wrong with varnish, I did Tosh's spars 12 years ago and apart from touching up scuffs plus a quick rub down and 2 coats 3 years ago they're looking fine. But they are stored in the garage - if varnish is outside over winter it needs to be covered very well.
I've tried just about everything else and keep coming back to good quality yacht varnish.(too tighfisted to try Coleen but some of the reports I'm seeing suggest it's not the wonder material everyone thought despite the price)
Great, you can come round and varnish Coot every couple of years then!
Of course its not the varnishing that's the problem, its all that bloody sanding.
Fortuitous for me to see all of this - I am re - plying a small sailing dinghy and to make best use of each sheet of plywood I will make some cardboard patterns and arrange them so as to prevent wastage.
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