Got RAINBOW out on a mooring and then raced on Inc for MRSA's first of the season. I think we took 2nd. Absolutely gorgeous evening and a nice tribute to a former crew member who crossed the bar a few weeks ago.
Century Club: Tim Ford
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Checked the epoxy job from last time and also covered the exterior repair area with a layer of e-glass, which was a PITA because it was windy, but it got done and actually looks pretty good. Also did a sail inventory, as it had been a while and a winter's few months had erased whatever knowledge I'd gained last season -- frankly I was clueless as to what was in each bag and there are quite a few of them. So sails got laid out on the lawn at the club and the bags got temporary labels. I am set for 4 to 35 kn no doubt about it.
Think I'll pass on the 35 though.
I'm impressed by the ospreys in the creek and their fishing skills. Drifted in right beneath a tree and watched seahawk annihilate another shad, or a big herring. I figure from the size of this gill cover (operculum) that it had to be a hickory shad. The knife blade is 3.25 inches.
One distressing thing was how long it took the fish to expire. The osprey took at least ten minutes+ to systematically tear the poor creature apart while the fish flapped and struggled. I went in later, beneath the tree, to see what had been discarded, hoping the fish carcass was there, for further I.D., but it was just scales and other parts. No positive I.D. as to herring or shad though.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Devised a scheme to press & epoxy new ply up into the deck layup. I bought a spare scissors jack years ago when I was building the i550. It's amazing how handy this thing is in various projects. Of course, the weather didn't cooperate - the air temp was about 48, but below it was 60 and that's usually OK. Pre-heated the resin and hardener by leaving it in the car in a sunny spot and letting the greenhouse bump the temp up to approx 75. I think the pox fully kicked by the time I left the boat around 6pm.
Nearby tree had an osprey with what looks like a hickory shad it was munching on....for hours. I swear, the bird hardly moved for 4-5 hours and was still there when I left. So was the shad. I got the impression the bird was just showing off what a skilled hunter it is. Like, "look what I caught, aren't you envious?"
I think birds think this way.
Got in a paddle for lunch and had another go at scraping the remaining barnacles and barnacle residue off the mooring pennant.
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Looked at my mooring last week from the POV of a kayaker in strong breeze. It was a mess and I had no tools (or desire, for that matter) to clean it up.
So this time I paddled out with paint scraper, wire brush and heavy duty work gloves to dig intio the issue. Got it looking decent, at least it won't drip nasty stuff all over my bow when I finally take RAINBOW out there.
Finished up getting the bad ply out of the forward section. Next step: new ply and epoxy with upward pressure pushing it in place supplied by a 2x4 on a car jack.
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
The club has a bunch of floating docks that nature deams necessary to destroy regularly.
So new ones have to be built and launched and fitted once the old derelict ones are towed out of position. You'd be surprised how tricky it is to fit a bunch of right-angle pieces together. Folks have to be added and subtracted to achieve the right ballast to get the attachment pieces to fit together and then pinned in place.
PSA is lucky to have a crew of members who have the skills and knowledge to buld, position and secure these things. Sounds easy, but it isn't.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Un-kicked glop
relief form 20-25 kn breeze
about 75% of rot out
visitor section of cockpit
street legal
Same drill.
Attack rotten ply core, paint & install new head floor, and paddle out to the cove (in the lee of shore) for lunch. I also got a look at my mooring for 2025 and it needs work. It's coated with slime and barnacles. Before I move RAINBOW I have to clean this thing up.
Ospreys have shown up in force and one hung out about 50 feet away, squawking constantly and competing with crows and kin for a coveted spot in the nearby trees.
On a down note, I laid-up some epoxy/e-glass in two or three leaky spots cockpit hatch spots. It never got as warm and I'd expected and I had to leave with the stuff still un-kicked. I like to babysit epoxy lay ups when they've almost fully kicked, to smooth them out (tool of choice: human thumb dipped in human saliva) but this wasn't possible as the stuff was still too gooey. Fingers crossed.
Oh. And we now have a legal bathroom.
Tuesday, March 18, 2025 to Thursday, March 20, 2025
Number of days:
3 days
They're baaaaaackkkk, and already claimed a shoal-pole
solitude standing, just the resident black squirrels chattering
Note to self: don't camp near a bunch of treble hooks...
Newer and dryer wood
Nukin'
Getting legal...or at least trying
Got a 3-day hall pass to work and live on the boat and paddle as paint dried and epoxy kicked. Conditions varied from a calm sunset excursion into the cove's backwater swamp, and then the next day of relative normalcy (water in the creek!) and then all hell breaking loose on Thurs as a "smokin' southerly' built to 40 kn.
Luckily, got a paddle in around noon, reached the point that separates the fairway out to the river and said, "nuh-uh, ain't going any farther," as puffs to 30 were very hard to paddle into and the chop was coming over the bow once in a while. This is while still in the creek!
So I bailed. And then it got windy.
On a mission to rid the below-decks wood of any moisture/rot. Installed a new hatch structure and got it tabbed in with a yard of 3" biax tape against the hull layup, so that should last another 20 years.
What's also gone is: the old head. It was illegal as it was a direct discharge via a thru-hull and with my luck, I was sure to get boarded and fined by one of the many wonderful regulatory agencies on the bay. Porta-potty arriving tomorrow. Yay!
Great and very productive three days in mid-March. Heck, I'll take it, noisy ospreys and all.
Friday, March 14, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
I have to replace some below decks wood that got wet and became soft over the years. A multi-tool is a boost for stuff like this. Can't believe I built an entire boat without owning one.
Paddled for over an hour and got to visit the far NE cove...I love it back there, with no visible houses or docks, just an awful lot of Great Blues. I don't think I've ever seen as many herons, so closely packed in and apparently not sqaulking about territory....at least not yet.
Friday, March 7, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Didn't even bother to paddle. The list keeps growing. Good thing I love working on boats!
I'm not a huge fan of halyards belayed to a horn cleat. In my hardware box, I did find one single Spinlock cam cleat. Now, the question is, why was it in the hardware box...did it fail at some point on the i550?
I gave it some rigorous tests, but it wasn't loaded up sufficiently because it's not mounted. Do I drill more holes in the boat? Or just let it slide and use the original hardware.
Plenty of time to think about this...plenty.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
I loved building the i550 and I had a bunch of great sails on it. But I can't believe I passed 17 years without having a boat upon which I could sit comfortably below, eat lunch and maybe even take a nap or overnight if I wanted.
I think I spent perhaps 3 or 4 nights sleeping aboard the i550 and it was marginal. And not afloat, unless you count a floating dock as "afloat."
But having a boat with furniture below and an actual keel and all the stuff that's needed to venture out and keep the rig pointed at the sky means: lists. Lists on keelboats only persist, they never completely disappear. Soon as you whittle something off one end, something else pops up on the other. I sat below and worked on mine.
It was 64 degrees in the cabin and that was excellent.
Lots of ducks, (ruddies) and geese, but still zero osprey.