Scattered Thoughts . . .

I t is that time of year...  albeit a very short period of time up here in Vermont...  but it is sailing season!   All the grandkids will be here this coming weekend so I want to make sure the sailboat is ready for playing.  I raise the sail, install the rudder and run all the lines so that the kids can play.  Well...  that's assuming it isn't too windy for the sail to be up. I store the sailboat upside-down through the very long winter.  Today, I cleaned the bottom of the hull and then Sheila and I turned her over so I could clean the topside.  She was filthy!   After I cleaned the hull, I applied a quick coat of wax and then buffed it out.  It could use another coat or two of wax but the hull is looking nice already with a minimal amount of work.   I still need to clean the sail, fix the mast with a new part which will test my metalworking skills (which I do rarely), run new lines, and put a quick coat of varnish on the rudder and centerboard.  All of this should go fairly qu

One of the days while Adam and Joi were visiting us was spent in the backyard just socializing.  Liza, Whitney and the grandkids were also there to spend some time with Adam and Joi.  Even Judy and her son, Jamie, surprised us by visiting after hearing that Adam was in town! We haven't spent any time with Judy since before the pandemic so it was nice to spend some time with her on this day.  She and Jamie stayed for dinner with all of us.  I always make more food than is necessary so last minute extra guests never cause a plating shortage.  We were very happy to have them share this day with us... As the sun set behind the trees and the sailboat, it started getting a little chilly in the autumn evening air so we built a small fire to keep everyone warm and cozy... The kids always gravitate toward the sailboat and the playhouse.  Actually, we now have a putting green that also captures Lukey's attention.  If I remember correctly, Lukey spent some time with Ace on the putting gre

Over the weekend, Sheila and I tackled getting the boats ready for our very short summer season. I ran into some issues with the sailboat... I left the sailboat sitting upright on a homemade dolly with the mast in place. The sleeve for the mast filled with water while the mast sat in this wet sleeve...  probably froze, thawed, froze, thawed, etc, over and over through the winter... and when I lifted out the mast the other day, it fell apart. I won't make that mistake again. The sailboat will be disassembled and put away for winter this year! I managed to make do with spare parts I have on hand but the mast will need to be replaced eventually. It should be okay for this season though. Everything else looked pretty good and functional. That being said, I still would not be surprised if I find a new problem when we put the boat in the water at the lake house. While I fixed, cleaned, waxed and re-rigged the sailboat (replaced some old, worn rope), Sheila cleaned up and waxed the

I spent the day, yesterday, cleaning and waxing the kayaks and our Minifish sailboat. It never fails... if you wax something, it will rain. Before we even made it to bed last night, heavy rain and thunderstorms began and continued through the night.  Fortunately, as the first few drops splattered on the pavement, I quickly found room for the mast, boom and sail in the shed. I didn't think they would fit in our relatively small shed but I somehow managed to get them in there! I definitely didn't want that sail getting dirty again before we even had a chance to sail nor did I want to have a lightning rod in the form of a sailboat sitting in our yard next to our bedroom. On the positive side... It appears as though I did a good job with my cleaning and waxing... the white sailboat is still clean and is only covered in crystal clear beads of water. That really is a nice sight! Today is a day of laundry... mostly... while the washing machine is doing its thing, I will be cle

Today was the day to prepare the boats for the summer and, specifically, for our time at the lake. The weather was perfect and I'm running out of time already so today was the day. My body is telling me it is April yet summer is here already! My spine has been rather inflamed the past few days so it was slow going but I managed to get everything ready... well... I think everything is ready... you know how that goes... Chances are we'll unload the boats at the lake house and find I missed something. I cleaned and waxed three kayaks. Then I figured out a way to mount my little waterproof camera to the bow of my kayak so I can get some video clips while kayaking with the kids. That should be fun!  The kids really enjoy seeing themselves in video and they enjoy videos of the boats so they should really light up when they see themselves in video on the boats. One of these days I'll shoot some video of them watching themselves in video... they're pretty funny. The

Every time the kids visit us, the sailboat and kayaks in the yard seem to call to them... I know the sailboat does that for me... but it has been a long, snowy winter of trying to explain to the kids that we can't play with the boats until the summer finally arrives. Well, summer is here and Lukey wanted to play on those boats the moment he arrived! It is funny watching him on the sailboat. You can see him thinking and you can't help but wonder what thoughts are running through his young, inexperienced mind about a sailboat he has never even seen in the water. He has, however, seen the sailboat skimming across the water in our home videos that we watch with the kids whenever they visit so maybe he is envisioning one of these videos.  After realizing that he can easily climb up into the sailboat and then slide down off the boat, he kept going back and forth between the kayaks and the sailboat. It was a bit breezy the other day when they were visiting so I didn't rais

Although all the parts have been sitting around the house, shed and yard for the past year or more, I finally managed to put together a dolly for my sailboat yesterday. It has been a long time coming! If I had to do it over again, I would definitely change a few things in the design. This always happens though. I design something... build it... and then realize something is just not 'right'. I'm always trying to improve things. I suppose there is nothing wrong with that but it does get a bit tiring especially considering my health. Right now this dolly has a flat tire. When the snow eventually melted a few weeks ago, I noticed that one of the tires is flat. I had already assembled the basic frame of this dolly... the long tongue and the axle... and had mounted two 10" tires on it. All last summer I just propped the sailboat on this makeshift dolly using scrap 2x4 blocking. Unfortunately, whenever I moved the dolly around the yard (ie, for cutting the lawn), the b

The kids came over again today on this long snowy Thanksgiving weekend.  (I just realized that I had also written just a few short months ago about a snowy Memorial Day weekend... will we ever catch a break?) The grandchildren spent some time this afternoon out in the backyard building a snowman with Grammy. Their attention was split between building the snowman and the sailboat sitting under a few inches of snow.  Eventually, their attention went to the kayaks standing tall and strapped against the house. Those boats seem to constantly call their names whenever they visit.  Today was no exception. A note of interest here:  I was the same at my grandparents' house... the boats always beckoned... I can still smell that home on the water and hear the waves lapping at the boats, dock and bulkhead. There is just something excitingly intriguing and special about boats, trains and airplanes... especially to kids. We did the usual "Sunday dinner" at the house this evening.

The sailing season is almost upon us but I still have some work to accomplish on the sailboat.  We are excited to be heading to the lake house in a few short weeks but the sailboat must be ready by then! Most of the parts I have ordered have arrived so I can now begin working on the hull and installing new parts. The main thing that needs to be accomplished, above all else, is to do some much needed hullwork.  This past winter we had some water get into small cracks in the gelcoat and then freeze.  The expanding frozen water cracked out a larger hole in the gelcoat.  This gelcoat is applied over the fiberglass hull, sanded smooth, and then some serious elbow grease is needed to wax the shine into the newly applied gelcoat. This photo, to the left, shows the cracked out gelcoat on the hull.  I also have a few other small areas of the hull which could use some attention so I will work on those areas as well.  Eventually, I would like to refinish the entire surface of the hull..