What If Dodger Assembly Is Some Sort Of Impossible Test, Designed By A Higher Power (#2 In a Series Of Thought Experiments)

Me: This thing is a puzzle.
My Beautiful Bride: Should we lay it out on the grass, first?
Me: Ok
My Beautiful Bride:
Me:
My Beautiful Bride: That didn’t help much.
Me: Maybe this bar goes here?
My Beautiful Bride: And this piece of canvas snaps here?
Me: Oh! Oh! I think I got it. If we twist this support like so, and turn the whole thing 180 degrees…
My Beautiful Bride:
Me:
My Beautiful Bride: You do -not- got it.
Me: Can you think of something better?
My Beautiful Bride: As a matter of fact, why yes. Yes, I can.
Me: Goferit baby. Make me proud.
My Beautiful Bride: Ok, help me with this new piece.
Me: Oh, I never saw that.
My Beautiful Bride: and then we tie this here.
Me: I like your optimism.
My Beautiful Bride: and this we zip here….
Me: Getting closer…
My Beautiful Bride: and then we connect the three ends like so…
Me: You are en fuego! Go girl.
My Beautiful Bride: Ooooh. The backstay won’t fit through the dodger.
Me: Damn backstay!
My Beautiful Bride: Do we need the backstay?
Me:
My Beautiful Bride:
Me:
My Beautiful Bride:
Me: I give up. How bout a gin and tonic?
My Beautiful Bride: You took the words right out of my mouth.

Higher Power: he he he

Ryan and Chelsea

Kickin it on the back of the Caliber.

This is my teak varnishing team. They are over worked and under paid.

Update 17-Aug-2007 Make that just under paid.

The Other Thing The Main Halyard Is Good For

I so saw this one coming.

What if Yoda Wrote Haiku About 12 Volt DC Electrical Systems? (#1 in a series of thought experiments)

Confusing, these wires
Strong in them, the dark side is.
Confront them, you must.

How I Killed A Poor Defenseless Fender

So there I am, approaching my slip for the first time. Wind is 5-10 from the southeast. Slip approach is directly upwind. Very little room to turn in the narrow part of the harbor. Dana is on the bow with a dock line in each hand. The slip looks a little narrow for our 13 foot beam.

I slide the tranny into neutral as we approach at 2 knots, put the helm hard over and spin the nose of the boat into the slip. The bowsprit passes a cool 8 inches from the outermost piling. Dana gasps. I smile. We glide in. I center the rudder, giving myself equal distance between the two pilings.

Uh oh. This slip really is narrow. A starboard fender binds up against a piling. The fender is connected by a light piece of line to the starboard toe rail. 20,000 pounds of boat is stretching the line and crushing the fender against the piling. Something is going to give. I wonder whether the line is strong enough to rip the toe rail off my boat.

PHFFFFTTT! HISSSssssssss.

The fender ruptures and gasses its airy contents into the warm evening sky.

I’m a cruiser now. Pictures to follow.

Cruising Boat Should Be Floating By This Time Tomorrow

Dana and I are taking the day off, Thursday, to help put the boat in the water. Waterline Works has done an outstanding job of refurb and repair over the last three months, but we’re getting edgy to use the boat.

 

I’m not quite done with the new shrouds. I got the HI-MOD fittings installed, but I’ve yet to tackle the roller furler. I’m feelin’ the next installment in my series, Conversations With Inanimate Objects.

Downwind Trim - The Secrets

Wally Cross identifies some subtle downwind trim speed tricks for the Quantum newsletter this month. You can view the complete article here. This article hits on all my favorite points:

Look at the center seam, and not the clew height, to determine pole tip up/down.

Keep the luff of the chute over the pole tip to determine pole forward and back. This is more important than the wind vane.

Bump the pole forward when you trim on. A big trim on indicates that the spinnaker needs to be reposistioned, relative to the new breeze. Either that, or you just suck at spinnaker trim. 

I wish someone had told me this stuff 2 years ago. I would not have gone so slow for so long. (ok - maybe they did tell me, and I’m just now understanding it)