The Fastest Heat Gun on South Lake Union

The Mistral mast, 40-plus feet of glorious scarfed spruce, was starting to look checked and discolored way back in April. Then came a summer of Mediterranean sun and a fall of monsoon rain, leaving sections of varnish ready to peel like sunburned skin. We pulled the mast Monday, put it in The Center for Wooden Boats spar shed and started removing some 35 feet of varnish, one...square...inch...at...a...time. It was painfully slow until Martin, above, and Dave, yes, in the sling, arrived. In three hours we had half the mast scraped. Another pitch like that and we'll be ready to sand, bleach, sand and, come slightly warmer weather, varnish.

Ardea herodias, North America's largest heron

WoodenBoat editor Matt Murphy recently posted the following guest blog featuring this heron seen while working on the Mistral hatch.

"For nearly 30 days now the Pacific Northwest has faced one of the key features of living on the lee shore of the Pacific Ocean: rain. Often, the region's reputation for wet weather is misplaced; in the warmer half of the year, the climate is downright Mediterranean. But the winter rain gets even, with storm pulses coming in daily. Puddles are growing puddles. The ground is a gumbo, sliding off hillsides and dissolving trees of their moorings. On the waterfront, boat covers and spring lines are growing green with moss. Sailors, facing the eternal choice -- sail or work on the boat -- are defaulting indoors to refinish oars or strip varnish from a hatch. The stove in the work shop at Seattle's Center for Wooden Boats is on a steady diet of scraps. Foot traffic on the docks is so light that the resident heron sits for hours unfazed, using the pilot gig DAN as a perch. With so much water, boats and shore birds are all the more in their element."

From the Photo Archives

Mistral takes a group of Sunday sailors out on Lake Union in July. Photo by Mistral Volunteer Martin Feldman. Artistic rendering by Vincent van Photoshop.

Casting off

Welcome to the official blog of the sailing vessel Mistral, the classic Ben Seaborn sloop now residing at The Center for Wooden Boats. Stop by often, either here or at the Center, on Seattle's South Lake Union.