From the Pond

Novon's blog has some nice images from the Wooden Boat Festival. This is one of the Pirate pond boats, which are 1/12th-scale versions of the R boat designed by Ted Geary to stimulate interest in woodworking. Two or three are routinely sailing around the makeshift pond north of the Center for Wooden Boats boathouse

Experience the Craft

The Mistral effort is clicking on all four Atomic cylinders, especially when one considers the boat is being worked on far more than she is being sailed. OK, perhaps the work-to-play ratio is too high. We'll have to fix that with some industrious sailing in late August and moments beyond. But for now, there's more work and a good likelihood it will get done.
For those checking in here to see what you might do, or for those of you who just like to read the ledger of human suffering, here are some upcoming tasks:
-- Wash well in advance of deck painting. This could involve a hands-and-knees effort with a sponge and occasional scrubby, particularly where dirt is collecting in the corners and a bit o' green is under the cap rail.
-- Sand and fill with liquid boat (two-part epoxy, filler) the cracks and chips on the deck. One might also do the same for some of the larger cleat dings and nicks on the hull.
-- Tape, lightly sand (with fine paper), tack and varnish trim on the hatches, hand rails and window trim.
-- Replace the exhaust manifold gasket on the engine.
-- Change the oil and transmission fluid.
-- Tape (on Aug. 12 or 13) on sides of deck and around deck fittings for coat of paint with grippy stuff mixed in.
Reminder: We haul out on Aug. 14 for bottom and topsides painting.

Big Day on the Lifelines

Mistral had what may be the biggest work day yet today. Shown from left, Dave Derse, Erik Nielsen and Michael Warner, along with the unpictured Brooke Marjamaa and Martin Feldman, were the leaders in a group that put in a total of 35 hours on the boat. Warning: a quick technical list of what got done follows. Skip a paragraph or read for understanding.
We: rewired the stern light in the pushpit; epoxied and clamped several spots of delaminated deck canvas; rebedded the bow pulpit and the last of the lifeline stanchions; pulled the spinnaker blocks and installed new thumbscrews on the gates, courtesy of bronze-meister Sam Johnson; replaced a broken thumbscrew on the shifter cover in the cockpit; started tightening a loose belt on the Atomic 4's alternator.
We also began laying plans for a few Duck Dodges and a grand tour to Port Townsend for the Wooden Boat Festival, Sept. 8-10.

A Dragon Here, A Dragon There

The Dragon sailboat above took an inaugural voyage from its new home at The Center for Wooden Boats today and used a light westerly to slip back down the boathouse channel and dock without incident. The boat, a classic Norwegian design and former Olympic class, is a recent Center acquisition. It is not to be confused with the longer Dragon paddle boats featured in the most recent and shamelessly plugged Seattle Times boating column. There, I hyperlinked it and I'm glad.

Lily meets Seattle's top dog pol

Seattle City Council member Jan Drago was on the docks the other day and paused to grip and grin with Mistral volunteer Lily. Issue de jour: the Magnuson off-leash area, which Drago helped create and which Lily had visited just that morning.

Mistral minus lifelines

Here's a rare look at Mistral without lifelines to mar the view of the house. It's tempting to plug all the screw holes, get rid of the bow and stern pulpits and keep the boat this way, like Pirate there in the background. But people do go out on the boat quite a bit and they're aren't all used to being on a sailboat and, hey, it would be easy to fall off.
The lifelines are down while we rebed the stanchions holding them up and fix several screw holes that were stripped out. These are prime spots in which dirt and water can conspire to build a little ecosystem of deck rot.
We're gunning to have the lifelines back up by day's end Sunday. Help is welcome.

Mark Your Calendar

Crack Boatwright Heron Scott today booked Mistral and a fleet of smaller Center boats for a haulout Aug. 14, a Monday, at Seaview East. We -- that being the Mistral crew and anyone else who cares to show up -- will aim to do a bit of caulking, repack the stuffing box and apply new bottom and topsides paint in five days. There will be beverages and occasional high-carbohydrate snacks.
Meanwhile, I'm planning to rebed the lifeline stantions. Do contain your excitement. It's a two-day task as some holes will need to be plugged and redrilled. Pardon the mess during construction. I'll start the morning of July 26.

Work Posting

I'll be down at the boat Tuesday, July 25, starting at 11:30 to do odds and ends. Feel free to drop by, say hello, grab a task or talk me into going out on the water.

A boat of a different sort, and a note on plans

The Mistral leadership took some time off recently to venture down the Aichilik River in Alaska's celebrated Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That's it above, set against the Brooks Range.
Now, an update for those looking to sail, sand and other stuff:
-- A squad of Capable Volunteers varnished the Mistral house recently. It's looking killer.
-- Capable Crew Brooke plans to be on hand Sunday to scrub the big boat cover. For those of you who like to see progress in tedium (scrapping barnicles, cutting a lawn, popping bubble wrap) this is the job for you. Whole tracts of algae disappear, leaving like-new Sunbrella. Good times. The skipper will be sweating out a friend's wedding in the balmy Methow Valley.
-- A sail during the July 25 Dodging of the Duck is pretty certain. We'll leave The Center dock at 6 p.m.
-- The skipper is on hand the following weekend. Because he (and trust me, I'll soon stop writing in the third-person but on my own terms) will be travelling with his family for the following two weeks, a good dose of Mistral activity will be in store. If crew pipes up, I'd like to run a rapid succession of public sails on Sunday, yo-yoing out of the dock until we have vertigo. Crew is required. But wind willing, it sure would be nice to air this baby out on the Sound or Lake Washington.
-- In mid-August, watch for a haulout. This will call for many hands to scrape and apply paints bottom and topsides. We don't want this to become the interminable haulout from hell. It dries out the boat and keeps us from sailing.
-- Haulout willing, we sail for Victoria. If not, we sail for Port Townsend.

From the Column: Learning to Sail

The Mistral skipper's most recent Seattle Times boating column is about learning to sail, with Rory Petrilli (above) kindly offering to share her reflections. At least that's what you get after a wayfaring lede that takes in E.B. White, his son Joel, small boats and the subject of fear.