Todays installment shows how we finished working on the old lady and putting up the sails and ready her for the trip from Stockton to Redwood City.
While the lads at Ladd's where working on the painting the deck, I took out all the sails that I had for the boat and spread them out on the grass in the San Leandro marina park. The relatively new mainsail and absolutely spanking new jib looked in great shape after being in a bag on the boat for about 7 months. There were two more jibs, one smaller storm jib and one regular jib and a spinnaker (no pics) although the regular jib was in pretty rough shape, although in a pinch it could be put back on, I guess (would have to replace the front rig).
I had finished all of the pieces after the hatch had been restored and everything was attached to were it was supposed to be attached and it was time for the mast to be installed with all the rigging and boom and what have you. The people at Ladd's marina had the mast up in a jiffy and the rigging installed and since I was not there, no pics of the process, but here's a before and after shot
After the underwater line had been fixed before the work on the above-waterline commenced
Mast up and boom attached
On a calm sunny day in mid-February and with the help of Allen of Ladd's, I got the main sail up in no time. Loosing a couple of clevis pins in the process I had to improvise a little for some of the attachments, but the main sail was up and looking good!
Putting up the roller jib was a two man job and we started putting the jib back on which is a bit finicky since you have to slide the rope into a small slot, but after about a twenty minute struggle we had the jib up....AND then we realized that we had unfurled the furling jib so we could not actually roll up the jib! So we had to undo the whole process, roll up the rolling drum with enough rope to be able to roll up the jib and redo the threading process, which, after having done it once, was much easier ofcourse ("Aldoende leert men").
It's also important to roll up the jib in the correct direction, since one side of the jib is coated in a UV-resistant fabric, which is important since this jib does not come with a protective sleeve to shield it from the harsh UV rays from the sun. And now we have a SAILING boat!
Next time, on MyKettenburg.com
Having the boat all set to go, we embark on the inaugural 84 mile trek from Stockton to Redwood City, and, spoiler alert, it does not go to plan AT ALL!