First Time Out

[seandwyer]

[color=darkblue]"Man, it's a good thing I found the hole before tomorrow's launch. I can just picture me walking back to the dock after parking my truck, only the find the boat on the verge of sinking!!

How funny would that be?"

Well, PeterW11, let me tell you. It really depends on who you happen to be when the plug is left out.

On Sunday we went to Cowan lake and I rigged the boat and eased it into the water - then tied it to the dock and drove the car up the hill to park the trailer etc. When I got there, I realized with mortal dread that I'd indeed forgotten the drain plug!! I drove back down to the dock (faster than walking the distance) to see my daughters standing there as if nothing was wrong! I jumped into the boat, already seeing water up to the level of the wooden floor and quickly found a plug and screw driver in the tool box. I pulled the floor board up out of the way, and water spewed like a fountain out of the drain hole into the air - all to my children's delight, I assure you. I put the plug in and got the manual pump going. I handed it to one of them so I could get the car where it needed to be. When I came back - well, you guessed it, they weren't really pumping water. People were begining to want my slip spot so I jumped in and pumped like a fiend - when I finally got enough water out to feel like we were in good shape, I was so damn tired I wanted to just pay some kid to take the boat back out of the water for me! We got in, I started the motor - turned it around backwards and pulled away from the dock until I felt like I had enough room to turn around and point the nose out into the lake. I put the motor in neutral, turned it around and waited for the boat to come around to pointing where I wanted to go, then switched the motor into gear - and - nothing. No motion - I pulled it up and saw that indeed, the prop wasn't rotating and the pin (I assume) had broken again. I was panicking, because wake was pushing us towards the busy dock and I didn't feel like I had time to take the motor apart again. I had one of those "f*** it" moments and decided to raise the jib. I casually just sailed away from the dock - I bet it looked like I knew exactly what I was doing! I was so thrilled! When we were where I wanted to be I raised the main and we spent the rest of the day haveing a real ball. I got really burnt, the wind came and went - I raced along from afar with the race that was going on and then we sailed back to the dock without crashing. I can't wait to go back out.

One thing is for sure - without the jib, my boat is hard to sail - with it, suddenly a lot of the mystery vanishes and things become a lot easier. The only thing I'm worried about now is that the kids seem to like sailing, but are really begining to not want anything to do with the work that goes into rigging and tearing down. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm also a little worried about my standing rigging. My replacement spreaders (home made) seem to be working fine, but I know the wires are old - probably original. I guess I should replace them - if anyone reading this knows - what is the larger size that is reccomended when replacing? Oh - and now I can't get that picture of the deck peeling away from the hull when the epoxy failed in the other post going on now - a nightmare indeed!