More Sailboat News

Well, the time is getting close for picking up our sailboat. She has been paid for, the trailer has been brought home and there have been some problems too.

To begin with, Dean called us last Friday night to let us know that somehow, the boat had been freed from one of her mooring lines and he found her drifting on the canal. He had to put his canoe in the water and use it like a tugboat to pull the sailboat back into place. Then, he called us on Sunday while we were clearing out the side yard in order to have room to park the sailboat & trailer to tell us that the Mercury motor that was on her had been stolen overnight. It looks like the sailboat being adrift may not be just a coincidence. He said they took the motor and the gas tank. In the process, they threw the fiberglass cover that is positioned over the gas tank into the water too. Dean said he will see if he can locate it. If he doesn't have any luck, I might have a go at it when we show up to pull the boat out and bring her home this coming Saturday.

Since there is no boat motor to drive the boat from where she is over to the boat ramp so we can pull her out, I'm going to have to rebuild the Evinrude motor I have so we can drive the boat to the ramp. Things are speeding up just a bit.

These are a few shots of us clearing out the side yard and trimming the trees back for height too.



At the present time, I've been coming home and working on the trailer until about 9:00-9:30 these past couple of nights so I can get the equipment ready for the "Big Event" on Saturday.

After pulling the trailer apart, we started replacing the guide rollers up the center with angle iron brackets so I could put a keel 'glide board' down for the keel to rest on. The rollers take a beating when 2000 pounds of sailboat rest on them.

You can see a 2 inch by 12 inch by 8 foot board in the next picture. This was placed over the angle iron brackets and bolted down.

Next, I covered the board with a 3/8 inch thick sheet of Teflon to help ease the keel of the boat onto the trailer. You can also see the keel guides mounted in place (I had to weld pieces of angle iron onto the pipes to create mounts for them). A beveled edge was cut in the rear sections of the keel guides in order to open up the 'approach hole' for the keel. The new bunks have the brackets I drew up in AutoCAD and had made at work and are now up on their new poles.

Other work has been to replace the winch and strap, the trailer hitch mechanism, safety chains, light kit and all hardware. A new fold-up tongue jack has also been added.

Well, the trailer should be done tonight, so the next information I expect to put up is progress on the boat motor rebuild.