Side Trip...

My daggerboard repairs were interrupted by a last minute, rush order boat delivery from Manitowoc to Beaver Island. The boat was a Moody 46. We made good time (for a monohull) on the way up the lake, about 150 NM in 19 hours.

The weather was ...

...a non-stop 11 hour thunderstorm with wind, rain, fog and more lightning than any of us had seen in our lives.

We (Admiral Cathie and Les Raduenz, also an F-31 owner that did the Abacos with us, and I) got to the island about 7:30 AM to find all outside land and cell phones were put out by the storm. After meeting the owner and him treating us to breakfast, we all took a 2 hour nap about 9:30 am, not knowing when we would get off the island as we couldn't make contact with our pilot...

I woke up at 11:30, stumbled up into the cockpit and what do you know, up walks Jack Culley Sr., the Corporate CEO and part-time pilot. The ride home was quick....but the crew was the best...

First 2008 Sweet Water Sail - Grounded...

June 2 was a great day for our first sail back home with good friends. Started out with shifty light air out of the southwest with the temperature finally warm enough to enjoy. We sailed out of Sturgeon Bay into Green Bay with the screecher and "Otto" driving at 60 degrees apparent wind with Zephyrs on the water. Was great sailing sometimes faster than the true wind speed.

For the ride back home the late afternoon thermals kicked in and we had a rousing sail short tacking up the ship channel. We were about to tack and .... bam, we lightly "touched" a solid uncharted object. No big deal.... I dove on the boat yesterday and discovered that the object ate the front corner of our daggerboard. So.... just lower the rig at home, remove the mast step and fix the board.

Received the suggestion from the FBoat listserver to use two halyards. When we owned an F-27, because some idiot put the launch ramp on the wrong side of a bridge where we lived, I had to raise and lower the mast on our F-27 with the boat in the water, but the F-31 mast is a little more intimidating... Anyway we did it this morning, no problem using the genoa sheets tied to the screecher and spinnaker halyards.




A fellow F-Boater from southern Wisconsin asked where we hit.......






When I pulled the board I discovered it appeared we must have hit an uncharted dock crib from the 1800's as there were wood splinters stuck in the foam. The damage was actually minor and not as bad as the zoomed in photo makes it appear...The dock cribs were made by stacking timbers to form a box similar to the walls of a log cabin and then filling them with large rock. The docks were then built of wood and placed on top of these supports. That explains why we "touched" while sailing in supposed 9 ' of water. Anyway, it was an easy fix, filling the missing corner with #407 Filler/Fairing. I'll sand, laminate two layers of 4oz cloth, fair and paint tomorrow...

I'll report on the completed project in a couple of days...