Only two more coats to go...starting to look good......
Finally Sailing Again!
This is Bruce & Tammy's "Elan"...a great boat to go racing on
The Cockpit if Elan has 10 winches, the most I have seen on other boats is 4-5, This one is set up to have a winch for almost every halyard & sheet!
On Thursday March 31 the Admiral woke up and said we needed to go sailing to test out the tanks and make sure they will take the Bay Chop in 15-20 knots. I knew she was right but it would take a bit to get Wand'rin Star ready to sail again, besides stowing all our stuff to go sailing I had to tune the rigging. I grabbed some coffee and started the process. This would be at least the 5th time I had tuned this rig and I wanted to do it to perfection since I knew it was never tuned as well as it should have been since we owned her. To get it done right you have to go over your work 4 to 5 times to make sure the mast is in column and properly tuned. By 1100 hrs I was done and this time I got out my departure checklist to make sure I had all the other ordinary things done to prepare to take a 42' vessel out sailing since it had been over 5 months since we had put the sails out. It was about 78 degrees and partly cloudy, a fine day for a sea trial. It is hard to say in words how good it felt to get Our boat under sail again after this very lengthy project. We saw more dolphins than ever in the bay, a good omen I think...and I pushed the boat to the point that the Admiral was asking to slow her down and lessen the heal. It felt great. It is April 10th now & I am turning my attention to the IRS but we are very close to have all the things back in place below. I have a small bit of trim to complete and a large piece of cabinetry under the galley sink to install. A few more hours of plumbing and wiring and it will all be complete. Lots of small upgrades and improvements were possible during this project and since we were so involved in all the details, future maintenance will be much more accessible and manageable. Due to the Corpus Christi Boat Show we had to temporarily relocate to a slip on Lawrence Street, the good part is we can park the cars right in front of the boat. But since it has been blowing at least 30 mph with gust to 40 and 1 day to 50 for the last 10 days, we haven't sailed since moving to this slip Last Wednesday however I was invited to crew for "Elan" a CS 36 owned by Bruce and Tammy Swart. The event was the Wednesday night MORF races. I was in race heaven on this boat, there were 10 winches just in the cockpit area. I think every halyard and sheet had it's on winch! It was a wet ride as we were among the 5 boats who ventured out in the 20-30 knot winds. We missed our start by approx 50 secs so we were mostly chasing the fleet but it was all out sailing at it's best. A very different sailing experience when you sail with experienced racers. Wow time flies and it is Wednesday again,,,,I have been refinishing the teak on the deck of Wond'rin Star the last couple of days out I get to out and race with Elan today...Can't Wait!
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