SPARTINA is ready for her new spring coat. Hopefully that will go on on Wednesday when the high temperature should be about 70 degrees. The bottom paint might wait until after the spring cruise.
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About a dozen miles away maintenance takes on a much larger scale with the VIRGINIA. Above is one of her two masts. It was cut in two and rebuilt with multiple laminations, a job I don't even want to imagine.
And while on the water the VIRGINIA'S transom was removed and is being completely rebuilt. I'm not sure if it was a design issue or building technique, but I have heard for years that the transom was slowly separating from the hull. Very glad to see the problem resolved.
Still lots of work to do on the schooner's masts, rigging and transom, but he captain says no problem having her ready for the first sail of the year in a few weeks.
1 comment:
Hello Steve, like you I've been busy in my spare time to tend to my small fleets needs. First I had to build a new boom and rudderstock for the GIS. I also decided to add a new watertight compartment and replace all the deck plates with proper watertight ones. This are all consequences of the capsize we suffered at sea a couple of months ago. I also had to repaint the interior of the hull following the mods to the deck plates. On the pathfinder side, I've stripped and rebuilt the inboard motor and designed a slightly bigger mainsail (+1.2 sqm) to have mine modified by the original sail maker. Wind is pretty binary in the Mediterranean : either way too strong or not barely enough. I feel the original sailplan design by JW requires a bit more surface in order to be better useful in our light air conditions.
There is also another aspect that may impact my own pathfinder sailing performance: my choice of designing and fitting a small inboard motor to the boat means its propeller is always in the water , inducing drag when under sail. I have always wondered how big an impact that may cause. I've read a bit about it (very sketchy information on the internet) and remember comparing performance with and without an outboard propeller in the water Whith a previous boat. I was wondering whether on a future sail you could be so kind to measure your speed through water with the outboard in the water and lifted out. I'd be curious to have a roughly measured feedback on this... thank you (apologies for the lengthy message)
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