In the time since my last post I have been busily working away on the boat, and have let the blogging slide. I wanted to be in the water in time for the annual Lake Pepin Messabout, and I'm happy to say I made it!
I expect to go back and fill in the gaps in the story as I have time, but this post is about the (almost completely) finished product. Here we are on the refurbished trailer ready to head to the local boat ramp.
And here she first takes to the water.
I have a willing helper to try the boat out for the first time.
And the little porthole is fun to peek through.
I had a minor panic just off the ramp when I went to let the centerboard down and nothing happened! I popped the cover off the centerboard case and forced the board down, and then saw floating in the case a roll of masking tape that had gone missing. It had fallen into the centerboard case and jammed up the board.
Panic over, we enjoyed the gentle wind for the first evening sail as we sailed about for a couple hours. It was especially fun to put the tiller over and spin about in about our own length.
The folowing day was the annual messabout and here's a shot of some of the boats on the beach. I sailed most of the day, covering about 18 miles with various passengers. The winds were brisk with whitecaps and significant waves, and I had two reefs in the entire day.
There was a lot of messing about in the same general area, chasing and sailing with other boats. It was a good time, but I have to admit I was pretty bushed by the end of the day!
