Empty inside

My boat is naked, inside and out.
Mary and I stripped the sails off and pulled all the stuff that makes it a home on the water off this weekend. Late fall is upon us and winter is approaching, a good time for sailing as the wind is generally a little bit better; a bad time for sailing as there is a reason they call the fall regatta's 'frostbite regatta's'.

My 1955 Lyman 15 foot  runabout is hanging from straps in the garage (literally, 2 2inch wide straps with sawhorses to stabilize).

So what does a sailor do when he's reduced to be a motor boater? Apparently he gets out the leaf blower.

Some would think it's the lazy season - ha, ha, ha. Not. Now's when the work begins. Those sails that provide us effortless and fuel less power to sail around the world require routine maintenance unless you want to replace them to the tune of 2 grand or more (EACH)  every couple of years.
That means either you fold them up (take out battens, batten cars, ropes and such) and ship them off to be cleaned and inspected - Now that's a 200 bucks or more to box and ship. We have b i g sails.
Or ROAD TRIP !
We are going to pack them up and take a road trip next weekend to deliver them to Sail Care, they rebox and ship back as part of the price.


Oh, and stay tuned to for the mad adventures in bottom stripping. It sounds sexier than than it really is.

In this case I get to lay on a cold concrete floor with 600 pounds of wooden boat over me while I sand, chip and scrape paint off the Lyman, meanwhile it rains lead based paint on my face. In a garage with no heat.


Better be some good times next year.