What to do when week after week of bleak, chilly and soggy weather unexpectedly gives way to three or four beautiful days of almost too-bright sun, unseasonably 80-90 degree temperatures and just enough wind to whisper, "drifter..." Go day-sailing, of course... More to the point was to give Deanna's long-suffering grandson, Rory, a little taste of what his year and a half worth of assistance made possible.
Rory was appointed Skipper-for-a-Day once we cleared the marina; however, once in the Potomac it still took an hour or so to work free of the lee of the shore. It was an exercise in patience weaving in and out of dozens of crab pot floats, but avoiding them was not an altogether unwelcome means of working out some of the kinks (both boat and crew) accumulated over the winter.
The usual skipper, an increasing rotund and still lame gallute following a winter motorcycle mishap, filled in where he could, but Rory and Deanna shepherded Wings back and forth until we got enough room to begin to pick up a breeze... then it was Katy Bar the Door... the GPS zoomed right up to 1.5 knots for awhile, then teased us with blistering 2.0 knots and then fell back as the wafts disappeared again- eventually, however, Rory coaxed Wings up to nearly 4.0 knots during a fleeting interval of more obliging wind... all in all a wonderful day of modest sun-burn, some low key deck scrubbing and just enjoying the water and each others company...
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Unlike the last few years, global-warming has yet to rear its head in the Northern Neck of Virginia this year. The lagoons and estuaries of the mid-Potomac have been partially iced for some weeks and the marina around Angels Wings is no exception. Previously, winter sailing was often possible, but this year a small icebreaker would be needed to get a reliable channel to the river most days. So, we sit and try to putter on other projects.
Deanna, ever the perfectionist, has become dismayed with the dissimilarity between the various tones of the woods she's working with for our little chunk's cockpit - to me, they look great, but Deanna wants even nature's random splendor to match as much as possible. I figure by the time we replace the combings, handrails, drop-boards and other wood, we'll have multiple tones and I find that pleasant, but to the thorough craftsman it must be disconcerting.
The New Year was ushered in as I begin a frustrating recovery after a pre-dawn encounter between my motorcycle and one of the many deer here about. The rider will mend after a few months and the deer seemed to escape essentially unscathed, but the bike was trashed and until the docs get this hunk of steel out of the shoulder, setting off metal detectors is a way of life - not to mention typing essentially one-handed... shop work in a sling is tedious at best, and each step must be planned in advance so to be accomplished wrong-handed. Happily Rory, the affable and lively grandson who was such a dependable associate when painting the hull, is back with us and readily lends a willing and enthusiastic hand. A year later his proficiency and talents have increased exponentially and any sunny day provokes pleas to go sailing. We're gunna get there...
A small victory was the installation of a modest charting/GPS package on the laptop. Largely, the skipper is techno-gizmo averse, but this seemed simple enough and after the success with the handheld GPS a couple of years back, seemed like a logical step. The SeaClear installation went without hiccup, always encouraging, and preliminary tests indicate this should be a pleasurable asset for regional navigation at least. It uses NOAA digital charts that can zoom to scary detail and the little hockey-puck GPS antenna is unobtrusive. So, once the basic electrical system is rewired this spring, we are hopeful this will be a nice gadget for sneaking up the many rivulets and creeks on the Bay and river...
We're learning patience - it's all in the nature of messing about with small boats I suspect...
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Whether this season finds you celebrating the Eternal Creator of Life, High Holy Days or simply enjoying holiday festivities with family and friends, we wish you every peace and all the very best in the year ahead.
• Deanna, Larry & Buckshot
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Going well into a our second year with Angles Wings, we probably haven't learned anything that other microcruiser families don't already know. But as general observation, we've noticed that what one gains in reduced maintenance, smaller outlay and ease of handling must be given-up to some degree in how much space there is to move around, modest carrying capacity and the intangibles of how it "presents" at the dock.
A few things we have found awkward concerning our little Bristol, which is truly cozy with two aboard; however, 3-4 must be family or exceptionally good friends.
• Any "stuff" must be stowed properly when not in use, or Wings looks like a trash-dump quickly.
• Dark colors seem to close in things.
• Good ventilation is hugely important in such closed space.
• One must be careful how much is brought aboard for a weekend - storage is critical.
• Wings smallish (slightly less than 6-foot) cockpit is really only comfortable for 2-3.
• Deck space is modest, although fairly stable underfoot - but the lee deck tricky in a fresh breeze.
• We have very limited ability to run today's many technogadgets - everything runs on batteries for now.
• Hard to work on a small rehab projects without affecting the entire cabin -- better to take them off the boat.
• Trash must be bagged and out of sight immediately.
Some of the many pluses:
• Property taxes are payable out of pocket change.
• Small successful refurbishments can lift our spirits exponentially.
• With thought, it is fine to substitute locally available wood for teak and mahogany.
• Heavy D/L ratios don't accelerate quickly, but the high inertia makes tacking easy.
• Painting the hull takes only a few enjoyable hours work per coat.
• The whole boat costs less than the working jib on many bigger vessels.
• Standing headroom is possible for those 6' or under.
• Will sail over the same horizons and any other boat
• 2nd-hand accessories fit right in and leave plenty of $$$ left over.
• For her size, Wings motion is very dignified and quite composed.
• Slack bilges pound very little even beating into 20kt winds -- occassional splash, but no banging.
• Fifty percent ballast ratio stands up well and seldom heels much over 20-25 deg.
• Running aground holds minimal terror.
• Some projects are bigger than others, but very little on Wings is complicated.
• Everyone is our friend - who won't chat with folks on the little black boat.
• Handholds are never far away.
Whether one feels the dividing line between microcruisers and normal boats is 15 feet or 45 feet, vessels above or below the line will have certain dissimilar capabilities - other factors being equal. Nonetheless, both have their advantages, and properly equipped can be fun and seaworthy.
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On the Irwin 42 some years ago, I had many times wished for a light air sail, such as a drifter -- especially in the light winds of the Bay in late summer. Ultimately, there never was such a sail for the Irwin; however, one just the right size for Wings came on the market and we snatched it up.
The drifter was nearly brand-new, couldn't of been used more than two or three times, which makes it one of the newest additions to our little boat. The really special thing was that the almost-new sail only cost a couple hundred bucks; well below what I could buy a new drifter for. As it turned out however, we didn't use it for some months after we purchased it. Then near late summer we had one of those sunny, lazy days where the Potomac barely rippled, and perhaps there was somewhere between 2-5 kts of wind -- and that was in a gust.
Deanna and I puttered out of our slip and into the Potomac, happily shutting off the little auxiliary as we hoisted the sails. There really wasn't enough wind to do justice to the heavier fabric of the mainsail, but the red and black nylon of the "new" drifter filled nicely and began to pull Wings just fast enough that we could see our wake -- if we hung over the stern and look for the bubbles. It was a warm, truly lazy day and we didn't go far. We simply sailed a mile or two across toward the Maryland shore, did some tacking about just to say we did, and then slowly sailed back, consuming the entire afternoon in the process.
Although nobody will ever confuse Wings with a race boat, we did find that she tacks quite nicely even in very soft breezes. Okay, I admit we back-winded the drifter once or twice to help the bow over. But for the most part, the little Bristol's heavy displacement stores good inertia for the tacking maneuver -- so long as the tiller is handled with a bit of finesse.
I'm not sure why we waited so long to get one of these handy, light air sails; however, it is clear that for sailing around the middle Atlantic it is quite valuable. One thing I'll have to put on our shopping list is some lighter line for the drifter's sheets, because the 3/8" jib sheets weighed just a tad too much for such light air and distorted the lighter nylon a bit. All in all, it was a wonderful sunny sail... a success.
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Deanna and I had pretty much decided that where Wings is concerned we would work for a little bit and then try to sail little bit as time permitted. That, of course, meant that, on occasion, our sailing or a project could get in the way of each other, or, we'd simply be sailing Wings with half-finished projects -- this has been the case almost all the time.
Almost from the first we decided the original ports wouls have to go -- sooner or later.... We hoped to replace the fixed ports with opening ports. The old Plexiglas on the original fixed ports was in a bad way anyway, so something had to be done, plus in the warmer mid-Atlantic ventilation is important. We shopped and shopped and then discovered that Beckson has an overstock store were we could order brand-new opening ports at one third to one half retail cost. We ordered enough Rain-Drain ports to do the entire boat, although we have yet to finish installation.
The old upholstery was nearly threadbare, not to mention after being bottled up with wasps and swampy smelling saltwater, the cloth had an unpleasing odor to it. Deanna had a friend back in North Dakota who ran a small upholstery business. Deanna stripped off the old cloth and shipped it along with new fabric(you guessed it, purchased from a marine overstock store...) to her friend up north. In the meantime we did our best to air out the foam and clean them up generally. About a month and a half later the new upholstery arrived -- with a handy feature that wasn't on the originals, the old troublesome zippers were replaced with Velcro. And, we had enough of the rich, blue fabric to have our kitchen chairs redone as well.
In the meantime we both attended to smaller projects of our own. I happened onto an end-run of stainless steel anchor chain, one size oversized, and quickly added the 50 or so feet to the new anchor line. The chain was almost too beautiful to put in the anchor locker, but the minimal price made it even more so.
Deanna has long been a woodworker and when she has time thoroughly enjoys her shop projects. Indeed, up in North Dakota she rehabed her own house almost by herself, and has a nearby wood-shop in a comfortable sized building that has the distinction of having once a Pony Express waystation (a century ago). She moved several of her heavier bench-tools, saws and routers from North Dakota to Virginia and has begun revamping a number of the wood structures. She made new oak braces for the outboard mount that strengthens the attachment in the motor well. She also stripped much of the old paint from the interior of the cabin and then began to tackle other odds and ends. Removing the old combings from the cockpit, Deanna brought them back to her shop to use as patterns to make new ones. The old wood, although not totally beyond repair cosmetically, was well past its prime structurally.
When we visited the Annapolis boat show in the fall, we chatted with other hobbyists about alternative woods available as replacements for the expensive and more traditional yachting woods such as teak and Philippine mahogany. Birch, Poplar and Ash seemed to be widely used in some vessels and we went looking for prime boards with minimal checks, grain anomalies or structural imperfections. Even these were not cheap, but they were reasonably readily available and in the meantime Deanna has been making replacement combings, patiently matching the beveling, routing and cutouts of the orginals.
So those are our sailing projects -- a little work, a little armchair sailing, a little more work, some real sailing and then back to work again. Sometimes progress on Angels Wings has seemed almost glacial, but it keeps moving a little here and little there...
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