It�s a Sailing Project
07 September 2008
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...