CLARE AND I FINISHED BRINGING LUNACY back to Portland this weekend and spent the last night of our mini-cruise on a mooring at Cliff Island in Casco Bay on Friday night. Soon after we settled in a massive thunderstorm started zooming in from the southwest. The photo up top depicts its initial approach.
EVER SINCE THEY WERE INTRODUCED in Europe almost two years ago, Scott Alexander at Selden Mast has been urging me to install a Selden reversible winch on Lunacy. Only problem was he couldn't get me a winch. Well... they finally started shipping these puppies across the Pond this past spring, and now at long last...
The valve, rehabilitated SOME MAY RECALL that last year's sailing season aboard Lunacy began with a series of amusing mishaps, one of which involved my inflatable dinghy, a 9-foot Avon with a roll-up floor. The very first time I tried to inflate it, the stem of the valve for the keel compartment popped out like...
I promised to share pix of my new seacock/sea-chest installation (you'll recall the old aluminum chest had corrosion issues) once it was in place. Lunacy got launched late last week and yesterday was my first chance to visit in a while. I was pretty pleased with what the guys at Maine Yacht Center have worked...
This is an area of fiberglass sailboat construction that many owners ultimately become interested in, either because deck hardware installations on their boat start leaking, or because they decide to replace and upgrade hardware. Unfortunately, it is also an area where some builders often try to streamline their methods to save time and money, particularly...
Lunacy is again spending the winter inside at Maine Yacht Center, and though there are no ambitious modifications underway, like last year's bowsprit, I have been trying to address some smaller issues that have been bugging me. Number one on this list was the big Marelon seacock on the boat's one and only raw-water inlet,...
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did, In a Sieve they went to sea: In spite of all their friends could say, On a winter's morn, on a stormy day, In a Sieve they went to sea! --from The Jumblies, by Edward Lear/Drawing by Edward Gorey ONE THING I'VE NEGLECTED TO MENTION is...
Judging from all the traffic enjoyed by my last mishaps post, it would seem you guys really enjoy reading stories about my incompetence. (Or at least my man Ben Ellison over at Panbo enjoys pointing them out to people.) This one, I'm afraid, may be more embarrassing than the last.
Lunacy's new nose is now firmly attached to her face. I went up to Maine Yacht Center a while back to see the surgeon (i.e., the welder) at work and came back feeling a bit worried that maybe all this was an awful mistake. Not that the sprit wouldn't be functional; just that it would...
After gloating last week over how I needn't put any bottom paint on Lunacy this spring, it was only fitting that I should spend a good part of this past weekend messing around with bottom paint. Not painting Lunacy, but Mimi, our little Drascombe Dabber that we use for exploring the local backwaters here in...
