It all started on Tuesday, November 14. I'd got up, put on the coffee and, while it was brewing, I strolled down the driveway to pick up the newspaper, The Sarasota Herald Tribune.
So there I was, sitting in the kitchen, scanning the news and drinking fresh coffee. Got through the comics then checked the classified ads to see if there were any 65/66 Mustangs for sale, real cheap, and then the sailboats for sale.
There it was ""Laser for sale on trailer $400 firm ..."" What do I do? I could use a trailer and the boat might not be dog meat. But... I've already got three sailboards in the garage, a two year old Laser and a 21 foot power boat, not sure that Jocelyne thinks we need another boat!
"Humph, I see there's a Laser for sale here for $400 and it's on a trailer"" I said, kind of optimistically. ""So why don't you buy it, you'll get that back in charters this winter"" was the reply (am I lucky to have a wife so understanding!).
I grabbed the phone, it was about 9 am, if this was any good it wasn't going to be around long. No it wasn't sold, got directions, jumped in the car and got there in 15 minutes. It was still there, not sold.
The hull was blue, faded and chalky from the sun with an off white deck. There were the three spars tied down on the deck, the trailer was kind of rusty and the tires were crackly all over. But the boat wasn't in bad shape at first glance, a few scratches, no holes.
Let's do this right, I thought, check the transom number, there wasn't one, so it was an old boat. Check under the bow eye for the sail number, looks like 1416, yup it's old alright, probably 72 or 73. Check the spars, they're all straight. Check the deck, it's stiff, really stiff, no kidding, no soft spots anywhere, great.
As I'm doing this the owner comes out. ""Know anything about Lasers? he says. ""Yeah, I've already got one. You want $400?"" ""Firm"" he replies. ""I'll take it"". So we go into his office where I write a check and he gives me the title and trailer papers while telling me how he's too old for a small boat. I figure I'd better not tell him about masters sailing or he won't sell it! I also got the mahogany board and tiller, all the original lines that came with the boat and... wait for it... an Elvstrom sail... didn't even have sail numbers on it.
We thanked each other, shook hands and I took off with the gear to get a trailer hitch put on the wagon.
An hour later I was back for the boat and had a big decision to make. The trailer wheel bearings were an unknown factor, do I head straight up I-75 at 60 mph or go across town slowly in the traffic? What the heck... I took the highway and was home in 15 minutes with my new toy.
The rest of that day was spent taking off all the fittings, washing it off, rubbing down the hull with rubbing compound then waxing it. Apart from some elbow grease a bunch of new fittings and lines the only major problem was that water came out of the bottom of the mast step nearly as fast as you could put it in the top. So we needed a little glass work.
Wednesday, the next day, I sent off for all the bits and pieces, which included three inspection ports to enable me to glass in the mast step and through bolt all the fittings. The rest of the day was spent sanding down the grab rails, centreboard and rudder and getting on the first coat of varnish as they hung from trees outside the house. The original rudder bolt was interesting, 1/8"" diameter through a 1/4"" diameter bushing in the wood, no wonder they changed that. By the time they were lightly sanded and had a second coat of varnish on the blades were starting to look great.
Thursday, the box of bits showed up, so I cut three holes for inspection ports with a jig saw. Old blocks of styrafoam flotation inside, nice and heavy from water absorption at the edges, I knew I'd forgotten something, plastic water bottles for flotation. How do you get big blocks of styrafoam through a 6"" diameter hole, you don't. You spend about two hours with a saw inside the boat, working with one hand. By the time you're finished your knuckles are in great shape from hitting the edge of the hole in the boat. That's enough for that day apart from putting another coat of varnish on the woodwork.
Friday, I bought some more supplies, fiberglass mat and resin to fix the mast step, a bunch of new stainless steel screws, nuts bolts and washers to screw down and through bolt all the fittings. Free advice... buy #10 x 1 1/2"" screws and #10 x 2"" bolts & nuts. Generally speaking they're all too long, but who cares. If I'd have known that, I'd have saved another trip to the store!
I'd put one inspection port by the mast step in order to fix it. It's a hoot trying to clean it up and glass it with one hand. Nevertheless I managed it and did a decent job, if I say so myself. The second port I'd put beside the centerboard slot in order to through bolt the hiking strap and mainsheet block fitting, which is loaded in tension when used. The third went on the deck under the tiller so I could through bolt the rudder fittings and hiking strap fairleads.
You're probably asking yourself at this point what's taking me so long. Well there's other work to do as well, what with Laser sailors phoning the office for information and me having to tell them the story of fixing my new old boat. Then the weekend was loaded with social functions. Friday evening the annual art auction for the Sarasota Sailing Squadron Youth Sailing Program which made about $3000 for the juniors, alright. Saturday, I was race committee for the club regatta and Sunday I was best man at the Commodore's wedding. All relatively unimportant matters compared to fixing your boat, I know, but Jocelyne likes this stuff, so I decided I should really go with her sooner than suffer extreme physical pain, plus the fact she might not say yes when I want to buy another boat!
Monday, I finished up. All new fairleads, aluminum cleats, Harken cam cleats, new hiking strap and a bunch of other stuff. Boy she looked really nice (the boat not Jocelyne!). I guess it was that night we rented Free Willy, an entertaining film about a kid that befriends a whale, everyday stuff. Anyway the kid liberates Willy the whale (which is probably what they would have called the movie thirty years ago, so much for modern marketing) and Willy gets a new lease on life. The point of all this is that I decided I might call the boat Willy, although I'm still undecided because I'm old fashioned and think boats should have female names. Apart from Willy, I like Simone de Boudoir, of course Vinny the Blade isn't bad either. It's one or the other and I'm leaning toward Simone.
So what's next... the trailer. The frames is solid but rusty, the tires are shot, the rims are rusty, the springs are broken and there're no lights. Off we go to the trailer shop, new rims are cheap so buy new ones with tires on, new springs, new lights, nothing you can't fix with a credit card. By dark I'd hit the frame with a wire brush in the electric drill to get off most of the rust, replaced the bearings, put the new springs on, replaced the axle and got a couple of coats of spray paint on it. It looked a lot better. The rest of my spare time that week went to making supports for the boat, and deck supports to hold the spars and enable me to double deck my other boat on top.
One thing here, how do you cut the correct hull curve in a piece of wood. You look up how to do it in Dick Tillman's ""Laser Sailing for the 1990's"". By Saturday morning it was all done, 1416 looked really sharp, shiny blue hull sitting on a black trailer with white wheels and maroon carpet adding.
What's left to do, go sail it. At the time of writing I haven't done this yet, but I'll do so soon.
copyright A.Broadribb Published with permission
So there I was, sitting in the kitchen, scanning the news and drinking fresh coffee. Got through the comics then checked the classified ads to see if there were any 65/66 Mustangs for sale, real cheap, and then the sailboats for sale.
There it was ""Laser for sale on trailer $400 firm ..."" What do I do? I could use a trailer and the boat might not be dog meat. But... I've already got three sailboards in the garage, a two year old Laser and a 21 foot power boat, not sure that Jocelyne thinks we need another boat!
"Humph, I see there's a Laser for sale here for $400 and it's on a trailer"" I said, kind of optimistically. ""So why don't you buy it, you'll get that back in charters this winter"" was the reply (am I lucky to have a wife so understanding!).
I grabbed the phone, it was about 9 am, if this was any good it wasn't going to be around long. No it wasn't sold, got directions, jumped in the car and got there in 15 minutes. It was still there, not sold.
The hull was blue, faded and chalky from the sun with an off white deck. There were the three spars tied down on the deck, the trailer was kind of rusty and the tires were crackly all over. But the boat wasn't in bad shape at first glance, a few scratches, no holes.
Let's do this right, I thought, check the transom number, there wasn't one, so it was an old boat. Check under the bow eye for the sail number, looks like 1416, yup it's old alright, probably 72 or 73. Check the spars, they're all straight. Check the deck, it's stiff, really stiff, no kidding, no soft spots anywhere, great.
As I'm doing this the owner comes out. ""Know anything about Lasers? he says. ""Yeah, I've already got one. You want $400?"" ""Firm"" he replies. ""I'll take it"". So we go into his office where I write a check and he gives me the title and trailer papers while telling me how he's too old for a small boat. I figure I'd better not tell him about masters sailing or he won't sell it! I also got the mahogany board and tiller, all the original lines that came with the boat and... wait for it... an Elvstrom sail... didn't even have sail numbers on it.
We thanked each other, shook hands and I took off with the gear to get a trailer hitch put on the wagon.
An hour later I was back for the boat and had a big decision to make. The trailer wheel bearings were an unknown factor, do I head straight up I-75 at 60 mph or go across town slowly in the traffic? What the heck... I took the highway and was home in 15 minutes with my new toy.
The rest of that day was spent taking off all the fittings, washing it off, rubbing down the hull with rubbing compound then waxing it. Apart from some elbow grease a bunch of new fittings and lines the only major problem was that water came out of the bottom of the mast step nearly as fast as you could put it in the top. So we needed a little glass work.
Wednesday, the next day, I sent off for all the bits and pieces, which included three inspection ports to enable me to glass in the mast step and through bolt all the fittings. The rest of the day was spent sanding down the grab rails, centreboard and rudder and getting on the first coat of varnish as they hung from trees outside the house. The original rudder bolt was interesting, 1/8"" diameter through a 1/4"" diameter bushing in the wood, no wonder they changed that. By the time they were lightly sanded and had a second coat of varnish on the blades were starting to look great.
Thursday, the box of bits showed up, so I cut three holes for inspection ports with a jig saw. Old blocks of styrafoam flotation inside, nice and heavy from water absorption at the edges, I knew I'd forgotten something, plastic water bottles for flotation. How do you get big blocks of styrafoam through a 6"" diameter hole, you don't. You spend about two hours with a saw inside the boat, working with one hand. By the time you're finished your knuckles are in great shape from hitting the edge of the hole in the boat. That's enough for that day apart from putting another coat of varnish on the woodwork.
Friday, I bought some more supplies, fiberglass mat and resin to fix the mast step, a bunch of new stainless steel screws, nuts bolts and washers to screw down and through bolt all the fittings. Free advice... buy #10 x 1 1/2"" screws and #10 x 2"" bolts & nuts. Generally speaking they're all too long, but who cares. If I'd have known that, I'd have saved another trip to the store!
I'd put one inspection port by the mast step in order to fix it. It's a hoot trying to clean it up and glass it with one hand. Nevertheless I managed it and did a decent job, if I say so myself. The second port I'd put beside the centerboard slot in order to through bolt the hiking strap and mainsheet block fitting, which is loaded in tension when used. The third went on the deck under the tiller so I could through bolt the rudder fittings and hiking strap fairleads.
You're probably asking yourself at this point what's taking me so long. Well there's other work to do as well, what with Laser sailors phoning the office for information and me having to tell them the story of fixing my new old boat. Then the weekend was loaded with social functions. Friday evening the annual art auction for the Sarasota Sailing Squadron Youth Sailing Program which made about $3000 for the juniors, alright. Saturday, I was race committee for the club regatta and Sunday I was best man at the Commodore's wedding. All relatively unimportant matters compared to fixing your boat, I know, but Jocelyne likes this stuff, so I decided I should really go with her sooner than suffer extreme physical pain, plus the fact she might not say yes when I want to buy another boat!
Monday, I finished up. All new fairleads, aluminum cleats, Harken cam cleats, new hiking strap and a bunch of other stuff. Boy she looked really nice (the boat not Jocelyne!). I guess it was that night we rented Free Willy, an entertaining film about a kid that befriends a whale, everyday stuff. Anyway the kid liberates Willy the whale (which is probably what they would have called the movie thirty years ago, so much for modern marketing) and Willy gets a new lease on life. The point of all this is that I decided I might call the boat Willy, although I'm still undecided because I'm old fashioned and think boats should have female names. Apart from Willy, I like Simone de Boudoir, of course Vinny the Blade isn't bad either. It's one or the other and I'm leaning toward Simone.
So what's next... the trailer. The frames is solid but rusty, the tires are shot, the rims are rusty, the springs are broken and there're no lights. Off we go to the trailer shop, new rims are cheap so buy new ones with tires on, new springs, new lights, nothing you can't fix with a credit card. By dark I'd hit the frame with a wire brush in the electric drill to get off most of the rust, replaced the bearings, put the new springs on, replaced the axle and got a couple of coats of spray paint on it. It looked a lot better. The rest of my spare time that week went to making supports for the boat, and deck supports to hold the spars and enable me to double deck my other boat on top.
One thing here, how do you cut the correct hull curve in a piece of wood. You look up how to do it in Dick Tillman's ""Laser Sailing for the 1990's"". By Saturday morning it was all done, 1416 looked really sharp, shiny blue hull sitting on a black trailer with white wheels and maroon carpet adding.
What's left to do, go sail it. At the time of writing I haven't done this yet, but I'll do so soon.
copyright A.Broadribb Published with permission