Under cover of snow, new skills emerge
Issue 78 : May/Jun 2011
It’s been a tough winter for folks from the Pacific to the Atlantic. In Minnesota, we had snow on the ground before Thanksgiving (the hardy natives consider this to be a good thing so Tom Turkey can arrive with his sleigh full of cranberries). Great piles of snow several feet high remained on the ground for weeks, making it tough for that other famous animal, the groundhog, to perform his ritual — he couldn’t be located under the snowdrifts of early February.
I don’t have a crystal ball and, as the May issue deadline is in mid-February, I can only hope it will all have thawed by the time you read these words.
You may wonder what sailors like us do in the wintertime. This year, Jerry practiced his guitar playing until he developed great calluses on every finger.
More important, he was incredibly busy on our backyard project boat, Sunflower, doing as many indoor-workshop jobs as he could. We’d like to splash Sunflower sometime this summer, just to see if she floats and to be reminded of what the rig looks like when set up.
When he wasn’t working on the Mega 30, Jerry was working to improve the foredeck amenities on Mystic, our C&C 30, to ensure a happier crew. (That’d be me. You may recall that we operate on the Princess Principle on our boat, as explained in this space in the previous issue, March 2011.) Jerry created a mockup of Mystic’s bow and, using that plywood board, designed a windlass arrangement that will handle two anchors and a deck-wash system to deal with what they bring up from the bottom.
Since we didn’t have a spinnaker to build this year, I feel like a slacker. I sewed a new sun and rain tarp for Mystic but I sent our decaying mainsail cover out to one of our subscribers to use as a pattern for a new one he’ll build for us. I don’t send these projects out randomly to subscribers, so don’t worry that your number could come up next. Aaron Norlund wanted this sewing job. Really.
I discovered something else this winter: the art and science of weaving. I took a weaving course in my 20s and always thought I might like to weave someday. (I also discovered sailing in my 20s and always thought I might like to sail someday and you see where that got me!) So when we found a cast-off loom at a yard sale last spring, I put that treasure away until the days turned cold and short. Then I took some lessons, tossed shuttles back and forth, and had a heck of a time experimenting with warps and wefts in the warmth of our living room.
Now the obvious question is: where will this new loom fit on the boat? We have found room aboard for Jerry’s guitar, so surely a small loom can’t be much of a problem . . .
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
