The move home

-

It's 900 miles from Lake Degray to Minneapolis, and the 5000 lbs, 9 foot wide First 260 was going to prove to be quite the pull. I borrowed a friend's V8 Toyota, and headed down, spending the night in southern Iowa. With me were 4 new tires for the trailer, and a mast lowering system based on one I created for my old First 235. There is no boat moving facilities at Degray, so we were going to be doing ALL the work. And LOTS of things were going to have to line up.

Getting the boat on the trailer took much lover than expected. The PO had moved the pads, so I had crawl in the water to look at the pads with a swim mask on to see if they needed adjustment. It took an extra day. But by 5PM we were on the road, heading north. At a gas station in Fort Smith AR, I took this picture. Deep in the Ozarks. People looked at us very strangely.


I ended up making it to Jopin MO that night. Not bad at all based on the late start, and driving the boat through the Ozarks at night. It's the same town I stopped in when I was coming back with Jackdaw from Houston a few years before, so I knew next day's drive. At 6AM we were back on the road. It's funny but when you are on the road like this, every hour just sitting around is an hour longer it will take until you are home. As we drove at 55 MPH, EVERY car and truck on the road passed us. It was painful but safe, and good for the small trailer wheels. 12 hours later, we pulled into Hooper's Yachts for a much needed bottom job.


After a topsides wax and some new Interlux, BlueJ is starting to look the the boat she was when first sailed in the UK.


Last thing cosmetically was to repaint the transom, I never liked the script, and as the boat is documented, she has to have her hailing port on as well. With that job done, she finally heads to Wayzata Yacht Club, to begin her new life as the queen of the PHRF I fleet.


Because there is a 10 ton crane and a mast pole at WYC, getting her back in the water was much easier than getting her out at Degray. 1 hour later, she is sitting in her slip.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting an International Certificate of Competence (ICC) in the USA

-
Image
If you are an American sailor with international sailing aspirations, you have probably heard of the ICC. Sometimes described incorrectly as an 'International Sailing Licence' or 'Global Charter Certification', its roots and purpose are more complex, and somewhat strange to Americans. I'll start with a little background. More ancient than automobile driving, mariners (in particular recreational mariners) have long enjoyed a tradition of loose or non-existent licencing of their activities world-wide. Even in well developed countries like the USA, there is very little in the way of formal requirements in order to operate a boat. This has led the world to view American charter skippers as 'Credit Card Sailors', due to the only thing needed with their name on it to sail is their credit card! As often happens in matters like this, the ICC got its start in Europe. The close proximity of countries and the mixing of languages, laws, and cultures made a mis...
Read more

LED Nav/anchor replacement bulb

-
Image
Depending on the build year and the market, the First 260 often came with a single light at the mast top, most typically a red/green/white navigation light. Designed for offshore/coastal use, the fixture placed the light source high where it was easily seen. The single light has its disadvantage however, the primary one being that there is no provision for an anchor light. You CAN replace the fixture to a stacked nav/anchor light, but beyond that being expensive, you still need to run another set of 12v wires to the top of the mast, and add a switch to your DC panel to control it. So most boats stayed rigged in the original manner. A later option was a LED replacement fixture from NASA Marine in the UK. Called the Combi-LED, this light had the innovative ability to be controlled by ONE 12V wire pair, meaning no new wires to be pulled. It did this by reversing polarity to get anchor light, and came with a small switch to add to your panel to control this. I looked at doing this for ...
Read more

Spinnaker Handling: Twings

-
Image
A recent addition to modern spinnaker handling are a set of control lines called 'twings'. Twings are used to control the position of the spinnaker sheet and guy to shape the sail, and although they are not standard rigging from Beneteau, they are easy to rig on a First 260 or First 25s.   In the picture, you can see both the sheet and guy. Although hidden on the port (guy) side, you can see the twing attached to the sheet of starboard, holding it slightly down to give a better lead angle to the clew. This gives better sail shape. On the pole side, the twing helps the pole-down line control pole position. This diagram gives a good feel for how the lines are laid out. Ideally, you can control the twing from the cockpit as shown. Looking back at the first picture, the control device (F) is a Harken 150 camcleat with a Extreme Angle fairlead on it, mounted on the outer side of the coaming. You can see it easily in the picture. Here it is easily accessible by crew, and ...
Read more