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It's been a
long and cool (cold) and ultimately rainy spring, but at last Chip Ahoy
was again ready to be launched.
Last week my buddy Wally and I planned to trailer Chip
Ahoy down to Riverhead Beach and raise the mast, launch on the next
day's high tide at 3:30 pm. Instead, a nor'easter was forecast to hit at
2:00 pm on launch day, so we cancelled. I decided
— since I needed to have Chip Ahoy's bottom sanded and repainted
and the keel inspected — I'd grit my teeth
and bring the boat to the yard for launching, get everything done all at
once. The boatyard told me to bring the boat down to the lot last
weekend, they'd do the work on it on Monday, launch then.
I dropped off the boat and trailer on last Sunday
afternoon. Monday and Tuesday delivered severe thunderstorms, so the
yard got back-logged and nothing happened with Chip Ahoy. On Wednesday
the yard lifted Chip Ahoy and lowered the keel. To my surprise, the
cable was still perfect no meat-hooks at all — no
need to replace it, and yard-manager concurred. But there was wobble in
the pin/hangers, so he replaced the pin with one of the two spare
"sacrificial" bronze keel pins he'd made for me a few years ago. The yard sanded and painted the bottom, then
put Chip Ahoy back on its trailer; bottom-painted the strap shadows.
Thursday I had a long-postponed dental appointment for a
major procedure, didn't think I'd be available for my part of the
rigging — but it was no big thing and I was
there after all. By the end of the day Chip Ahoy was ready to launch on
Friday morning.
I arrived at 7:30 AM and Tommy was ready. I decided to forsake hanging the sails there,
would do it when I reached my new mooring, had motored around Marblehead to it.
Chip Ahoy was in the water by 8:00 and on its way by 8:30.
This was a good decision; hoisting and rigging the sails on the mooring
was easier than a static boat at the dock or on its trailer. By the end
of yesterday afternoon I left Chip Ahoy on its mooring and ready to sail
— on the first day of frigging summer
— a record late start. (Jun. 21,
2013) |
