I do not work for you,… only trying to help…!

Reflections of a winter, the past and the future

It’s been a long and trying winter out here on the hook, in Cowichan Bay, on a 22′ sailing sloop. Even so one could not compare it with sailing on the high seas, the hardships that come with being on the water, the lack of space, the constant exposure to all kinds of weather is very real. To survive the solitude and long nights I read a lot or listened to audio tapes. Patrick O’Brian published a long series of seagoing tales ( most likely best known from an adaptation to the movies “ Master and Commander ” ).

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Yes, there is a romantic mood included in living on the waters or being a sailor. To think that our forefathers many generation ago already have used the winds the same way we use them today… sailing can be an art form. In the begin of my sailing career I did not fully comprehend the force of the tide and was completely unaware of many facts. How to make the most of wind and currents is something I’m still learning… but by now I know what I’m capable off.

While there is a great need to simplify your life, it takes a lot more energy to live this way. The rewards are multiples and hard to conceive by some, but once you’ve been to sea… Here is a way of live that brings one closer to understanding nature with all her cruelty and all her beauty, closer to reality… …not quite as easy. 

The C-Dream frozen in 1’’ of ice and company coming…

Winter demands a constant supply of firewood. Not only to stay warm (that could be accomplished with another layer of clothing as well) but mainly to keep the boat, your bedding and your clothing dry and the mould away. I prefer the cold or a layer of snow to the seemingly forever lasting rain. Rain is draining most of my energy, undermining all of my ambition and seem to even deteriorate my brains. Rain keeps me from sleeping, soaks into everything from bunk to bedding into my very bones.

Time will bring this wet season to it’s end, but as time and tide waits for no man, I better make sure I’m seaworthy. I’m still in need of a good running outboard motor, My new tender is a small rowing boat / sailing boat. I intend to have a lot of fun with it this summer (it might sail faster than the “C-Dream”)

Passing a peer I had not seen for some time in the village, he commented on my change of attitude (from one of childish delight to one of worn out indifference in just 5 years). Did I grow up too fast or is it only a temporary lack of romantics. Let’s hope it’s the later and the new spring season will cure that.

As a challenge I would like to sail the “C-Dream” around Vancouver Island this summer.

Maiden Sailing Voyage

3 days I’ve been out there with the C-Dream now, but didn’t get very far (with little wind and no motor that is unavoidable). I’m a little disappointed as my expectations were way too high…

She is a slow old lady with too much weight in the middle ( those cement tiles) and not enough on the very bottom ( it should have iron under the keel). So I’m in need of U-shape length of iron, need to add a lot of weight to the very bottom, as she almost wants to flounder once we get to 5 knots.

All the lines were very confusing for the first while, but it’s just a matter of getting use to. It is definitely a  cutter with very steady steering and very easy to handle. Sails can be exchanged without getting of your butt.

Should I compare, the “Puffin” feels like a small BMW sports car (average speed 5-7 knots) while the “C-Dream”can be compared to an old Volkswagen (average speed a steady 4 knots). Yet, reliable, warm & dry inside.

She needs more fixing up, some minor adjustments and a new paint job. Above all we need more wind.

C-Dream, from idea to reality (Pt. 2)

Already getting to Port Washington on North Pender was marred with the break down of my old outboard motor and a late start to get there in time for the high winter tides that was to help me in my endeavour. Full of the idea to get the sloop sailing again this were all minor setbacks. Still not fully aware of how long it was to take me to get the boat afloat again, I convinced myself that I only had to move the whole thing for some 75’ down my makeshift ramp and that I would be ready for the next period of 12’ tides in the middle of February. Had I not moved her some 20’ in a week and was descending of the platform where she had been for over 10 years. Everything was going a bit slower than anticipated, but it was happening. Refusing to acknowledge the hardships of camping out in the middle of winter I only concentrated on getting C-Dream (no sailing vessel should be without a name) back unto the water to sail the Salish Sea.

As mentioned in the last chapter already, it was quite a task to keep the sloop in the center of the ramp. So it was not that surprising  that half way down I got too close to the edge and barely managing to keep the boat from tipping over it slid down some 16’’ to settle next to the big bolder I had used to brace and sturdy the ramp. Now that not only the decline, but also the smooth surface of the wooden planks had gone, my daily 3’ to 4’ achievements were cut in half and some days despite all my painstaking efforts I could hardly move the craft at all.

The timbers I used to create a point to pull the sloop towards to kept on falling or busting. The come-along wasn’t working as smooth anymore, until I finally broke the handle and it became even more awkward to use. A one-ton hydraulic car jack (used to shove the boat closer to the water when the pulling became to hard) gave up on me. 3 weeks had past and it did not look promising, even so the high tide had reached the hull of the boat there was a lot of distance missing. Never once did I question the point I’d determent to be reached to start floating. Until a week later, when the last of this years 12’ winter tides came in. Despite empty barrels I used to help floatation, the hull submerged under the water, but the boat itself never moved. I’d giving up on the idea as reality set in… I was in it for the long haul. With diminishing tides from here on in even time became irrelevant…  only one thing remained, the desire to see the sloop afloat.

Constantly seeking different ideas, alternatives to make my task easier, I started to reroute the little creek that was running close by. Digging a new creek bed I determent that, if it was to difficult to pull the craft into the sea, I would bring the water to it…

C-Dream, from idea to reality (Pt. 1)

With the lyric of an old song: “ A dream never dies, but the dreamer…” in my head I went to work. First to visualize the few easy steps it should take to move a small wooden boat, it was to take but a mere few days.  Too easy, as one never fully considers all the unforeseen, mishaps and errors one is sure to encounter.

The start was promising, once set up to do the actual work, I moved the mind boggling weight of well over a tone down a ramp for some 36’’. Furthermore I managed to keep her upright descending off it’s 4’ high platform in the center of my ramp. Yet this early success was not to last. Only a short distance later I veered to the portside and so was forced to spend a day straighten out my first mistake off many.

The question arises how did I move the boat at all… after I’d ripped every available boulder that could serve me as anchorage out of it’s sea-bed, I found myself left over with only sand & broken shell & no anchor big enough to hold. So recalling bits & pieces of lessons in physic, I build a very temporary brace in front of the ramp to pull the sloop towards with the come-along. So temporary was this brace, that it had to be changed; due to forever loosing the right point for all the pressure I was putting upon this contraption (after every couple of feet I got closer too), or more then half the time it fell or busted apart  on it’s own account.

The original owner of the boat had pulled it out of the water. To his advantage he had several trees close enough to the beach to use with the help of winches to make the pulling towards shore incomparable to pulling it back out to sea. He also had a place to go too after the day was done. Poor me had to spend weeks on a small sloop that wasn’t even afloat… not that I’m complaining… it was ,due to it’s airtight stove, warm and all that was missing was the ocean swell to give the illusion of an extended sea voyage.

Still,every day I pushed on and on, dreaming and working my way to the ultimate goal… get  this craft afloat & sailing again. By now it had become quite clear there was way more involved than I had imagined and it would take longer than just a few days. My good attitude and spirit had not yet diminished, that was to come a few weeks later when I asked myself more detailed what, why & how.

Thank God, the first time I did hit on a low of the roller-coaster trip I’d embarked on and which became more intense as time went by, …friends stopped by and gave moral support.

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C- Dream

Can’t rightfully recall from where this dream originated, it might not even have been only my dream…

Last fall while sailing the Salish Sea, looking for an inexpensive place to restore my 23’ Crown “Puffin”, I came across an old sloop abandoned on the beach in Grimmers Bay, Port Washington, on Pender Island. A local old-timer had spend years restoring a 80 year old Island Haida Mark 2 cruiser, dreaming about sailing, but had lost heart due to old age & health. So this unique little craft just sat there high & dry for over a decade, that is until silly old me saw her and immediately started to dream about wild sailing trips.

Little did I know how much work there was involved to get this old lady afloat again (and that in one piece), getting her cleaned of 10 years worth dirt & grime and now turning her into a sea worthy boat one can take sailing…

Well, when I first saw her on a sunny autumn day, it was like love on first sight. The 25’ cedar sloop had an aura of antiquity around her, but was surprisingly well build. The hull had acquired a thick layer of epoxy on the outside and the wood on  the inside was remarkable dry and firm. With her solid spruce mast (way towards the bow) and her 8 sided long boom I thought first that this was a homemade craft, yet slowly realized it to be a locally build island cruiser. The inboard motor had been removed, giving her extra space… and here she was standing braced up on a platform some 4’ of the ground, to be mine if I could get her back into the water.

What was I thinking (most likely not at all, or very little besides “it’s doable”), but in the middle of January (hoping the high winter tides would make my task a might easier) I found myself back in Port Washington to revive the boat, whatever it may take. Had I known before hand what energy, willpower and determination it eventually required to get her afloat I most likely would have shied away or found an alternative.

Maybe in older days, a long time ago, I can only imaging …, some 25 younger and stronger people getting together, they might have carried her with little effort and little time …, one afternoon…and then a party… As reality sat in I found myself alone and with few tools to help me in my plight… Even so, as I was able to inch her along with the help of a come-along, an old cable I found and a ramp I’d build, I was in good & optimistic spirits.

…all for the love of sailing

With the price of newer boats being out of reach for the average man & the upkeep and maintenance of older boats more expensive than ever, fewer and fewer people can enjoy the simple pleasure of sailing.

hoisting the jib

A modern definition of boat (Bring On Another Thousand) was created by the illusion sailing relates to yachting, relates to wealth & prestige. A romantic idea of freedom only for a certain class of people who could afford it. Get out your credit card should you need marine supplies, a marina or simply a parking spot for a few hours.

Is it any wonder then, that sailing is in decline, boats are being neglected and once deteriorated beyond repair even abandoned to sink.

All over the Gulf Islands I advertised for inexpensive space, to work on the Puffin, but had very little reply.

So at the moment I still don’t now what to do with her, except to keep her afloat and hope for a solution soon or later.

 

 

 

…but since I’m already out there…and for the love of wooden boats…and the thrill of sailing..

..and as I seemed to be a glutton for punishment, I’ll try to rescue another almost abandoned 70 year old sloop (of similar size then the Crown), to get her out of retirement and sailing again. Let’s hope she’ll float.

Sailing should not be about the size and price of ones boat, but about the pleasure it can create.

Urgently needed: space to work on 23’ crown sloop ( approx. 2-3 month)

The Puffin, original build in North Vancouver as a mould for the 23’ crown (an alternative to the 24’ calvin ) and later on modified into a boat, is past 50 years old, yet somehow I don’t want to see her die.  At present she is leaking 3-4 gallons per hour.

Build out of cedar strips it was never a completely dry boat, but it has been a long time since she has been on dry land for long overdue repairs and replacement of some of the old wood.

Thanks to modern Epoxy she could be restored.

The boat has a beautiful design. Close to the water she can be a very lively sloop and a real pleasure to sail her.

If it wasn’t for the love of wooden boats and the enjoyment she can provide…

So I’m more then willing to work to get the old sloop seaworthy again…,all it takes is the right place and the right time (which should be soon…).

The “Puffin”  needs a space on dry land for the winter where I can work to restore her. I’m very flexible and willing to negotiate. Should you be able to help get in touch with me:        andreasmauer@ymail.com

invite

Should by any chance reading some of this blog got you dreaming about sailing, fishing or just  being on the water, I’d like to encourage you to follow your dream. Let’s turn your vacation into a real adventure, sailing the Salish Sea, exploring the Gulf Islands, get close to nature.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream

For the longest time I dreamt about sailing, but was always under the assumption that this was a pastime for rich people only.

My dream never died and  to sail I only needed wind and isn’t that still free?

So I got myself a little sloop  (a 23’ Crown build in the late 1950’s in Vancouver, from which the “Puffin” is an original plug made out of cedar strips and was used as a mould).  Well, sailing may be inexpensive, but a boat  (Bring On Another Thousand) is like a hole on the ocean you periodically throw money in.

Maybe we can help one another. There are a few sailors willing to share their boat and time in exchange for some help with the up-keep and expenses.

We are not talking yacht club here & the luxury associated with those. We are talking about the adventure, excitement and thrill that comes with sailing.

No high priced tourist package, but a good time by donation. No regular tours, you make your own plans and we try to accommodate you.  Just let me know  what you have in mind, when would you like to sail , what would you like to sail… where would you like to go to and for how long … and…
“have you ever been to sea, Billy?”

Get in touch, introduce yourself on this blog under comments or e-mail me  andreasmauer@ymail.com

You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.
Evan Esar
American Humourist (1899 – 1995)

The art of living on the water is to keep afloat

Beware of the lee shore

Hence don’t get to close to the shore unless you just want to beach it for a tide or two.

And this I will have to do soon in order to repair last winters damage. Several floatation devices popped out from underneath my deck that will have to be replaced. Faulty lumber below might need to be changed. In short, a lot of jacking up the platform and repairing whatever is needed.

Hopefully I can get some help beaching the cabin at the designated area