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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