Friday, October 24, 2014

Third Time Is A Charm

Figure 69 - The future Club President
is driving the tractor while CM is nestled
in Her hammock for a short nap
That time of the year again when the winds begin to exceed 20 knots and the temperature is inching toward below 30 degrees.  For those of you who know the traditions of the Chesapeake Bay, in April we conduct the Burning Of the Socks to mark the opening of our sailing season.  Now it is time to begin to think about buying some new socks as the colder weather is coming.  Well, the Constance Marie is now an experienced member of our family.  She will be 35 years old in 2015. Hmmm, that means that we have owned her 11.67% of her existing life! I power washed her and set about to finalize the plan and schedule next a weekend that I will put in some new portals. This is her third time being pulled.  Everything went well to include putting the landscaping material underneath the boat stands. Big improvement over the past year, especially when the rain and snow manufacture muddy waters.

Figure 70 - Man those boat stands look
good all freshly painted!
Pulling and storing only took about 20 minutes and the engine oil was still hot so I changed the oil as soon as I could get aboard.  As I add more details and pictures later to this Journey, I will show you how I did that.

If you click on the picture to the left, you will notice the wooden footings for the boat stands.  They were made of regular 3/4 inch plywood and pretty much shot.  A few days later, I bought some 4 x 4 sheets of 3/4 inch marine plywood and cut them into one square foot sections.  I hammered two sections together creating 1-1/2 inch footing.  Did this for 15 footings. Took a Saturday afternoon to accomplish.  I then loosened the support panels at the top of each boat stand (ONE AT A TIME) enough to slip three new footings under each boat stand.

Now I am excited because the next project next weekend is to put a couple of new portals replacing the 34 year old originals.