After the very-nearly complete overhaul of Persuasion and the very start of the Redwing, I have come to the very frustrating conclusion that the part that is going to break, or go missing, or fail, will be the one part that is impossible to find or manufacture yourself. I guess it is a corollary of that idiot Murphy's law.
When I was working on Persuasion, I needed to find a piece that would act as a rudder gudgeon, basically something on the bottom of the rudder tube to hold the rudder up from the bottom (there is a screw that holds it up from the top). The rudder gets worked by the swells when the boat is in the dock, and has enormous pressures on it when sailing. All of these work on persuading the rudder to come loose and rest on the bottom of the bay. A gudgeon would come in handy to keep the rudder on the boat even if the screw at the top of the rudder post failed. Of course, I couldn't find one that was manufactured for the boat, even though there are plenty of similar sized boats out there, and the South Coast 23 molds were bought and, uh, adjusted, to make the Kittiwake 23. Finally I had to have one manufactured. It was not a pleasant experience.
And the same thing is happening now with the Redwing. When the boat had its accident, when some neighbor came off its mooring and drifted down on it, the stanchions on the starboard (right, for the lubbers) side got all bent and smashed. So too did the rail/track for the jib cars. I don't know how I am going to solve that headache yet, but of more pressing concern are the scuppers. These are very simple plastic tubes that let water from the deck go overboard. There are two on each side of the boat. They are constructed of two pieces of plastic that snap together, a male and a female counterpart. They have a flange on the end so they can mount flush with the deck. Probably they are meant to last forever and under normal circumstances they will. Unfortunately, boats live in the margin between "normal" and "totally freakish" circumstances. In the Redwing's case the outboard flanges were shaved off leaving a hair's width gap between the end of the tube and the outside of the hull. It may be hard for you, dear reader, to imagine what I am talking about, but picture a bridge that almost makes it across a span. So now the water (it's been raining here since about the end of March. It was nice for Memorial Day weekend, and we have had a small handful of dazzlingly beautiful Mondays, but that's about it.) is draining off the deck, through the scupper and right into the boat.
The broken scuppers wouldn't be a problem right now if it wasn't for the rain, the fact that the boat is tilted a bit to the starboard (so the water drains right to the broken scuppers instead of to the other side, or even half and half), or if I could get new ones. Which I can't. I've searched at WestMarine, in their catalog, at Hamilton Marine, at Jamestown Distributors, and at various internet boat parts suppliers. No joy.
I don't know what the square footage of the rain catching deck is, but it must be near the number ending in a "bajillion" because my bilge nearly runneth over. I guess the bright side is that the bilges are getting cleaned up a bit by the constant filling and emptying.
24 June 2006
15 June 2006
Sail Brooklyn
Saw this blog today while poking around on Proper Course.
Check them out. Good pics and good commentary.
Check them out. Good pics and good commentary.
06 June 2006
project: name change?
For a long time I have been a fan of the band Blues Traveler. I got into them courtesy of my brother KC who has a bunch of their albums, including some of their live stuff (there is even more in the Live Music Archive). One of my favorite songs of theirs is called "Bagheera." It's about the Black Panther from the Jungle Book who serves as one of Mowgli's tutor's.
I recently read the Jungle Book to get a sense of how true the song's lyrics were and what he context was.
The first three stories in the Jungle Book are about Mowgli, the Man-cub who is raised by a bunch of Wolves of the Free People's tribes. Because he is a Man and has fewer skills it is considered unsportsmanlike for creatures of the Jungle to kill him, though he is still at great risk of the dangers of living in the Jungle. So he gets some extra instruction from his tutor Baloo, the Bear. He is given the secret languages of the Jungle so he can claim protection no matter where he goes, and learns all the various subtleties of Jungle Law.
In the first story we see how the baby Mowgli runs from the scene of a tiger attack right into the den of Father and Mother Wolf. Hot on his trail is Shere Khan, the lame but terrible tiger who attacked Mowgli's village. Shere Khan attacks cows and humans because he has a bad foot, injured at birth, and is not capable of catching bigger game. The tiger demands the Man-cub as part of the reward for his hunt, but Mother and Father Wolf tell him that he is not to have the Man-cub and has to wait until the tribe speaks.
At the next Tribal Council the Mother Wolf asks if she can adopt Mowgli. Baloo, the teacher of Jungle Law, who is allowed at the meetings because he eats only nuts and roots and wild honey, quickly volunteers to tutor Mowgli. The leader of the tribe, Akela, agrees to let Raksha, the Mother Wolf, adopt Mowgli if a second will stand in for him.
"A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.
'O Akela, and ye the Free People,' he purred, 'I have no right in your assembly, but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a doubt which is not a killing matter in regard to a new cub, the life of that cub may be bought at a price. And the Law does not say who may or may not pay that price.
To kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make better sport for you when he is grown. Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Baloo's word I will add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a mile from here, if ye will accept the man's cub according to the Law. Is it difficult?'"
The part of the story that relates to us here, is the training that Baloo and Bagheera undertake with Mowgli. For the next eleven years or so they train him to be a part of the Jungle. They teach him how to hunt, how to behave, how to speak, and how to survive all the dangers of the Jungle. He'll need all that help in the next two stories, and his tutors are never far away.
So I have decided, after much deliberation, to rename the boat, Bagheera.
I think it is an appropriate and fitting name considering that I learned the finer points of sailing on this boat.
I am to Mowgli as the boat is to Bagheera.
I recently read the Jungle Book to get a sense of how true the song's lyrics were and what he context was.
The first three stories in the Jungle Book are about Mowgli, the Man-cub who is raised by a bunch of Wolves of the Free People's tribes. Because he is a Man and has fewer skills it is considered unsportsmanlike for creatures of the Jungle to kill him, though he is still at great risk of the dangers of living in the Jungle. So he gets some extra instruction from his tutor Baloo, the Bear. He is given the secret languages of the Jungle so he can claim protection no matter where he goes, and learns all the various subtleties of Jungle Law.
In the first story we see how the baby Mowgli runs from the scene of a tiger attack right into the den of Father and Mother Wolf. Hot on his trail is Shere Khan, the lame but terrible tiger who attacked Mowgli's village. Shere Khan attacks cows and humans because he has a bad foot, injured at birth, and is not capable of catching bigger game. The tiger demands the Man-cub as part of the reward for his hunt, but Mother and Father Wolf tell him that he is not to have the Man-cub and has to wait until the tribe speaks.
At the next Tribal Council the Mother Wolf asks if she can adopt Mowgli. Baloo, the teacher of Jungle Law, who is allowed at the meetings because he eats only nuts and roots and wild honey, quickly volunteers to tutor Mowgli. The leader of the tribe, Akela, agrees to let Raksha, the Mother Wolf, adopt Mowgli if a second will stand in for him.
"A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.
'O Akela, and ye the Free People,' he purred, 'I have no right in your assembly, but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a doubt which is not a killing matter in regard to a new cub, the life of that cub may be bought at a price. And the Law does not say who may or may not pay that price.
To kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make better sport for you when he is grown. Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Baloo's word I will add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a mile from here, if ye will accept the man's cub according to the Law. Is it difficult?'"
The part of the story that relates to us here, is the training that Baloo and Bagheera undertake with Mowgli. For the next eleven years or so they train him to be a part of the Jungle. They teach him how to hunt, how to behave, how to speak, and how to survive all the dangers of the Jungle. He'll need all that help in the next two stories, and his tutors are never far away.
So I have decided, after much deliberation, to rename the boat, Bagheera.
I think it is an appropriate and fitting name considering that I learned the finer points of sailing on this boat.
I am to Mowgli as the boat is to Bagheera.
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