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Messing Around with Boats

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I keep forgetting that we still need to sell Moonrise. And by that I mean that I keep looking at other boats as though it were possible to actually buy them. I am like the wife who starts a new affair before the divorce has gone through. Well, that’s a rather bad image, but you know what I mean. I do enjoy looking at boats, and I’ve seen a lot of them lately. In the near future, I’ll publish reviews of a little Pacific Seacraft Flicka, a Pacific Seacraft Crealock 34, and a Finnsailer 35 pilothouse. Now there’s an interesting boat.

Sneak preview of a cute boat.

Sneak preview of a cute boat.

The more I look at boats, the more I get to know that special feeling I get when I really feel drawn to one. I can now differentiate between  ‘it’s a nice enough boat’, ‘not in my lifetime, ever’, ‘this has everything on my list and I could like it okay’, and ‘I love this boat’. The problem with this is when the ‘I love this boat’ feeling comes at the wrong time, or, in my case, when it comes with a big wooden sailboat that is completely, utterly impractical. Oy vey. I don’t make it easy on myself.

Our daughter, Claire, on Flying Gull

Our daughter, Claire, on Flying Gull

If there is one thing that is true about me, it’s that I rarely make decisions using logic. That’s right male readers. I am illogical when it comes to some things and I’m not afraid to admit it.  It’s always about the heart with me. That’s how we’ve found ourselves remodeling two houses. That’s how my current home ended up with a 4000 gallon koi pond. That’s how my yard got filled with gardens and garden art I spent years making myself. It’s always about that creative process that feeds my soul. My husband has the patience of a saint, I can tell you.

I’ve come to terms with the fact that choosing a boat by using a checklist is a little like choosing a man the same way. It looks good on paper, but it never translates well into real life. You might meet someone who has all of your ‘requirements’; a good job, nicely groomed, speaks well of his mother, you know the drill. And then you meet him and he’s nice enough, but there is no chemistry. Do you settle? Or do you go for the gold? I’ve generally been a ‘go for the gold’ kind of girl. And with men, that worked out great! I mean, he’s put up with me for this long. Looks like it’s going to work out between us.

One of the dorade vents on Flying Gull.

One of the dorade vents on Flying Gull.

It’s the same with boats. Take, for instance, one of the boats we saw last year that looked good on paper: a Cal 39 on the hard up in Anacortes. It had everything on our checklist. Great sailing boat, the right kind of hull shape, an extra cabin for a kid, plenty of storage, blah blah blah. I liked it fine. I even felt sorry for it, being up on the hard like a beached whale. But it didn’t make my heart sing. And frankly, I’m holding out for opera here. I want a high note, and I want it clear and sustained. Or at least a rich contralto.  I want a boat from the music of the spheres, a boat the Angels will sing about, a boat that brings tears to people’s eyes. (Yeah, I can get kind of worked up, but it doesn’t last.)

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Wrapped up like a birthday present.

So we went Saturday to visit Flying Gull once more to see if she still sang the same song for us. And I admit that she did, for me. But I also admit that I could see all the work that needs to be done on her topside. And she is very, very large. Indeed, she feels a bit like a behemoth compared to our Cal 34. I can’t tell yet whether my vision of myself working willingly on her considerable amount of wood is a vision from the future, or a memory of the past in my life; a past where I’ve put my hand to refinishing wood over and over because, yet again, I had a vision of what something could be. I know she sings, but I can’t tell yet if it’s our song.

Maybe I can envision working on her because it’s such a familiar feeling. Maybe it’s just that I know how to work on projects because it’s all I’ve ever done in my life. Even when we were raising the children I always had a project or two, or three, in the works. I wonder if I know how to be in this world without working on something? Or whether that would even be a good thing? I mean, even as a child I was always involved in creativity, in making and doing things.  What is life if one isn’t involved in the creative process? That sounds pretty interesting on one hand, and pretty boring on the other.

So the heart and the boat sing together, but we will not know if they sing the same song until Moonrise sells and buying another boat becomes a real possibility. Until then, I will be like the woman who flirts but never gets serious because she is already taken. And if someone comes along and buys Flying Gull and will love her and take care of her, I’ll be happy for them and hope they will take us sailing on her some day. Because if there is one thing I know, it’s that the Universe is filled with possibilities. Where there is one singing boat, there will be another if that is what I require. And now that I have felt it, it is required. Definitely.

Detail on cabinet door.

Detail on cabinet door.

If It’s Spring, It Must Be Boating Season

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If it’s sunny and warm, then boating season must surely be upon us. What was that you said? It’s only the first week in April? Then we must be existing in some kind time/space/dimension vortex because not only were we out on a sailboat all day on Saturday, in beautiful, SUNNY 69 degree weather with light wind, but we’ve been doing boat-type activities of other kinds. Break out the sunscreen!

Beautiful Easter Sunday in Seattle.

Beautiful Easter Sunday in Seattle.

Surely summer is upon us. Experienced PNWers might be laughing into their Starbucks cups, but, hey, we are due some decent warm weather. The last two years spring has been late, cold, and nasty and summer has been almost non-existent. I keep track of these things.  We NEED this! This weekend we were about 10F degrees above the average temperature for this time of year. Keep it coming, weather gods.

Oh yes, many things are happening around the Cunning Plan household;  many boaty things. The only boaty thing that is NOT happening is that we still haven’t sold Moonrise. This is becoming almost comical as we wait for that ‘perfect’ buyer. Still, boat selling season is picking up so we keep our fingers crossed. We put in notice at our marina, (that was hard) and if she is still ours at the end of this month, we move her down to Olympia to sit in front of the broker’s office where they get a lot of traffic of boat buyers who, apparently, buy on impulse (?!). Who knew? The price is already a winner, so we don’t know what else we can do. She’s probably the cleanest boat of her kind available right now. And we really have to sell her before we can do much else.

Moonrise on her way to Barkley Sound. This boat will take you anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

Moonrise on her way to Barkley Sound. This boat will take you anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

But that hasn’t stopped us from thinking about our next move, including the possibilities of that beautiful Sparkman and Stephens sailboat, Flying Gull. We continue to think about that boat, have done some research on financing and on the marina she sits in, and have taken a peek into the future to see what it might be like to live aboard her some day. On Easter Sunday, a day when many people celebrate the renewal of life, Mike and I drove to Seattle and stopped by the marina to visit Flying Gull, hoping her cover had been removed. The symbolism of the day was not lost upon me, I can tell you.

There she is with her full cover. Have mercy, she's big! She probably sweeps through the water like an opera diva on steroids!

There she is with her full cover. Have mercy, she’s big! She probably sweeps through the water like an opera diva on steroids, her song a rich contralto. This picture does not do justice to her considerable size.

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Colorful houseboat on the pier adjacent to Flying Gull. How cute is this?

Our current ownership of Moonrise holds us back, and that might be a good thing because it’s best to be cautious when choosing a boat, especially one that is clearly outside almost all of our criteria. Sometimes that’s what those parameters are good for: drawing lines in the sand that will surely be crossed. I don’t like rules, and I tend to break them with impunity. So we are looking at her again on Saturday. I almost wish that someone else would buy her because it would put me out of my misery. And probably Mike’s, too. Put ME out of Mike’s misery, that is. To buy this sailboat is to have already made the decision to sell the house, and this is harder than it sounds on paper.

The view of Gasworks Park, across Lake Union from Flying Gull.

The view of Gasworks Park, across Lake Union from Flying Gull.

Meanwhile we get other kinds of boating experiences. Saturday we delivered a Hunter 31 down to Olympia. It was our first experience delivering a boat and we loved it. Do you see how the Universe is opening up in front of us? I will go on record here saying I was right proud of myself getting that boat out of her slip in Tacoma, with wicked tidal currents pushing her nose in all the wrong directions, without becoming overly friendly with any other boat, or any dock. Excellent. Sighs of relief all around.  Then I did the docking down in Olympia in a tight space at the very head of the pier, starboard side tie. Woot! If I had known how to turn off the engine, it would have been pretty impressive. Oy, the fool archetype always makes its presence known in times like these (link provided for educational purposes, you know). It’s always been clear a Captain’s License is in Mike’s future, but for the first time I began thinking maybe it’s in mine, too. What a concept. 20130330_46

Finally, our boat reviews are getting more traction. I am very excited to report that we will be writing boat reviews for Three Sheets Northwest, a comprehensive blog about all things boating in the Pacific Northwest. They’ve been on our blog roll for some time because if there is news about boating up here, they are going to be reporting about it. They also have a compendium of boat related blogs that they feature, Little Cunning Plan now among them. If you go to their front page you’ll see Mike’s recent post on Winchers featured. It makes me want to dance, so please close your eyes.

You will never get a photo of me dancing, so here is one of my man doing one of the things he does best on Moonrise.

You will never get a photo of me dancing, so here is one of my man doing one of the things he does best on Moonrise.

 

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Winchers: Good Stuff for Good Old Boats

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Note: Last week we published a review of an incredible 1940 Wooden Ketch named Flying Gull. Due to some over exuberant button pushing, the first link sent out for the post was password protected. This may have thwarted your blog reading experience and for that, we do apologize. We hope you will take another look at the post and enjoy this Sparkman and Stephens masterpiece as much as we did.

Now, back to our current post, already in progress.

The weather in the Pacific Northwest has become eerily pleasant. The big yellow warm thing has been out more than twice in a single month and if I were a superstitious man, I would worry that the gods want to fry us up with a little butter and garlic.

But I am not a superstitious man, and so I have gone sailing not once, but twice in the month of March. This is quite a feat since Moonrise has been denuded of every trace of our existence as a part of our effort to sell her. Presently, Moonrise is a blank canvas onto which her new owners can project their own happy, future selves. We are happy to do this but it does present a problem. We have nice weather and we want to go sailing while we still own the old girl.

Our solution was to create a tactical sailing container which we call the Mopey Sailor Runaway Kit. The kit consists of the bare necessities for getting out on the water: bibs, boots, PFDs, binoculars, and a few other useful items to have when we are out.

Mopey Sailor Runaway Kit

Mopey Sailor Runaway Kit

So, with our runaway kit, Melissa and I have enjoyed two pleasant afternoons sailing about Commencement Bay.

But I digress. As usual.

What I really wanted to show you are the little blue [amazon_link id=”B00AMNOL96″ target=”_blank” ]Winchers[/amazon_link] that we use on our old Barient 21 winches. Being humble, non self-tailing winches, the Barients were a bit of sore spot when we bought Moonrise. We would love to have self-tailing winches but the prices are just laughable.

So, shortly after we bought Moonrise, I picked up a pair of Winchers and we have been most impressed with their usefulness.

Winhers on a Barient 21

Winchers on a homely but entirely serviceable and reliable  Barient 21

We find that we do have to hand tail the sheet if the line is not fully up against the bottom of the Wincher but the main advantage is that we can easily cleat off the line with a simple wrap around the top portion of the rubber as shown in the photo above. In a fresh breeze we always take the sheet to a proper cleat, but in the majority of sailing conditions, we can safely leave the line as shown.

We have had these Winchers on Moonrise for almost five years now and they are still perfectly serviceable. Sunlight will be their biggest enemy, so a proper winch cover when not in use is advised.

Top of Wincher

Top of Wincher

At about $60 a pair, Winchers aren’t exactly cheap but for those applications where you need a quick way to secure a line we have found them to be a real value.