Sail Far Live Free

Tiller: A lever attached to a rudder post/stock of a boat in order to provide the leverage for the helmsman to turn the rudder. Yes, it is possible to steer a sailboat without a rudder and tiller by using only the sails and the wind. But this sailor prefers to have the smooth wood of a finely crafted tiller in his hand. So in order to have the "smooth wood of a finely crafted tiller" part of that preference applicable to our boat I decided to refinish our "tiller". I say "tiller" in quotation marks because our tiller is actually a wheelbarrel handle that replaces the original tiller. What started out as a dingy, gray, rough piece of equipment intended for work around the yard is now a "finely crafted tiller" with a nice smooth finish and a golden hue reminiscent of the summer sun. I started refinishing the wood by sanding it down. I then applied four coats of semi-gloss Minwax Helmsman spar urethane. Between coats I sanded the urethane f...

I spent a lot of laboriously joyful hours on the boat this summer and fall. I've made a lot of progress towards making her seaworthy for next season. She's also half-way presentable now, after 4 months of TLC. Even though our Helms 25 was never in the water during the 2007 season, it's still a sorrowful day when she has to be wrapped and stored, not to be uncovered again until spring of the new year. But don't shed a tear for me. I've got plenty of sailboat related activities to take care of over the winter. Here's a partial list: patch the sails, clean the sails, cover the foam cushions, begin sorting/organizing gear into bins, learn knot tying skills, and on and on and on. I'm actually looking forward to the sailing off-season and all of the things I'll learn, read, build and restore.

I was messing around with MS Paint and decided to see what color combination we might want to use when we paint the hull next spring. The line drawing in this post is something similar to what we're thinking of. Ideally, the blue would be a darker color, but you get the idea. The gelcoat is beyond repair and my several epoxy patch jobs have left the hull looking rather dull. So we'll definately be painting it early next spring before the splash day!

For this week's quote, I'll borrow from the 19th century writer/poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes. This is another quote about taking whatever life brings in stride, said with sailing metaphors, of course. To achieve, we must take the first step and keep moving! "I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor."  - Oliver Wendel Holmes

This post is all about the cabin of our Helms 25. Just like the rest of the boat, the interior needs a lot of work. I wish I had taken picture of the cabin on the day we brought her home. I'm sure the parental controls on many of your computers would have kept you from seeing the pictures...that's how dirty she was! But now the interior has a had a thorough bath of bleach and Comet, along with two coats of paint on most surfaces. The ceiling and the floor still need to be painted. However, I'm still working on sealing the ceiling (tongue twister!) and will in all likelyhood use something like DriDeck flooring in the cabin sole. Most interior teak has also had one coat of MinWax Tung Oil applied. At least one more coat will be added before winter. I also need to build a dinnette table that will convert to a bed for one of the girls, resurface the cushions (Erin's goal for the winter!), and add a few things like a handheld-VHF holder, oil lamps, etc. The idea is to ke...

(Note: This blog post appeared in Latitudes & Attitudes - The Seafaring Lifestyle magazine on page 46 of the April 2008 edition) A clean, well-kept bilge says a lot about a boat's overall condition in my book. Clean bilges let you know that the ship's captain doesn't live by the philosophy of "Out of sight, out of mind". Sure, bilges inherently get dirty and wet quickly and easily. But if you start with a good foundation, they are easier to keep clean and much more hospitable during those claustrophobic moments when you have to cram yourself deep into the bowels of the vessel for maintenance and repair. I began restoring our boat's bilge by first removing any debris and lost hardware that had fallen in over the years. Then I scrubbed mightily with a solution of Comet, bleach and warm water. Next, I used my shop-vac to suck up smaller particles and make certain the entire bilge was dry. Luckily, about 99% of the bilge is fairly accessible on a Helms 25...

Today I started filling in the chipped areas of the gelcoat on the boat's hull. Most of the chips appear to be purely cosmetic, but there are a couple that are deep enough to expose the fiberglass matte underneath. I used two-part expoxy paste to fill in the chips. The paste goes on fairly easily with a disposable putty knife. Later, I'll sand the hardened epoxy smooth so that the hull is ready for a couple layers of new urethene paint in the spring.

Here's this week's quote: "You can't run from the wind. You trim your sails, face the music and keep going." - Captain Christopher Shelton, S/V Albatross (from the movie White Squall) White Squall is one of my all-time favorite movies. Yes, I love the fact that it takes place on a sailboat in the Caribbean. But I also love the story of boys becoming men and people coming together as a tight-knit team to overcome extraordinary circumstances. Captain Christopher Shelton (brilliantly played by Jeff Bridges) has a very stern sense of wisdom. Almost all of his lines in the movie make for memorable quotes. I particularly like the life applications of the quote shown above. Life isn't about what happens to you, but rather how you react to what happens in your life.

Today I began sanding some of the spots on the hull and deck that I earlier had patched with epoxy paste and putty. Frankly, I'm amazed with the ease of use and durability of these two epoxy products. Both go on easily, set in 2 hours and cure fully in 24 hours. They can even be applied, set and cured underwater. Amazing stuff! I first sanded the epoxy patches with 100 grit sandpaper on a sanding block and then smoothed things out with a finer grit sanding sponge. The picture above shows the deck looking much happier. Since patching, the deck seems sturdier and the cabin is dry. So far so good!

I've decided to add a new feature to my blog...the "Quote of the Week"! (Note: I seriously doubt I'll be disciplined enough to make this a weekly feature, but nonetheless...) This will allow (force?) me to post at least once a week, even in the doldrums of the Michigan winter when progress on the boat will surely be slowed. So without further adieu, here's this week's quote: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover" - Mark Twain Obviously Twain's wisdom in the above quote extends far beyond mere sailing. The words above are also a metaphor for living life. If you love the water and adventure as I do, then you'll agree that Twain drove home his point perfectly with that quotation.