Great Lakes | Restoring Reverie

May 16, 2017
by Roger G. Possley Leave a comment

Getting A Handle On Things

This spring, icy rain and violent winds kept me inside for many a day, here along the shore of Lake Michigan; rain, cold, sporadic clearing, repeat. What’s important is the sporadic clearing. There were some decent days, here and there. In those fleeting times, I jumped at the opportunity to get out for a good day of work on Reverie. After a winter of ferocious gales it became a “beggars can’t be choosers” situation. I found myself going out in weather that was less than ideal but, conversely, less than tempestuous.

It’s like being out on an extended cruise; you realize you’ll never get anywhere if you wait for ideal conditions and, sooner or later, find yourself sailing in weather you never would have imagined. This cool, wet weather was great for tulips, though, and we’ve been enjoying a wonderful display of colors provided by the city of Holland making the Tulip Time Festival a spectacular one.

The time I managed to get some boat work in was quality time. I was a relentless force of deconstruction. The multi tool and sawzall got put through their paces and the deck is now completely removed with half the cabin top removed, as well. The hands on work aboard Reverie has taken a leap forward but new challenges revealed themselves during the dismantling. That, dear reader, is for the next blog entry. This entry is about getting a handle on things and that we did.

One of this past winter/spring projects was to get all the tools tuned up and ready for use. Over the years, more than a few tools have arrived at “Roger’s Home For Wayward Tools” that were missing their handles or lacking in some other respect. They needed a little help to get them in working order.

There was that 1-1/2 lb. ball-peen hammer we would need for riveting the frames. There was that handsome Dayton pattern ax that had had its head secured with several large, hex head machine screws hammered over like clench nails; its handle also needed stripping and sanding (with the added benefit of erasing the name of the former owner proudly scrawled in bold, black marker). There was also a hewing ax that was missing its handle but would soon be put to service. It was time to get a handle on things.

Picking out the right wedge for the Council Tools Dayton pattern ax that needed its handle reset.

A fine old hewing ax head getting a soak in vinegar and salt to remove the century of rust that hid its true personality.

A finishing soak in baking soda and water to neutralize the acid and salt bath. The blade still had a very sharp edge for being knocked about so many years. Hand hammered forge marks and the folded cutting edge are apparent. “And what, pray tell, do you need a hewing ax for?”, you ask. More on why we need a hewing ax in the next post. Stay tuned.

Almost all of my chisels were in need of having their handles reset and some quality time on the Japanese waterstones. Many of the blades needed to be hollow ground and lapped. Hollow grinding is where you take the beveled side of the blade and run it over a grindstone to remove the middle of the bevel. This means less of the blade touches the honing surface. Lapping is the process of making the flat side of the chisel completely flat. This may not seem important but, avoid this process at your own peril; it’s an absolute necessity.

Most notable among the arsenal of chisels was the 2 inch wide timber slick. A slick is a large chisel used where a substantial amount of wood needs to be worked such as in timber framing or working on the backbone of a wooden boat. For years, I used it occasionally but now am finding it necessary to use for some serious work ahead. It had a broken old handle that I had reshaped and used awkwardly so I never really got to use it to its true potential. Getting a handle on this beast is going to make less work in the long run and justify all the work I put into shaping a new handle.

Here’s the white oak blank for the chisel handle with the tang fitting cut out using a fine-tooth Disston backsaw. The backsaw was sold by the T.B. Rayl Co. which sold tools in downtown Detroit.

The handle taking shape thanks to the razor sharp draw knife made by the Ohio Tool Co. It’s one of my favorite tools. I’ve left the splatter of red paint on the handle to remind me of the trip to the emergency room that would be required if it were grabbed by the blade. .

The handle getting its first fitting on the slick. Pencil lines on the handle are preserved to keep things uniform right until it’s finished. Being able to use this tool two-handed is imperative. The worldly slick, with its handle, is 23-1/2 inches long.

It feels good to get some of these old tools back in working order and on to a life of continued use. Quite often, preparation is the most time consuming aspect of any job. Having all your ducks in a row may seem tedious and even unnecessary when they seem to hardly relate to the task at hand but prepare, we must.

Having usable axes and hammers with sturdy handles along with sharp chisels that cut fine, paper thin slices of wood is truly worth the effort because they save time and are safer to use than tools that are just “good enough”. Sometimes, only the best will do. I’m happy to have this out of the way and on to more boat work. There’s no need to shake one’s fist at the weather when it’s not agreeable. There’s always something to do.

March 2, 2017
by Roger G. Possley Leave a comment

On the Death of Old Boats

March has arrived like a lion and we have entered meteorological spring! While the Great Lakes saw some unusually springlike weather in February, we are now back to a decidedly wintertime feel. Michigan is known for it’s changing weather but this spate of fluctuating, roller coaster mayhem leaves us scratching our heads. It has been a season of extremes.

The gales of November and December gave us a run for our money and were a major factor in how to proceed with boat work. Accompanying those relentless gales were lake effect snow showers that dumped on us for days. Swirling ice pellets burned my cheeks in the hours it took to shovel out around Reverie to create some semblance of a work area.

Intersperse the death grip of Old Man Winter with unseasonably warm spells of total melt and torrential rain and you had a muddy mess of a work area. Take this cycle, repeat several times and you have our winter, in a nutshell. On a positive note, the warmer end of the cycle allowed me to clamber about the sheltered boat judiciously applying duct tape to Reverie’s tarp which survived another season.

Whenever it’s been too nasty to work outside (quite often), the indoor work has taken up the slack and kept us busy. Capricious weather aside, winter projects have proceeded at a good pace with some long overlooked tasks checked off the list. Work on Reverie is proceeding and there is much to tell but I must first get something on the table in order to move along.

∼

How and why we took on this restoration project is a bit cloudy now that we are several years along. It happened and it is happening. There are distinct moments when things align and click; moments when you have to make a decision and act or that decision will be made for you. I suppose it’s all sequences and ratios but it’s also somewhat poetic.

As difficult as it can be sometimes, it has been important to focus on the tasks at hand. We didn’t know exactly where this restoration would take us, but we knew it would be interesting. When the portal of opportunity began to open, it revealed the unexpected and unexplained. Things went from weird to wyrd. We’re just along for the ride.

“The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.”

– Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Once we began work on Reverie and accepted the task at hand, other boats began to appear in our periphery. It seems that looking at boats begets looking at even more boats. One was sitting in Douglas, Michigan at a marina along the Blue Star Highway.

It’s too late for this little cutter.

We drove by, one rainy day in April and saw this lone, lorn cutter isolated from the rest of the yard, rigging and sails still on; water from the downpour was gushing from her tired seams. We got out and looked her over. She was in worse shape than Reverie and certainly an uphill battle to get back into sailing condition.

There in the deluge, I saw a much younger man with needs and desires that have trailed off like bubbles swirling in a rudder’s wake. I could see myself singlehanding this fine little cutter that measured somewhere around 28′ without the bowsprit and boomkin. Even in her sorry condition, she exuded youth. She was a young person’s boat. She was a nimble courser waiting under rot and peeling paint to once again prove her worth.

She would have been ideal for the younger, single me. In days of yore, I would have been a happy otter content to recline and read books in a cozy bunk in some quiet, out of the way anchorage. I would drink rum and wine and eat heartily only to weigh anchor on the next misty dawn setting sail for somewhere new. She would take me to where I am now but I got here some other way.

For some reason, every boat I come in contact with is a bit wanting for cabin space. Maybe, it’s through rationalization that I’ve prescribed to the Uffa Fox suggestion that, “if you want to stand up, go on deck”. Maybe, it’s because most people shop for boats by how much space and amenities are below deck and all these boats are throwaways.

I felt the “been there, done that” effect. As seaworthy as her lines appeared, there simply was not enough of this little cutter for the two of us, a parrot and a dog to exist comfortably for any length of time. I’m about 6’3″ and Julia’s close to 6′ so, we need a bit more elbow room. Then, there was the nagging fact that we were already restoring our own wooden boat.

Regardless, I called the marina and talked to the son, who is the yacht broker there. He seemed politely surprised that I was showing an interest in such a derelict boat. He said it was yard owned and gave the go ahead to climb aboard and have a better look.

Several days after that, the rain subsided. Julia and I took a ladder and had a look inside. It was a sad sight, indeed! It looked as if someone had walked away from the boat and never came back. It was an overturned mess and felt desecrated like a sacked tomb. Ports were smashed out, a dorade box was completely missing, the canvas deck and coachroof were completely shot. This and more was allowing mother nature full access to the interior but still, there seemed a glimmer of hope. This boat could have been restored.

What a mess.

Nevertheless, I called the marina back and talked to the son letting him know how desperate I thought the situation was. We talked about price and I told him it was only fair they get something for it but that in essence, it was a “free boat”. He switched from amicable, to petulant, to contentious as I described what I thought. All of the sudden, “the cradle was not included”, “there was a fortune in bronze hardware” (most of it was actually old school galvanized iron and steel), etc… . I ended the conversation as politely as I could and left it at that. About six months later, I heard the boat had been scrapped.

I thought there was more I could have done and I still believe that to be true. I was so caught up in our own project, it would have been detrimental to the overall outcome to start taking on derelict, orphan boats with no place to store them. Then, there was the Anne Gail.

Anne Gail was a beautiful yawl (or ketch) we found in a yard in South Haven. Whenever we were in town, we would take a drive through the section of the marina yard where all the lost causes are kept to admire her fine lines and, there, was another dream.

Anne Gail was actually of the size and design that would have been perfect for Julia and I to sail and cruise in comfort. Certainly not roomy by today’s standards but functional. Like Reverie and other designs of that era, she had a narrow beam and deep keel. She looked seaworthy. I did some searching of the name and found reference to her and that she had been sailed over from Ireland some time in the 50’s or early 60’s.

She was a gorgeous boat and needed considerable work, as well. Immediately, it was clear she needed a new stem. Someone had halfheartedly begun work on her and given up. From the outside, she looked like a project but not beyond the realm of possibility. For over a year, we would drive by to check up on her until one day, we found her in a most horrible state.

Julia and I were dumbstruck to see that this fine boat was in the process of being cut up and thrown into a dumpster. What a horrible fate. Looking at the cut up pieces, I saw nothing that showed she deserved this end. There was simply nobody interested in saving her. Or, was there? That’s the nagging question I keep asking myself as I come to terms with the loss of these relics from the past.

The sad fate of Anne Gail as we found her, one November day.

Both those boats could have been saved. Both those boats are gone. I know it wasn’t us that would have been able to restore them because of our own commitment to Reverie. Still, I look back and think I could have have done more. I could have posted their plight online and attracted somebody with the desire to save them. Why didn’t someone closer to the situation do that?

There’s a part of me that has to move past these losses and I have resolved to make any further discoveries such as these public. I will make sure to spread the word and make as many people aware of the impending fate of any more boats we might encounter in our journeys. I won’t be lulled into the belief that every one else is admiring the fine lines and hidden potential; that everyone else is interested. That is how old boats die.

The loss of these boats seems to me to be a loss for us all. Their beauty will no longer grace the waters where they had surely turned many a head in their day. In 2017, where slip after slip is filled with boats that were mass-produced by the thousands, it’s hard to imagine that that boat may be the only one of its kind in existence. For now, I can only focus on the restoration of our good ship, Reverie, and make sure she doesn’t come to the same end; at least, not in my lifetime!

“It is, unfortunately, only too clear that if the individual is not truly regenerated in spirit, society cannot be either, for society is the sum total of individuals in need of redemption.” -C.G. Jung, The Undiscovered Self

January 3, 2017
by Roger G. Possley Leave a comment

‘Tis The Season For Boat Work

Winter is here! That means different things to different people. For us, here at Camp Reverie, it’s a busy time accentuated by the lengthening of each day. Today, we have sunset 9 minutes later than on the Dec. 21 solstice. That means we’re packing up just a little bit later every day and getting more done with each passing week.

Winter has always been the time for boat work. It was a time to take care of some of the large projects while the boat is out of the water and sailing is not a distraction. Endless projects pile up during the warmer months that need to be addressed in the off-season. Projects, projects, projects; we sailors love our projects.

One of the reasons I look forward to winter is the fact that I can get outside and perform some of the heavy labor without heat and humidity getting in the way. In the winter, you can always take off a layer if you’re too hot. I haven’t been cold once this season. Keep it moving.

Thankfully, we were able to take care of everything that needed to get done before the snow flew and have a formidable list to knock out before spring. Getting under the weather wire on the topsides project felt like a real victory as it left a clearer path to getting some other projects finished by spring. There’s no hibernation going on here at Camp Reverie. Well, maybe a little.

We can now get back to the removal of the deck and deck framing along with new sheer clamps and shelf, for good measure. Instead of hiding out from 90° F and 90% humidity, it’s lake effect rain showers, lake effect snow showers and blistering cold winter gales. I have had to shovel out a work area multiple times already and expect it to happen repeatedly over the winter. Holland is in the Lake Michigan snow belt so we are no strangers to a stray flake or two.

One of this winter’s first projects was to measure out the deck framing and sheer clamps to get a materials requirement for the new deck framing, sheer clamps and shelf. I did that on a day when the wind was gusting up to 60 mph which shook and rattled poor Reverie. It felt a bit surreal as I measured in the darkness with the aid of a shop light illuminating a small ring wherever I moved it. With her interior removed, Reverie picks up vibrations from without and sounds sympathetic tones much like a stringed instrument. On a good day, it’s pleasant and interesting. In a gale, it’s a bit unsettling.

When the weather allows, I’ve been outside running rough lumber through the planer. Last year, I picked up a nice 2″x 8″ x 12′ piece of white oak from Armstrong Millworks in Highland, Michigan. In late November, I paid a visit to L.L Johnson Lumber, in Charlotte, Michigan, where I picked out some nice 5/4″ x 12″ x 14′ southern yellow pine and some nice yellow birch for a furniture project. The yellow pine will be used to replace the bad planks and , possibly, for the sheer clamps. Add to the mix about 100 board feet of rough red oak that was just sitting around and you have some work on your hands.

There was 100 board feet of red oak and 50 board feet of yellow birch on top of the boat wood. No sense just moving it. Let’s make it useful.

As soon as all the wood is processed, we can resume deck removal. When I was on board measuring deck beams, I had a chance to look over the construction of the deck framing and do not think the original builder of the hull and the builder of the deck/ interior are the same. The hull is sturdy and overbuilt. I am impressed by how well it has held together. The heavy frames with intermittent steam-bent frames is reminiscent of old work boat construction.

Sturdy hull with lightly built deck framing and sheer clamp. Part of the mystery.

Conversely, the interior and deck-beam construction leave something to be desired, in the way of craftsmanship. The deck framing and interior won’t be copied from what was found. Both the deck and the interior will be rebuilt as sturdily as the hull. Instead of ash for the deck beams, there will be white oak. The sheer clamp will either be of white oak or yellow pine with a shelf added to the sheer. More on that once the deck framing commences.

Winter shall proceed as such: it’s outside whenever possible and lots to do inside when being inside’s a good thing. Our front bathroom has become the varnish booth. The fan works great for exhaust and we haven’t had any issues with fumes while I varnish up Reverie’s wooden blocks.

Stripping down the blocks and soaking them in hot oil was one of the first projects we did when we got the boat. The oil had over a year to dry so I gave them a sanding and have been dipping them in a can of spar varnish diluted with about 30% turpentine. As I write, they have 5 coats on them. They will get their sixth and final coat tomorrow and reassembled shortly after that. All said and done, there will be close to 40 hours devoted to the block restoration project alone.

“O God! methinks it were a happy life,
To be no better than a homely swain;
To sit upon a hill, as I do now,
To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run,
How many make the hour full complete;
How many hours bring about the day;
How many days will finish up the year;
How many years a mortal man may live.”
~William Shakespeare – King Henry Vl

Along with the varnishing, there is always a bit more organizing and sorting of everything from boat hardware, to tools, to wood, to lp records, to books and to all the other things that get piled around and in the way. We are removing the clutter and making a streamlined restoration machine. I will leave you with a shot of some fine, vintage power tools that got new cords and cleaning as part of the indoor winter work.

Happy 2017 from Julia and Roger! Thanks for following our project.

Tools that are as old as Reverie! Quality never goes out of style.

Save

November 19, 2016
by Roger G. Possley 2 Comments

What’s Done Is Done

“To come to the end of a time of anxiety and fear! To feel the cloud that hung over us lift and disperse- the cloud that dulled the heart and made happiness no more than a memory! This at least is one joy that must have been known by almost every living creature.”

-Richard Adams, Watership Down

Last night, a task was put to rest that has plagued the restoration project for some time. Last night, as twilight fell, I wrestled the 20 x 30 ft tarp over it’s frame and drove away knowing I was done stripping, sanding and oiling the entire topsides of the good ship, Reverie. A November Gale was kicking into high gear on the entire Upper Great Lakes with our Lake Michigan seeing 50 mph gusts before midnight. It had begun to spit and gust earlier in the day but I had to finish leveling and blocking the trailer before another Winter set in. With Reverie buttoned up for the storm, level and covered, I felt like I finally had some good news to share.

The stripping, sanding and oiling of the topsides is now complete. I started the port-side last year and finished about this time last November, thinking I would be able to get the starboard-side done in the Spring and move along. I jumped into it last April with renewed enthusiasm and resolve to finish this most unpleasant task. What was it about this task, this minor detail (on paper), that made me want to do anything and everything but what needed to be done?

There was, first and foremost, the mess. Everything about the job involved a mess. Large piles of scraped paint and toxic sawdust required constant vigilance and tidiness. In April I got about six feet working on the starboard side from the bow back. Last Summer, we were in the grips of one of the most humid summers I can remember. Wearing coveralls, gloves, hat, goggles and respirator was like some form of Medieval torture . Eventually, I succumbed to heat exhaustion and decided to put the project on hold.

While the planning went on, the actual work on Reverie came to a quiet halt, for the summer. Instead, we got out on the water and had some sailing days aboard our little Com-Pac 16, Prudence; 85° F with 85-90% humidity is bearable when you are 10 miles offshore. We sailed and sailed until the weeds clogged our boat launch to the point of us almost getting stuck in invasive Eurasian Watermilfoil. Keels and milfoil don’t mix.

Click to access Eurasian_Watermilfoil_521353_7.pdf

Just one of the brilliant days on Lake Michigan

Invasive plants at Port Sheldon

By the time the weed situation shut down our sailing, we made time to get a thing or two done aboard Reverie. Julia started removing the rest of the interior cabinetry while I did various odd jobs that needed to be done sooner than later. She eventually removed enough of the galley to expose the engine which made it easier to get it ready for removal.

I ended up getting the last of the interior out with a hammer and pry bar, preserving only what would go back on board. A lot of the wood had experienced some effect of leaking rainwater and had to be taken out of the equation. We put everything into storage to be used as templates, if needed. The interior is so much easier to assess with all of the cabinetry removed.

Reverie. happy to have all the rotting wood removed

By the time all this work was done, the weather had cooled down enough for me to buck up and get back to the scraping. On a relatively large project, such as this, it is a good idea to stick to tasks as distractions lurk at every turn. Look, a bird! Checking something off the list allows the mind to be released from further thought on the subject and proceed toward the end. There’s a lot of that to come.

The starboard topsides proved to be a bit more of a challenge than the port-sides. It seems a good deal of Reverie’s life was spent taking the hard knocks on the starboard side. There, I found replaced planks (More on that later… Much more). There were areas that had been faired with what appeared to be an epoxy-based filler. Oh yes, someone used 5200 for caulking the plank seams. I have seen 5200 recommended, in various online forums where free advice is handed out like champagne on New Years Eve; copiously and carelessly. Dear reader, if you are ever thinking of restoring or maintaining a wooden boat and you choose to use 5200 to caulk seams, let me tell you, Old Nick has a special task in hell for you: eternity cleaning 5200 from plank seams. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 5200 will be used in this project to great effect, later on down the road but not here.

I had to modify my heat gun/scraping technique and managed to get the brunt of it done by sharpening a flat scraper and using it much like a cabinet scraper. This produced a better surface than the method I used on the port, side reducing sanding time significantly. It took 60 hours to scrape, sand and oil the port topside compared to about 80 hours for the starboard.

Starboard Topsides scraped, sanded and oiled

Port Topsides scraped, sanded and oiled. Trailer looks spiffy with some fresh primer.

The past few days were near record highs for November with temps around 70° F. Both sides got two coats of piping hot tung oil and turpentine. The boat smells wonderful! Reverie looks so different without the layers of cracked, peeling paint and exposed wood.

As the air pressure began to fall and the breeze became a gale, I put a quart of primer on the trailer. It to looks happier. I took a 12 ton bottle jack and it all rests on cement blocks instead of the trailer tires. After I got the trailer leveled, I got the boat leveled a bit more. It really helped to stabilize the whole thing and get the tires off the ground. I gave the lug nuts a good soak of penetrant and plan put the tires out of the elements for the duration of the project. With the wheels off, the brakes will be begging for an overhaul… .

Scraping, sanding and oiling below the waterline will go much better as there won’t be scaffolding involved and the paint seems to come off easier. We’ll see. For now, we can move forward and I no longer have that messy job to mess up my day. Today, my aches were a little less achy. My step, a little more peppy. There’s a little vim in my vigor. I even had to raise the rear view mirror in the car from so much slouching. Yes, the world was a kinder place, now that that is done. Onward!

February 20, 2016
by Roger G. Possley Leave a comment

Winter Projects

It was only a matter of time before Old Man Winter arrived in earnest. After reveling over our Christmas Day sail on Lake Michigan, we knew we would be seeing a bit of cold, wind and snow regardless of autumn’s refusal to part ways. The Great Lakes saw almost no ice cover this year so when the arctic air arrived, the frigid wind blowing over the relatively warm water made for some respectable lake effect snow showers. Last week, we got close to 20 inches of snow and temps that stayed low enough to get out for a bit of cross country skiing. These lake effect snow showers come in bands and look very much like ripples in the sand when you see them in the sky or view them on radar. They leave sizable amounts of snow in their wake while other areas nearby experience little or no snow.

The Sun going down under Lake Michigan snow bands.

Overlooking Lake Michigan from Oval Beach in Saugatuck, Michigan. If you look closely, there are two people just beyond the dune grass on the right, to give you perspective.

Julia on her vintage pair of wooden skis. Check out that amazing Norwegian sweater.

Wood is good!

Yesterday, the wind was coming from the South, clocking to Southwest, blowing gales to 45 knots with gusts to 60 knots on Lake Michigan. Reverie is tucked behind a building sheltering her from the brunt of the gale but still, I wondered about the tarp holding out in these conditions. I wondered about the towering oak tree with the 10 foot girth leaning over the tiny cottage we were in last year. Did it make it through the gale? Are the people that now live there o.k.?

“Great emergencies certainly inspire us with the feelings they demand; and many a man has braved a storm on the wide wild oceans, who would have shrunk from its voice as it pealed down the chimney”

-Charles Maturin. Chapter XI, Melmoth the Wanderer 1820

What a difference a day makes; especially when you’re talking about Great Lakes weather. Today, it’s sunny, 50°F and the wind has settled down to 17 mph, blowing from the West. The snow has melted except for the big piles left by the plows. It feels very springlike. I may not be convinced that spring has arrived but I’m sure it’s on it’s way and those little projects I had set aside on the winter “to do” list need to be addressed before I see the first bluebird of the season.

The “to do” list wasn’t terribly long this year. I made sure to leave plenty of time for Julia, reading and painting. It’s been good. Along with the usual, copious amounts of nonfiction, I have also been revisiting Moby Dick for the fifth time in my life. The first two times were in my youth when I was grounded at our summer cottage (I got grounded a lot). We had this massive, worn copy of Moby Dick that had the front cover torn loose. It’s long gone now, as is the cottage, but I still remember the illustration of Queequeg entering the darkened room of the Spouter Inn with a lamp and shrunken head! I would lie there on one of the antique pull-out beds that lined the front room and read away while everyone else swam and played within earshot. It may be that, “damp drizzly November in my soul”, that earned me so much down time but it was in those pages I found a take on the human condition I could agree with. I’ve read Don Quixote as many times and am going to give it another read when I’m done with Melville. Maybe I’ll follow that up with The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s like meeting up with old friends you haven’t seen in a while and catching up. Good stuff.

Since the beginning of the new year, I’ve completed 7 paintings and have sketches prepared for 7 more. On the nuts and bolts side, I’ve also been cutting mat and making custom frames out of flame maple. I need to have 20 ready for a show and still have a few more to make. It’s good to have the skills to be able to do my own framing as it’s rather expensive even when you do it yourself.

In From The Fog

Lake Effect Snow on 112th Avenue

Snow Bands Over New Holland

Round Barn and Teasel

Iceboats on Lake Macatawa

Ice, Wind and Speed

Fallasburg Covered Bridge

The projects I had to finish for the season are coming along nicely, as well. The biggest time consumer was disassembling and cleaning our binoculars. We have one pair of cheap West Marine binoculars I got as a backup for a pair of WWII M-16 binoculars that I eventually sold as they deserved to be in the hands of a collector who would appreciate them rather than living on the sailboat and getting beaten up. I did find a decent pair of 50-60 year old 7 x 50 post-war Japanese binoculars at an estate sale that I thought would serve well as the primary boat binocs. The optics were good and they seemed to be of a quality rivaling the M-16s. I checked on the internet and found there was a Japanese trade guild that had very stringent quality control standards and this happened to be one of that make. They are marked with symbols and numbers that allow you to find exactly who made them. This list is on the internet should you wish to try your hand at refurbishing a pair of vintage binoculars on the cheap.

Julia and I were at a thrift store a few weeks ago and found another pair of Japanese 7 x 35 binocs. They were really beaten up and dirty but I recognized the guild mark and we picked them up for 4 bucks. These were to be my test pair in order to acquaint myself with the cleaning procedure and not ruin the pair that were to go on the boat. I found this site that is maintained by an astronomy enthusiast which gave a nudge in the right direction:

http://www.orion-xt10.com/how-to-restore-old-binoculars.html

Although the binoculars I worked on were not exactly like the ones he describes, I was able to glean enough to proceed with caution. I do emphasize proceeding with caution. These old binoculars will come apart but they are like multi-level puzzles that one can easily damage if patience and care are not exercised. The first pair took quite some time, primarily because they were so filthy. There were a few steps where I stopped, put them down and revisited them after I had time to consider that my previous thoughts about their assembly were incorrect. I took them apart just enough to clean the lenses and diopters with repeated careful applications of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol (1 pint 97% alcohol to 1 gallon distilled water) daubed on with a Q-tip and lifted with a clean, soft, lint-free rag. No pressure or rubbing until they looked clean enough to use a lens cloth on. The tiniest amount of dust will permanently scratch the lenses.

The 7 x 35’s taken apart.

The 7 x 35’s back in action. We’ll use these for bird watching.

As I said, the binoculars were filthy but I got them in quite serviceable condition. I’ve always wanted to have this skill after reading Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s descripition of it in Das Boot. I like the idea that something can be taken apart and put back together. In this day and age, we have been conditioned by the tenet of consumer culture that tells us to discard something that is no longer new. Something has been lost, in this modern system. By giving us an endless supply of consumer goods, it has deprived us of a sense of accomplishment and self-worth that comes from maintaining what we already have. That “never needs maintenance” philosophy is just another way of saying “you’ll be throwing it out sooner than later”.

With this new found skill, I feel confident getting the 7 x 50’s apart and was even able to get the rattling lens in the West Marine pair take care of. In doing so, I was not surprised to find many of the parts were no longer machined metal but molded plastic. I feel fortunate to be living out my life while many of the older products are still available to use and not in museums.

Binocular Overhaul Part II: A pair of 7 x 50’s This pair got a major overhaul that included removing & cleaning the prisms. I didn’t take pics of the prisms because I didn’t want to set them down. Delicate work.

To cap off this Winter’s service projects, I still have to replace the water pump impeller on Prudence’s outboard motor. I bought the impeller last Fall and somehow managed to dodge that task knowing I had already greased up the old one. It looked fine but once I got the new one, I realized how much the old one needed replacing. It’s on the list.

January 5, 2016
by Roger G. Possley 2 Comments

Into The Light

The new year is upon us and it’s finally starting to look like January here along the Lake Michigan shoreline. We had an unseasonably warm December due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle.

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html

As avid cross country skiers, we were somewhat disappointed by the lack of snow. As boat restorers, we took advantage of the mild weather to further the cause and get as much done on Reverie as possible before Winter set in. Fortunately, we tempered these hours of work with some Grade-A, late season sailing aboard Prudence.

Winter weather has now arrived and we got down near the single digits Fahrenheit last night. Lake Effect snow has been quietly dusting us and the ground is now covered in white. Last week, we put a tarp over Prudence and brought her outboard in from the cold; time to replace that old water pump impeller I’ve been putting off all season.

Whenever there’s good news and bad news to be communicated, I prefer to have the bad news delivered first. Candy coating something before the medicine does not help the medicine go down “in the most delightful way”. Prepare yourself. Gird your loins. Here it comes.

If you have been following this blog, you have ascertained we are removing the entire deck of Reverie to get at the rotted deck beams and carlines. I have no doubt in my mind that this decision was indeed, the best tack. It will also facilitate the replacement of broken frames. The port-side tongue and groove decking has been carefully removed, labelled and toted off to storage. It proved to be a bit of a task seeing that many of the strips are in excess of twenty feet. The port-side deck beams are now visible, as are the areas aft near the cockpit and transom that get little ventilation.

The entire port-side sheer clamp is now visible and there is evident damage amidship. The sheer clamp is a structural member that runs stem to stern and serves to support the deck beams and provide resistance to the torsional twisting of the hull. It is bolted along the inside of the hull at the frames and the deck beams are half-dovetailed into it. It appears to be made of cypress wood; a good choice considering the need for a light, strong, rot resistant wood. I thought of white oak as an alternative for replacement yet was convinced otherwise after researching the weight difference between the two. Had we gone with oak, there would be another 300 lbs. added to the sheer.

The port-side sheer clamp showing evident signs of rot amidship.

A closeup of the rot on the port-side sheer clamp.

Once the port-side deck was removed, it became time to prep the starboard-side deck for removal. Julia began the monotonous chore of removing all the bungs from the toe rail in order to get at the 4 inch bronze screws holding it down every 6 inches. While she did that, I worked on the deck hardware. I removed the starboard winch, cleats, anchor chocks, spinnaker pole chocks and, with Julia’s help, the stanchion bases.

The stanchion bases are particularly hard to get at as they are fastened between the sheer clamp and the sheer plank. Inside the cabin, it was a tight squeeze but in the cockpit, it seemed nigh impossible. I had to lie on my back and reach through one of the cuddy holes in the cockpit with my arm fully extended all the while attempting to reach the nut I couldn’t see with a deep socket and extension. This maneuver was what I imagine it would be like wearing a blindfold while trying to steal a bag of chips from the top row of a vending machine by reaching up through the discharge bin. While I attempted this feat of derring-do, Julia waited patiently on the ladder ready to unscrew the fastener once I found the nut.

Lying on my back, in this twisted state, up became down and down became up. I fished around here and there but could not find the nut to the stanchion base. I rolled the socket wrench into the small of my hand hoping for some tactile reassurance that this wasn’t all a bad, painful dream and that I would eventually find the nut and bolt that were obviously eluding me. I extended my forefinger here and there and suddenly, it felt as if I had stuck it clean through some wood! “…all part of this bad dream”, I thought. “Just relax. Embrace the pain. Find the bolt.”

My eyes were closed. They were useless in this endeavor. All sensory input was being conveyed through an arm bent into positions it was never meant to be in yet, there it was: the sensation that I had my finger stuck clean through a piece of wood. I wriggled my forefinger around. It was as if it was stuck through a hole in a sock; a 5/4 inch thick rotted sock. I felt air on the other side. Was my finger sticking through the sheer plank and the world outside? “No”, Julia assured me. “I can’t see your finger.” Then, the truth set in. I had stuck my finger through the rotten starboard-side sheer clamp!

I writhed about like a crocodile being swallowed by a python, still unable to find the damn bolts. I began to see a shining light through my closed eyes. I heard a voice beckoning me. “Come to the light!” I reached out, with my contorted arm, and touched the stanchion bolt I so desperately sought. I focused, careful not to let this moment slip away. I got the socket on the nut. Julia unscrewed it from above.

Bolt number two was right next to a frame but now that my arm was a bent pipe cleaner, I got the socket onto it, as well. The two other bolts to the stanchion base were screwed through the deck and into the sheer clamp. The cause of the rot, perhaps? They pulled out without even needing to be unscrewed. The stanchion base was finally liberated from the covering board. It then took several minutes to extract my now serpentine arm from the labyrinth while I relived the pain of a long-ago separated shoulder. Why did I ever think rollerblading was a good idea?

The outcome of these travails are the issues with the starboard-side sheer clamp that will be come into focus as work progresses. It was reminder that there is more than meets the eye in our little project. We’re certainly not out of the woods with these hidden issues. “… two steps back.” I’m glad we found this out before Winter set in. It gives us time to plot out the next course of action. These sheer clamps must be addressed before the deck beam work can start. I guess that big slab of white oak we have will have to wait a bit before it’s sawn into deck beams. Time to start shopping for some nice cypress.

Now that we’ve had our medicine, I must say that it has been a delightful season. El Niño might be wreaking havoc all over the world but he allowed us to get out on our Com-Pac 16, Prudence for some extra-fine Fall/Winter sailing. One of the real highlights of the season was sailing on Christmas Day. There had been a raging gale several days before Christmas with 22 foot waves on Lake Michigan. That’s 22 foot December, Great Lakes waves which are steeper and heavier than ocean waves. While not 22 feet, there were still some big rollers that picked up in the 20 knot afternoon breeze. The waves were very uniform with an occasional series standing above the others. It was consistent and certainly memorable.

The icy, steel blue water was beautiful and deadly as we beat 5 miles WNW onto the lake. We were driving so hard, we kept the Port Sheldon pier off our stern with almost no leeway to the South. Prudence yields a bit to the currents so this was a pleasant surprise. We would be able to triangulate back to the pier. Three legs and we’d be home. We ended up gybing off on the second leg then rounding back NE as Prudence didn’t want to tack into the rollers that were beginning to stand up 5 miles offshore. On leg three, we ran S along the Lake Michigan shoreline back to Port Sheldon. That leg ended way too soon.

October on Lake Michigan

November sailing- Holland, Michigan

November sailing. Coming into Lake Macatwa from Lake Michigan.

Christmas Day 2015. 5 miles out, 5 miles back with Julia’s daughter, Chloe. Fine sailing. -Port Sheldon, Michigan

Christmas Day – Lake Michigan

It has, indeed, been a delightful year filled with hard work and dedication that shows in all we have accomplished It has been a year of change and sacrifice balanced with the enjoyment of life’s small pleasures. It helps to have someone like Julia who can see the forest through the trees. She has been working tirelessly alongside me. Even during the 60 hours it took me to strip the paint from the port topsides, she was there at the end of the day with a couple of cold beers that we would drink at the Sunset Lounge, our two lawn chairs in the shade of Reverie. Here’s to everyone having an eventful and productive 2016. Cheers!

November 10, 2015
by Roger G. Possley 4 Comments

Tung Oil and Turpentine

We are well into November and the weather has been good to Reverie’s restoration project. The leaves were late to turn this year due to a warm Fall but they have now fallen rapidly and carpet the earth in all shades of red, yellow and brown. Still, the mild weather persists. The birds aren’t quite so convinced of an eternal Autumn. They know what’s about to happen and are acting accordingly. We saw our first dark eyed junco the other day while working on Reverie; a sure sign of the change in seasons. The shoreline of the Great Lakes is, well, a great place to watch migrating birds. We were even lucky enough to see 4 endangered whooping cranes the other day on a back road drive from Holland to Grand Rapids. Their size is impressive.

On a somber note, today is the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the Great Lakes freighter, Edmund Fitzgerald. It vanished without a trace in a massive storm on Lake Superior and has since been found lying at the bottom of the lake broken in half by the mighty waves. http://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/the-fateful-journey-62/

102 years ago, the Great Lakes Storm of 1913 sank 19 ships with over 250 lives lost on the open waters of these inland seas. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/news/131107_white.html#.VkH8LdKrTwc

Today, is nothing like those days. It is calm and mild and I’m going off to work on Reverie for a while thankful for this weather as I solemnly recall those who lost their lives on the Great Lakes.

Yesterday, we passed a waypoint in the restoration project. After 60 hours of scraping, sanding, and the cleaning of every single fastener hole on the port topside, I was able to apply a coat of tung oil and turpentine! This was a process that took a lot longer than expected but we are pleased with the results. The mixture, consisting of 50% tung oil and 50% turpentine, was heated to near boiling to facilitate its penetration into the thirsty yellow pine planking. I could see it immediately expanding some of the surface cracks that had begun in the parts of the topside that had been without paint for an undetermined amount of time. I worked this delightful smelling mixture into all the exposed fastener holes with a 3 inch chip brush. You could see the hot oil and turpentine being sucked into the holes. It made all the time consuming work worth it. There are certainly faster ways to strip the hull down and sand it but I would rather spend 2 or 3 or 4 times the amount of time to get it the way I wanted it and err on the side of safety.

The frames, which are basically the ribs of the skeleton, are laid out in a pattern of one very heavy white oak frame fastened with heavy galvanized nails and then two smaller frames fastened with copper rivets. These smaller oak frames are steam bent and still fastened tight. We will most likely add bronze screws to the heavy frames but that’s going to require some investigation of the existing nails. For now, I’m guessing they have run their course in usefulness. When white oak and steel get together, oak wins. I removed the flat-head steel screws to the engine exhaust flange that was backed up with an oak block and there was barely any thread left. The use of quality, hot dipped galvanized fasteners is a money saver and they served well for over 60 years but we’re going with silicon bronze. The oil filling the fastener holes is a good thing. It expands the wood and seals it from the oxygen needed to create rot.

The whole port topside consumed a little less than a half gallon of the tung oil/turpentine mixture. The tung oil is 100% pure tung oil and costs about $70 dollars a gallon. Tung oil cannot be allowed access to oxygen as this begins the curing process. I poured off half the gallon of pure tung oil into a half gallon cider jug leaving no room for air and will save it for a later date. That will keep for quite some time, as is. I expected to use more of the 50/50 mixture but was happy to have used less, seeing we’re approaching $100 a gallon for this elixir, once the cost of the turpentine is factored in. “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.” Last night, I had to scramble around for another half gallon container to put the rest of the 50/50 mixture in and came up with an empty half gallon bottle of Scotch in our recycling bin(now how did that happen?). It was almost spot on one half gallon with a glass vitamin bottle to spare. Now I have to find some wood that needs treating today so as not to waste those precious fluids in the vitamin bottle. That shouldn’t be difficult. So, dear reader, I must be off and begin the next phase of the project which is to do the same thing to the forlorn starboard side that now looks even more desperate compared to the freshly oiled port-side. I will leave you with some pics of the progress.

Best Regards,

Roger

60 hours of scraping, sanding and oiling. Done!

Reverie’s lovely overhang. The one small plank is a former repair made of dissimilar wood and will most likely be replaced.

Starboard topside looking forlorn and in need of help.

Yikes!

August 27, 2015
by Roger G. Possley Leave a comment

The Elephant in the Room

As the last week of August fades to memory, it’s time to reflect on what’s been done and plan for the cooler months ahead. For many people, summer ends at Labor Day; the tug of the academic calendar is just too much for folks raised to abide by the “back to school” mentality. They may not be in school or have children in school but the hand is writing on the wall. We are bombarded by yet another consumer milestone. “Buy, buy, buy”, the ads say. When I’m out shopping, I feel like maybe I should pick up a fresh pack of crayons or maybe some paste.

Here in West Michigan, we see the last of the tourists “recreating profusely”; they’re squeezing that last bit of juice from the lemon before it’s time to get the kids off to school. Then, it’s a little easier to breathe around here. We don’t have to fight the crowds to get around and no longer have to plan our sailing time during the week. It was so hot and humid for the first part of August, there was not much going on in the way of boat work. I’m not partial to heat indexes in the lower 100’s and the fact that I’m using a heat gun only reinforces my prejudices.

Late July and some of August saw us dutifully removing the rest of the covering board and begin the process of removing the deck from Reverie.

That went as well as it could and we are now able to see the extent of the rot to the port-side deck beams. There weren’t really many surprises as I was expecting to find more rot than was visible from the interior. After all, that is one of the main reasons we are completely removing the deck. We got 3 rows of the tongue and groove decking off yet, something wasn’t quite right. There was an elephant in the room and it wasn’t going away.

The warm weather did slow us down but it was the impending cold weather that made the elephant more apparent. While focusing on the deck and executing the plan to remove it, time was ticking away. After seeing what would need to be done with the deck beams, the seemingly innocuous topsides began to call out for help. The paint was crazed and peeling. There were bare spots from an attempt, made by the previous owner, to sand them. I’m not sure how long ago the attempted sanding took place but the sections of exposed bare wood was showing signs of weathering that could lead to wholesale splitting of the lovely, longleaf yellow pine that planks our fair vessel. It was time to feed the elephant.

Completely stripping the multiple layers of topside paint was the only course of action seeing how the paint had split and cracked where it hadn’t already been sanded. Reverie has been out of the water for years and the planking is a lot drier than a wooden boat’s should be. Dry planks can stress the fasteners and shrink the dimensions enough to cause problems when it comes time to recaulk the seams. If the seams are caulked when it’s dry, the expansion can cause undue stress and actually cause the fasteners to pull out. Not good.

It’s going to take about 30 hours per side to strip the paint and a good 20 to do the sanding and oiling. After the oil dries, the initial coat of primer goes on and Reverie will be much happier. So, Julia gets about 100 hours of work time off while I take one for the team since there’s no reason we should both be exposed to this mess. She hasn’t stopped work altogether; she’s working on removing the multitude of bungs (wooden plugs that cover screw holes) from the cockpit coaming when I’m not making too much of a mess.

Wearing a respirator for 80 hours is not something I’m enjoying but it has to be done. I have the heat gun set just hot enough to lift the paint but not hot enough to burn it. I’ve done some research on the release of lead and other toxic substances and am working at a lower temperature to avoid as much exposure to lead as I can. I watched a video on youtube of this guy using a heat shrink gun and literally burning the paint off the topsides. He said he can get a whole boat stripped in one day. He wasn’t wearing a respirator. I think I’ll err on the side of caution.

See you when it’s done.

Shakedown

August 5, 2015 by Roger G. Possley 1 Comment

Our “shakedown” sail aboard Prudence.

Work on Reverie slowed down in July as we took some much needed time to get out on Prudence, our “new” little Com-Pac 16. July ended up being warm and humid. At times, when we were working on Reverie, it was almost unbearable. Luckily, we are in a fairly shaded area that gets decent breeze off Lake Michigan so we did accomplish a thing or two on Reverie. All work and no play does indeed make Jack a dull boy and I was starting to feel my batteries were depleted.

We get kidded about the fact that we own multiple boats and that’s fine. The reason for having Prudence is to maintain some connection with what’s truly important in our lives: Sailing. The restoration work on Reverie is coming along nicely and my next post will get back to that but for now, a little sailing sure goes a long way in recharging those batteries.

By the time I was to pick up Prudence at her previous owner’s, all the ducks were in a row except for one small detail: we had not found a place to keep her. “No problem”, I thought. “The storage place just down the road looks like it has a spot or two open.” Sorry, my friends, every storage facility within a 100 mile radius was full. It seems everyone and his brother keep their boats in outdoor storage near the lake and, it being July, we were a bit late on the take. A trailerable sailboat is something new to me. I’ve only dealt with travel lifts and cradles. I imagined us driving around in this trailering limbo, parking on the streets, moving constantly, never welcomed, scorned by all. It was starting to seem hopeless.

I was a bit occupied with all the details of getting the boat registered (my two Kafkaesque trips to the Secretary of State is a story itself), making sure the trailer was ok to drive across the state and such so Julia took over the search for a place to keep Prudence. She got back to me with several updates: “Nothing to be had”and, “Nothing to be had”. It seemed we had exhausted our options when I got a voicemail from Julia saying she called a marina right near the public launch on Lake Macatawa that leads to Lake Michigan. We could park the boat anywhere out back and, as there were no power lines, could drive the boat- rig up, right to the launch. Excellent!

Our eleventh hour reprieve seemed almost too good to be true. Luckily, it wasn’t. We leave the mast and boom up and have everything in totes which we bring every time. It takes us about 15 minutes to be ready for launching. The public launch at Lake Macatawa is a veritable hive of activity on weekends as hundreds of boats launch and retrieve. It’s 99% power boaters and jet skis at the launch. It’s quite amusing to see their expressions as we drive out of the launch mast up and head on down the road. Little do they know we’re less than 100 yards away.

I must say that Prudence sails like she looks, lovely. She’s a lot of boat for a 16 footer and will keep us sane during the time it takes to get Reverie back in the water. There are some things to be done on Prudence (don’t get me started on the main sheet) but she’s in sailing condition and that’s work for another time.

June 3, 2015
by Roger G. Possley Leave a comment

Prudence

I would like to introduce you to Prudence, our little Compac 16. Prudence is the result of my innocent perusal of Craigslist last October. I like to look at boats and this little beauty caught my eye as I scrolled down the gallery of photos . The ad was 24 days old when I saw it but it was mid-October, not a time when most people get boat fever. Mine runs 365 days a year so I took the chance and shot an email to the seller. I simply said, “Is this boat still available?” I got and equally simple reply, “Yes, it is.”

I talked it over with Julia and she agreed that it was a nice looking boat and it would be great to have something to trailer around. Once it was paid for, it would be relatively cheap to own. We discussed all the places we could tuck into with a little keel boat that only draws 18 inches. It really would open up a lot of Great Lakes destinations previously off limits for Persistence which draws 4-1/2 feet. It sleeps 2, has an ample cockpit and, as our friend Terrence put it, “She looks shippy”. Her graceful cruiser bow hearkens back to many classic designs and somewhat resembles Reverie’s spoon bow. Prudence looked good and had a reasonable asking price so, I was off for the first look at her.

It was a blustery October day when I first drove out and met Jack. The first thing I noticed when I pulled into his driveway was the several campers (one being an old Airstream) and the plethora of boats sitting here and there. I liked this guy before I even met him. He turned out to be an older guy in his late 60’s or early 70’s. I’m not good with ages as we all show our years differently. We talked boats, campers, life in general and then, he showed me the boat. She was dirty and had not been in the water for several years. I gave her a quick look over and asked Jack if he minded if I paid him off bit by bit over the Winter. He said, “Aw, I don’t need the money. Sure” I think he knew just how much I wanted this little boat.

The next step was to report back to Julia with my findings and arrange for the both of us to go out and have a look. A few days later, the Great Lakes weather had changed and we had a warm up accompanied by a serious thunderstorm system pushing yet another cold front through. This all occurred on our way out to look at the boat. When we arrived, there was a magnificent double rainbow framing Prudence! Jack was there with his wife and we all laughed about it being a sign that we were to get the boat. Maybe so. We shook hands and that was that.

I’m not a fan of many pocket cruiser designs. There are ones with grotesque cabins that look like they fell from a waterspout. Some have little or no working room to sail. Others have garish tumblehome or way too much sheer for my liking. Many have insufficient construction making them little more than day sailors with bunks. Then, there are those that possess all of these undesirable characteristics. I’ve found the old saying to be true that, “a boat sails like she looks”. There’s no way I would go for some little mess no matter how good a deal it was. Yes, there are a lot of ugly babies out there and parents who think their children are geniuses so please bear with me, gentle reader, and know that Prudence is above criticism.

She wasn’t named Prudence when we looked at her. She had no name at all. This could not stand as we were to be heading off to new adventures aboard this vessel. I don’t have names for other things in my life except for my old Coleman stove, Trusty and it’s triple burner, Trey (sometimes referred to as Trip). This little Compac-16 needed a name and Prudence seemed to fit. Prudence is a key element of a mariner’s skills and our Prudence is a key element of this stage in our lives.

Merriam-Webster’s definition of Prudence:

1: the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason

2: sagacity or shrewdness in the management of affairs

3: skill and good judgment in the use of resources

4: caution or circumspection as to danger or risk

While it works well for me on the water, I do need to be reminded, from time to time, that prudence is a valuable asset in every day life as well.

Winter held a lot of twists and turns and, somehow, we wound up with a 31 foot wooden sloop named Reverie and the little Compac 16 sat at Jack’s awaiting our return. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I was able to return with more cash. We sat and talked for over an hour and I left with the little Johnson 4.5 horse motor she came with so as to have it up and running by the time we pick her up in the next few weeks. While we still have our hands full with the restoration of Reverie, we now have a little boat to get out on Lake Michigan and wherever else we choose to go. It takes the edge off of the restoration work by reminding us both what it’s all about.

	Roger G. Possley on What’s Done Is Done
	Jonnie on What’s Done Is Done
	Roger G. Possley on Time Is of the Essence
	Judy Mingram on Time Is of the Essence
	Roger G. Possley on Into The Light

Restoring Reverie

: The Art of Restoring & Sailing a Classic Wooden Sailboat

Tag Archives: Great Lakes

Getting A Handle On Things

On the Death of Old Boats

‘Tis The Season For Boat Work

What’s Done Is Done

Winter Projects

Into The Light

Tung Oil and Turpentine

The Elephant in the Room

Shakedown

Prudence

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: