Autumn is the perfect time to acquire boats and horses - no one wants to find space to store the "extra" boats under cover and no one wants the expense of feeding an "extra" horse over the Winter. The Beloved Favorites will always have space in the shed/barn, but what about those second string contenders? Not that we're acquiring any horses. Or chickens, either. But boats? Well, they seem to be following us home.
A recent addition to the Boat Shed is this Ed Monk designed sail boat -
She's called a 15-foot knockabout sloop - no fancy name, history, or design.
Built by Rich Johnson of Toledo, Oregon, her name is Lively and she sails with a Marconi rig. She has been used as a demonstration boat by members of the Eugene Yacht Club at the Toledo Wooden Boat Show the last few years and everyone who goes out in her comes back with a big smile on.
Today was my turn. The afternoon was dull, and after complaining that I was bored, Doryman suggested we take a trip over to Toledo and see if there was enough of a breeze to take Lively out for a quick sail before dark. We had another almost perfect weather window - partly sunny with variable light breezes - just enough to waft Lively from one side of the river to the other and back again before it got too dark to see what we were doing.
I experienced a few "firsts" today - moving from one boat to another (without falling in,) shipping the rudder and tiller, getting a demonstration of putting up the jib and main sails, handling the jib sheets (sailing, and Boat Stuff in general, has its own language) and tacking back and forth. Or was it gibing? It's a bit hazy still, but I'll learn the ropes in time. The soft breeze was just perfect for getting the feel of the boat without having to make any quick moves because of sudden gusts that would upset a small boat.
Lively will need to be hauled out of the water very soon and put under cover until the weather is more congenial to making a few repairs. I'm sure she'll be ready to sail by the time Boat Show Season comes around again, and I'll try to get some pictures of her under sail. She needs a new suit of sails and we're not sure if we'll tackle that job ourselves or hire a professional sailmaker to do it for us. Her sails aren't that large and we do have a stash of sailcloth in the back room, but we picked up Mistral's mainsail from the sailmaker, and it needs a bit of hand work done before it's finished and that will be the main sail project for this Winter.




































