A Pretty Boat

Well, the hardest work is now done. The deck has been sanded, stained and varnished. At present, it has four coats of Behr Super Spar varnish, but I will do one more once I have turned the boat over to wash and wax the hull completely.

Now, I need to consider where to set the hardware to set-up the boat for use. Right now, there isn't much on hte boat, but as you may have seen in an earlier post, I have a great deal of hardware to work with. Now, the boat has a wooden thwart. Its original and all I did was give it a light sand, leaving many flaws from over the years. It got a coat of stain and then varnish. I felt it would be best to leave at least one thing from the original deck. Toward the fore of the cockpit, near where I will secure the mast, there are two wooden pieces that seem to act as some sort of reinforcement for the hull. I have sanded, stained and varnished these as well. If you look at the photo on the right, you will see the wood piece clearly. You will also see a tube that leads under the foredeck. I don't know why that is there. It look like it would have been attached to a white fibreglass piece I have. (See photo below). It would have come out of the foredeck on the original deck. I have seen pictures of this on old Fireballs. I just can't see the purpose, other than to let water pour into the cockpit! Or as some sort of odd, open-air head.... Maybe someone can enlighten me.

What The Heck Is That?

I am introducing a great new game, called "What The Heck Is That?" The rules are very simple:

1. Look at the photos below carefully.

2. Identify as many of the parts as you can.

3. Send me a response, giving me you answers.

The prize is the great satisfaction you will get at helping me identify the parts of my sailboat.


The reason for this game is that my boat was disassembled when I got it. All the items you see above were in a box that came with the boat. As I have said, the guy who had the baot before me had no idea of how to sail, let alone how to assemble the boat. I know how to sail, but this set-up is much different from what I am used to working with. Now the owner before him, who was the one that constructed the new deck, had owned the boat for a long time. He rebuilt the deck, but never finished the project. These pieces were removed from the boat prior to the rebuild, with some of the peices labelled. but you can tell he labelled them for his own reference. For instance, the item I have labelled 'C' has masking tape that says 'Port Aft'. Obviously, he knew where this went, but wanted to distinguish it from the item labelled 'D', which says 'Port Fore'. Now, lining up the holes on these itmes and holeson the thwart, I am assuming they go on the thwart for some reason. But I can't see their purpose.


Others are more obvious, such as the items labelled 'I' & 'J', which are for the jib sheets. However, even with items like this, I can't determine the best area to place them on the boat. I went back to my old sailing club and took pictures of the old Albacores I used to sail. They were not set-up for racing, as the club is primarily for recreation and learning. A few pictures of these boats is posted below.

I am going to post pictures of the boat very soon as I have completed most of the sanding, staining and varnishing. Now I need to figure out the rigging. I intend to use this for recreational sailing, not racing. So, I want only the most basic rigging I can get away with. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!