Mike's Got A Bug Problem

Mike's a good guy, but what bad luck. So, let this be a warning to all of you about to varnish in the mast yard at Svendsen's... Don't put your mast in the south east corner...
... Unless you want your varnish full of bugs! After this coat there were literally hundreds of these little buggers stuck to his fresh varnish...
No worries, Mike... they'll sand out I'm sure.

Boats in the Yard Before the Season Begins

Mike Goebel's bottom looks like hell. I really wish he'd take the time it takes to take care of this and his other issues... just ask Soren Hansen about Mike's skills... he'll tell you... and won't hold back either.
There's that illegal rudder again. Too light, too thin. I think I'll protest him in the first race this season.
Can't be legal.
No need to say a thing here...

He doesn't actually do the work himself, he just likes to hold the hose and get dirty.


Roger Rapp's USA 15 - I hope he gets her out there this season for the Wednesday Evening Series... if he and a few others do we'll have 20 on the line!
Forgot your Folkboat plans? No problem. Roger always keeps his on hand for just such and emergency.
Randy hauled out also. Feels like a party in the yard with all these folkboaters around.

Brock was out too. He went back in before all of us. New mast, new boom, new, new, new... I wish I could.
Søren Hansen putting on the finished boom.

Bill DuMuollin also in the yard. Bottom job and some rail repair and back in ASAP.
Richard Keldsen's out also. New bottom paint, new rails, new mast... must be an International qualifier year.

Yes, I painted it Green Again.

Not again? Yes, I did and I'll do it again. But not for a few years. While you and your wood needs varnishing and multiple coats I might add, I'll be playing with my daughter or sailing or better yet sailing with my daughter!
A nice forrest green to go with the green theme I've learned to embrace and love. It's the boat's trademark now, get used to it. My dad painted his red, mine's green. It's a port starboard thing. It's fun to say, "Which Folkboat? It's the one with the green mast, you can't miss it. I mean really, how many boats do you know of with a green mast"?

Josephine Needed Some Work

The priorities for this trip were clear; bottom paint, repair the 16 inch gash I put in the hull when we hip checked the committee boat at a start (we won that race anyway), check the mast for damage and repair the mast hole in the deck... it was cracked before, but I now needed to deal with it this time. Anything else I could get to would be a bonus while the boat was on the hard.
Everything started out alright, the prep work on the haul went as scheduled.
The Gel coat repair began... I'll leave this one up to the experts.
I observed the process this time and maybe I'll do the next one myself... how do they match the colors anyway?
Now, where was that gel coat fixed? The only way I could tell when I walked up was the way one spot was all polished up.
Seriously, this was a very well done job. Thanks Bill at Svendsen's... I looked around for you to thank you personally, but never found you.
Fresh bottom paint looks good, no doubt. Mike seems to think a spot was missed, but he likes to point out all the problems, make you second guess your equipment... mental edge stuff. Won't work, Mike. My boat is fast.



I wanted a light green to go with the color scheme, but what a hassle and extra cost... straight white thank you... my diver will be happy about this.
So, I went to check out those sections where there was what I thought was evidence of delamination and I was about to soak a section with Jasco when Roger Rapp who was busy working away on his mast (reason #1 to bring your Folkboat to Svendsen's) looks over my shoulder and says, "You don't want to do that." He went into a very convincing argument about why I should use a heat gun and a scrapper, then a random orbital sander. He breaks off to his jeep, comes back with all the real gear, I mean man gear, too. The real man tools. In about 3 minutes he had scraped off a section and sanded it down to bare wood. I cussed. The wood was good. Where I thought there were problems were jsut superficial. But in the process discovered that the wood had not been treated with anything, just 2 coats of paint were put on and it was coming off easy. It was almost 3 in the afternoon and I was supposed to be home by 5ish. I just went into a mediative trance and started up the heat gun and scrapper and went at it. It went relatively quick... but being 6'5" and sloutching over a hunk of wood heating and scrapping away takes it's toll. I got up to the spreaders and took out the orbital sander and hit it. It was close to 6pm and I was already in for it at home... there was still a couple hours of sunlight left... ok, here we go... all the way to the top. I didn't expect to take it down to bare wood, but with right tools, it was fun.
Found some more serious cracks up in the goose neck and I figured out a way to epoxy and clamp it... rather creative if you ask me.
a piece of scrap wood and a stir stick underneath... two clamps and a little time.
That one section with the darker wood was one of the deciding factors in covering it back up again.

After fixing the cracks and filling some holes and a little sanding Patrick and I got 3 coats of Smith's penetrating expoxy resin on it. A coat of primer and two top coats later the mast was ready to be rigged up again.
Top sides polished, mast hole repaired, pressure washed the teak, light sand... what's this on the stern?
There is only one person who would dare tape this sign to my boat... Mike Goebel! Every year he pulls this shit. It's funny really... but check the standing from last year, who's boat is slow?

It's That Time of Year Again.

The annual sail down to Svendsen's when only the oldest of your sail inventory will do. I throw up the DEN 816 and ride the tide... the bottom hasn't been cleaned since the last race... yikes!
Never heard of this sail maker... are they still in business? Do they make racing sails? Are they any good? These sails only go downwind anymore.
Meet Andrew. He's a good friend and could get a Thursday off like me (I was sick... sick of work). He's also a good tour guide, you can tell by the way he points his finder at all the land marks. In this case, the Bay Bridge construction project.
I take these pictures mostly for Lars Landen in Sweden who is really into bridge construction, but doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that I go to a lot of trouble to take these pictures just for him. Maybe if Bjorn and I didn't refer to his bridge obsession and these types of pictures as "bridge porn" he'd be more appreciative.
Andrew stole my hat and my face and neck fried like chicken. I was beet red when I got home... thanks Andrew. I'll send you the doctor's bill. T.I. in the background... truely was a perfect day for the sail down. Current was against us until we turned the corner and that was right as the westery flow came on... all by design, really.
This picture is out of sequence, but I don't care. This is after we went under the bridge.
Progress is moving right along... seems like forever ago they started this. What bugs is how quick they can build a bridge in Sweden when they have to or how fast the rebuilt LA after the '89 quake, but this just lingers on and on and....
I wonder how they'll take down the other bridge once they are finished with the new one?
Wasn't much room to sail through this way, I'm sure a boat bigger than ours would be discouraged from sailing this way, but there were no signs and no Coasties to be found so we sailed on.
The guys on this crane and in a small motor boat got in our way and the current was ripping and the wind died and as you know I don't have an engine.... I'll take the helm now, thanks Andrew.
Ok, we're clear... have a sando.
What? Are we too close to the barge? But there is a cargo ship in the channel and if we hug the shore he can't possibly get us.
What's this barge here for anyway?
dredging.

We're all clear! Hey, what's that over your shoulder?

Not again! Seems like every time I come through here these cargo ships are all over the place.

Stay right over there, ok?


Good thing these cranes are so high... we'd snag the mast on it if it were lower.
What a junk. Goes with the blog name, huh?
This is the way things looked before I took it all apart. I wonder how many guys have ever just mindlessly took their boat apart and when they went to put it all back together again went.... now how did this go back together? and why do I now hove left over shackles?

Anyway, the rest of the trip was uneventful. A smooth, slow float down to the boat yard. People who don't sail kinda trip when I tell them I have a boat hauled out at a boat yard. And some people trip when I say I have it out at Svendsen's. The ones who do sail ask, 'Why don't you haul out at SF Boatworks?' I think the best answer is You don't take you Mercades to the Ford dealership for repairs, do you? And the only place to take your Nordic Folkboat in the Bay Area is Svendsen's and in the next few reports you'll see why.