All Kinds of Junk

June 10th Racing

2017 campaign

Pre Race Video

New Girl in Town

George Cathey's new Follboat, USA-124, was splashed today at Svendsen's. The first aluminum mast will be stepped later this afternoon.

New Girl in Town

Something Happened to Previous Posts, so...

I'm reposting the things I can't seem to view anymore. Somehow they were deleted.

And... she's back

After an extensive hiatus from racing/sailing, Josephine is back together in one piece with some major improvements. Happy to say I'm interested in sailing again. And yes, racing too. We've also moved... I, well actually we, got our permanent slip in the SF Marina. More on all that later. Next few entries will be about the various improvements in no particular order.

New Toilet Bucket!

Somehow "Lauren" got lost in the shuffle. I'm sad. It was a good bucket. Sturdy, curved rim edges... couldn't find a duplicate so this'll have to do. And yes, I varnished the custom made bucket holder. I know, sexy is not the right word. But in a pinch... It'll be just fine.

I tried to stay organized, but...

I still lost parts. Annika found a nut and bolt I couldn't find just last week when she was playing in the dirt. I did count and categorize everything as I took it off and replaced every screw. Got rid of every stupid flat head screw too... I hate those things.
And, until this summer I never knew how much fun it was to polish stainless. It's a fun little process, if you have the time. I used a dremmel with a 80 grit sandpaper bit to get out all the dings. Then went 120, 220, 340, 400, 600, 800, 1200 grit followed by extensive time on a buffing wheel with various colored... stuff. It turned out ok. I think I could've done better, but I was looking at each piece too long and getting far too critical of my own work to be happy, so... it is what it is... Done.

New Hatches

Both needed replacing so I replaced them both. Got the exact model Houdini foredeck hatch from England via Folkboat Central. It was almost a perfect fit. Had to grind down one edge just a bit and some of the holes didn't line up perfectly, but I made it work. Kinda like problems like this. Also, got the teak cabin hatch and that fit perfectly. Should I varnish it? I don't know, you tell me. While we are looking at these pictures, I also replaced all the cabin control lines. I think the all green thing looks great. And yes, the mast is no longer dark green. More on that later.

Meanwhile, the mast hole looked like...

... and needed to be done. I hired Peter Miller to deal with this and design a stainless backing plate above a below deck to make it bulletproof SF Bay tough. I've seen enough mast organizers rip right through the deck to know better than to mess around this time. But first, it had to be structurally repaired.

The Mast

Pulled it in... March? Drove it home in my pickem up truck and put it in my driveway. Then I looked at it for a couple weeks. Took off all the hardware, cause that's actually kinda fun. Put all that in a garbage can with water and oxcilic acid... advice via Tom Teed jr and just looked at it for a couple weeks. Played a little ukulele, watched Annika paint... didn't feel like doing anything boat related at that time. But it wasn't costing me anything to park it in the driveway and I really didn't want to go sailing anyway, so... It just sat there making Cassandra wonder if I'd turned into one of those people who leave all kinds of junk around their yard... I'll refrain from the use of the word redneck or hillbilly or derelict. I might have scrubbed clean a few pieces of teak, polished a piece or two of stainless. An hour here an hour there... but really in no hurry at all until July?

Mast Hole Repair

Mast Hole Repair cont.

We planned to redo the gelcoat on the cabin later, so he fit the new stainless collar, then punched some holes and polished it.

Mast Hole Repair Finnished

It has another plate below deck, but Peter went on the transpac race and bailed mid project. I think I'll see the rest of this one day... Maybe I should press him to finish what we started? I used the big washers I had and will be just fine until we get that last little bit sorted out... You know how boat projects can just linger.

Got Tired of Them Banging Around...

...so I shaped a couple pieces of PVC and put them up and accessible.

The Whisker Pole

Then I got a bug in my butt to make a new whisker pole out of the "high performance pole" my dad built in the 80's that I pinched off Bud Cohen when he took over my dad's boat. I've held on to it mostly for sentimental reasons until we actually needed it during the 2012 woodies regatta. It was made with a 2x2, shaped at the ends to fit the ronstant pole ends dad had customized to "make up for any crew who might not be very gifted or talented." The extra hook piece for the clue end of the jib does make it easier to attach and stay attached (without a doubt my 2nd biggest pet peeve of most foredeck blunders). I was scared shitless that it was going to splinter and impale one of my crew so I decided to male one round, wrap it in fiberglass, make it longer (not telling why ;) prime and paint it the same color I decided to paint the mast. It was cheap, easy to make and should last a long time. I actually like this pole better than the John Mast pole that came with the boat.

The Mast

One day I found myself with a heat gun in one hand and a putty knife in the other and went to work. After about 7 hours I was up to the spreaders and quit. My thumb was numb for days after that. A couple weeks later I finished it off. I did two passes with 60 grit and it looked almost good enough to varnish, except for all those knots and various types of wood grain... Never mind, I'll paint it again. Just not green. So, I hit it with 120 grit, 180, then 220.

The Mast and Compressor

I kept flashing back to Søren's workshop and thought to myself, I need a compressor to blow all this sawdust away, so I got one and put Annika to work. She played with it all day. Blew the sawdust off the mast, leaves around the driveway, bugs, spiders, my rear... the kid's got spunk.