Getting rid of badness

Well, back on topic for Mothra the Mariner. As noted before, this old O'Day Mariner had been sitting for quite some time before I picked her up. I've been methodically going through all the bits of broken or just plain worn out hardware. Gee, I think I've probably spent as much now on new Harken stuff as I did to buy the boat! Recently, I've switched my focus from broken stuff to things that are just plain bad. For example, there are an awful lot of non-stainless steel fasteners in this boat. I've started pulling some of the more critical fasteners (like, oh I don't know, say the three quarter-inch bolts that hold the mast step in place.) Yikes! Don't know how long they've been there, but an alarming amount had rotted away. Or how about galvanized plumbing elbows screwed to bronze thru hulls for the cockpit drains. It's all gotta go. Latest project was properly eliminating the holes remaining from the original marine head (yes, in 1969 it was legal to pump raw sewage back out.) When I got the boat, it just had a bolt hose-clamped into the end of the flimsy plastic tubing. Well, did the right thing and pulled the plastic thru hulls and fiberglassed over the holes tonight.

Ready now to go in the water for a nice Father's Day sail with a bit more peace of mind :-)

And still something different -- The dory skiff Lappy

OK, again off topic from the exploits of Mariner #1460, but all this boating activity inspired me to pull my old dory skiff out of the side yard and get her sailing again. I built "Lappy" to Joel White's Shellback design about 10 years ago. I used to sail/row her a lot in the early years, but she's been under wraps for the past three years. Anyway, she needed a little maintenance to get back in sailing shape. One weekend of work and then I went looking for a place to launch . . .

I went to the Berkeley Marina with my dory skiff to test that out as a quick entry point to bay sailing. Unfortunately, the place was absolutely jammed with big honkin boats, trailers, etc. Musta been some kind of fishing derby going on. So, I headed down to the Oakland Estuary ramp. Totally crappy little ramp with big old bolts sticking out of the side of the dock and all the cleats broken, but hey, it's free! Nice little place to sail. Reminded me a lot of day cruising Newport Harbor except a lot more industrial. Tack your way up the channel checking out lots of interesting stuff along the way. Then, spin it around, break out the sandwiches and beer, and run for home. cool.