Original engine mount

I have been asked to post some pictures of the engine mount which, on my boat, is the original one (at least I believe so). It seems to be designed to be able to slide up and down, but mine is definitely stuck in the down-position. Here are the pics:

The floating bridge - a land expedition

Now this post is slightly off topic but when I encountered that floating bridge mentioned in the last post, I got just a little obsessed by it. I sailed there again (see not really off topic!) yesterday and shot a picture from the other side. 



But I still hadn't got enough. So today I ventured on a land expedition to get a closer look. I even got the admiral with me. We volvoed out to the land side of the bridge.

As soon as we were on it I realised that it in fact is the floating docks from the island's marina. They still have the berth numbers on them...

There is a handrail added and real lightposts. Still it must be interesting to walk over it in a winter gale. Now it was a dead calm (no sailing today....).

We walked around the island for a while. There were some nice boats.

A few dogs, five cats. Lots of houses in different shapes and states.


trees...


some outboards in a bucket...


And a great view all around.


Would be nice to sail here a little later in the season when everything is green. However, there are no good sheltered docks or anchorages, all the boats are bobbing around frightfully in the swell of passing motorboats and ferries...

Oh and we were just in time...the bridge will be taken down this week...

First Sail of 2009

Now, after having launched in record time I just had to use the first day of Easter week-end for a short test sail. The weather was actually sunny and warm enough so I did not freeze once.

It being a test sail, please don't comment on the fenders or the bad jib tension...the rigging wasn't really tuned in yet.

And I wasn't alone either! This sailboat did make an early start as well. When we met the sailor shouted "where are all the others?"

I tried to sail around the nearest island, as I often do, but this time i couldn't. During the winter the little sound is blocked by a floating bridge and it had not been removed yet. So I am really early!

Finally I shot a little video just to catch the atmosphere...

Launched!

Today I got the boat into the water. Earliest ever! You can still see some ice on the left side of the canal. But there is good weather in the forecast so I am sure it will all be gone in a few days.

Wooden keel Alacrity

Some time ago I had a conversation with someone (don't remember who though) who claimed there were fiberglass Alacrities with wooden keels. I doubted this. While early Alacrities were made of marine plywood and of course had wooden keels, the later fiberglass ones all had incapsulated fiberglass keels. However, now I seem to stand corrected. While on vacation in the South West of Scotland, a member of the yahoo-group came across this boat. According to him the boat looked like an Alacrity Mk II (and the coachroof on the pictures certainly does), but the keels were definitetly wood.

Now, if the owner of this vessel reads this or anybody else who hase a similar boat, please enlighten us with some more details! Is this a production Alacrity? Or a modification? I guess it cannot be outruled completely that it is a Vivacity as well or maybe another experimental design or prototype. Are there more of these boats out there? Please tell us!

Spring preparations

It is slowly getting lighter and warmer up here. It is still a little too cold for painting, but when the sun is out the urge to get going with spring preparations is too strong to resist. So I went to the chandler's at least and bought some stuff. I am, however, trying to keep it to a minimum this year. Credit crunch style if you like. I will antifoul, touch up some paint and gelcoat (the new engine's prop took a bite out of the rudder going astern last season), but that is to be it this year. Or so I hope...

I also realise that I am not alone. Traffic in the yahoo group has increased quite a bit those last few weeks. Hopefully we will all have out boats in the water soon, looking forward to a good season. I am also looking forward to lots of pictures and cruise reports - so don't forget the camera!

PS: No this isn't a product placement for either Hempel/Blakes or Plastic Padding. However, I would take the money if they were willing! :)

Mast support modifications

Different ways to reinforce the mast support beam were recently discussed on the Alacrity group at yahoo. Two owners have sent pictures that may be of interest. First out is Alacrity owner Peter Anderson from Scotland whos "Heron" had her mast support beam damaged by an encounter with another boat while moored at low tide. The beam was reinforced by a stainless steel bracing.

The second example is from a Vivacity, Ned Reiter's "Haiku". Her beam cracked at the port side knee and Ned reinforced it with a plywood solution. It has yet to be tested under sails though and I am sure Ned will report during the season.