an incremental thing

While I wait for the new standing rigging to be made up, there have been quite a few lovely moments bobbing around Beachcomber in the old tender, with sandpaper, brush, varnish and paint in hand. 

The bowsprit appears as though it means business again, the new bob-stay gives me some adjustment against the pull of the forestays and the rubbing strip has a new, more subtle colour. It is of a mid grey, but like the greys inside the hull it tends to photograph warmer (a bit lilac) because of the warmth of the wood...but so far, I like it. I feel it lightens the appearance of the hull from a heavy Victorian to a more creamy, light hue. It used to be 'Brunswick Green' like the sail covers.

Of course, nice shiny paint on the rubbing strip only makes the topsides look dirty and a bit weathered, but this is an incremental sort of rejuvenation and it will all get done eventually...Including the sail covers which have started to become cream, but still have some green bits there to keep me edgy. She will come out of the water this year for more antifoul and I will paint the topsides then, and replace the green covers at some useful point too.

I admit the two pics below aren't really fair in measuring progress because the 'before' pic was taken on a grey sort of day, but hey, I need motivation sometimes too.

It will be interesting to see if the new stays, shrouds and whiskers fit because I measured without removing the mast, by means of overlapping timber sticks (which needed to cover six metres for the forestay) poked up to the heavens towards the upper shackles with optimism and a bit of economy-driven confidence.

these nights are tough

 Tomorrow our latest foster greyhound goes to her new forever home, and we believe she will be loved there and will really contribute something to the people who will become her guardians. Frankie has been a gorgeous presence in our home since she was rescued about four weeks ago, and we have tried to teach her a little about being a regular dog- and a functional companion in a human household. When we first had her at home she walked into glass doors because she had never seen them. She was overjoyed to have toys and affection, and human company, but also to hang out with Sooty, our adopted greyhound.

For all the good news in the above paragraph, tonight is tough in the same way it has been spending our last days with the others we have fostered. They all bring something to us in combination with their own particular difficulties.

Below left, Angel (now called Maggie) was a former racer who was retired to be a breeder. She was incredibly wise and tender, but lacked any interest in walks or exercise in the time we had her because she just wanted company, food and peace. We hope her new owners go further than we had time to, in re-engaging her with the wonderful doggy world of smells and natural noises.

Below right, Rosie was frightened of everything when we got her. She had more neuroses than we could count- particularly her fear of men. But after a couple of months she followed me everywhere and was ready for her new home with Flynn, a lonely whippet and his 'mum'.

We've only been at this for some months, but all of these dogs are happily placed with people who needed them, and are themselves transformed from soon-to-be-exterminated gambling devices into wonderful companions.

So, like the other times, tonight is tough. We'd love to keep them all, but as Julia wisely reminds me, it is not about what is best for us.

I look across at Sooty, who is still a bit bolshy and territorial, and I remember how difficult it was for him to be loving and accepting of affection when we got him, and I remind myself that he had four trainers in his four years before we got him, and he had to compete all the time to get anything. In the end even winning a number of races wasn't enough to keep him alive, so I forgive him his moods, and I concentrate instead on the times he reaches out to me with his foot to indicate that he does want me to keep stroking him, even if he struggles to be overtly affectionate.

And he has been a star at helping these other dogs transform into family dogs. He is rock solid on our walks, and a role model in sniffing, hanging out and welcoming guests into our home. He has gravitas and dignity and when he comes for a cuddle, you feel blessed.

bobstay boogie

Trying to remain vertical while standing in and working from the tender has taught me some new moves.

Never was much of a dancer...but with one hand holding a tin of varnish, the other using a brush and the tender untethered as I work along the big pole, the new moves become impressive when a motor boat speeds past.

The jib tensioning rig needs restoring, as do the whiskers and the bobstay chain, tackle and line. But I began by resurfacing the bowsprit which had been beyond the reach of the tools until now. It is now being recoated as weather and time permits.

Below, the jib traveller is attached to an endless out/inhaul. Lovely leather sheathed bronze ring and wiggly bits.

Below are the parts of the bobstay tensioning tackle. Galv chain is shackled to a block and then linked by line to a double block. At the inboard end a wooden eye is spliced onto the line to provide another two part purchase inboard by means of another line spliced to the bowsprit at the standing end, then fed through the wooden eye and back to a horn cleat on the sprit. The chain was looking mildly disreputable, so it has added gravity to my bin. The gal pulley blocks have stood up remarkably well and have been redeployed without any interference.

All of the gal. shackles have remained serviceable- probably due to the beef tallow used to lubricate the threads. A big bucket of the stuff was kindly provided with the boat (Fred's supplier had grossly overestimated how much he required) and it is remarkable stuff. You would think after more than 25 years in a shed the tallow would be rancid and beyond sniffing, but it remains a clean, white, low odour and  serviceable marine lubricant. Needless to say all moving galvanised parts going back on the boat are retallowed.

Below, the new lines, chain and splices for the long outboard parts. The splice on the inboard line will need to be done on the boat.

Geelong WB Festival 2016 and a brand new Aussie Navigator

 Because I haven't seen much coverage of this event in the blogosphere I include a few pictures supplied by our friends Peter and Felicity. Since there is often very little feed-back about this sort of coverage I found it hard to know how many pics to include. There are more on Felicity's disc if needed...

Below are some shots of Peter's new home built Navigator. I have been thrilled to see it emerge from a pile of promising plywood. Peter chose to build light and has used the thinner plywood for his hull and I'm sure he will find it fast and responsive as his early tests suggest. Observant readers will notice sails from Duckworks.

I don't want to embarrass Peter at all, but I do need to say that his passion for wooden boats goes a lot further back (and a lot deeper) than just this, his recent build. He has played several major roles in the Geelong event for many years, on the committee (I am without details here) and as the representative of a major sponsor. 

The boat is named after the very talented Felicity, below.

Paynesville 1905-ish. Fishing boats coming in

Despite this blog already being stretched across too many areas of content and interest, I can't resist these occasional delvings into the local history of boats- and working boats in particular.

The photo above is from Paynesville maybe 1905-ish, maybe earlier, but I still sail alongside boats that come from this era, and our boat was 30 odd years old when this pic was taken, and I can't help wanting to get inside this thing- whatever it is- that has persisted here for so long...and also to understand a little how it is that the local traditions are so unknown in the rest of the country.

I hope that any remaining readers will see how this picture differs so little from some of my recent postings. The persistence of these types even in small numbers is a celebration of the fact that the pioneers here took what worked from various immigrant traditions, and what worked then to earn a living is still a very suitable vehicle for exploring the lakes.

The four boats pictured are luggers. The one on the left is incredibly similar to Queen Mary, recently featured, the second one along has a canoe stern, and all four have those top strakes I mentioned in several recent posts.

These, of course were fishing boats. During this period there were already more lavish boats around here built on North American styles, to be used by the wealthy land owners for recreation. I will try to assemble some pictures of that type in another post. Our boat 'Beachcomber' was neither just a fishing boat nor only a recreational one.

It began it's working life as a transport and supply boat with picnic and social visiting benefits. During it's middle years though it was well known in the district as a sort of farm truck. I have spoken to a man locally who remembers Beachcomber fondly in the 1930's being 'sailed by Freddy Barton in all weathers', and he particularly remembers 'the boat full of sheep and also goats as Freddy transported his stock from island to island' near Sperm Whale Head. My informant tells me he lost contact with Beachcomber after 1946, and that was probably because she went to another family nearer Bairnsdale, probably until her restoration.

This line drawing is of the canoe stern type in the top picture. Both images were sourced from the Paynesville Maritime Museum.

The Gippsland Lakes 'Queen Mary' (again)

 In an earlier post I wrote about the characteristics that make this boat such a representative example of boats built in the local tradition. These pics illustrate the strake/carvel arrangement, but I include extra pics because she is just lovely.

New sheets and Outhaul

Since the rally I have been moved to replace the main and staysail sheets, choosing 10mm over 12, and a multi-braid over 3 strand. The reason for this was that the cleats in a double-ended mainsheet need to work fast and they  struggled with the size and lumpiness of the old 3 strand.

Below are the main sail outhaul lashings and grommet- at the end of their working life. A new grommet was made for the job and a new outhaul line was spliced at both ends to attach to the 2 part adjuster, back along the boom. You may notice that in the old arrangement the grommet has been distorted by the lashings, so I fitted a galvanised eye into the outhaul line so the lashings will work on it and not the grommet. The outhaul pulls astern to a large sheave set in the boom, then back along the boom underside. The grommet stops the sail lifting, while the outhaul helps set sail shape.

Incidentally, we were thrilled by the shape of the sails, they are beautifully cut in a traditional pattern, with vertical seams on the main contrasting with the diagonals of the foresails.

Below the new grommet made from 8mm Hempex, next to the old pieces.

The other end has a wooden eye spliced onto it for the 2 part adjustment on the boom underside.

Paynesville Classic Sail Past 2016

A couple of pics of Beachcomber courtesy of Martin Richardson

it wasn't ALL about sailing but...

There was a lot more to the Rally than just sail boats, but whenever we got together, these old gaffers just seemed to meander around each other, like they were looking for family. Beachcomber and Queen Mary ( not the big one) above, sauntered back from the buoy in the non-race, finding the odd puff, but the trip back was made with cockpits alongside and conversation flowing between boats the whole way in.

QM has a feature which was common on Gippslander fishing boats. The hull is carvel up to the top two boards, which are lapstrake (clinker). The fishermen liked to approach the fish without the noise of strakes, but the top boards acted as spray rails. It is thought that this feature had it's origins in Norwegian boats and the idea came here with those people.

Owned by David Griffiths, she is 26ft by 9ft, with a 3'6" draft, and was built on Raymond Island (in the background of this pic) in 1898. Comparing her to Beachcomber (right) it can be seen that by the turn of the Century, the Gippslander type had evolved from British/European roots significantly. She is broad and shallow with a small transom and very capacious cockpit. If there is interest I can find more pics to illustrate the type. The above comparison is a bit dicey though, because one boat was always intended for carriage and cartage, while the other was designed specifically to fish.

Paynesville Classic Boat Rally 2016

This was the first time I had ever sailed in such crowded and close quarters, and I was encouraged to join in the sail past (race) by our son Tristan (who gives me so much confidence at the helm). I record this sequence because the oldest boat in the fleet is here pictured moving past several boats in light winds, in a crowd. She is off-screen to the left, well and truly surrounded in the pic above. To be fair, quite a few then overtook us again when we rounded the point into the larger Lake Victoria, but Beachcomber definitely had a moment there....and so did we. She is not built for speed, but she gave us so much fun in several different sorts of conditions.

The rally was a huge success for the town of Paynesville and for the organiser, Peter Medling and his wonderfully helpful team. I will post more about the rally when the dust settles and I can feel my hands again. We made our way to the rally under sail on Friday (very light and lazy conditions) and made our way home upwind today, Sunday (3 hours) under the heaviest conditions that I'd encountered in this old boat. She was absolutely grand when pressed, and reassuring in the rough. I had the best crew imaginable and am so proud of his skills.

Please note that I have tried to make searching specific topics on this blog easier by providing a more limited number of topic labels in the right hand margin near the top. i.e. guitar making, harp making, sailing, Navigator etc.  Also a featured post from ones that seem to get constant attention. It will be changed from time to time.

Coasting; John Raban's book from the 1980's

Coasting: A Private Voyage by Jonathan Raban
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Raban is not your average escapist writing about the bliss of being footloose in a boat. Where you might expect this simply to be a salty tale, it turns out being a wonderful insight into the state of Britain in the early 1980's, as glimpsed from the cockpit of his boat and his venturing into port as he makes his way around an island in a state of turbid change. He is an outsider in many ways but this is a very useful filter for his musings on the nature of a population surrounded by water, at a time when Thatcher was taking shots at the Argentinians over the Falkland Islands, and while the fishing and coal industries were taking seismic hits from which the labour force would never quite recover.

I really warmed to his prose and his insights, although he doesn't escape the inevitable difficulty of finding a suitable ending for a voyage which is pretty much circular.


View all my reviews

Yet more Beachcomber pics

I still haven't found the time to replace the standing rigging, but the two foresails still pull us along nicely when the wind is on my back, making an incredibly economical motor trip even more so.

Apart from the shrouds, forestays and whiskers the bow sprit needs re-finishing too, and I promise to rid the boat soon of those ageing green sail covers. They were well made but have given up on any semblance of an organised appearance.

It turns out that our long motoring trips aren't much slower than those by friends with more powerful motors. A trip to 'The Barrier' near Lakes Entrance takes us about 50 minutes- a nice time for a lunch to be taken while we let some lovely wilderness pass us by. Those with tens of HP and planing hulls can do it in 20 minutes or so, but that is more commuting than travelling...The lid of the motor box serves as a handy and well-situated table.

A 'Couta Boat on the lakes

Peter Medling of Paynesville came up with this picture of 'Pearl' built by Mitch Lacco in 1926 with a NZ Kauri hull and Queensland Beech decks. She was recently purchased and brought to the Lakes from Port Philip, I think...but I'll need to do a bit more digging for the details.

She is a powerful hull. Five up on the rails seem insubstantial. I am quite intimidated by the overhang of the boom!

I also include this pic from the early 20th Century of the jetty at Kalimna. The boat there is reputedly the one belonging to a well-known Melbourne business family, but it bears an uncanny resemblance to Beachcomber, whose origins and maker are still a bit obscure, despite lots of information.

 I recently spoke to a man whose lineage goes way back in this district and he claims that his ancestor was a likely builder of Beachcomber in the traditions of the French Canadian boats he learnt his trade upon before coming down to Oz. His name was MacMillan (a branch apparently unrelated to the explorer and pioneer in this area who has a very disturbing and unhappy reputation in his dealings with the local indigenous people ), and I'll be interested to find out more about him because the previous most likely builder has working dates that don't quite match Beachcomber's given history.

I keep an open mind on these things but glean anything I can by making these claims online and at dinners, and seeing what comes up...

Sooty the Noble Greyhound

This remarkable creature is new to the family, and while I'm more than happy to share my pleasure in having his companionship, the reason I'm including him here is somewhat more complex.

He is three and a half years old,  a former racing greyhound, and having survived four trainers and a short career- including his share of wins- he was taken to a vet to be euthanised, like thousands of similar dogs around the world, when they have 'served' what is seen to be 'their purpose'. 

This magnificent animal is such good company.  He is solid and uncomplicated and calm despite his great physicality. The reason he wasn't killed by the vet is that he was rescued by a local group who make it their business to find good homes for retired racing dogs, and many wonderful relationships have come from their efforts. Vets are often overcome by the wastefulness of these destructions and are happy to have an organisation to call. We offered to foster him for them until a 'forever home' could be found, but I became too attached to let him go without a struggle.

We have watched as he has become used to us, and we him. He is now rediscovering his playful puppy-self, and finding time to dwell a little on the joy of just being. It has taken a few weeks for us to understand his particular needs, his never having lived in a home before nor had the sort of affection that a pet might expect from people. These are a bit different from other dogs, but they are full of pleasant surprises. People expect them to need a huge amount of space and exercise, but they don't. People assume that they are dangerous because they are big and muscular, but they aren't. 

Some might assume that they are 'industrialised' and incapable of domestication, but they are intelligent and adaptable, and they are very quick to recognise a calm and happy environment and give out much more emotionally than they expect in return.

Everyone wants to pat Sooty when we walk him. He is a great ambassador for the breed. Currently he is helping us foster a frightened, timid little female  also rescued from a wasteful end. She has made very quick progress into some sort of confidence and will make someone an affectionate and loyal companion too, and our Sooty will have been a part of her initial re-education from an industry that seems unforgivably wasteful to me.

His racing name was Pod's Elect, and the video below is of one of his better races. 

A disclaimer. I have never been to the dog or horse races and I don't support the idea of racing animals. (But watch him come from behind. He is in the red jumper, no.1)