The Widowmaker Rises Again!

She's back. After 2 months of consistent and diligent weekend sanding, scraping, filling, varnishing, and painting, toxic chemical sniffing, scone eating and coffee drinking...the Widowmaker has risen again!

Up goes the main!

Today we rigged her up with her "working sails," meaning enough sail area to get a couple of yahoos wet, but hopefully not drown them. Wayne-o figures if we can get around the harbor a few times and come home dry, then maybe we can add the square'sl, the flying jib, and the top'sl. I said, "It doesn't even have to be a jackyard top'sl. We could just add a top'mst to the main". The scoffing pretty much determined that you gotta go big, or go home. So we have to make a few more yards and dig up the old jackyard top'sl to do it up right when the time comes. It pretty much takes a 3 armed acrobat to set correctly, and requires 3 hands in the boat to sail it. Also, anything over about 5 knots of wind, and you're swimming home...but its stunningly beautiful. What could go wrong?

Note ladder precariously leaning against 3" diameter mast. its only 16' off the ground. I asked Wayn-o if this was maybe a little precarious. He said, "Naw, I balance like a cat..." He was climbing rigs when i was cruising around the yard on my Big Wheel, so I guess this is pretty small potatoes compared to striking the foret'galln't on a tall ship in a blow.

This jib is absolutely ridiculous. There is so much tension on the bowsprit, that it bends like mad. I'm pretty sure we're going to rip the hardware out of the deck with this thing. Its almost bigger than the main, just shaped differently. We added a heavier bobstay fitting this morning before we turned her over and put her on the trailer. Probably a good thing.

Here she is, downrigged and stowed, all tucked in for a 2 week nap. Then, after spring break, we launch her. Hopefully, the water in the harbor will be warmer by then...

Varnish

I'm apparently a varnish addict. I have suspected it for a while, but Thursday's volunteer experience confirms it. I opted to go sand and varnish Adventuress's deck house (the new one that replaced the ratty one i am living in) rather than go to class. This problem generally arises in march and subsides by the time i have put 9 coats on everything i own, and apparently a coat or two on things i don't own. (It was tough at first, but the dogs and cat are used to it now.) I have been putting a coat on the widowmaker's spars at lunch, as i was able to hang them from the rafters in the heated shop next door. Its amazing. It actually DRIES. I put a coat of thinned 50/50 varnish/thinner on the gaff outside the other day, and it took it 3 days to sort of dry. No wonder Port Hadlock was voted Varnish Capital of the World. It dries so fast! Not.

Adventuress's new deck house was built by one of our instructors years ago. It was very handy to be able to go straight back to school and tell him how much all those fancy inset panels sucked to sand and varnish.

Speaking of things that sucked, check out the interior of the widowmaker's cuddy. I painted every square inch on Saturday, and it was a blast! It looks like it was applied with a water hose, but i got it all (including the bare plywood hiding in there) and didn't get any on my favorite hat. I had to lay on my back and paint above my head and still reach the paint tray. It must have looked like the boat was eating me. Only my sock feet were sticking out.

Here are a few more shots of the weekend's work. Not bad for a semi lazy rainy weekend of painting and the occasional coffee break.

Here is a sign i left on a piece of scrap plywood for Eric in case he showed up while i was gone. I thought it was pretty self explanatory.

We are planning to paint the bottom on Saturday, and possibly rig her up on Sunday. Pretty exciting stuff. I realized (not that I'm hyper obsessive) that i have worked on a boat of some flavor every day for the last 21 days at least. I'm actually very ready to stop working on them for a while, and instead, sit in this one in a mild breeze and watch the clouds go by. I'm looking forward to a very satisfying weekend of tooling swiftly around the bay in my fabulous resurrected toy. Very soon. Very soon indeed.