NOW I'm done with the hull

Hey everyone, just a quick sunfish sailboat update. I kept looking at the boat, and remembering that I hadn't waxed the bottom of the boat when I did the top and sides. So, now the bottom is waxed (with the 3M Fiberglass restorer and wax.) It looks (and feels) great. So now the hull really is done (except for the fittings I want to replace, but that is going to have to wait until after the holidays.)

Here's a picture. it looks like the trailer is definitely going to need some work once the boat is done.
Peace,
Mac

Sanding, Sanding (to the tune of sailing, sailing)

So, the sanders have come out, and it's time to see what can be done with the daggerboard and rudder for the Sunfish sailboat. If you remember from the last blog, all of the wood pieces for the boat have seen better days. They've been left in the sun, and they don't like that one bit! So, I took the daggerboard and rudder apart, and started the process of making them beautiful.

Here's what the 'board looked like after sanding it down to the non-faded/non-varnished wood. It looks much better doesn't it? The 'board itself is in pretty good shape. There are a few cracks down at the bottom of it (right side in the picture) but they were very small, and actually expected in a 'board that hasn't been refinished in forever. Hopefully the spar varnish that is put on the 'board will help with those cracks.

There was a bit of a surprise when I took apart the rudder however. The rudder "cheeks," which is what connects the rudder to the boat, were hiding an unfortunate problem. There was a large crack in the rudder. Believe it or not, I'm actually not a stranger to cracked rudders. Both of the boats at Camp Omega had rudders that cracked in half when I was working there. It's not the best situation when that happens, because the boat is obviously difficult to steer without a rudder (what? impossible you say?) and the other problem is that the rudders are expensive to replace (see the earlier comment in this blog about the pieces being made of mahogany.) Luckily this crack has not traveled all the way down the rudder, so I am going to try to use some wood glue on it, clamp it together, and see if that will hold it for a while.

The next step is spar varnish on everything that has been sanded. The minimum recommendation is 3 coats with at least 12 hours between coats, so it might be a little bit of time before this part of the project is done. It's taking a while, but this boat is really starting to shape up.

That's it for now,
See you on the water, and at Camp!
Mac

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, the calendar has clicked around again and it's almost Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving can only mean one thing. Nope it doesn't mean the two (now three) football games. It doesn't even mean all the food (although let's be honest, that is good) it can only mean... Black Friday is coming. Now, if you are wondering what the heck black friday is, it was "the worst day ever" when I was working at Best Buy. You see, there are so many people shopping on Black Friday, that they even made us poor souls from the service centers (who are usually shielded from actually dealing with the public in person) go into the stores to try and help. People from the Best Buy corporate offices in Minneapolis even had to head out to the stores to help with the rush. Yes, black Friday is the busiest day of the shopping season, the day that the stores can go from their year being "in the red" to being "in the black" financially speaking.

For the past several years (some in the cold of Minnesota, and last year in the chill of Alabama) we have stood (or sat) in line to get the great deals that are available the day after Thanksgiving. Last year we picked up the monitor I am looking at right now as I write this for under $100! We picked up a couple of cheap hard drives, and we honestly have more DVD+R's than we will ever use in our lifetime, because the past couple of years they were selling them 100 at a time, free after rebate.

This year, we were hoping to find a great deal on a flat panel TV. The TV that we had in our bedroom finally died after 9 years of service. The picture tube only showed a single line across the middle of the screen. And then of course there was this awful burning smell. Anyway, it is no longer with us. So we need a replacement.

Unfortunately, there aren't any deals that are in the price range that we were looking for. We are still holding out for Wal*Mart (yes Wal*Mart!) because they are the last of the big box chains that haven't announced all of their on sale items for the Friday sale. We shall see. It will be strange if we actually sleep in on the day after Thanksgiving.

That description of the day after Thanksgiving was a bit longer than I had intended. What I really wanted to do was to let you know some of the things that I am thankful for this summer. We had a very busy retreat season, and we had a great opportunity to meet and help lots of people with their retreats. This summer was the best yet. We had an amazing staff, who really stepped up to lead our on-site and day camp programs. If I could hire every one of them back for next summer I would. They were that good. I also want to thank those who supported Camp Dixie. Those of you who helped out at chicken dinners, ate at the chicken dinners, or donated money to Camp Dixie. Your foresightedness is what makes the ministry at Camp Dixie possible.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope you have a great day!
See you at camp!
Mac

So how is the sailboat going?

I noticed that it's been a few weeks since I let everyone know what's been going on with the Sunfish sailboat, so I thought I would fill you in.

The boat has been out of the water for a little while, partly because there hasn't been all that much wind (and I love big wind in the little boats) but also because it's been drying out in the sun on the side of the house. In order to dry out a boat that only has a 1/2" hole on the side of it to drain water, you need to open the inside to the outside. So I ordered some inspection ports to put into the hull so I have an easy way of opening and closing the hull. The picture on the left is what it looks like when you cut the hole into the deck of your sunfish for the port. It's not for the faint of heart, it makes a lot of noise and it's a bit of work to cut through the gelcoat and fiberglass.

After cutting out the holes, I put the inspection port in with some 3M waterproof silicone and stainless steel screws. It looks pretty nice, except I waxed around the port with a wax that changed the color of the gelcoat. Oops. I was able to get rid of it by using some 3M fiberglass polish. (No, this is not an add for 3M, although they do make nice products) Here's a picture of the inspection port retainer in place, after the bad wax but before the good wax.

I ended up putting three ports in, one at the bow, one at the stern, and one in front of the cockpit but behind the splash guard. Now the trick is to open the ports on sunny warm days, and keep them closed on rainy days. And now that this part of the project is done, I am done with the hull for a little while. Next comes the wood pieces of the boat. They all need to be re-sanded and re-varnished so they look and perform well again.

Here's a picture of what the daggerboard looks like before refinishing. It's spent a lot of time in the sun/weather, and most of the original varnish has come off, and the wood is very faded. The board is actually made of mahogany (sorry to those of you who don't like using rainforest wood.) The rudder also has been out in the weather for quite some time, it's lost it's color and doesn't have any varnish on it anymore either. I don't have a picture of it, but I will take some more as I sand and refinish.

Anyway, that's it for now, thanks for reading, I hope you have a great day!
See you at camp!
Mac

Two years ago (two weekends ago)

So, what happened two years ago (and two weekends)? Well, it was the Elberta Sausage Festival. Now for those of you who aren't sure what that's all about, Elberta is a town with German Heritage. Kind of like those towns in Minnesota where my great-grandparents lived. To celebrate this, the town of Elberta has a festival. They serve sausages, lots of people come, and they call it the sausage festival. They have them twice a year, once in October and once in March.

Which means there have been four festivals since Kim and I came down here. But in an interesting twist of fate, this is the fifth Sausage Festival that I have attended. You see, that missing fifth festival is the weekend that Kim and I came down to interview with the Camp Dixie Board of Directors for the Director Position.

It seems like a long time ago. Believe it or not I even called in sick from my then-current job so I could come down. The funny thing is that I called in sick TWICE! We were working so many hours at the service center at that time, that we had mandatory Saturdays. I felt bad about doing that for a while, but I love this job, so I feel quite a bit better. Also the service center that I worked at has since closed, and the people there are either working at different places in Best Buy, or have moved on to new positions. No more feeling bad, because if I still worked there I would likely have to have been looking for a new job anyway.

So I just wanted to mark the occasion of my fifth Sausage Festival, and my two-years-since-I've-been-to-visit. It's truly been a great time, and I am looking forward to the future here at Camp Dixie.

See you at Camp!
Mac