Back from a quick Maine vist

Went to Maine to help my brother with a bit of small boat work last week. He’s started work on the 17′ Yawl boat designed by Eric Blake of Brooklin. She was one of three boats built last winter by Eric, Bob and a few others. They’re burdensome little vessels, designed for comfortable exploration of the nooks and crannies of Eggemoggin Reach. I helped get out the bed logs for the centerboard case and make a pattern for the curved coaming. Hope to see her done for our August visit. Drove up and back by myself with a stop both ways in Portland to visit with the Bauers. It’s tough to get Julia to head north this time of the year.

There’s also progress on the Sjogin front. Beaton’s has pulled her mast and she’s scheduled to go in the new/old shop perhaps as soon as next week. The mast’s already in there so I started taking the rigging off in preparation for stripping the varnish.

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Here’s Bob fitting the aft seat slats. The coaming pattern’s in place and ready for final fitting. The bow of Tendress hangs over all.

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Here’s an overview of the new Barn. Some may recognize it as the spot where Bob and Lorinda were married last Summer.

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A view of the barn with Jet and Bob. Beautiful Winters day in Sargentville. I was very lucky with the weather with snowstorms bracketing my visit.

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A visit to Brooklin Boat Yard is essential anytime I visit. The productivity of this world class shop always astonishes me. Here are two new 47′ sloops being built for June launchings. At right is a new 70′ Sonny. You may remember Julia and I sailing with Bob on the original Sonny a few years ago. The owner, who will be 90 at the time of launch, missed his old boat and is having another one built.

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Beaton’s has pulled Sjogin’s mast and it’s in the new/old shop on the rack at left. I puled it down today and started removing the hardware and stays. When stripped I’ll take off all the old varnish and build up new coats. This has long been one of those ‘next year’ jobs ever since I’ve had Sjogin.

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Amazingly enough her wind vane survived though quite mangled. At the height of Sandy, Sjogin’s mast was laying almost horizontal in the storm wrack that built up in front of the buildings. It’s a miracle that the mast survived, never mind the wind vane. It will live to fly again.

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After a few hours of work the cap, sheave and crane were removed. It involved a bit of grinding, knocking out drifts and some heavy hammer work. The top three stays were labeled and removed. More on Monday.

Tom hopes to move Sjogin into this shop next week so I can start removing the broken bits. Progress indeed!