Author: Oarlock and Sail Wooden Boat Club

The Davidson dinghy is looking beautiful!  We’ve put on a coat of epoxy inside and out, to seal and preserve the wood hull.  Now that we see the gorgeous wood grain, we’re loath to cover it up with paint!  But we have to keep telling ourselves that paint is so much more durable and maintenance-free than 12 coats of varnish!  The colour scheme is in progress, but the Dutch orange has been ruled out, to the disappointment of some, and the relief of others.

The inner keel got an infill piece over the patched hole, the hull was well-sanded inside and out, and finally, a couple of coats of epoxy.

Ragna’s mast is coming along well, with a great deal of sanding using a belt-sander strip, and a couple of handles.  It actually made pretty quick work of it, and provided a great workout for the members who took part in that!

After it was rounded, the hole at the top for the halyard sheave was cut and shaped.  The mast has been given a thinned coat of epoxy, and is now getting multiple coats of varnish.  It won’t be long until Ragna is ready to sail again!

Enke got a name-board, just in time to serve as one of the clues in a scavenger hunt that Museum board member (and donator of Enke) Robert Allan was involved in.  Thanks to Bruce for making that!

At the shed last Saturday, we had a quick lesson in whipping lines, to keep the ends of our dock lines neat and tidy.

One of our members sent a few more pics of the flotilla to the rowing races with flute accompaniment – thanks Bernard!

And finally, Button Swan got her bottom paint and is back in the water, and sailing wonderfully!  Ready to dominate the Heritage Harbour Classic on September 21 – unless Enke has something to say about it – she’s a speedy boat too!  Hope to see you there!

Edit:  Oh, we also weighed the Button Swan last weekend – the hull alone weighs 310 lbs, with the rig (minus bowsprit, jib, and oars, which we forgot), it’s 430 lbs, and the bags of water ballast are 60 lbs, for a total of 490 lbs.  At some point during the build we started a pool, guessing the final weight (fully rigged) – only Rob and Daniel committed to a number, Rob predicting 346 lbs, and Daniel going with 368 lbs.  It was suggested that Rob now owes Daniel a bottle of scotch.  🙂

Another Granville Island Wooden Boat Festival weekend has passed, and it was a good one!  Great weather all weekend, good crowds showing lots of interest in our boat and club (of COURSE!), including a number of locals, who were encouraged to come by on a Saturday to take a look and learn more.

The rowing races had two enthusiastic participants from the festival who joined at the last minute, their attention captured by our flotilla of boats towed from Heritage Harbour by Bourton and his tugboat Ella McKenzie!   We had OLAS’s Vogler, Ragna, and Enke, as well as Stephen and his crew with their dinghy, all tied to the Ella McKenzie and  serenaded by a couple of classical flutists standing on the deck of the tug.  Georgina brought signs for everyone to hold, enticing observers and rowers to come over to Alder Bay for the races – and it worked!

The racing was fun, with a few bumps and bruises thrown in.  There were a few close encounters between oars and heads, and at least one direct hit on a rock – thankfully all without lasting damage.  I think all of us who rowed slept well that night – Dale, who regularly goes for long steady rows found the sprint racing was a lot more exhausting!

The weekend before the festival, Button Swan was pulled out onto the dock for a thorough and much-needed cleaning. It felt great to get all the growth scrubbed off the keel, and get the interior clean again.

After that, she was taken into the shed for a couple of fresh coats of varnish on all bright-work (including the mast), repainting of the interior white, and some touch-ups of the turquoise paint – a huge thank-you to Dale and Ingrid who came in during the week for that – she was looking fine on display at the festival!  This coming weekend we plan to pull her out on the dock again and give her a new coat of bottom paint – we didn’t want to do that when she was going to be out of the water for a few days.  And then she should be good and ready for the upcoming Heritage Harbour Classic (see below)!

Getting the Button Swan to the plaza was made MUCH easier this year with the great little dolly that Nick made!  He had crafted the framework, glued up a block of wood for a roller, and turned the roller on a lathe.  This was its first outing, and it held up great, making the boat very easy to roll and steer on its journey across the island!  Thanks for that, Nick!

At the shed, last weekend saw some more progress on the Davidson dinghy, scarfing in a section on the keel that had cracked, further filling in of the patch of the hole, and a fillet of epoxy along the keel to reinforce and seal it.  The mast for Ragna is mostly shaped, with some more sanding to do to get it smooth and round.  We should be able to get it done in another week or two.

Mark your calendar for the 3rd annual Heritage Harbour Classic sailing race, coming up Saturday September 21st starting around 2pm, and followed by a BBQ on the dock.  We hope to have all three of our sailboats in the race, and so we will need crew – up to 3 people on Button Swan, and 2 each on Ragna and Enke – so please let us know where you’d like to take part.  Last year was a great success, and we’re looking forward to another great time!