Hoisting sail

Not an exciting weekend. Putting the winter cover up has become a rather dull exercise really.





Saturday I finished the frame putting the end poles up. It was too windy to consider pulling the tarp over so I worked on securing the galley paneling - bits and pieces here and there- not worth a photo.

Sunday morning seemed like a good day for pulling the tarp over with the wind somewhat diminished from the day before. First, I hung my small older tarp across the stern area where it is too wide to pull the big tarp together. Then I unrolled the main tarp and positioned it alongside the boat, securing one side to the bottom of the frame and attaching several long pieces of rope to pull the tarp over.

As a side note; the new tarp from Hamilton Marine looks much better than last year's tarp from TarpsOnline.com.

When I started, the wind was working in my favor to help push the tarp across the boat and over the top.

Unfortunately...

The wind shifted and started to pick up. I was working the tarp over about six feet at a time and had the tarp over the ridgepole when the wind shifted. Now, instead of the wind helping to push the tarp over, it filled the tarp and was pulling it away from the boat. I suddenly found myself running on a broad reach with a 1200 square foot spinnaker. My simple slip knots on the lines I was using to pull the tarp became welded iron and I was forced to cut them away before any serious damage occured. I was surprised, really, that the structure didn't seem to mind at all. The tarp was flying 10-20 feet above the boat and really pulling well. While frantically scrambling for my knife (luckily in my pocket at the time) I was fully expecting the structure to flex and crack and blow apart. The structure really didn't seem to show any signs of stress though; even with the tarp picking me up when I grabbed a loose end.

So for the moment, the tarp is staged alongside of the boat waiting for more favorable conditions. After that little bit of excitement I didn't feel like tackling any other projects so I used my time to clean up the area and my shop area at home.

There is always next week...