Ian McColgin
01-05-2010, 02:58 PM
The steel ketch Rauha was the last boat out in Hyannis Port. A bit after Christmas when I looked from the beach she was looking a bit loggy. No visible waterline and in the nearly non-existent swell she had that roll that can only come from quite a bit of free surface sloshing about well above the floorboards. Then it was stormy a while. I was trying to track the owner and drove by to look at her before the last set of storms when I happily saw the dink on the stern. Obviously pumping.
Yesterday as I was giving Marmalade’s engine a warm-up I heard Teacher’s Pet, a neighboring fishing charter boat, fire up. So I went over to chat with Jamie, her captain. And was delighted to see Rauha’s owner there, planning a tow into the dock. The planned mid-December haul had been weather delayed, the windmill failed to keep up the battery, and the float switch froze open and so drained the battery. Suddenly the normal leakage was a problem that let the water get up over the starting motor. Hence the tow.
Out we three went about sunset, got the mooring ball off, winter staked the mooring, and brought her in on the hip. I was delighted to learn a bit of Jamie’s history, growing up sailing in Chatham and almost done restoring a hurricane damaged Freedom 36 he bought cheap. I was more delighted with the professional competence of the gentle run in, and most impressed with the utterly smooth way he swung Rauha into her spot on the dock with no fuss, snarl of straining engine, or anything other than such quiet competence that non-sailors watching might have thought anyone could do that.
I really like it when I watch a bit of boat handling that is so good that I think I could do it also but I can also imagine ways to have screwed it up.
My highest accolade:
Finaskind.
Yesterday as I was giving Marmalade’s engine a warm-up I heard Teacher’s Pet, a neighboring fishing charter boat, fire up. So I went over to chat with Jamie, her captain. And was delighted to see Rauha’s owner there, planning a tow into the dock. The planned mid-December haul had been weather delayed, the windmill failed to keep up the battery, and the float switch froze open and so drained the battery. Suddenly the normal leakage was a problem that let the water get up over the starting motor. Hence the tow.
Out we three went about sunset, got the mooring ball off, winter staked the mooring, and brought her in on the hip. I was delighted to learn a bit of Jamie’s history, growing up sailing in Chatham and almost done restoring a hurricane damaged Freedom 36 he bought cheap. I was more delighted with the professional competence of the gentle run in, and most impressed with the utterly smooth way he swung Rauha into her spot on the dock with no fuss, snarl of straining engine, or anything other than such quiet competence that non-sailors watching might have thought anyone could do that.
I really like it when I watch a bit of boat handling that is so good that I think I could do it also but I can also imagine ways to have screwed it up.
My highest accolade:
Finaskind.