Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

[Dave Hadfield]

Wire-brushed, because you walk on it.

[Dave Hadfield]

But now it’s so clean and fresh I don’t want to.

[Dave Hadfield]

This though... bedding deck fittings is supremely important! Water goes sideways in wooden boats!

[Dave Hadfield]

This is why you labour in a boatyard.

And Robin likes the new bimini!

[Dave Hadfield]

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Fun sail combo today — spinnaker from the mizzen and genoa from the main.

Lovely easy run.

[Dave Hadfield]

The only boat in Hopewell, which in normal years would have 20. Wonderful!

[WI-Tom]

Good for you, Dave. That's where I'd be right now if the border were open. Ah, well. We all play the hand we're dealt, and I've gotten a better one than many people have right now even if I can't cruise Georgian Bay this summer.

Enjoy!

Tom

[Dave Hadfield]

Next year Tom, we’ll meet up, somewhere along this shore.

[Dave Hadfield]

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[Dave Hadfield]

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[Dave Hadfield]

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[Dave Hadfield]

It’s like 1955 up here. Not a soul came into this beautiful cove, Hopewell Island Harbour, all day.

I skinny dipped repeatedly, in the wonderful warm sun.

And I don’t think that’s why!

[Chris249]

Today was Day 12 of spring preparation for launch. Normally I’m in a mad panic because of all the warbird flying spool-up which happens about now. But this year, mostly grounded, I’m actually tackling the “I’m gonna paint that someday”, items.

It’s kind of fun. Is this what retirement is supposed to be like?

Nope, I think you are normally supposed to retire from doing a crappy boring job that you hate.

You, on the other hand.......

[Dave Hadfield]

Every half-century you should replace the cushions in your focsle. (I think LFH said this...)

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[Dave Hadfield]

Finishing up a circumnavigation of Georgian Bay. Just left Lion’s Head, for Christian Island.

[Dave Hadfield]

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Robin is happy. We’ve been using a the new bimini on the hot days.

[cstevens]

Very nice Dave. How long are you planning to stay out? We got back from our most recent cruise a few days ago and we are already wondering why we came back.

[Dave Hadfield]

Today we should get back to our home port, Penetang. It’s been almost 3 weeks.

[Dave Hadfield]

Had a great welcome yesterday after our crossing.

[Dave Hadfield]

Bump, for a friend.

Also, I really enjoy winter evenings in the shop, repairing or refinishing small items from Drake. Here are the jib-sheet blocks, which I made many years ago from jotoba and ash. They had 2 long seasons of use and needed some varnish. (Hung from the ceiling where it's warmest in the shop.)



The grommets (straps) are good quality 1/2" manila rope, soaked in my special sauce. I'll trash them and make 2 more, but they showed no wear, just minor weathering. I like using rope-strapped blocks because they don't damage the deck as they thrash around during tacks.

[Dave Hadfield]

Short clip of sailing Drake last Saturday. It's already Day 22 of sailing for me this year!

[WI-Tom]

Thanks for posting--I'm glad someone's out there enjoying the sailing. I'm guessing I won't get up there this year...

Tom

[Thad]

Grand!! Thanks.

[Dave Hadfield]

Yeah I know, I already have about 500 photos of Drake like this, but every time I row around her I take more...

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Beausoleil Island, Aug 2021.

[Ian McColgin]

Dave, Meg and I can learn a lot from Drake III and you. Maybe next summer.

[Dave Hadfield]

The tarps look ok on the boat. And the bubblers are working overtime at the docks!


Sure is a different picture from not very long ago...

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[Dave Hadfield]

Too bloody busy to post much lately. Airplanes and boats...

For the last 3 years I've been watching a wee tiny little mushroom growing under Drake's roof. So when I returned from OSH in August, I brought out the angle-grinder...


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And soon started ripping out pieces... by hand...

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So... I started living on a ladder.

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Haven't got time to post all the pictures, but it was hot sweaty finicky work. And the only way to cut the scarfs on some of those deckbeams was to hold a belt-sander over my head -- there were screws protruding into the mating surface.

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Eventual, weeks later, got to this welcome stage.

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[Dave Hadfield]

And now we're in!

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She did NOT want to take up. I expected that of course. In fact, last Fall I placed a piece of soft foam under the centerboard slot so that I could pre-swell the CB trunk, which is plank-on-frame, caulked on the wrong side. Here's what it looks like after you lift the boat off.

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One thing that fooled me was the live-oak deadwood timber the propshaft hole is bored through. When the boat had dried out so thoroughly, there were checks in the oak that let water into the shaft tunnel. I thought it was the stern-gland (which is on the outside of Drake, not the inside) letting a stream of water through the packing. But 36 hours later the checks closed and the leak reduced to normal drippage.

Back into life again! Bring on Summer!

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[Thad]

Isn't fall the best. I tell myself.

[Dave Hadfield]

Got the sails on, the diesel filters changed, and this handrail put back on so there's less chance of me ending up in the drink.

Butyl rubber bedding -- good squeeze-out!

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[Dave Hadfield]

I was all set for some early October cruising. The forecast was for wonderful clear, warm, Fall weather. And then I got covid!!! I was out of commission for 3 weeks, grumpy and unhappy (although glad not to be dead).

This last weekend we got another burst of south winds, and I had a 3-day solo trip that made the 18-days-on-a-ladder worthwhile.

Here's Drake from a DHC-1 Chipmunk, flown by a friend who has a sailboat at our marina.

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Hiding from the SE wind behind the Old Woman Rocks at Beausoleil Island.

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Here's a panned-shot, sunset at Beausoleil. Missing is the continuous loon-calls.

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[Dave Hadfield]

Next morning.

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Poking our nose out into the open waters of Georgian Bay, a delicious all-day broad-reach.

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At anchor in the roadstead of Methodist Point. Awenda Park off the bow.

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[Dave Hadfield]

I'd brought the tin wood-stove, but it wasn't quite cool enough with the south wind coming off the land to bother setting it up. Much simpler to light the Dietz cold-blast "Air Pilot" kerosene lamp. Lovely warm cheery light, and quite a bit of heat, too.

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Morning colours.

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Close-hauled on the way back home.

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[John B]

Bad news about the covid and spoiling your cruise, Dave. I lost more than month over Flu , if you can believe that. Never tested positive for the other stuff, but I was down like a ton of bricks.
Handy having a friend in an aircraft ...

[Dave Hadfield]

Yep - low friends in high places