Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

[Dave Hadfield]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

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]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

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]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

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]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

Isn't fall the best. I tell myself.

[Dave Hadfield]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

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]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

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]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

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]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

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]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

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]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

Yep - low friends in high places

[gdallas]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

Thanks very much for this lovely gentle thread. Your boat is lovely. Happy New Year

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

I had missed this lovely thread. Thank you Dave.

[Dave Hadfield]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

Was cruising GoogleEarth this morning and saw my life last August.

This is my corner of our boatyard, from space. That's my truck, Drake III, and the white sun-tarp I worked under as I repaired the deck.

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Dirtside version (the "before picture").

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[Dave Hadfield]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

There was a bit of a soft spot on Drake’s lazarette. The stern cleat is there so I thought I’d better have a look.
Cleat removed.
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Small neat rectangle excised with the grinder (a wooden boat owner’s great friend).

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Oh… soft plywood. Better look farther.

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Sigh…

[Dave Hadfield]

Re: Drake -- 40' LOD Munroe-influenced ketch

Small neat cuts abandoned.

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See that green layer? That’s History. That’s Legacy. That’s a PITA.
Drake originally had a pine deck with canvas covering. This became too leaky by the late 70s. The second owner attacked the deck leaks, stripped off the pine, substituted plywood, and covered it with Celastic - a kind of thin pliable linoleum.
In about 1990 the third owner attacked the deck leaks, laid down plywood, but put it on top of the Celastic!
Fast forward another 30 years, and the present owner, attacking the deck leaks, has to cut through 2 decks containing 2 sets of screws, the lower ones cleverly hidden in order to destroy edged tools on the galvanized steel screws.