First Splash

First Splash

Monday 12 August 2019

The Murphy Vortex of Lateness



 "How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it is afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn." Dr. Seuss 

I cannot believe that is is already August! I kept telling myself that I would write the blog then it was four month later and people that take the time to read our story had no idea if we were able to finish our little winter project. Here is another installment (not the last) in the long saga of Restless. 



We finished planking in the bow (you can see some of the dead planks on the trailer).
We needed to add a bit more onto the cut water. The cut water is there for exactly what the name suggests. It cuts through the water instead of having a blunt bow.


You can see from the photo that we had a bit of sculpting to do. I teased Ted saying that we should just leave it like that. He was not amused by the idea. The bow feels a lot better now. New stem, new planks, and new sister ribs! 


Finally sculpted it down, there were a few places that needed a just a bit of filler but it looks just like the old one but in better shape! 





Once the filler was dry I began to pay the cotton. It is amazingly satisfying to do. I have gotten faster at it compared to last year. This year I had a few more planks to do so I had more practice!


Ted and I made about 500 plugs. Between the new planks and the sister ribs there were a lot of screw heads to hide. We went a bit crazy because we used different sized screws depending on the rib and then we had all the bolt heads from the butt blocks. Needless to say we were very happy once they were all in. It took several passes to find them all!



I went down one night to do the night shift and I was enjoying the look of it! 


Once all the plugs were cut and the cotton paid out above the water line we had the expert (my mom) come and help us get the waterline straight. Restless always had a little 'woggle' that I was never able to get out and I wanted to raise the water line. Now she has about an inch of blue showing when she is at the mooring and I am not constantly thinking that she is sinking at the mooring.  



We were moved into a heated room while we did the paint. It was great! It made us work a bit faster because we didn't want to stay in the warm room for very long. Restless  really started to dry out in there!




It was time to say good-bye to our camouflaged boat!  





I was very happy with the first coat



Ted then painted the bottom. Usually bottom paint doesn't bother me that much. But we use VC Offshore and that stuff most be some of the most potent smelling anti-fouling there is! We only had one vapour mask so I decided to take a walk while he was doing it. 

On my little outing a saw a boat that was ready the big flood! 




First coat on everything! Getting back to how we remember her!



To say I was happy to do the final coat was an understatement! 




Ted wanted to film me doing this. I was so nervous that the tape was going to take all the paint off. I had this happen the last time I painted her. Happy to say that didn't happen this time! 



The photo does not give the waterline justice! I had the sharpest line I have ever had on that boat. Yes I am tooting my own horn. I have no pictures of the boat being launched. We went in ahead of our own schedule. I believe we were in the week before the long weekend in May. 

Once in the water Ted and I didn't really do anything with the boat. We put the sails on a day before our first Chester IOD fleet regatta the first weekend in July and then sailed her home to Martins River. 


We went to Nantucket for the North American Invitational. Our first reward for all the work we did


The first day had Minette and me swimming off the boat


The second day had us feeling like we were swimming! They had to call off the last race. We also needed to don our favorite Key-hole life jackets


We were able to snatch the first place thanks to the heavy air day! 
Left to right: Jamie Blunden, Dave Wedlake, Minette Murphy, Ted Murphy, Mat Murphy, and ME



Ted has a J24 called Juvenile Delinquent that we race with bank robbers. We sailed J24 with 6 people. There is a class weight limited of 882lbs we all got a bit skinny to make weight! We have been enjoying putting it back on.

We just raced in the National Championship. We came second -  thanks to a heavy air day! 
Left to right: Jamie Blunden, Anna Miller, ME (being weird), Rachel Erskin, Ted Murphy, and Hugh Layton 


Restless is turning 60 this year! She was built in Fredrikstad, Norway in 1959 and when Ted and I were in Sweden last year for the IOD Worlds we made the trek up to Norway to visit the yard where she was built!

The Dark Harbor 17.5

When I am not slaving away in a cold shed on Restless  I am helping build beautiful custom wooden boats. Last winters project was a Dark Ha...