Sailboat Spruce-Up

Today's project was to clean the Sailboat. Peter from across the street offered it to us for free this summer. So one day we got together, put a new wheel on the trailer, pulled it out of the muddy decomposed leaf pile that had grown around it, and rolled it right across the street and up our little driveway.



It remained full of leaves mainly due to the wasp nest that occupied the leaf accumulation in the back of the boat. One got inside the house and later died on my bathroom windowsill, and I identified them as a European Paper Wasps. http://www.livingwithbugs.com/epw.html They were pretty agressive little guys, so waiting until this nice November day was essential. My uncle Tom was over one afternoon to watch the kids for Shawn and me, and was about to go out and clean it for us, but Jimmy (then still two) said the magic word... "bees!" So Tom's clean-boat-surprise was a bust...

I looked it up online and identified it as a Canadian made Tanzer 16. It arrived with a main, jib and genoa that seem to be in fine shape. The teak was soaking in the mud at the bottom of the boat for some time, but I braved the bees to tug out the aft hatch cover, which was spongy. Once it dried, it was a little rough to the touch, but hard and sandable. What an amazing wood.

http://www.clal.ca/tanzer16/

The whole boat was filled with leaves that had largely decomposed into a fine compost, so I enriched the garden as I cleaned. I discovered the rudder, tiller, a bailer, and even a small danforth anchor as I sifted deeper. It took a few iterations of clean out and rinse-out before the boat was ready for some dish soap and a brush. All the fiberglass surfaces of the boat excepting the hull were covered in a spotty dull grey patina of mildew and what appeared to be round bumps of lichen. The port side had a green cast of algae. It mostly came off with a little elbow grease and dish soap. A more complete cleaning is in order, but I think it's clean enough to roll into the garage before the cold weather sets in.

I've got some years before the boys are ready to go sailing, and I've got to get a little practice in myself. I'm not sure how much of my fifty-foot sailing skills will apply to a sixteen footer!