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Miranda's Big Day... or the Accidental Sailor

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:42 pm
by bhartley
The picture is from too far away to see the grin on my face...
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Lots of stress prior to the photo. She floated off the trailer like a champ with the outboard swung around for "reverse" with no problem. Then nada... no forward motion. More throttle... closer rocks... some spousal yelling... no forward motion. No shear pin. Not clear what happened, but clearly

The plan was to zip her over to a temporary slip while we hauled our SS23. Instead my husband held on while I threw on the boom, bent on some sails (it was FLAT calm) and started sculling towards the slip. As I made it past the breakwater, the wind magically appeared at 10-12 knots and I happily sailed while my husband dealt with the trailer and tried to find a shear pin.

She is tiny but incredibly responsive and a terrific sail! I guess I will have to let my husband on board once in a while, but she is a perfect single-hand sailor.

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The lake level is very low and the combination with good old Georgia red clay made a dreadful mess of the deck and cockpit with all of the jumping in and out at the ramp. A new sail cover is on the drawing board!

Our short rigging problem was fixed with 1" wide stainless tangs made from pieces of 3" stainless my dad just happened to have from some project. They're the same 300 stainless as the Schaefer tangs, but they only came in 1" x 4" which was much too long. My husband drilled them up and rounded the corners off. I was able to get in touch with the previous owner and the rigging had been replaced with shorter shrouds to accomodate the sunken cabintop.

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After a coat of primer and some paint on the trailer (we've already done the new bearings, lights and tires), we'll be heading north to Marblehead where we'll enjoy some wonderful fall sailing before we head back to Georgia and her slightly bigger sister Ariel.

Wednesday weather is looking good for her official shake-down cruise.

Thanks to all who provided moral support and great guidance with Miranda. This site is an invaluable source of information!

Bly

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:46 pm
by Figment
YEAH!!!!!

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:18 pm
by Tim
Excellent!

There are few prouder moments than the launch of a project boat. Enjoy! She looks great.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:27 pm
by Ric in Richmond
The boat looks FABULOUS!!!!!!!

I do admit I am partial to Alberg Designs owning one myself.

Those bolts run through tangs in single shear don't look good to me....

I wouldn't leave them that way for too long.

Better to have two thinner pieces of stock that sandwich the original tang....or build new longer tangs.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 10:50 pm
by jhenson
Beautiful boat! Simply elegant!

Joe

What Great Work

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:12 pm
by cliffg
Your Boat looks fabulous. I am so impressed on the one hand and so jealous on the other, not sure mine will ever look that good. You have done a magnificent job!