This week wasn’t one of many accomplishments on the Centennial front. There were other, real-life things that took up time, and the one visit to Curtice didn’t accomplish much.
We did get our Ohio boat registration sticker. Even that seemed up in the air for a few minutes: The published requirements make a big deal about needing an HIN (Hull Identification Number) before you can have a Ohio sticker. The Loys built Centennial without registering as a commercial boat manufacturer (which is completely normal), so they had no business putting a HIN on her.
The Coast Guard doesn’t require a HIN when they hand out Documentation, which Centennial has, so I wasn’t anticipating too much trouble with the Ohio authorities, but the computer system that the nice lady at the Maumee Bay office uses required a HIN. I stood my ground in the nicest way I could manage (think: in the way that you patiently explain to a cashier that he has given you the wrong change), she called Columbus, and they straightened her out.
$63 later, we were all stickered through March 1st, 2012.
At the boat, we did manage to paint the boot-stripe on the rudder (first coat, anyway), but I had forgotten about the bob-stay chain and left it in Ann Arbor, so that didn’t go back up. Also forgotten was the need for more galvanizing spray paint, so the bowsprit side-stays were left alone as well (not to mention the Danforth anchor, oops). That left the new bulbs for the various masthead lights.
The Centennial has three important masthead lights: a navigation tri-color light (required when underway at night), an anchor/mooring light (required when anchored or moored at night), and a ’steaming’ light (required when running the ‘auxiliary power’, in our case, a 25 H.P. outboard (that is actually mounted inboard, but, whatever)).
We had procured some replacement bulbs, but only one (for mooring) was found to be the correct type. The real discovery, once we took everything apart, was that the existing lights are a mess (and use some odd-ball bulbs). Sigh. The wires that run the 40 feet of the mast aren’t in the greatest order, either.
Oh, well. I ordered some (affordable) replacement fixtures (that will take the spiffy LED bulbs I bought). Some patient work with my trusty multi-meter may turn up the three wire-runs I’ll need to hook them up. If it turns out the two good leads we’ve already identified are all we’ve got, I may have to try and run another. Or re-do all three for confidence.
And that was that. We did also discover that working on the boat when it is really windy is really annoying. Annoying even without thinking about the fact that sailing when it’s really windy is really fun.
