Nugland

Gives a good idea of scale.

This was an iPhone snap; I toned it a little… Continue reading

As Mark Best tells us, it is every boat-owners dream to get their boat in the water before Labor Day… Continue reading | 3 Comments

And not taking on any water (as far as I can tell). (There’s a boat across the channel, a little powerboat, that has a bilge pump that kicks off every five or ten minutes; Centennial is drier than that, for sures, anyway.)

Sam and I got quite the ride getting her from the launching slip to B-106 where… Continue reading

Wow, there’s a sailboat. We contracted for mast-hoisting service, they showed up, and everything went together from there.

The stays were all the correct length, and all the turn-buckles pinned in fine. The ropes were correctly run. The wires all pulled through. Jeez, September 5th. All ready to go in the water.

Awesome… Continue reading | 1 Comment

And there it is, all painted. In person, the bottom paint doesn’t look as red as it does here; more coppery. And less blotchy, actually. The copper in the paint makes the camera go kinda’ nutty.

I am so pleased with how it came out.

(The photo is another quicky HDR, BTW.)… Continue reading | 1 Comment

This is actually an HDR composite of 3 bracketed shots. It’s not a perfect job, but it was my first HDR, and it was done quickly.

Went down and started painting the bottom (no, ‘bottom-painting’ does not involve a submissive in any way). I used the Interlux VC17m stuff that was so scary sounding, but, with a few… Continue reading

Sam and his buddy came by and helped us get the leeboards back up. It was a lot easier than taking them down, and not just because we had two more people helping; this time we used the ropes that lift them normally to lift them into position. Also: they weren’t dirty and gross.

The VC17m bottom… Continue reading

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

Over the weekend we were able to get the shrouds, stays and halyards back onto the mast. The new leather on the shrouds looks great, and the halyards are cleaner. I’d post a pic, but I left my camera in Ann Arbor.

The bobstay chain came down (after much struggling with the shackles) and we were able to… Continue reading | 1 Comment

We were able to get the lettering done today. I really like the way it turned out.

We printed the letters out full size on paper, then stuck them up with a glue stick. Then I took a razor and cut along the letter edges.

After the paper was taken off (and the glue residue cleaned up)… Continue reading

Probably far from comprehensive, but I wanted to get as much written down as possible:

• Re-rig the masts in preparation for hoisting them
• Review all safety equipment requirements (with an emphasis on equipment with expiration dates – fire extinguishers, flares, etc.)
• Bottom paint (and reviewing old photos really makes me want to throw some of the copper-bronze on the leeboards)
• Legalize the potty (including, perhaps

This is the image I sorta had in my head when we started this whole painting thing. Yeah, we still have to paint the bottom (with more paint, dollar-wise, than we’ve used so far), but that’s the below-water part. This is what I want people to see when I sail up alongside.

And I really dig it… Continue reading | 1 Comment

There have been three days of work since my last update: Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday. Mark Best joined us on Saturday and got the first coat onto the outsides of the leeboards and the first coat of white on the port side.

On Sunday, we got another coat onto the leeboards and the white part of the port… Continue reading

We went back to Meinke’s on Sunday to paint (and paint and paint)

The things we accomplished:

• Second coat on the inboard sides of the leeboards.
• Touch-up on the black parts of the masts.
• Base coat of white on the ‘topmasts’ (like most ‘modern’ gaffers, Centennial’s ‘topmasts’ are just extensions of the mast)

As usual, click for more pics

The black part of the hull is done.

We also got a nice coat of paint on the masts and on one side of the leeboards. Funny thing: it turns out that one quart of Interlux Brightsides is exactly equal to the amount of that paint we can paint in… Continue reading

Since June 9th, when we had a bunch of help with the initial sanding and the first coat of primer, we’ve been back to centennial several times. We’ve managed to:
Sand again and apply second coat of primer.
Sand again and apply first coat of black on the topsides.
Sand again and apply the second coat of black.

There… Continue reading

Not super quickly, though. (I have been in Atlanta and am heading out tonight for St. Augustine.)

I did manage to knock out the leather covering for four of the nine shrouds. I now have a proper leather hole-punch, so it went a lot smoother than the forestay. I was learning as I did them so the quality varies… Continue reading

The standing rigging on the Centennial was (partially) fashioned in the traditional way, that is: with loops on the end of the shrouds that go over the masts, rather than modern fittings and shackles.

The shrouds are modern, though, in that they are made of stainless steel cable, and that creates an issue: the shrouds can be hard on… Continue reading

Sam, Mark and Nicole laying it down.

I was happy on Saturday. I invited friends to come and help start painting of Centennial’s hull, and almost everyone showed up. We got a ton of work done on Saturday, including: sanding all of the topsides, cleaning them with pre-paint (MEK), and getting a coat of primer on… Continue reading