Cedar Key 2013

What can I say, Cedar Key was as good as it always is.  This event is the highlight of the year for us.  It's the second year that my sister and family flew down from DC area for the weekend.  I'm thinking this may be the start of a family tradition.  The weather forcast was downright awful, calling for storms and rain all weekend long.  Thankfully it all broke up and we had mostly good weather, with a few scattered showers.  This is the first year that we had a catered dinner Friday and Saturday night.  It was a hit and it sure relieved a lot of the volunteers to go play. 

 The beach in front of Island Place.  With her shallow draft, Egret felt right at home among the Sea Pearls and other minimal draft open boats.  We had strong onshore winds which caused our stern anchor to really dig into the muck.  The retreival process resulted in a bit of mayhem as we struggled to break the anchor loose while fending off the channel markers. 

 

The fearsome "Black Pearl" high and dry.

 

"Black Pearl" heading out for Atsena Otie.

 

Skipper and deckhand getting ready to set off for Atsena Otie.

 

The other crew insisted on riding in the kayak.

 

At Atsena Otie.

 

Dave Lucas's "Helen Marie" on Atsena Otie.

 

Early arrivals at Atsena Otie.

 

Never found out what this beautiful boat, Wes White was sailing, is.

 

We had good winds most of the weekend.

 

 

 

Sea Pearl screaming past our Egret.

 

Steve Wood chasing Egret, brother in law Doug steering.

 

Klingon warship blasting by.

  

 

 

Steve Kingery took this picture of me while I took....

 

this picture of him.

 

I think that's Martin on the left who finished the Everglades Challenge in that 8ft CLC pram!

 

Steve's Wee Lassie

 

Atsena Otie invasion

 

 

Bella liked WoodWind. Unprompted, she said "he must use a lot of poxy"!

 

 

Back in front of Island Place, Jim Brown is first to hop off the Seaclipper and walk her ashore.

 

Everyone getting back to the Island Place beach for the Saturday evening cookout.

 

 

Will Marsh's beautiful Elver.

 

 

 

Stunning Melonseed with Dave Lucas upgrades.

 

Sunday we sailed over to Atsene Otie and just did a whole lot of nothing.

 

 

 

Teamwork.

 

This was the first time 5 year old Bella got to paddle a kayak.  She picked it up immediatley without any istruction and was paddling all over the place.  She and dad paddeld all the way back from Atsena Otie to Cedar Key.  She was tethered to dad's kayak, just in case, but she paddeled the whole way!

 

 

 

So many critters, so little time.

 

It's tiring out there.

 

And then it was time to pack up.

 

And head home.

 

Cedar Key Rocks!

 

 

Sarasota Sailing Squadron Hosts 8th Annual Traditional Small Craft Festival

The 8th Annual Traditional Small Craft Festival, lets call it TSCF, was on the decline the last couple of years and we have high hopes that moving it to the Sarasota Sailing Squadron will bring it back to it's former glory.  David Jennings, Commodore of the SSS wants to host this event on an annual basis and establish it as a premier traditional craft get together.  This first year at the Squadron was pretty low key and more of a get-to-know some of the characters involved with traditional craft in the area.  There were about 20 boats but I never managed to get pictures of all of them 'cause we were all over the place talking about boats or messing about.  The friendly folks and superb facilities of the SSS made for a very fun time. 
Concurrently to the TSCF the SSS was hosting a youth regatta with over 200 optis and lasers launching simultaneously.  That was an impressive sight and added a buzz of activity to the whole weekend.

Just a small sample of the optis launching into a stiff 15-20kn breeze.

 

George Luzier built Baby Doll on the left.  She is 41 years old, strip planked and looks like new.

 

Dennis Bradley's Egret

 

Clayton Seelgen's brand spanking new Caledonia Yawl.  http://sailingseelgens.blogspot.com/

 

Hugh Horton and I jumped in Goat and chased Meade Gougeon around.  Here Hugh and Meade are swapping boats.  Goat could just barely keep up with WoodWind in less than 10kn.

 

Dennis Bradley's recently restored Chapelle Sharpie was out playing with us

 

Watching Hugh take off in WoodWind

 

Hugh in WoodWind

 

Pacing Hugh

 

Back at the SSS docks

 

Great looking ply powerboat

 

Ospreys built a low nest on top of what remains of a recently cut down tree.  They were not very pleased about the hundreds of kids running around.

 

Sunday morning renowned Sarasota boat builder George Luzier came by Baby Doll for a chat.  George is in his late eighties and still building boats!  Here George and Meade talk shop.  George has been using West System for decades.

 

 George Luzier and David Jennings checking out Goat

 

Solving the world's problems at an impromptu lunch aboard Egret

 



Epoxy Coating The Goat Mast Without Runs

It is time to refinish the Goat mast.  The original epoxy coating job had all sorts of runs and I never varnished it so after two years it was looking a bit worn.  I rigged up a truly Rube Goldberg contraption to spin the mast while I applied the epoxy.  This worked exceedingly well.  The mast remained spinning for a few hours until the epoxy kicked off enough to guarantee no runs.  The rig is beyond simple.  The mast tip has a long decking screw driven into it to act as a bearing.  The mast base already has a 1/4" hole in it for ventilation so I shoved in a length of 1/4" rod with a shaft collar and a screw acting as a drive dog does on a lathe.  I'm pretty sure a decking screw with it's head cut off, chucked in the drill would work just as well.  The whole works was suspended by two ratchet straps and rotated well in the hooks. A wire zip tie held the trigger at just the right speed.  The DeWalt had no problem spinning this at low rpm and after a few hours it was barely warm.