Even more brilliant ideas!

Between moving Mini-HORNET up to Richmond - no small endeavor let me tell you - and the growing list of projects around the Dockyard, this weekend was one of the most productive in some time.  Volunteers showed up around our operational area to help in a number of departments and I'm very proud to say our OpTempo is increasing.  Special thanks are well-deserved by the crew that set up Mini-HORNET in Richmond at the Virginia War Memorial on Saturday - an evolution that took just under six hours.

Now, we have even more projects started with notes and ideas flying back and forth with several construction projects moving right along.

The importance of making friends with the natives, or yankee boaters in the southland

"Yeah. We'll go... talk to Bob."

If you don't get that one, just go find a hole and stay here.

For the last week I've been searching dilligently for trailers for the new Monomoy donations. I've been running the gammot sending email after email to the Board of Directors trying to get budgets lined up and pushing on Trustees for more funding. This wasn't exactly in our fiscal plan this year - not that it has ever stopped us before. But the challenge goes far beyond the scale of anything we've yet attempted. I mean one boat can be a challenge but two at the same time makes things really interesting.

The first place I try to search are the obvious resources - ebay, swap sheets, classified ads, local boatyards. Even called a few trailer places - no luck, not in our budget.

So when I ran into a guy I work with occasionally - one of the rare indigenous locals of the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area - he told me to give him a day, then call him back. Of course, I was skeptical. But when he called me back an hour later to tell me to call a place I had already called, I was less than enthused, until I followed his instructions.

"Bob's Trailers" was one of the first shops I called. Of course the woman I spoke to was very polite, but didn't offer much I could work with. On calling back I found myself talking to Bob himself.

"We got lotsa trailers, they'll 'bout all do ya." Well, Bob, what are we looking at for price here?

"You need two, and ain't gotta budget, I know see I got this buddy who called me." Yes, Bob, I know.

"Tella what, y'all come on by and we'll sort y'all out." Wow, thanks Bob.

"Yeah t'aint nothin but y'all gotta get me this here paperwork straightened out for my tax stuff."

NO PROBLEM.

So yeah, I'll talk to Bob. And hopefully by the end of the day today I'll have a few more answers and solutions to the neverending problems.

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Post #100!!

Woo hoo! Post number 100! Not sure exactly why we should celebrate that but what the heck who cares! Sailors, in general, never need an excuse to celebrate.

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BT

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We're wrapping up the trailer overhaul at the dockyard, having gone over axles, springs, brakes, lights and wiring, hitches, rollers, mats, skids... you get the idea. The last trailer overhauled is wrapping up today with the adjustment of the rollers and skids to fit the boat. It is such a relief to wrap this up - it's been a long week and a half - and know that our trailers are all in tip top condition all around.

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BT

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Wood chips are still flying in the framing bay. The keelson of the launch is being shaped for rabbets and bevels, and frames are being laminated. Work has slowed appreciably in the heat of the summer, when even the stoutest among us are exhausted after only a few hours in the shop. The intent here is that by the time cooler fall weather rolls around, we can roll right into the work of planking and flip her before the end of December.

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It is funny, I think, that by the time February rolls around, we'll be talking about her sails - exactly the same place we were with the monomoy last February. I am a huge proponent of cyclic progression and rythmic advancement, and it is interesting to think of this thing as taking such a pace natrually. April through December represent operation and light maintenance, while January through March represent hard-core maintenance and new construction.

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