Pictures from April 4, 2012. I built a new companionway door for Mistral IV and painted her a boot stripe in seagreen. Now we wait for John Barron's forklift to kick back into action - and the season can start, maybe even this Saturday, just before Easter. On Sunday I will be too busy cooking scallops and lamb.
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| The transom of Mistral IV |
The new boot stripe goes all the way under the transom of Mistral IV. Most aboard is hunky dory, we even got a new john. Last season we replaced the hand rails on deck and she got these wonderful 42 winches. Now the prop still needs attention and the rigging has to be a tuned a tad.
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| Barron's Boatyard is a fine address on City Island |
Barron's Boat Yard is located on the Eastern shore of City Island in the Bronx, New York. Just South of the beautiful historic Pelham Cemetery, John and his son Jason conduct serious marine business here. Affordable, honest and reliable is all you can wish for. If you have a boat and need winter storage, consider giving them a call or check their
website, it's worth your pennies.
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| The ramp of Barron's Boat Yard |
The waters between City Island and Hart Island in The Bronx, NY: The
towers in the background at the left are Donald Trump's atrocities in New Rochelle in
Westchester County, NY. Ugly as hell, they serve as a pretty good
landmark for sailors in the Long Island Sound though: They can be seen
from as far as Northport.
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| Nearly full moon over Hart Island |
Hart Island is used as New York's potters field. Inmates from Riker's Island come once a week
to bury more of the poor and unknown - to add to the 750.000 people
being interred here. Before it was the place where New York locked insane people away and let them work there. In the 1960s Hart Island housed several rocket silos.
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| Speak softly, but carry a big hook. |
That's the way the boats get parked for winter storage. Out of the water via travel lift, out of the slings via the hook, onto the cradle 'till spring. Not all in reverse, please! Splash!
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| Ready to roll |
Barron's travel lift parks right in front of Mistral IV, we are considered one of the first boats to go in - we hjad the longest season ever last year, and you know how it goes: Last out, first in! That's the way, a-ha, a-ha, we like it!
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| Winter project: C&C 30 companionway door |
10 boat projects minus 9 boat projects equals 19 boat projects - you know your boat math, right? This winter I built a new companionway door, of mahoganny plywood with a massive mahoganny louver. Like the other wooden parts on Mistral IV, I treated it just with teak oil, only the edges are reinforced with epoxy.
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| If everything goes well, we'll sail her up to Larchmont on Saturday. |
The rigging needs some attention before the splash: the disfunctional lazy jacks (who needs these anyway?) come off, the spinnaker halyard should get fiddled though the mast again and then we need the topping list to be fixed again at the mast top.
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| Orange collar worker |
But before the boat looked this way, I looked that way. Taking a break from sanding the hull.
In the improbably case you want to see more pictures of this beauty (the boat, stupid!), here is an exclusive link to a book I made two years: "
Mistral - Under Full Sail" for the 90th birthday of my skipper. And not that you get any funny ideas: He stood next to me sanding the hull (yes, actually sanding his own part), climbs around as if there were no tomorrow and sails his baby at quite a clip!
Make sure you click on "full screen" for the preview.
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