Any boat has maintenance issues …. but how about a custom wooden boat! – We know that there will be no end to the care and upkeep we need to give her, and can hopefully carry out those tasks competently and enjoyably. Here some of the “issues”, and I’m sure there will be more to come:
Hauling out a 22-Ton schooner
Season after season, we would crane our wooden Lacustre (1730 kg) on to land and transport her to other lakes. This complicated and delicate endeavor got easier and easier – with time we had our crane time down to 30 minutes (hauling out AND laying the masts). Now it...
Refinishing the cabin tops
Just as with the gunwales, we felt that it was time to refinish the cabin tops. To begin, three persons scraped for two days. We then used a oxalic acid (and later some juju with baking powder/natron) to further leech and lighten the wood. Followed by a...
Polishing, polishing, polishing …
Bronze care hahaahahahhhaahahahahah!! (evil laughter) No seriously, from time to time one must sacrifice a painful amount of time and polish up the bronze. It is shocking (and telling) to see how quickly and how differently our bronze items tarnish. We are very...
Bottom cleaning
Bottom cleaning and protection A slimy, barnacled bottom doesn't run well -- we are very aware of this after years of owning and racing a wooden Lacustre. Schooner Emma has even more area for sea-dwellers to colonize ..... ugh! What to do? One needs to pull out on the...
Deck care
We oiled the deck with pine tar (ancient Finnish method magic stuff – it smells like heaven) to keep her soft through the winter. Hope to repaint the rest of the deck with linseed oil grey when I can. One step at a time ...
Refinishing the gunwale
Well, refinishing the gunwale has been on the to-do list for a while. I never thought it would take the better part of a whole week to strip and scrape off the old lacquer, sand out the unavoidable scratches with successively finer sandpaper, fill the cracks and build...