Pulled the boat

The Oday 19 is finally out of the lake and on the trailer. I took it for one more sail across the lake and back, then headed for the boat ramp. I set out to do the job alone. It took a little back and forth to maneuver the trailer down the ramp. It’s different with a new tow vehicle. Years ago I added some guide poles to the boat trailer and it makes all the difference. The boat came out of the water nicely centered on the trailer.

There’s only one difficult part to do alone: taking down the forestay. That’s the cable that goes to the front of the boat to hold the mast up. When alone I cleat off the halyard and take as much pressure off it as possible. There’s a lot of on and off the boat to get it right. Just before that job my lovely wife met me at the boat landing. It went so much better with two. Her timing was excellent.

Now that boat is on the trailer it’ll be fairly easy to sand the bottom and apply fresh bottom paint. That’s the beauty of a small trailer sailer. The whole job will only take a little sandpaper and less than a gallon of bottom paint.

There’s a couple of little jobs to do on the boat, but they’ll go much faster with the boat on the hard.

It was a nice day for it. Temperature was in the low 60s, wind was light, and it was sunny. Some years I’ve pulled the boat in a snowstorm. That’s waiting a bit too late.

-Sixbears