Boat is in the water!

Just got the call from Marina Bay, Quincy, that they put Prairie Gold on to the water today. Must visit tonight and will provide pictures. Until later

Prairie Gold is Ready for a new season

The ablatives bottom paint has been added and she looks good. It is interesting to compare this rudder picture to the picture we posted on November 7th 2010 - before and after.
with today's work Prairie gold is now ready to go in the water. Today's tasks involved waxing the starboard hull, checking through hulls are closed, all tubes are reconnected to through hulls as well as checking radar and other instruments. Last year our water temperature measurement was getting high. Today it read 60C. Something needs to be fixed. Otherwise all is well.

Keel

ablative paint

Dan taking the boat cover off

bottom paint application

Hull Bottom Paint is completed

This year we did a total bottom clean/scrape and full paint job

Spring commisioning begins

On Saturday March 12th Phil went to Prairie Gold to start commissioning her for the new season. Saturday's adventures included cleaning and waxing the port side above the waterline and replacing the hose on the raw water intake to the toilet. Next on the list is the starboard side waxing and providing a new coat of bottom paint.

Just back from the boatyard. Too cold today to wax. Instead tested the effectiveness of Mary Kate On and Off hull cleaner. Its like magic. Stains that I never thought would come off did so within a minute.

Ventura

In Ventura CA for the week for work. But there is a harbor next to hotel, so we have organized an afternoon sailing trip for later in the week.
We sailed on the sailboat Sancerre with Captain Dan of "Sail Channel Islands". We had a great afternoon of sailing and banter. The next morning the Tsunami came to CA. Captain Dan's boats are fine as is the marina that they are located in. However, we heard that in Ventura marina, which is shown above, some boats were moved about and in Ventura buoys were moved off station.

Prairie Gold is ready for the winter

As promised in an earlier post, we have gone green with our covering of Prairie Gold. We ordered  a boomtent cover from Fairclough Sailmakers which we received yesterday. We installed it today since  it was sunny and relatively warm with a high of 45F. It was an easy installation only taking about 30 minutes by two people. A nice aspect of the cover is that it is not necessary to use a frame - instead the cover rolls out over the boom. I am sure we will be happy next spring when we don't need to find a place to store a frame. Luckily there has been no snow so far this winter, but I am sure the cover will be tested soon given there is a chance of snow on Tuesday with a high of 29F on Wednesday.