Now that Turnstone is out of the water, it’s going to be some off season maintenance for the next few months. Before storing her, though, it was time to at least get the centerboard inspected and redone if necessary. This was the only thing the previous owner said really ought to be done before a serious journey, so it’s been on my mind all summer. It seemed fine this summer at Redfish, but I could see it was pitted through the centerboard trunk inspection port, it would occasionally cause issues when I tried to raise it (sometimes had to swerve back and forth to change the water pressure on it before it would go all the way into the trunk), and it banged in the trunk quite a bit at anchor.

Since lifting boats off trailers scares the crap out of me, I went with the professionals and took it to Chapman Boat Repair in Boise… Chapman was recommended to me by Joel from Rudder Craft (formerly IdaSailor), whose shop is just down the row from Chapman. Between Joel and Chip Chapman (both super nice people, very helpful) we got the centerboard figured and redone.

First step was lifting the boat off the trailer:

Turnstone off her trailer (click for larger)

and inspect the centerboard:

Centerboard (click for larger)

Yikes! Turns out centerboard is aluminum, and had been painted with copper based bottom paint, which was actually eating the centerboard. Chip removed it, had it sandblasted, and coated it with epoxy. With Joel’s help they also attached new plastic guides to it so it hopefully won’t rattle as much in the trunk, and should retract more reliably. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the finished product, but it looks great through the inspection port.

As for the “Things I Think I Think”, with apologies to Peter King for stealing his line, I’m creating a list of random thoughts related to sailing, and the first has to do with the fine help I got in Boise from Chip & Joel:

http://www.pictureofnectar.com/sailing.php#thingsIthinkIthink

Next up will be creating a new drop down portion of my rudder… I think…

Well, it was going to happen sooner or later… we kept pushing back the date to take Turnstone out of the water, get one more sail, one more sail. And we did get two more nice days up at Redfish, not a lot of wind but empty lake and beautiful fall days.

But… (there’s always a but) by mid week October 20th or so the forecast turned nasty, calling for 1 – 1 1/2 feet of snow up high… and “up high” was going to include Redfish. So skedaddled up there and, on a spectacularly beautiful day, pulled Turnstone out for the year… here’s a little video (with tunes):

So she’s safely off the water (did get about 18″ on the top of Baldy), and actually off in Boise getting the centerboard buffed out a bit… lifting her off the trailer was more than I was ready for!

Speaking of centerboard, the list of things I’d like to do this winter is long:

• Buff the brightwork
• Rebuild the rudder with a better drop portion
• Improve the mizzen sheeting with a pulley
• Fix the ding on the hull I created when I hit a dock
• Fix a worn spot in the mizzen where it sleeves onto the mizzen mast
• Make a plexiglass companionway hatch board
• Build a cockpit tent
• Add an inspection port behind the outboard well for access to mizzen mast step

… and the list goes on and on.

But… for now I’ll just enjoy the end of a great season on the water, lots learned (hopefully some by me) and lots to look forward to!

Turnstone all by herself