snug as a bug

Woody and Blue are checking out their winter digs. The boys hauled the AMFlite (Woody, for now) downstairs and folded up the trailer. Each boat is sitting on a set of a trailer bunks, which does take up a lot of floor space (each boat is about 14 feet by 4 feet), but it'll do for now.

I think I need to shift the aft bunk farther back on Blue (how is deck down right now). We discovered that Blue is definitely heavier than Woody, though we do not know if this is due to damp flotation blocks from a leak or just manufacturing differences. No water came out of the tiny drain holes, but there won't be enough air circulating to dry it out. That'll come when we put deck plates in.

Upon putting Woody on the deck up bunks, we discovered the hull is slightly varied from the actual Sunfish, so it "floats" over the cradles in some spots (but it seemed to be okay). We might add extra cushioning to the bunks to compensate, or we'll just always trailer it deck down.

The trailer folded up and wheeled nicely into the basement, so now it's hanging out with all the lawn care equipment. I would like to clean dirty and lake scum off it this winter and maybe wax it, since this isn't a galvanized trailer and will be prone to rusting.

Before we headed off to friends for the "big game" (yes, those are sarcastic quote marks), I started in on organizing the basement and trying to clear things out. Nothing shrinks a basement like two boats! We will be hanging the spars and good sail against the stairwell wall, once we get around to putting the hooks in (for now the spars are on the floor, sail is in the canvas bag. I'd like to set up a rack or the rudder and daggerboards, too.

Although I'm hoping the in-laws take it back, I'm using this giant TV stand bureau thing as my organizer for all our boat stuff. An even bigger dresser is currently in the middle of the floor and pretending to be a work table for the rudders and daggerboards. Before we had to leave for an afternoon of shenangians, I managed to free all the line from the AMF spars and remove the sail.

It's not exactly in great shape. I'm pretty tempted to wash it the wrong way and recycle it or something. Make bags or pouches out of it to hold other stuff. It's not a happy sail. The crispness is gone, there are several taped and untaped holes, and lots of black grease spots that are not coming out. We tried the gentle clean method and nothing would budge, and taking some intense product to it would destroy it as a sail. It also looked really stretched out on the spars, so I'm ready to buy an Intensity Sail and call it good.

I'm working today (Sunday) at the university library, so it's driving me nuts I can't be working on the basement. I just want things set up nicely so we can get crackin' on those deck plate! Tomorrow, hopefully, we can make headway since we are both home. Want to get our babies drying!