The Boat Formerly Known As....

Meet the boat formerly known as Bird Shaman! 



This is her being backed down the road to her winter home.  She's a Columbia 26 built in 1964.  Shes a rescue from Northeast Sailboat Rescue.  Think animal shelter, but instead of animals, its for sailboats.  Michael, the owner of the Sailboat Rescue, deliver the boat on his trailer.  It was quite the process of getting it off the trailer and on its stands.

This reminds me of when I helped a friend (Kyle) move his boat and get her ready to launch, and how I was not nervous about any of it.  Now that I have gone through a similar process, I understand what he was feeling. When you see your own boat being held up by 2 stands as the trailer is being pulled out from underneath it, it is a really tense moment.  The boat is not exactly in it's most stable position at that moment, and I have been around boats enough to know that. It would not take much in that situation to knock the boat over, and then the dream would be all over. 

Now that the boat is in her winter home, the process for repair, renovation, and restoration can begin.  The first thing to do is get a cover on her so, regardless of weather, work can progress.  Then the priorities are (in this order) building new hatches, removing the damaged part of a bulkhead and repairing it, replacing the through-hulls (places where water can drain out of the boat) and seacocks (valves that open and close the through-hulls), and then rebuilding the other interior parts that are damaged. 

A little more about why I refer to the boat as "The Boat Formerly Known As..."  I think that it is a real way for someone to really connect with their boat.  My dad named his boat after his daughters (my sisters).  I subscribe to the idea that boats are female, and that might offend some people.  I think it speaks to the fact that traditional seafaring men realized that the women in their lives were the foundations they could come home to, and more importantly, the ones that would weather the storms that rolled through.  When you're on the water, you're a member of a team, with the boat being one part of the team, and you (and possibly crew) being the other.  If you treat her well, and with respect, she will usually do her part to keep you safe through the storm.  There is something really quite amazing about tradition and the seafaring culture in general, but that is more for another time.  Here are a few more pictures of The Boat Formerly Known As in the Rescue boatyard.