LUCIE is back home in the US after this years trip to the 6 Meter European Championship in Falmouth, UK. She arrived in late August and went straight for the winter hiatus at the shop. But before we are looking at her maintenance and preparation for the 2015 season – which will include a trip to France for the 6 Meter World Championship – we had to do some “house cleaning” to do:
For the past four years LUCIE has been traveling to Europe every summer and she is doing a lot of miles on her trailer. But no matter how well a trailer is designed, it is always hard for an 80+ year old wooden boat to go over the road. So it was time to upgrade LUCIE’s trailer and add proper transportation berths over the poppets to distribute the load evenly into the hull. These cradles were laminated from 1/4 ply (4 layers) directly onto the hull shape – almost like a fingerprint of the shape. Some trimming, sealing, proper painting, and a nice 1/2″ dense foam on the inside – and now she is resting much better supported on her trailer. Ready for more trips around the world!
It also was time to do some fairing and cleaning up of her heels – living on a trailer most of the time is convenient but access to the underside of the ballast is very limited. This year it was time to catch up in this area, so LUCIE was lifted off her trailer inside the shop to get us access to her heels… And then some filling, fairing, multiple coats of bottom paint and polishing it all up! Looks as new (basically is…) and then LUCIE went back down onto the trailer.
And as every year at the end of every season a lot of clean up, re-stocking and inventory was on the program. Traveling far away from home essentially means that one has to prepare and bring pretty much everything potentially needed. And then one needs to be able to find it in a heartbeat during a tight regatta schedule. So every piece of equipment belonging to LUCIE was inventoried, re-sorted, stocked up and put away for the winter, but ready to go in the spring. Every year we are again surprised how many items it needs to successfully campaign a boat like LUCIE…
So now we are heading for the winter maintenance, painting, some varnishing and probably a few new gadgets – stay tuned.
Jens
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