Jack’s Shoulders, May 9, 2009

See how Kelly IV reflects the boat beside her!

Yesterday, May 9, Jack VanArsdale performed a yeoman's effort, achieving grand results!  He one-handedly washed, cleaned, waxed, then buffed the entire topsides!  And he did all this work after removing the adhesive left behind from the port side boot stripe.  Jack and I drove to the marina separately because Jack could not stay over Saturday night.  Since my plane landed late, Jack beat me to Sandusky by several hours on Friday night.  He got right to work setting up the cabin bunks, plugging Kelly IV into shore power, and rigging the ladder for safe climbing into the cockpit.  Our recent neighbor's Cal 24 has already gone into the water, so we have a new neighbor, an O'Day 32.  The yard shoehorned the larger boat into the smaller space left by the 24 footer, so their wasn't even room for the ladder between our two boats!  While Jack was able to use the new scaffolding to do his work on the topsides at the bow, he had to resort to standing on his milk crates for his work aft of amidships.  He had to reach way over his head to get the brushes and buffer up to the toerail.  Now the beautiful blue hull glistens gorgeously as the shine Jack buffed into existence out-gleams all the boats in sight!  I'm betting Jack's shoulders are letting him know what they think of his efforts!

While Jack was working his magic on the topsides, I continued my work on the dodger Saturday and for a few hours on Sunday.  The new dodger is now installed, with all the snaps in place, the openings for the deck clutches are cut & finished, all the hems are complete, the slots for the handrails (6 slots, 4 handrails) are reinforced, and the windows are cut from the plastic material.  Unfortunately, I still need to sew the window material into place, and hem the windows.  Given how I have drastically underestimated the time required so far, I'm afraid that my guess of 2-3 hours to complete the dodger may turn into 6 hours.  Fortunately, I think I can get it done before Kelly IV is launched on May 22.   I also added the last new carpet, so there is now new carpet on the cabin sole, the hallway outside the head, as well as in the V-berth.