Boat pics and good news

Kellan and I paddled out to the boat yesterday. He’d been disappointed that he couldn’t come along on the maiden voyage so I wanted to give him a chance to climb around and explore. He also helped me measure the jib and main sheets so that we can get new ones.

I decided to try the motor again. Still cranking, but not starting. What could be wrong? And then, quite by accident, I PUSHED the key while turning it and the motor started right up! I let it run in neutral for about a minute. And then shut it down. What a relief!

When we left, I rowed around the boat and Kellan took a few pictures:

And finally, we’ve decided on a name: Dragonfly

Voyage #1 – the delivery cruise

The first voyage didn’t have an auspicious beginning. The breeze was pretty light as we cast off the mooring in North Kingstown. We tried heading due east to get into what looked like better wind out in the main channel, but the breeze died completely after about 15 minutes. We decided to use the outboard until the breeze filled back in, but as we were getting ready to start it up, the seller called on my cell phone. He had been keeping an eye on us from shore and said we were heading for submerged rocks!

I thanked him for the info and set about starting the outboard, only it wouldn’t start! Now we had a double worry – we were drifting toward rocks with no motor! Fortunately a puff of wind came along and Jason was able to jibe the boat and we headed back the way we had come.

I continued to struggle with the motor. It just wouldn’t catch. We were opening and closing the choke, turning knobs, squeezing the priming pump on the gas line — nothing was working. It was going to be wind power only on the maiden voyage.

The forecast had been for winds from the northeast, which was generally the way we were headed. We expected to do a lot of tacking. As the wind filled in, it seemed to be coming from the southeast. Jason suggested that maybe we would get the benefit of the famous Narragansett Bay southerlies after all. It would be a while before we found out for sure.

Our route took us up the west passage between North Kingstown and Jamestown Island, past Prudence Island to starboard and Greenwich Bay to port, finally emerging into the large central part of the Bay south of Barrington. The wind was so inconsistant at first that after two hours we had barely covered 1/3 the distance. It was looking like a long afternoon.

Fortunately, as the day progressed the wind picked up. As we approached the northern end of Prudence Island we noticed that the inflatable dinghy was occasionally trying to bury its bow in the waves. That became a good inication of how fast we were going: when the dinghy was noisy, we were fast.

After rounding Prudence Island we headed for Rumstick point. Since leaving N. Kingstown we’d gotten a lot better at reading our charts. (Remember the submerged rocks? They were on the chart. Ooops!) We were able to maintain our course straght to our mooring at Barrington Beach.

Thanks to the decent breeze, we completed the last 2/3 of the distance in only two hours. Once we were snug on our mooring, we tried the motor one more time. Still no luck – but the sailing had be excellent so I wasn’t really down about it.

A BIG thank you to Jason P. who was a tremendous help. I couldn’t have made the first trip by myself. Jason also gave me a boat-warming present: a new compass! Thanks, Jason.

Boat – check!!

Today was the big day.  Kris and Kellan drove my friend Jason and me down to Wickford to pick up the boat.  (Thanks, guys!)  The exchange of paperwork went very quickly and then it was time to pump up our trusty inflatable and paddle out to the mooring.  The seller donned a mask and fins and kindly took a swim around the hull, scraping off the baby barnacles that had grabbed on during the last several weeks.

I’ll describe our complete voyage later, but it was great.  Once the wind picked up we really moved along.  Sailing time from N. Kingstown to Barrington was about 4 hrs.

Kellan and I are going out to the boat tomorrow to take inventory, measure for some new lines and generally enjoy being on the boat.  We’ll take some pictures, too.

Mooring – check!

There it is: Barrington mooring #235. By Sunday it will have a sailboat attached to it.

Moving forward

Things are starting to happen again. I spoke to the mooring company last night and they are planning to install my mooring today. If the weather is bad, they will do it tomorrow. I don’t know why this has taken so long: its a concrete block with a chain, a buoy and a rope, right?

Better news, it’s time to get the boat!! The seller has agreed to meet on Saturday to exchange the boat and a bill of sale for more $$. He will still owe me a proper title, but I am withholding 25% of the price until he can provide it. The state is making him register the boat in his name before he can transfer the title to me. This involves forms and the mail so I’m guessing it will be a week or two until we get this done. But, at least I can start sailing!

Waiting #2

I mentioned that I am also waiting for a mooring.  I’m actually just waiting for installation of a mooring.  The local harbormaster has approved my application and assigned me a spot off the local beach.  This is not an ideal location, because the area is exposed to the predominant southeasterly breeze.  There is also no dock or ramp, so to get out to your boat you have to launch a dinghy through the waves.

There are better locations in town, but there are waiting lists for them.  So I’ll take my mooring at the beach because it means I’ve got a place to put the boat right away.  Some might call me lucky, because while I was on vacation on Cape Cod a few weeks ago, I read that most towns had waiting lists that were thousands of names long!  People are waiting 12 – 15 years for a spot to place their mooring!!

I have contracted with a mooring service and expect my mooring to go in sometime next week.  We’ll see how this beach mooring works out….

A sneak peak

Here I am during the test sail two weeks ago. See my smile?

Waiting #1

I guess now is the time to mention that I don’t actually own the sailboat yet.  It’s been two weeks since my offer was accepted and I mailed my deposit to the seller.  I’m getting pretty antsy, but certain things need to be in place before we can finalize the sale.

The first of these is a mooring.  I’ll post about that tomorrow.

The second is clean paperwork.   Turns out the seller did not register the boat with the State of RI this year, and I gather that causes some confusion about properly transferring the title.  He’s talking to the state about what to do.  Hopefully, he’ll get this solved this week but even if he does, we can’t complete the sale until next week because he will be away for a few days.

So I just have to wait.  And wait.  And wait…..

I’m buying a sailboat!

Six years after moving to Rhode Island (ahem – the Ocean State) I have finally found a way to get a real sailboat. My hope is to chronicle my sailing and boat ownership adventures on this blog. I’ve got a lot to learn…

Apart from Ken Jolly’s website (awesome!), there doesn’t seem to be a lot of info about the Electra on the web. As I learn more, I’ll post it here.

BIG thanks in the first post to my supportive wife and my enthusiastic son. Without them, this adventure wouldn’t be beginning.