the afternoon at fiver's place.......
now that BB-54 is sitting right off my front-porch;
i find that i have much more time to just clime up on her and
check things out. you know; get out the brain-stick and see just how many
inches it really is from here to there..... not like trying to get it off the
drawings.......
and there is always kicking the *T* rails, and counting up all the
old blocks to see if there are any that can be used again. counting the bronze
cleats and checking to see how many are the good low-profile mooring style.
and how many are just jam-cleats. then there is always the winches; she's got
2 old bronze merrymen's. but i can use those for a fare-lead on the bow if
the other two i have are the same size. on the bright-side she's got two chrome
#22 barient two speed on the jib sheet's. and two more chrome #10's aft of
those for general nuisance. and one more chrome #10 barient on the mast to run
"Bruce" up the mast-head if He ever make's it up north.... :)(:
Opps, He must have been and gone already. the tiller is broken! well,
don't need that anyway.
Hay, Bruce!
You want the bronze thingy that goes on the end of the
old tiller to stick it to the rudder thinky????
never know when you brake the one on your boat
too.......
so, where was i, oh yea; kicking around the deck. that leaves the
two hatches. and well, that doesn't leave much. which reminds me; anyone out
there by chance know the rule's for building and using one of those
new-fangled retractable bow-sprit thingy's? i have an idea for using one on BB-54 that
mount's in a notch in the deck that requires me to mount the forward hatch
off-center.
now stepping down into the cockpit, and sitting on the engine
hatch......... Wow! moving my butt to the aft gunwale to gain a little height; now
this is just the right height for the helmsmen's eye while sitting. i guess
this boat was built before they did mock-ups. so with my brain-stick i
measured off 40 inches; yea! i can fit a wheel that size on a moving stock and be
able to get out from behind it to the leeward side. and then i can get rid of
the out-board well and move the rudder-post 24" aft to get a better *moment*.
and put two out-board's on the stern in a streamlined add-on eng-pod that
both engine's retract into electo-mechanically. am i too Kool or what. they
didn't have this stuff 43 years ago....... but then the late 60's chevy's didn't
bounce 10' in the air, have 10,000 what sound system's in LA. either.
i am also thinking that shorting the seat's and adding seat-back's
at a point about 4' 6" forward of the stern. the seat-back's will give me a
better place to a-fix the big #22 winches. this in order that the person
sitting to windward and tending the jib can be closer to the sheet-winch with the
use of a simple turning block. given the age of BB-54 and her crew; i think i
had better be thinking of some simple measure's for *fall* sailor's. not the
least of which will be *contoured ergonomic* seating, and work-station's.
along those lines, i was sitting there racking my think-sack to come up with a
way in which i could get the main-traveler out of the middle of the damn
cockpit where everyone was sure going to trip over the thing. use a mid-boom
traveler and sheeting like the cruiser's do. nooo, i just don't like that! it
defeats the idea of full-batten main with a big roch when the time come's.
Think..... think, think, think......... hummmmm.......... Oh! That's IT! so damn
stupid it's kool!
i will just make the boom longer so that i can have the main traveler
behind the helmsmen. that's it! it doesn't matter if the main doesn't need
the boom that long. the sheet does........
Ok, so i am sitting there for a while and finishing off my *sobe*.
Hell's-Bell's! maybe i will just get out my saws-all and cut her off at the
deck-hull seem and build an all new deck........
hummmmm........
<climes back down the step-ladder.......>
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