Arrival Home

Arriving home, my neighbor Mark came over to see the boat and help getting her into my backyard.  Mark (and his wife Christa) are the best neighbors I have ever had the pleasure knowing.  Since my kidneys failed, Mark has always been there to help, and when it came trying to get the boat in the backyard, it took both of them.  First, it had been raining for quite awhile and the ground was saturated.  Second, I was missing that wheel.  Third, it was a tight squeeze coming in from the back alley to where I wanted to put her.  She wasn't going in until we could find another wheel to share the load on the remaining wheel of that side.  We tried about 4 wheels off the other vehicles until we tried the spare from the Arrowstar that I have.  That pretty much drained me as I have no stamina without kidneys.  Mark then offered to back the trailer in for me.  It was just such a tight squeeze and after considerable attempts, I decided to take a post and section of the fence out.  More heavy work!  Finally, the boat was in the yard.  It wasn't exactly how I wanted to put her as I had an old project car in the way.  I have a Mercedes Benz 220  (the first year they came out with it) that has been sitting in the yard for the last 10 yrs.  A project I just never got around to do.  Actually, I hate working on cars, but this care was the same as one my dad owned when I was a kid, so I had nostalgic dreams of restoring it.  I sold this car months ago to a collector in San Francisco, but he hasn't come around to collecting it.  I think he is just using me for storage and soon I might have to relist it.  But there it sits, still blocking where I wanted to put the sailboat.
Photos after arriving home:

I have my work cut out for me!

I spent the next day taking stock of what I had.  Basically nothing, but I found the chainplates, backstay plates and various stainless steel screws and bolts.  I cleaned them in the kitchen sink, as well gave the whole boat a good cleaning. 

All the parts I found on the boat after cleaning

No, the fruit and bread were not in the boat!

The collection of various screws

All the bolts and screws sorted out.

Now to figure out where they go!

 I also lost my eyeglasses, as I had them hanging in my sweatshirt while wearing my sunglasses while cleaning the sailboat.  Then I went to take off my sweatshirt and forgetting that I had them hanging in the neckline.  Never found them....  Luckily, I have another pair I can use.

Going through the documents I was given with the boat, I called the previous owner before this last one.  He was very friendly and we had a good chat.  He had only sold the boat a couple of months ago and seemed genuinely dissappointed that the guy I bought it from had stripped it.  This fellow had owned the boat for about 6 years, but never sailed it as it had required a lot of work which he just wasn't able to find the time for.  He did mention that he had kept the sails and tiller from the boat, that he had promised to a friend up in Washington State, but wasn't sure if they were going to fit.  After checking the dimensions myself,  I think the foot of the mainsail is 12" too short.  But without bringing this up, and on a followup call, that previous owner has offered not to give them away if I can get the boat ready to a point of needing the sails.  I think he really does want to see the boat back in the water and has a genuine interest in her.  I would like to offer him the first sail.

The next thing I need to do is make a list of things I need to complete.  This should turn out to be a fairly long list!  But to start, I figured out that I had the parts that went to the pop-up.  They were pretty cruddy looking and the rubber base that finished off the bottom were both pretty far gone.  I went down to ACE and bought new rubber bases.  As long as I can take one step at a time, progress should always win in the end!

Here is a photo of the restored pop-up support next to the old: