Season 26 is finally underway.   We launched from the ramp in Egg Harbor between thunderstorms last week and will finally be able to enjoy some sailing.

Getting the mast up this spring was easier than ever, as I purchased a new mast crutch that telescopes and is equipped with a roller making the mast handling really a breeze.  I saw the device (Mastup) on a Catalina 22 website and thought it would be perfect for us.  It is.  The process was simple.  We rolled the mast aft on the crutch.  Slipped the base of the mast into the tabernacle on deck.  Then using the trailer winch as usual, we hauled her up.  A buddy and I remained on deck to assure the mast didn’t move to either side.  It was easy.

Tom and Kristen Siebenhuhner sent a couple of photos of BlueMoon getting ready for another summer at Lake Seneca, NY.  They mentioned a couple of maintenance issues when they wrote, and our boat has had the same problems so I explained my solutions to them.  When I did, I promised a couple of photos.  To deal with cracked or broken teak, I replaced the hatch slides and guides with Starboard, a plastic marine lumber I purchased at West Marine when I repaired and refinished Sarah’s hatch.  Like BlueMoon’s, Sarah’s hatch had developed cracks from years of sailors stepping on it.  You can see the results in the picture below.  The guides have been in place for a couple of seasons now and look fine to me.  The teak is certainly prettier, but after repeatedly replacing them, I’m happy to have made the switch.  Sarah’s lifelines are no longer covered with white vinyl.  After it cracked and yellowed, I removed the vinyl to check the condition of the stainless lines.  They were fine, so I just reinstalled them without the vinyl.  They work OK.

I have also replaced the restraints on the fuel locker in the cockpit with Starboard.  These were teak, too.  In addition, I created a drink/radio/binocular holder for use in the cockpit by adding a French cleat to the back of a commercially available teak accessory.  With the cleat, I can install or remove the holder in seconds and I don’t have to deal with stuff drifting about in the cockpit.  I open the locker lid, drop in the holder, then close the lid which keeps the holder in place.  It’s simple and isn’t in the way.

Another addition this spring was a replacement cooler below.  Quickstep owners know that the cooler doubles as a companionway step.  After years of use, ours was cracked and worn.  I found that Igloo has one that fits, so I bought it, transferred the original teak step to the new cooler and we’re set for another 25 years.

What’s new with your Quickstep?  Let me know.  Finally, here are the pictures Tom and Kristen sent of BlueMoon.  She looks terrific.  If anyone else would like to send along a few shots, I’d be happy to post them.  Cheers, everybody!

Sarah at Sturgeon Bay’s Harbor Club Marina

On and off, folks post comments on this site offering a Quickstep for sale or looking for one to buy.  The problem is that those comments show up on various pages and are hard to notice unless you’re really looking.  So I’ve added a new page, The Boatyard, dedicated to comments about Quicksteps for sale or “Quickstep Wanted” posts.  I hope this makes it easier for owners to get in touch with potential buyers.  Summer is finally here!

Sarah is now here at home and as you can see from the photos, her teak needs some attention before she starts the season.  It’s been raining, so I haven’t started the sanding. Funny how that works out. No rain for weeks… bring home the boat and the heavens open. Fact is, we need the rain, so at least the gardens are getting what they require.   Looking at the picture, I think it’s also time to refinish my winter weatherboard.  I keep the good ones at home when the boat’s in storage.

Sailcare finished with our sails and they’ve arrived.  First inspection looks good- they are clean and crisp.  Unfortunately, the guys were not able to create the proper Q insignia for the mainsail, so we’re going without one.  I’m not too bright as it turns out.  It occurred to me after I got the sails back, that I could have removed a Q from our original old and worn Hood mainsail and sent it as a pattern to Sailcare.   Too late now.  The new plan is to order material from Sailrite and do it ourselves.  How hard can it be?  Right?

Speaking of maintenance, I’ve upgraded the Brochures page of this blog in order to provide better images.  The originals did not enlarge clearly and were hard to read.  These are much better and I hope they’re useful.

Don’t forget to forward some pictures of your Quickstep.  Let’s see how they look this spring.  Send photos to Quickstep21@gmail.com.

The ice is finally out and launching has begun around here despite the unusually cool temperatures.  I am looking forward to pulling our boat home from the shed and starting the spring maintenance routine.  This year, the focus is on teak.  It’s time to do a bit of sanding and revarnishing, but otherwise, Sarah’s in pretty good shape.  It’s still way too cool to varnish, but it’s a good time to start the prep work and be ready for warmer weather.  Once the temperature is right, I won’t want to have sanding to finish.  Last fall, I sent our sails to Sailcare for some professional cleaning and a little repair. They haven’t arrived yet, so I think I’d better give them a call.  I’m looking forward to seeing how well Sailcare’s cleaning process works.

Speaking of warmer weather, we just returned from a short trip to San Francisco where we took some time to attend the Strictly Sail Pacific show at Oakland’s Jack London Square.  It was a nice show with lots of vendors and plenty of boats to look at.  The good thing is that I didn’t see anything I like better than our Quickstep 21.  That’s been the case for 26 years now, and I’m sure most Quickstep owners feel the same way.  What I did see were plenty of boats that are a lot more expensive than our Quickstep- or our entire home, plus the Quickstep, the Lyman, and both cars.  My granddaughter picked one out.  It was marked down $33,000- a boat show special.  Just for the fun of it, here are a few photos of the show.  Click on any image to see the pictures full size.

Let me know when your season gets underway.  I’d enjoy posting a few pictures of your boats as they begin the new year.

Strictly Sail Pacific

Small Sport Boats

A J70

Great boats in the water

My Granddaughter’s pick

Sparkman and Stephens

My granddaughter found this bargain

The only small boat in the water.

Here’s a nice modern boat in the Quickstep size range

Jack London

Vendors inside.

I am beginning to think about the chores I have to complete before I launch Sarah this spring. This is the year I’ll be varnishing teak and spending some quality time on cosmetic issues. Technically she’s in fine shape, but her brightwork is looking a bit tired.  As soon as it warms up, I’ll get at it.  But- it’s a little too early to be working on the boat right now.  It’s cold in Wisconsin.  As you can see below, Hobie cats aren’t going anywhere anytime soon and some of the Great Lakes freighters have arrived for their annual refits at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay.  There are several of the 1000 foot fellows in for maintenance and more boats have arrived since I snapped this shot. Winter isn’t so bad, and a group of us sailors is staying active during the cold.  We gather and hike- and then meet for a bite to eat and drink.

This is so typical.  Here is a fishing shack out in the shipping channel in Sturgeon Bay.  There are dozens and dozens of these scattered across Green Bay right now.  Some are out a mile or more.  Most guys use four-wheelers or snowmobiles to get out to them.  A few very brave (or remarkably foolish) ones drive their suv’s and trucks out on the ice.  My neighbor says the ice is nearing 20 inches thick two miles out where he fishes.  But he assures me he’s not one of the guys driving the F-150 out there!

The shipping channel.

The view to the west- toward Green Bay.

As you can see, a hearty group of sailors won’t be stopped by a little cold weather.  We’ll hike, enjoy a fire in one of the state park pavilions, and then find a welcoming pub like Waterfront Mary’s to enjoy a little good food, some tasty cocktails, and great conversation.

That’s ice fishermen, of course.

The porch is great all year round.

Well it’s the middle of another Polar Vortex and snow-blowing has replaced sailing for the time being.  In that the -35 degree wind chill makes it hard to think about being out on Green Bay, I have found other boat-related activities to help pass the time.  For me, one of the best is to log in to a website called Off Center Harbor.  If you haven’t seen it, you should.

I have an old wooden Lyman that I maintain myself for those days when there’s no wind and I can’t sail the Quickstep.  She’s a fun old boat, a 1955 plywood lapstrake runabout.  As you can guess, an old wooden boat has to be properly maintained, so to make sure I have some of the skills I need, I joined a boatbuilding class at the Door County Maritime Museum a couple of years ago and worked to build a nice little sailing skiff, a Pooduck, designed by Joel White. The class was great- a terrific confidence builder and consequently my interest in building and my skill in maintaining small wooden boats took off.

 My 1955 Lyman

  The Pooduck Skiff

I read Woodenboat magazine regularly and count on the internet for research, so I joined Off Center Harbor when the site first opened a couple of years ago.  What a terrific website!  Not only are there super detailed step-by-step tutorials for building small wooden boats, but there are a myriad of articles on everything from small boat camping to outboard boat handling.  There are videos of some of the neatest classic boats and all kinds of great photographs.  The authors’ blog is very informative, and the guys who put this together really know their stuff.  You are probably familiar with their work.  There is historian Maynard Bray, photographer Benjamin Mendlowitz, boatbuilder Eric Blake, the writer Bill Mayher and videographer Steve Stone.  The site isn’t free and although they offer a decent sampler, you can’t view it all without subscribing.  But it is more than worth the few bucks it costs per year. You can spend hours learning and having a great deal of fun at the same time. Our Quicksteps are traditional boats and it seems to me that this site is a perfect match for us. So if you are tired of fighting the cold, pour yourself a nice smokey Scotch, grab the laptop, stoke the fire, and settle in with this site.

www.offcenterharbor.com

Tom and Kristen Siebenhuhner send this great picture of Blue Moon on Lake Seneca with greetings to everyone for a happy new year.

Winter is here.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!  Winter has arrived in Egg Harbor and we are making the rounds of some terrific holiday parties.  In fact, we have four this week!  We will have to try hard not to over-eat, as our friends are all great cooks, and so the offerings are usually hard to avoid.  I think we’re up to the challenge, but we’ll see.

The boats are wrapped up for the winter and the only boating news is that we’ve sent our sails (our second set) off to SailCare in Pennsylvania for a good cleaning, new telltales, and a proper Quickstep insignia.  When we purchased this set the sailmaker didn’t quite get the “Q” correct and I decided that the boat had to start its second 25 years with the correct insignia on the sail.  Pure vanity, I know.  Our current sailmaker, Dorsal Sails (www.doorsail.com) in Sturgeon Bay tells me that he’s had several customers use SailCare and they expressed complete satisfaction with the firm.  We didn’t need any repairs and aside from missing telltales the sails are in pretty good shape.  I hope the good cleaning will help us get a few more years out of them.  When they arrive, I let you know how SailCare did.

Looking southwest toward the Alpine Lodge.

As you can see, Egg Harbor is beginning to freeze over and soon we’ll see ice fishermen out on the bay.  Yesterday I snapped a few photos of the marina and the Egg Harbor public beach and noticed a Bald Eagle watching me from a nearby tree.  As soon as I pointed my camera his way, he took off.  I managed to get him anyway, even if it was from behind.  (click on any photo to enlarge it)

Looking west at the marina from Harbor View Park.

Our swimming beach. The eagle is in the tree.

Looking back toward the marina.

There he goes!

We often see a pair from the marina.

As I said above, I hope you have happy holidays and that you get to spend time with your families and friends.  I also hope you’ll continue to be part of our Quickstep group in the coming year.  Any time you want to contribute, either with an article or some photos, just send your news along to me at Quickstep21@gmail.com.  I’d like to share your news with the rest of our Quickstep family.  Cheers!

It’s Pumpkin Patch Festival time in Egg Harbor!

Egg Harbor’s signature Milepost.

The 25th sailing season for Sarah has come to a close with the marina here at Egg Harbor officially shutting down on October 19th.  The fall season was spectacular with great color, decent wind, and seasonally cool temperatures. We took advantage of the good weather.

Sarah’s name pennant flying from the masthead.

Green Bay is chilly this time of year.

The Alpine Lodge seen from Sarah.

That’s Chamber’s Island in the distance.

As usual, we avoided trying to sail during the Pumpkin Patch Festival when the marina grounds are full of folks enjoying a few beers and brats.  But both before and after, we had a few great sails to finish the season, daysailing just off Egg Harbor, circumnavigating Hat Island and tooling along the shore enjoying the fall color.   The weather turns quickly here, so we took advantage of a lull in the winds and pulled Sarah from the bay on the 16th.  It was rainy, but fairly warm.  We prefer to drop the mast when the wind isn’t going to complicate the maneuver.

After getting her home, we did our usual fall cleanup, moving gear to the house and garage, power washing the bottom, waxing the hull, and cleaning the interior.   We always put her away clean and empty.  Then we drove her to her winter home in the shed at Eames Farm up in the village where she’ll spend the snowy months dry and safe.  We’re busy cleaning the gear now and making a few repairs here and there so that we’ll be ready when spring arrives.  I imagine we will get another year out of the bottom paint, but spring will bring quite a bit of varnishing and teak work.  I will also have to track down a couple of small leaks around fittings and replace the wiring to the mast.  The insulation is cracked and dry.  We were very pleased with the new Schaefer furler we installed this summer.  It worked great and proved easy to deal with when it was time to drop the mast.

Ready to go.

Home for a cleanup.

Tom and Kristen Siebenhuhner send along a few photos of Blue Moon whose season on New York’s Lake Seneca has come to an end.  Blue Moon enjoyed some terrific fiberglass work on her flag blue hull earlier this year and she certainly looks great.

Here you see her under her winter cover, which by the way, I think looks first-class.  Tom and Kristen are already looking forward to next year’s sailing aboard number 33.   Thanks for sharing the photos and the news.