Well now that we had the main rigged there were no excuses not to fly it. So on our 1st nice Saturday in May Joyce and I put Rose Lee through her paces with both sails flying, We had a great breeze and the boat responded so well very balanced with a nice helm. I am amazed how well nimble this big boat is, she is starting to grow on us for sure:0) |
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The new blocks arrive from Garhauer for the main so I was finally able to get it rigged and we would be now able to start flying both sails, nice. Rigging was not complicated even though there were quite a few lines logic and common sense were the main skills required to complete the job and luckily I had a little of each:)
Joyce and I decided today was the day we would get out and see how this boat worked. The breeze was up to about 15kts when we unfurled the genoa. "Magic time" the boat began to heel and accelerate up to 6kts when we killed the engine, Sweet. The wind creeped past 20 and we were doing 8+ on the genoa, this is what I'm talking about. It was a great 1st sail, I was a little nerved up with the sizer and power of the boat and gear but with the over sized winches trimming the genoa was not unmanageable. Joyce was amazing as usual, her can do attitude really is a great motivator "she makes me want to be a better man":) We arrived back to our mooring safe and sound and had a victory toast now that we had our first sail behind us.
My 4 year old Grand Daughter Alana was pretty anxious to get out for a boat ride. So on Saturday morning we took our tender Gypsy for a spin around the mooring field. Alana enyed herself and I think she will be a furure boater for sure:)
Well after much thought we bit the bullet and hired a boom truck to put up the mast. Our mast crane at the club is kind of a manual affair rated for a 1000 pounds and after watching several owners have issues (Our apartment overlooks the club and the mast crane)we decided to go the crane route. Everything went smooth with the mast we had about four people helping so no worries, however when we went to rig the boom the main sheet and all of the blocks were missing (never got shipped from Florida). So until we got new blocks from Garhauer looks like we would be sailing on the 135 which is fine.
Launch day finally arrived with a beautiful spring day Rose Lee went in the water with out a hitch. We had lots of friends and observers on hand for the big day (it was like a little parade as the travel lift carried her down to the water:). We thought it best not to offend any of the gods so a proper de-naming and re-naming ceremony was was held that evening. This was mentioned to a few friends old and new but we were quite surprised by the size of the crowd that showed up, it looked like Saturday afternoon at the Annapolis Boat Show. There were about 50 people on the dock and 30 on the boat, luckily we were prepared with lots of champagne (trust me no gods were offended that day). Our boats original name was Cats Meow and since we are not really cat people the name had to go. It took a bit of time to find a name that we felt was right for us. We wanted something that we could relate to and that meant something to us. Joyce as a small child liked to run around with very little on other than a smile and her Aunt nick named her Rose Lee after Gypsy Rose Lee the Burlesque star. It seemed right so that was that. Rose Lee it is. |
Follow Rose Lee live with the link below
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/RoseLee
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