A Steadfast Repair – Janice Anne Wheeler
If you have any interest at all in boat building, or just messing about in boats, then this article is for you. Thank you Capt. Wheeler.
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SPARRING WITH MOTHER NATURE ~~ latest addition! Settle back for your Sunday Morning Read. I’m so honored that you’re following along. Thank you.
Please enjoy the latest passages from STEADFAST. As of August 1st, 2024 we are undergoing extensive repair and refit and will be for several months. In boating terms we are hauled out “on the hard.” I plan to mix Sailing Stories with the challenges and intricacies of restoring a 90-year-old Sailing Yacht. I’m always open to suggestions as to content….please feel free to weigh in. Thank you. J
Boatbuilder Duncan Macfarlane has an old soul. Alive for just under four decades, he prefers music recorded prior to his birth and reveres vessels built long before that. His passion for wooden boats is so strong, in fact, that he’s made it his life’s work to bring them back to what they once were. Back to what they should be. Back to what their designers wanted them to be, and maybe, just maybe, one shade better. On his first day I said to him, “My father always told me, ‘Measure twice, cut once.’ Is that your Mantra?” He looked at me steadily and replied with just a touch of levity. “Oh no. We measure many times.”
In this photographic essay, Duncan fits the knee, (which you can see being shaped in the post MORE PRECIOUS COMMODITIES), recreates the stem, (or very front) of STEADFAST, and attaches the two together, preparing for installation. The new Purpleheart is a stark and startling contrast to the century-old materials it is replacing and supporting.
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The ancient art of shipbuilding is, like many ancient arts, becoming more and more rare, as are boatbuilders themselves. It was determined a few decades ago that other materials lasted longer and were far easier to maintain. Progress? That, of course, is a matter of opinion. Regardless, what an opportunity it is to see how complex, intricate, interdependent and STEADFAST vessels such as this one really are. Thanks for following along as we complete the painstaking and joyful repair and refit of our floating home. There are many more steps to come!!
Your input is appreciated and welcome! Love wooden boats? Build them? Never seen one? People certainly fall into all these categories. Like our Boatbuilder himself, STEADFAST most certainly has an old soul, in more ways than one.
*** I will always keep the articles I have written available for free to my readers. If you see value and possess the means, it’s great encouragement to have paid subscribers. If not, simply ‘liking,’ commenting, restacking and sharing these tales helps spread the word about me and what I have chosen to do. There should be someone on your email list that would be intrigued! Sharing is caring.
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Most importantly, YOU, MY READERS, ARE TREMENDOUSLY APPRECIATED!
And lastly: our weekly sunrise. These can be seen on Facebook YACHTING STEADFAST each and every morning until 2025.
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© 2024 Janice Anne Wheeler
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104
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