EBB's PHOTO GALLERY THREAD

[ebb]

Spaulding Boatwerks has asked me to move Litlgull elsewhere.
Moving the boat next door to the Arquez marina is not possible.
It is full of derelict houseboats and others. It looks unchanged
from 25 years ago when I left with the Ariel. Can't believe It's
been that long! And will I still be able to skipper the dream??

Either back to SanRafael or elsewhere, It's just as sticky to leave
where we're not wanted, as it has been to make all the illadvised
changes that robbed me of decades sailing the oceans.

I think Chris must have made a tacit promise to Hasse that the
sails would be rigged to the boat. I will try to get him to do thar
before I leave.
There is a tangle of halyards at the mast that have routes secret
to me.. I installed a couple cheekblocks at the masthead for a
runged ladder idea, that now will be halyarded.
Also the watermaker has not been proofed. Stuff I've been
reminded I still must pay for.
This while being scurried away like garbage. They do bottom
jobs and minor repairs as main income. And, now that Covid's
in decline the tourists are back. Troops of kids. And there is a
fleet of Pelicans being assembled inside the shop of laser-cut
parts and fiberglass. Spaulding has more important things to do.

I also let Chris order a Facnor bowsprit for me, still in the works,
no idea when it will arrive presumably from France. No feedback
from the chief. Should have done it myself, but thought it was
good form to have Spaulding handle it.

Wherever we end up, it'll be developing a new s.s. plate 'extension'
that will stick out forward of the original bowfitting to support both
the anchor roller AND the center of the Facnor pole sprit..

Decided on a new Pulpit, the old out of round, crushed in front
and crooked, not yet ordered. Have to make an exact pattern
because I would like to do the impossible, that is to move the
aft leg bases to the bulworks and the front legs to the molded
toerail -- sans the bulwork for warp chocks-- in effort to claim
more wiggle-room to position the sprit and anchor gear.
Uninterrupted access on the hard will make it easier and sooner
done.. .. .. if I stay fit!

There will be more on the SunPower Flex panels that will hang
to the hard rails.

Never imagined how difficult it is to fit reality, per se, into a dream.

[ebb]

Here's a mental picture for you.

UP NAPA RIVER WITHOUT A PADDLE
a visit to the Napa Valley Marina

Recently, masks coming off, Covid mutations fighting back against non-vaccinators,
changing times, miles of something new: miles long stop and crawl traffic, no
accidents, just sheer volume on the north bound road into Sonoma. It was Steve
who suggested looking closer to home.. On a Saturday took the Element east into
Napa County and south onto a long straight and then winding rural road out back.

Sighted masts and cruised a stretch lined with large yachts perched on their keels.
Turned into the marina, straight-off found an open-door men's room and a marine
flea market in progress. Went into the store and found it shared a door with the
marina office. "Come back Monday." said the skinny guy behind the counter.

Ambled into the huge yard with huge dead elephants waiting for god. One or two
pickups parked in the casual groupings, no ladders against hulls. Altho it was a
Saturday there were no radios blasting and not a single sander, dead quiet.


After a doctors appt, arrived back at the marina office just before noon, to find
what appeared to be the yardmaster sipping soup at his desk. Came back at 12:30
and this happened:

Showed him, a large balding power figure, an image of Litlgull on my phone. He
brought out a green colored sheet of paper covered with 3 columns of price lists.
My boat would be charged daily lay days of $40 for 15 days, then $300 per month.
But if I was working on the boat, the rate jumps to $500, but longer than 3
months the rate jumps again to $750 (for a mono-hull to 44').
My brain Overflowed. Wanted a place to work, not punishment.

One item on a list of services for moving boats stands: $30.
Another was a "corkage fee" for paint not bought at the marina store: $10 a ft.
A fine of $260 for Litlgull using an open qt of Epifanes -- or a gallon of bottom.

As I turned to go, he said, "September x is when we can fit you in.." That was two
months away. I flashed, three marine ways are virtually empty, looked unused,
there's one 30' yacht parked on the floats, two live yachts on the hard gravel at the
head of the ways, no human activity. I got the message and left. The marina
looks historic and pleasantly incredibly neat, like a movie set.. waiting for the actors
to show up.
I drove past the elephants.. never to return.

Reasoned: the traffic problem wld soon return to something like normal.
This sleepy yard of money games is NO PLACE FOR THE LIKES OF EBB.

[ebb]

MARK HARRINGTON'S SLING-SHOT EFFECT

WITNESS INCREDIBLE BOATMANSHIP

A RECORD SETTING YACHT PUT


Hardly a powerful enuf phrase to describe what I, for lack of a full vocabulary
experienced at MattButler's SanRafael Yacht Harbor, when THURSDAY CLUB member's
of the Alberg Fleet SanFrancisco: Steve Cossman, Ian Elliott, skipper of the Triton
SANCTUARY,
and Mark Harrington volunteered to tow Litlgull, engine-less, sail-less, skipper-less
Ebbster back to where he sprung (and towed away from) in recent memory.

The tow can last 2 1/2 hours, Sausalito to SanRafael, by auto takes 20 minutes.
But on the end of a 50' line, on a calm balmy day, it is life-embracing. Uneventful
except for some errant waves, "Ferryboat," said Steve, also aboard in the cockpit, no
ferryboat anywhere in sight. And a spectacle
in the form of a gigantic dark barge with a tall light colored pilot house like a freaky
church tower.. which seemed to be closing rapidly on us with a huge boxy derrick
that growled and clanked loudly and wildly swung it's enormous bucket one side to
the other, opening and clanging shut its mouth as it gained on us and passed in the
next opening under the RichmondBridge -- like a T-Rex on a loose and lunatic island.

We arrive an hour later, up an endless estuary of expensive real-estate, and park in a
convenient doublewide slip close to the Harbor entrance just ahead. Phone calls to
locate the harbormaster fruitless. Ian takes the guys up into the Harbor to suss out
the situation, No Matt. No promised dinghy with an outboard to tow po' Litlgull in..
and under the crane for lift out.


MAKING THE COMPLEX LOOK SPONTANEOUS AND EASY
Then the extraordinary: Mark in deep discussion with Steve and Ian. They ask me
to hop into Ian's boat while they stay with Litlgull on the floats.
Ian backs out, Steve and Mark proceed by hand to swing Litlgull around bow out.
Ian motors ahead and stops stern on to the bow of Litlgull.
Steve and Mark, already onboard, hand Ian a line that he ties Litlgull about two feet off
his stern. He motors us up to the Harbor entrance, hangs left, suddenly accelerates.

He yanks the tow line loose. Look back to see Litlgull turning into the lane wit6h a
respectable bow wave charging down the row of parked vessels heading for the crane.

We, on Sanctuay, without the boat in tow, keep going into the inner harbor packed with
boats and floats of every ilk -- and into a puddle of empty water -- Ian heads strate for
the flank of some cabincruiserish thing at the end of a float -- just before he T-bones,
pushes the tiller down, swings on a silver dollar into a pure 180, cuts speed, coasts
back out the way we just arrived, but stops where Litlgull just disappeared into.

He waits, engine running, at the end of the dock for the guys. They dash up and hand
me down into a small godforsaken metal launch with a large black oily hole in its deck
where an engine once lived.

Clamber out, suddenly the voyage is over! Hail goodbyes, see you at breakfast, and
turn down the float to find Litlgull, quietly nodding, tied to the horizontal float used to
orient vessels for haul out by BUCKYRUS EIRE looming like a Jurassic skeleton overhead,
painted GoldenGateOrange. Welcome back!

How often has the Thursday gang practiced this Sling Shot Effect?? THE YACHT PUT.

What I witnessed is like what individual jazz players hope to arrive at when they improv
with the tune -- and stream it together to a heartbeat, exciting and beautiful.

Just think, Litlgull spontaneously sling shotted into the futur to silent applause..
Ian's alto sax harmonizing with Sanctuary's beat, a perfect riff.. never recorded for
posterity and keepers of the faith.
Except for Prospero here.

That I witnessed. Hear it? Ella easing it together with a long sweet note.
My luck is unfolding -- what I witnessed: Never forgot! Holy catfish! Thanks guys!!

__________________________________________________ _____________________
KURT (see below) BEYOND THE PALE

Years ago, serendipity became a popular word. It's when something fortunate
happens by chance that's special. Was watching by chance as Ryan Crouser stepped
up, wound up gracefully, twirled his big body around, with a grimace and a yelp,

performed a new distance by pushing a 16 pound iron ball 75 feet for a new world
and new Olympic record. What we know as 'a Gold Metal performance'.

When a world class record is made it's right on the edge of serendipity. A star
with easy prowess often pushes chance over its boundary. a Shot Putter won't ever
make 32 million dollars a year doing his art. It was a privilege seeing something
maybe I'll may never see again.. And it may not have been a touchdown or a
bases loaded homerun, but I saw 3 guys PUT a 3ton yacht for Gold.

Serendipity provided the lovely pun. The Alberg Fleet their expertise.
The amazing thing, they did it first try -- litlgull witnessed Gold.
__________________________________________________ ____________________

[CapnK]

"Yacht Put" - yer killin me Love it!

[Bill]

Letters and LarusMinutas are 8-10" and will be applied to the hull just under the rub rail at the sheer in the region of the cockpit. Ray Balanger Apache Signs is the inspiration for the font, my art is blatant borrowing, Ebb contributed some arrangement. Ray is the genius. Port of Call for documentation will be San Francisco CA in 4" letters across the top of the transom.

[ebb]

THANKS BILL !!
Large image is a bit much. Wasn't planned. But Ray was exchanging emails.
I all along after absorbing the shock of first seeing the hollow letters, still was
suggesting more airyness in the spread of the letters, and by the fourth try
this is what appeared -- as large.
Ray had pasted the first samples on an image of the starboard side of the
boat -- this one only shows the sheer rub rail. It does mean that the name
will be rather large to my eye, as I wasn't ready for this, not having fully
imagined it.
Still not sure if I'm ready for the boat name to be plastered all over the hull
like a freighter.. if Little Gull was wood, name and port would never have escaped
the transom. And like the port of call, all block upper-case letters devoid of air,
stiff and proper like sailors on muster.
But I almost immediately accepted the relaxed hollow letters, and their cartoony
casual nature.

Realize the contraction of little into lit (e)l will upset some, altho argument has
little weight given what has happened to language since the advent of the
personal computer.
The 'g' is now the fulcrum of some stems of balanced font shapes that might be
seen on a poster or book cover. To me the play is restrained enuf, it might
be controversial but it's contemporary.

Supple translation of the contracted name: litlgull with Ray's careful choreography
or spread of the individual letters is lit (e)l gull.. .. .. all instantly readable..


Kind of like arguing whether the letter x is a necessary letter in the alphabet!
It ain't serious it's for fun. Given Ray, to translate onto vinyl, another bird lozenge
more realistic less outlined. Crazy weather, everything seems half fast.

[Rob Rotondo]

Novice here. Is the knee solid figerglass or is there an internal material made out of ??? I'm considering removing the shelf that is glassed to the knee on both sides and wonder if there would be structural issues.