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Thursday, May 26, 2016

I'd like to introduce to you the rowing schooner: The Missouri River Mermaid.

I think the pictures should do most of the talking.


 
This week is the final push.  Basically I had my last day in the Air Force, had to finish building the boat, and get my place ready to sell.  The boat took priority for me. Luckily, Amateur-Sophist came into town for a relaxing week/vacation.  Obviously, he ended up taking the completely full gas tank out of the Buick to find a shitty bit of wiring on my part... So, his easy vacation became a working one.  


Long into the night.  



Things eventually got finished enough that it was time for sea trials under sail.  So after a short ceremony, she was rolled back down the road and across the street into the Gulf of Mexico.  


Right into the water... with a little set up.  The plan was to slowly test and add sails as we figured how it worked.  Increasing the amount of sail in a controlled and reasonable way.  At first that worked fine.  The Mermaid was sailing along just fine under only the foresail. Just as we were getting things under control, a gust of wind came and unfurled the Main.  Boom!  And just like that she was a full on schooner!





7 comments:

Unknown said...

Foresail vs Jib, skooner va Skiff.. Sailing is so confusing...

Unknown said...

Totally unrelated, I know... Spelunking in th UP...

http://caves.org/conservancy/mkc/preserve_fiborn.html

David Woken said...

Looks incredible Nick. Thanks for sharing your journey. Looking forward to following the trip.

Anonymous said...

A thrilling beginning! I hope travel to Michigan has been easy.
Happiest travels!
Sam

paulbrannan said...

I think I'd rather sail it than row it! Good luck and Bon Voyage. :-)

Anonymous said...

Good luck Nick. Wish I was joining you but maybe next time. Keep the updates coming!!! David P

Notorious said...

Salter, sailing... it's as easy as learning physics in a foreign language! All the words make sense once you know what they mean!

Lee, David! The the updates will be as often as possible! Thanks!

Paul... yea, me too... actually that is why I secretly build a rowable sail boat instead of a sailable row boat! Though, if I guessed wrong on that decision, this could be a bit bicep building.