Bobbles and Village Girl

Alex and I dropped out the Race to Alaska in 2018 because we snapped the rudder off of Bobbles in Georgia strait during 25 knot winds and 5-foot following swells. It was an annoyance. Wayne Gorrie a previous winner of the coveted steak knives stood on the dock back in Nanaimo as we arrived under tow asking,  "What do you need? " We were rudderless and taking on water. Within 30 minutes Wayne had arranged for a boat lift and Bobbles hung suspended in a sling as we tried to find the source of the leak and survey the rudder damage.

The rudder was irrepairable and we found the leak to be a hairline fracture in the centerboard case which flexed open whenever the centerboard twisted letting water slip in. Tom a local shipwright who worked nearby saw our problem and in about two hours had made a new rudder out of a solid piece of yellow cedar.

The crack was a bigger problem. The centerboard itself was waterlogged, delaminated, and mushy. We unbolted it and the two of us left it by the dumpster as it was too heavy to lift in. Over the next few days we worked to convert the centerboard case to house a daggerboard which could be lifted out from the top. I fiberglassed the case inside and out while Alex made the new daggerboard from a slab of red cedar.

When all was done we gave our thanks to Wayne, Tom, and John the manager of the boat yard. We launched and sailed off the dock at sunrise  to take the scenic route back to Port Townsend.

Bobbles snuggled between the big boats in Friday harbor