Sqoop: a square-rigged sloop

The past couple days I’ve opened up as many access panels as possible to inspect, ponder, plan, but mostly to CLEAN!  Yes, she has some areas that are quite filthy but I am slowly rectifying that.  There are also gobs of little projects, many of which are just not photo-worthy, but here are a few things I did this week. I wanted to clean out the anchor locker and to do that of course, the anchor, chain and rope needed to be removed.  The previous owner wasn’t certain how long the anchor rode was, so I took this chance to actually measure it, inspect everything and ensure the connecting shackles were tight and secure.  The rode includes 15 feet of chain and 110 feet of rope for a total of 125 feet.  Now I know that I can comfortably anchor in 25 feet of water with a 5:1 scope. I also removed the cushioned covers from the cockpit locker seat tops.  They may be padded, but the core is plywood (unglassed) and felt heavy and waterlogged; this prevents t...

When you buy a boat, the logistics of getting the boat from her old slip to her new slip can be a bit complicated.  You need to either leave your car at the new slip, then somehow get to the old slip to begin the journey, or vice versus.  In this case, since there were two of us making the journey, and the distance between our start and end points was quite substantial, this created a double wrinkle.  Thankfully, my neighbor was kind enough to drive me up to Everett (not a short trip), which would allow me to make our day long sailing journey south and then to drive the old owner back to his car once we had the boat tied up at her new home. Originally, we were going to try and do this over the weekend, but the marine forecast dictated a delay until Monday, when the small craft advisory expired and the winds were more manageable.  On Sunday, NOAA updated their forecast to show winds up to 25 knots and wave heights up to four feet on Monday, so we agreed to delay th...

Once I make final payment on the boat and have the title signed over, she will need to be moved to her new home.  The previous owner has agreed to accompany me on this repositioning cruise for which I am most grateful; going through the Ballard Locks single-handed is not something I want to attempt until I’m thoroughly familiar with the boat.  It will be a long day...we’ll have about 12 hours of daylight and will need every bit of it!  Here is a nav planning document I put together for the passage: Everett-Lake Washington passage planner Aside  from getting through the locks, and making sure we have enough gas onboard to motor the entire distance (because you just know the wind will be in our face the whole way!), the other big issue (in a sailboat) is getting under all the bridges in the ship canal and Lake Washington; it’s imperative to know the height of the mast above the waterline.  Now, one can easily google this number, but do you really want to...

I had a few unique requirements for the boat I wanted to purchase which I could then modify for this unconventional project: —LOA (overall length) less than 27 feet (to fit comfortably into my slip and to minimize hull drag) —Maximum LWL (max waterline length — for the highest hull speed possible) —Maximum beam (>8.5 feet) for easy storage of the yard-spar when lowered and comfort belowdecks —Minimum displacement (<4,000#) to minimize hull drag —Fiberglass hull (my romantic notions of yesteryear sailing do not extend to wooden hulls) —A deck-stepped mast hinged at the base (to allow raising/lowering the mast without a crane) —Shrouds swept aft of abeam (to give the yard-spar some room to swing when raised) —Minimal number (preferably zero!) of thru-hulls below the waterline —Standup headroom (for comfort when glamping on the water) Just as importantly, what I did NOT require was a blue-water boat that sailed well upwind since I plan to sail exclusively in protected co...