Folk Dancer 27
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August 19, 2004
We've been pretty busy for the past couple months and have neglected to update the website with our latest adventures. Since we've been crazy, busy and the weather hasn't been the best, it's been some time since we've actually gone sailing. We did finally make it to Cape Porpoise though and we think Gandalf is pretty happily in her new home.
After getting to Boothbay harbor on the 4th of July, the weather got bad the following day, so we couldn't push on further. The forecast called for foggy conditions and a small craft advisory. One person on the dock informed us that winds of 20 to 30 miles an hour were reported. So now we were stuck in Boothbay harbor - a good two days from Cape Porpoise. Fortunately, good friends of ours had a summer home in the area with a mooring and it just happen that they were coming up that day for a week long vacation. We were in luck. They let us stay on the mooring and invited us to stay the night. It was fabulous! After a wonderful meal, drinks and a restful night ashore, we went for a day sail the next day. Since the bay was large and well protected from the heavy seas and winds, we could sail around quite pleasantly. That is until we went up on the ROCKS! Since we were kind of familiar with the bay, we didn't pay as much attention to the chart as we should have. Actually, just before we went up on the rocks, we were in the midst of check the chart. Since Gandalf is made of some pretty thick fiberglass, from the days when more was better than less, there was really no damage to speak of. Once we were back, I jumped over the side, into 55 degree water without a wetsuit, just to be sure. It was pretty shocking to have the boat stop immediately and heal to one side. With a little rocking and the engine full reverse, she came off pretty quick. That counts as the first time on the rocks.
A week pasted before we were able to continue the trip to Cape Porpoise. Jenny had to work on Saturday so my brother, Eben, came up with me on the Friday night before for the weekend. We stayed the night on the boat and left before dawn the next day. While we were making our way to Portland, Eben got in the dinghy and took some pictures of Gandalf under sail.
Again, as luck would have it, or really, really great friends, Jimmy and Amy, our friends who with the summer home in Boothbay, had friends who have a slip in Portland harbor. Eben and I just sailed off from a mooring in Boothbay to a slip in Portland. It doesn't get any better! Not only was the slip in Portland harbor, it was located right at the end of the dock next to DiMillo's Floating Restaurant. This night we got to sleep at home!
The next day, with my beautiful honey - Jenny not Eben and beautiful conditions - wind that started in the West, then Northwest, all the way around to the Southwest, we just pulled into Cape Porpoise as the wind shifted. If we had left just a little later, we'd have had the wind, from the Southwest, right in the nose.
In the following weeks Jenny cleaned Gandalf up real good and I put a new fuel filler system in with the help of my father. The fuel filler installation was much easier to install than the bleeding process. I could not have done it with out my Dad and Jenny's patients. Thank you both.
I've been meaning to scan some more documents about the Folkdancer 27 but hadn't had the time until now. This brochure from the the makers of the Folkdancer 27, Russell Marine Ltd, includes information on the other sailboats they made: Alacrity, Vivacity 20, Vivacity 20 RKB, Vivacity 21, Islander 23, Vivacity 24 and the Coronado 25. It also shows that the company, which I can't find anything about, had offices and manufacturers in the US, England, Norway, France, South Africa, Japan, and Australia. I'd love to know what happened to this company.
