"Scott Vernon" wrote

Maybe I missed it, but, where did you shove off from?

Scotty

Oops. 1 Lash for me. I didn't mention it. It was Norwalk.

To continue the story. After that rough day, I decided it
was time to pull HOOT's mast, and put it up for the season
before the weather got really bad. So I spent the next few
days doing that. Tim, the skipper on the trip I just wrote
about, wanted to thank me for helping move the boat and
agreed to help me haul 200 lbs of shrink wrap up around the
big boat and after he and I drapped it over the boat, I shrunk
wrapped the bottom and tied it down with strapping.

I spent the next few days hoping for a calm day to finish
shrinking the plastic--the top portion from the inside and
this had to be done when there was no wind pressure on the
plastic.

After waiting three days for some light wind, I finished the
big boat and then I did the little boat.

This was my first time using my new $500 shrink wrap torch and
did the nearly the entire job by myself. It was not easy, but
in the future, it will only cost material to do these jobs.

A few days later we got even worse weather. You must have
seen some of that. We had winds with 40 mph steady and gusts,
I've been told, up to 60 mph--for two days! I've never seen
anything like that. I'm so glad I hauled the little boat,
which was using the winter docks at the yacht club, to avoid
hoisting it in and out, and could only be reached by kayak,
since the ladder to the dock was pulled. If I'd left it in
the water, who knows what would have happened.

The first day of the wind storm, I went down to the big boat
worried that my shrink wrap would not hold up. My frame,
built of conduit, was permanently bent over 1 foot to leeward.
I was worried it would be carried away and tightened up every
nut and bolt and screw. At one point at the peak of the winds,
I leaned against the frame to help support it. It felt like
being hit my a 250 lbs man on the gusts. I resigned myself that
I might have to do the whole job again, and prayed it would
hold together since I'd done everything I could do.

I taped up every spot that looked weak and did my best to plug
any place wind could get in. I was lucky, my shink wrap held up
the next 36 hours.

The fellow next to me, lost his shrink wrap completely. It all
started with a small hole and got bigger and then exploded. My
buddy on the other side who had only one minor hole in one tarp
on the first day, had every tarp he had shredded like lettuce
on the second day. I think my theory of taping every hole made
good sense.

You may have heard about the Italians crew who were rescued in
the Atlantic by the Coast Guard at about the same time. It must
have been hell for them offshore. I'd like to hear their story.

It was very nasty in the boat yard, and the marina. The sailing
schools dock, like every sailing school I've ever seen were
in the most exposed part of the marina--which explains the damage.

My buddy with the Sabre 28, whose boat I helped move, left his big
boat in Bermuda (St Thomas had 40 knot winds and nearly a foot of
rain), delayed the second part of the trip, and flew back for a
few days. He nearly lost his new (used) Sabre at the dock, and his
whaler was swamped in the marina and barely manged to get the Sabre
hauled before his patch, which was leaking, failed completely.

I took a student out sailing today for a few hours, and found most
of the heavy dock lines for the sailing school's smaller boats had
parted or were chafted to ruin. The ones that had not, had obviously
been added later. If they hadn't been doubled up, the boats would
have been trashed.

Bart