For months now, I’ve been on the fence about what to do for a tender. My original intent was to find a dinghy that would fit between the mast and the attachment rail for my dodger, which is about seventy-six inches. This narrowed down my choices considerably. So naturally I shifted my focus to building a nesting dinghy – the Chameleon by Danny Greene, in particular. I even ordered plans from him.
Then, last week, this little gal popped up on the Houston Craigslist. A Trinka 8′.
The Trinka and our fat little dog, “Lady”.
She even came with a cover and a dolly too!
You may remember that Alex received a generous gift of a 10′ Trinka back in Nyack, NY. When I crewed for him in November 2014, I did lots of rowing around the Hudson and I fell in love with that little boat. I knew that it was well made and had a good reputation. So when this Trinka 8′ showed up on Craigslist, I jumped on it. I met with the owner and bought her on New Year’s Eve. After much deliberation, I figured spending 100-150 hours to build the Chameleon is not in the cards. This little boat likely won’t fit behind the mast like I want, but she’ll do just fine nonetheless. I haven’t decided on a name just yet. Any suggestions?
I wasn’t a complete bum during the holidays. I refinished my windlass, a Plath no. 1 manual. Once again, I used BLP Mobile Paint’s MoPoxy primer and Mothane epoxy topcoat, which is the same paint I used for the mast. I have to give a shoutout here to my buddy Tyler, who let me use the paint booth at his auto-body shop to spray the windlass. Thanks man!
Another project I’ve been wanting to tackle is rebuilding the boomkin. The boomkin is an integral part of the standing rigging, and acts as a focal point for the backstay and the lower boomkin stays. Lorilee’s old boomkin is dried out and has some rot around some of the bolt fittings. No bueno! So I special ordered some teak that will be used to replace the beams. A lot of folks argue that the wood boomkin should be replaced with stainless. It is stronger yes, but if I wanted a boat covered in stainless, I would’ve bought a Benneteau or something. One of the reasons I bought a Westsail was for their more traditional looks. If the structural wood is maintained and/or replaced periodically, I have no doubts it will be quite strong.
New teak boomkin
Since I bought the boat, nearly a year ago, I’ve found that writing down goals makes them much more attainable. So here are my boat projects I want to accomplish in 2016:
- Install composting head.
- Install house battery bank
- Rebuild starboard/port setees that are rot-damaged from leaks.
- Remove the teak caprails, re-seal the deck-to-hull joint, and reinstall the caprails.
- Refinish all wood on deck
- Repaint the deck and nonskid
- Replace the standing rigging
This may be a lot to chew, but I think I can handle it all. :) Thanks for reading over the last year, and I hope to have a productive 2016. Happy New Year!
– Ryan
Published in Ryan Bradfield
Lori (the dory)
Hahaha! I like it. My dad calls it the “SS Tidybowl”.
Recently listed http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/55402
Good looking boat! I really like the rub-strake. Lorilee doesn’t have one. I’d be curious to see what her hull number is though, as the last Westsail 32 was built in 1981. Awesome price, regardless. If I was still in the market, I’d go for it.