My brother and I took out the almost-finished Otter a few weeks ago for opening day of crab season. Luckily there are no photos because our surf launch was far from smooth! Some valuable lessons were learned. All in all we landed our Dungeness limit and had a great feast. The real fun, however, was the midinight crabbing session in the canoe the night before. Four of us paddled from Crissy field under the bridge to Baker Beach and back between 10:00PM and 1:00AM. Very cool experience. Here's a gallery of recent Otter pics.
Gary, Ted and Jonny lent a hand this weekend to bring the Otter back to life in time for the Dungeness Crab season opener in November. After pulling out the old rotten inwales and busted breasthook and transom knees, it was clear that the mahogany outwales were serviceable and actually really nice. So, I decided to "restore" the boat rather than convert it to a work boat. Here are some photos of the progress.
Bart, Kyle and I just returned home from an amazing three-day surf adventure along the Gaviota Coast. Truly spectacular. We paddled in twelve miles with minimal help from the wind, camped two nights on the boat and and then sailed downwind most of the way home before the wind died. I used the small fortress anchor with success and the new Iakos and Pola supported all three tramps perfectly. I've never slept so well.
With the new ialkos and pola roughed out I slapped on some sealer and rigged the canoe this weekend in Stinson Beach. It all looked and performed beautifully. I need to make some minor adjustments but nothing major. A keen eye will notice that I've moved away from flexible lashings in favor of stainless steal bolts and 2000lb test webbing. Yikes! It certainly stiffened up the ride. I'm a bit worried about the consequences in the event of a massive load event (i.e. a huge broach or pitch pole). More photos here
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