Dear Friend of CHARIAD:

At long last CHARIAD is on her mooring in Marblehead harbor. She is fitted out and ready to go sailing.

Today, Saturday, will be the first sailing day for CHARIAD for the 2013 season. Painful to say, but that is where we are.

Please join some of the CHARIAD sailing crew & other Friends of CHARIAD for a fun Social Sail

Date

Sunday Aug 10

On Dock Time

10 AM – return about 4
 PM

Location

Boston Yacht Club, One Front Street, Marblehead

Food and Drink

Bring lunch and drinks for yourself and a little to share

Racing Crew Shakedown Sail

The CHARIAD racing crew is going out for a shakedown sail today. Some of the crew will be going out tomorrow for a strictly social sail and we would welcome some of the Friends of CHARIAD to join us. Sunday will be a beautiful sailing day and a great opportunity to be on the water.

I have to say that the crew has put a huge effort into getting CHARIAD put back together after the hurricane damage. And the whole crew has had to deal with the delays and one unmet promise after another from the Dion’s boat yard about completing their work and putting the boat in the water. I am very grateful to the crew members and some of the Friends who have helped with this effort and hung in there as a team and a great supportive community of friends.

The Rest of the Story

CHARIAD was actually put in the water about 10 days ago. The Dion’s Boat Yard put the boat on a mooring in Salem Harbor but did not say where she was. I asked them to put her back on the dock so we could move the boat to Marblehead, but that did not happen. Judy Schwenk spotted CHARIAD near her new boat and called in the location.

Last Sunday morning, a select team of CHARIAD crew members wangled their way onto a West Shore Drive launch and jumped a ride out to where we thought the boat might be. We did find her and jumped on board. The crew brought the boat around to Marblehead and onto the BYC dock.

The plan had been to do some final assembly, put the sails on the boat and go sailing. We were not ready to put up a sail until about 5 PM Sunday afternoon. All of this takes longer than anyone thinks! We pulled the brand new North main sail out of its bag and started to put in the battens. We could not figure out how to install the battens in this high tech sail. I wrote Jack Slattery and Brad White at North a note afterwards saying that there were no instructions for how to install the battens. And there were woman involved who would have actually read them.

We eventually gave up and turned on the iron jenny. We motored over to Bakers Island with beer and wine in hand. When we got back to Marblehead and were on the mooring, an afternoon thunderstorm came through. There was a tropical downpour while we were on the launch. After our first day on the water, we stepped onto the BYC dock drenched to the skin. A fitting start to CHARIAD’s 2013 sailing season.

Hope you are well. Come out tomorrow if you can.

Rick