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Thanks for the comment, Bart.  I had had my eye on that.  Actually we no longer own Eight Bells.  We sold her towards the end of last season, because we used her so little.  I mentioned after the 2009 season that we had taken her out far less than we expected to, and in 2010 it didn't change - added to which we had some engine troubles and a lot of fog.  In the whole season, until we sold her at the end of August she only went out on one "fun" sail - as opposed to the trip in the fog and rain from the launching ramp to the mooring, the trip up to the boatyard nursing the engine, and so on.  We were spending more time looking after her, checking her on the mooring, etc., than we were using her!  Now Gillian is engaged and planning her wedding, as well as very involved with work, so although we look back on Eight Bells nostalgically, selling her was the right thing to do!

Gillian will pass on your comments to the new owner, though!

Many thanks to everyone for all the encouragement you gave us,

Tony

Thank you for the birthday wishes!!!

Eight Bells finally came out of the water for the winter last Wednesday.  All sorts of things have changed for us since we bought her (Gill bought a house, and also became an aunt for the first time, as well as having to attend to that old problem - work!), and we find that the number of times that good weather coincides with our free days here in Maine is limited, so we didn't take Eight Bells out as far or as often as we had expected.

But boy, did we enjoy the times we did have her out.  She sails beautifully.  We still have a lot of learning to do - I don't think the mainsail is setting quite right, we have to figure that out.  We found and fixed a few loose and corroded connections in the electronics, and they all now work properly.

I'm sorry we didn't get the interior pictures - the boat was on a mooring all summer so we only visited when we were going sailing, and we never remembered to take the interior photos!  Although she is ashore now, she isn't yet covered over, and we'll try to remember the camera when we go to work on her!

Here is a photo of her on the mooring on a beautiful fall evening, after her last trip before coming out of the water.  We are looking forward to next year!

Tony

We don't know what is original and what are mods - what were you noticing in particular?

Tony.

An update on Eight Bells' progress - but first, let me introduce myself.  I am Gillian's Dad.  I retired last fall, and when Gillian asked me if I would be interested in her buying a boat she knew about, it sounded like a good idea, so I signed on as Junior Partner (First Mate??).  Apart from a little inland water sailing many decades ago, and a few days out on a borrowed runabout, this whole experience is all new to me.

Back to Eight Bells - she came through the winter snug and dry once we replaced the tarp after a Nor'easter.  We scraped the flaking areas of the bottom, put on a new coat of bottom paint, got the rigging back together, and put her in the water.  That was back in April, as we had to vacate the hard standing, but the wind was too strong that day for us to take her out on our first sail.  With other things going on, that didn't happen until last weekend, when Gill, her sister and I finally got her going.

Our first discovery was that the halyard wrap problem with the jib was not cured, but one of Gillian's friends pointed out to us that we had the jib hoisted on the spinnaker halyard.  Re-rigging it on the correct halyard, and making some other minor adjustments to the jib rigging, seems now to have solved the problem, and we had a good sail, beginning to experience how the wind blows around the islands and hills of mid-coast Maine, as well as its variability!

Eight Bells is on a borrowed mooring several miles away at the moment.  We have a mooring almost within sight of the house, but it has been unused for many years, and we are not trusting it until we can get it checked out by a diver.  Once it is, the boat will spend the summer there, where will be able to reach it easily to continue the needed work, of which there is lots.  We haven't got the winches changed yet, and although the motor started up and ran fine and the lights work, there is no electric power to any of the electronics, so we have some sort of wiring issue.  Restoring of the woodwork has got no further than buying a can of varnish and some sandpaper, and we haven't even thought about the cabin!

However, she sails, which is the main thing!

Tony