SUNSET

The first good sunset of the season.

LAUNCH DAY

Launch day was May 16th.  Not a very friendly day for launch.  The winds had been up for a couple of days.  My scheduled launch was at South Shore Yacht Club.  They decided to cancel all launches for the day, as they had the previous two days as well.  Unfortunately Hullabaloo needed to be off the trailer by the end of the day so another boat could go on the trailer.  Fortunately, the good folks at Pier Milwaukee were able to slide me into their launch schedule.  It's good to be back in the water.

A view from the lift

Up the River & Into the Harbor

The Cold Crew

The Not So Cold Crew

HANDRAILS

New handrails have been installed.  The cabin top rails are teak.  The interior rails are white ash to match what had previously been in their place.  Both sets were replaced as the exterior rails had been sanded so many times they were really wearing thin and the interiors were substantially stained from water.  I used the old rails as approximate templates to make the new rails.

I've changed the connection detail so that the rails are attached through the deck with a screw and washer.  The original configuration had the rails connected together through the deck with threaded rod and a nut on either end of the threaded rod.  The nut connection was sunk into the handrails and capped with a wood plug.  I was not a fan of this configuration as maintenance requiring the rails to be removed required drilling out the plugs.

The debate is on as to whether or not the exterior rails are 'crew friendly'.  They give a nice handhold in rough weather but they tend to clutter up the deck a bit.

Here are a few photos: