[Rhodes22-list] Splash!

[Mary Lou Troy]

We finally launched yesterday morning. We were already to go last 
week. Got to the ramp. Everything was going smoothly. Had the mast 
ready to raise when I hear an "Uh-oh" from the bow. Fred had noticed 
a small bolt on the foredeck and knew exactly what it was - the bolt 
that keeps the forestay from sliding up inside the Schaeffer furler. 
Guess where the forestay was. It's not a hard fix. You get out your 
Allen wrench...... oops. No Allen wrench in the toolkit. There's one 
at home 3 miles away. We looked at each other and calculated the time 
to unhitch the truck go home and get the Allen wrench, come back and 
hitch up again vs. the time to put the mast back on the bow pulpit 
and drive home with the boat to fix the furler. Either way it was 
going to be hot and we would miss the optimum tide for launch. We 
drove home. Weather, tides and our schedules conspired to postpone 
launch until yesterday. We were a little concerned that the south 
winds would push the tide too high at the ramp but it was already 
going down by the time we got over there. Easy mast raising and 
launch. Motor started and ran smoothly. It's about a 15 minute motor 
from the ramp to the marina. No problems docking even with a strong 
breeze. Not a bad start to the season.

Best,
Mary Lou
1991 R22 Fretless