Hi Friends,
It has been a long time. I've been off the map for too long, but I have been enjoying some intermittent lurking over the last year, and it has been inspiring to see everyones projects commencing and adventures continuing.
Big changes for me. My lovely wife got a badass job here in her hometown of Toronto so we packed it up and moved here. I gave up my metal fabrication studio and have started over in the great white north, having reinvented myself as a maker of jewelry. The first collection is coming together well, site is up, and I'm working on an online store. I've also been setting up my studio with numerous smaller pieces of equipment I kept ant took with me from my previous life. It's all been very exciting, fingers crossed that it works!
Canada is a great place, I encourage anyone who hasn't been to visit. I live near (walking distance from) a big lake (Ontario) and the Georgian Bay is 2 hours north and worth the drive. It took me a while to get trailer plates and a new vehicle hitch situation worked out, and then of course there is the challenge of getting the boss to let me off for a weekend (he can be a real jerk sometimes, always nose to the grindstone) but after way too long I finally got out on the water and was it ever great.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8...5n50o1_500.jpg
Rigged and ready
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8...5n50o1_500.jpg
Yours truly trying to operate the camera while in a waterproof pouch. It has an opaque back side so i can only use the camera on the front of the phone.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8...5n50o1_500.jpg
Good steady breeze with some gusts of 10 or 11 knots. It’s nice to be back on the water!
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8...5n50o1_500.jpg
This is my homemade sail. It does a great job of making the boat go, but no matter what the leach always has slack in it and flaps. It is all flat with edge rounding to create the body in it. I’m not sure if I screwed something up in the cut, or is my yard is too bendy and doesn’t tension it enough. When I have the full sail flying it seems to be just fine, but once i put in a reef, i lose a great deal of windward ability and my non-professional sailmakers skills are really put to shame.