Again, I was with Mom (I try not to think that she�s unlucky). We went to Siltcoos Lake this time. I had made new spreaders. We motored out just fine. I had Mom man the tiller and keep us pointed into the wind as I raised the sails. I raised the main and noticed it was a little hard to pull up, but was able to raise it all the way. While I was doing this the wind started to come up really strong, enough to make whitecaps on the lake. I went forward to raise the jib, when Mom told me the motor had stopped. I thought, that�s strange; it�s a Honda 4 cycle with hardly any hours on it at all. I went back and gave it a tug � nothing. I look over the back of it and discovered the problem. The line to pull the rudder out of the water had fallen over and tangled in the prop, pulling the rudder tight against the outboard. Since we had no more power from the outboard, the boat was starting to turn with the wind. We had no steering, and no outboard. I couldn�t reach the line tangled in the prop. I was worried.
I thought, �I�ll just have to get down there somehow and cut that line.� Meanwhile, the bow got blown over, the main filled even though I had the sheet all the way loose, and we dipped waaaaaaay over, and that wasn�t too fun, especially not for my mother. After we recovered, I had her hold on to my ankles while I leaned over the back and cut the line tangled in the prop. I got it loose, scrambled back up, and tried starting the outboard � it started! I had her hold onto the tiller while I went up to lower the main. We were making good progress, just a little ways from the marina when the outboard conked out. I couldn�t get it to start again. So once again, I went forward, raised the sails, and we then sailed into the nearest slip. I was too tired to try and get into ours, and I wasn�t very comfortable with docking under sail yet. The owner of the marina came out and gave us a tow over to our slip and our day was done. We were both glad to get back onto dry land.
The third time I went out that summer it was great. It was the second annual �Men�s Sailing Weekend� and we went out, under sail alone, and played around on the lake, and when we came back in and docked it went like clockwork. We had a chance to go back out on the lake for an hour or so, but I wanted to end that year on a good note so we just went ahead and hauled the boat out and I towed it back home that night.
In 2004, I didn�t get the boat in the water at all. I was severely disappointed with myself by the time September came to an end. It had been a very busy year though. My wife and I bought our first house and we had the two boys to chase after constantly. In December, I decided if I was going to get the boat in the water in 2005, I had better come up with a plan.
Once things settled down after the holidays, I sat down and came up with a schedule to repair my boat and a deadline to get it wet by. I didn't follow it very closely, but it did help me to get the boat in the water. I fixed the centerboard, replaced the spreaders, and painted the bottom. It was time to launch. From this point forward "the story" will be continued in the log section.