The Tale Of The Dinghy

SHIP'S LOG:

I finally secured my dinghy! It has been wintering in the backyard of Tommy Welsh and doing quite nicely from all indications. The incredibly slow leak is still there in the front air tube but aside from an invasion of spiders and other creepy-crawlies, all of whom were banished with a water hose, she seems in fine shape.

One oar is firmly attached and the other isn't. The oarlocks are glued to the dinghy and are composed of a little socket in which is inserted a threaded metal rod. This goes through a hole in the oar and there is supposed to be a screw cap on top to keep the oar from lifting off the rod when one is rowing. The port side unit is complete with the rod going through the oar but the cap is missing from the end of the rod. I had a large acorn nut which had "just about" the same threads and I screwed it on. Unfortunately, "just about" and "exactly the same"are  not equal. I doubt seriously whether that nut will ever unscrew which means that oar is going no where any time soon.

The threaded rod is missing from the starboard side socket. It appears as if the rod was merely "glue in place in the socket and it has disappeared. I am not sure if such was the case when I hauled it last fall but I think that it might be. The dinghy currently resides on a painter off the stern of ABISHAG. I will have to haul it to the dock and get it out of the wet.  I will probably drill, if I can manage it, through the bottom of the socket ad run the longest machine bolt I have through it, and through the oar, and secure it in place with an aircraft nut( the type with the plastic inside to keep it from unscrewing) or use two nuts, one for a locking nut, to keep the oar in place. Before I can do it, I have to go an get a foot pump for the dinghy. When I got the dinghy out to ABISHAG last week, I didn't put her up on the davits. I want to run a support strut or wire to the stanchions to which they are attached,  to insure against the stanchions cracking again and needing to be welded. (It was so much fun the first time.)  I left the foot pump secured in the front of the dinghy and it was there Sunday morning but not when I checked Sunday night as I return from show. In between , I worked the Governor's Regatta and we had a hell of a blow which followed.  We had a couple of wind gusts that probably hit 50mph and while it didn't flip the dinghy, it evidently bounced it a lot.  The "free oar" which I had secured with a line, was floating in the water and the pump was no where to be seen. Thus it is that a new pump needs to be procured. It is always something, ain't it!