SHIP HAPPENS!

SHIP'S LOG:

     I was almost all set. I finished up pretty much everything that need to be done yesterday. Thursday was to be "Bottom-Painting" day and ABISHAG was scheduled to be launch into the might Connecticut River on Friday. Bending on the sails would have been done over the weekend and the trip New London and my mooring at TYC would happen Monday. Ah, but such was not to be.

     About 5pm, maybe 45 minutes after I left the boatyard, a terrific thunderstorm, perhaps along with a micro-burst or a tornado hit the Portland area and the fun began. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to lift the boat next to mine right up off its poppits and dump it on the ground between it and ABISHAG. When it fell, the deck-stepped mast became detached and fell of the boat. It really must have torqued badly as some of the shrouds which held it up broke. It also caused the boom to swing crash into the bow pulpit, bend itself around it. Not long after, the weather phenomenon uprooted a nastily large tree which crash down on the other boat, hitting the hull just where it begins to curve into a point. As it fell and slide forward, it connected with the boom and landed on my bow pulpit, torquing ABISHAG so she started to rotate on the forward block under her keel. Luckily, the force was spent on the bow pulpit. Had ABISHAG rotated an inch more, and I mean one inch more, she would have come off the rear keel block and she would have toppled onto the ground.

     It is tough to see the damage as the bow is all covered with tree, but the bow pulpit is toast. It took a real pounding from the boom and the tree and is all bent out of shape. It actually pulled two of the stanchions out of the deck. That will definitely have to be replaced as will the holes in the deck. The life lines from the boarding gates to the bow were also put under sufficient strain to bend their stanchions. They are fixable through the stanchion based will have to be popped and re-bedded. I can't be sure about the furling gear for the jib nor the chain-plate for the forward shroud. The way the track for the furler is twisted, it much have taken a heck of a blow. That is really all I can see, though I am going to have to get a mariner surveyor to check her out for any stress and impact damage to the hull. Though since she is built like a tank, over built in fact, I don't think that there is much to worry about in that regard.

     As soon as the insurance companies do their thing, they will lift and reset ABISHAG and then the fun will begin. AH, the joys of boat ownership.