Firefly
2007
I got the boat from the Boat
Smith himself (Ciel
Tierra) in April 2007. He is on a cruse
to New Zealand at the moment. Here is his description of various woods
he used to build the boat.
The skeleton of the boat is, the keel (douglas
fir) and
keelson(mahogany) (keel on bottom and keelson on top, like a sandwich)
the chine and sheer clamp are south american locust, with purple heart
ribs and knees. The bottom of the boat is epoxy coated marine
ply.
The sides of the boat are eastern white cedar, as well as the bulkhead,
centerboard trunk and deck. The deck is
covered with painted canvas.
The spars are sitka spruce. The transom is
mahogany. The rub rails
are south american locust. The rudder is marine ply with
mahogany
cheeks and holly inlay. The seats are mahogany and
cedar. The cockpit
coamings are mahogany.
For the first year, the boat did not have a name. Ciel had named it Silmarillion but I could not figure out how to pronounce that. I was thinking Swallow, but this was more like Amazon because of the center board. Then I thought Serenity, but this was not Joss Whedon's boat. So, I was undecided.
Sailing on Don Pedro Lake
The boat's first trip with us was on Don Pedro lake
were we rented a house boat and toed the sail boat behind. That trip
was not too good for sailing. Either it was blowing too hard or not at
all. That lake is huge! Too big for this little 15' skiff. We took it
out in a calm and rowed it around on the first day out. On the second,
John and I tried to sail away from a dock, but because we had no idea
what a "Weather Helm" was, we were simply blown back onto the shore.
Ouch. Looking back, I guess it was God's grace that we did not know how
to use the helm, because if we did, we would have been blown over for
sure in that gale. We got a few pictures from that trip, but not of the boat, because shortly after nearly wreaking it on the shore, we pull it from the water. :-(
Rollins
The next time we sailed, it was just Elizabeth and me. We launched the boat on Rollins Lake and had little to no wind. This was a good thing, really. It was a nice way for me to experiment and learn how to sail.
Scott's Flat
Scott's Flat is better for sailing than Rollins because there is a more consistent wind there. But, it is crowded.
Lake Spalding
Lake Spalding is a bit further to drive from Grass Valley, but it's
worth it. The launching fee is smaller and the crowds are too. Just the
right amount of wind for sailing this little boat. It even has an
island!
Donner Lake
Donner Lake is
more challenging. The wind is stronger and at times can shift around
unexpectedly. We found out the hard way. We were sailing on a board
reach and decided to turn to starboard a bit. Oops! over she goes.
We righted the boat just fine, but found we could
not bale it. The aft end was not buoyant enough. The deck was
about 2 inches underwater. Ciel warned me about this issue, but I was too lazy to do anything about it.
These nice folks toed us back to the dock. We had to trailer it to get it's deck above
the water level and then we could bail it out.
After that experience, I decided I had to find a way to fix this issue.
Ciel had told me to put something like an air bag under the deck in
back. I could not find anything like that. Instead, I bought a couple
of 15" exercise balls (the ones they use for
physical therapy) and inflated them, side by side, under the aft deck.
We then took
the boat to Spalding and had a fire drill. The fix worked great. When
we righted the boat, we had about 2 inches to spare before the water
reached the top of the center board trunk. We bailed it out in about 10
minutes and all climbed back in to sail some more.
2008
I had all these grand plans to fix up the boat over the winter, but I
have a curse: No garage! Rats. So, when the weather started to warm up,
I thought, "This will never due, I've got to get the boat fixed up for
the summer". So, my good friend Bernard agreed to rent me some space to
store and work on the boat. It had a long list of issues, the best of
which was the leak in the center board trunk. Also, the bottom of the
boat needed paint both inside and out. So, for three weekends, the kids
and I sanded, scrubbed and painted. We also added a second twart just
aft of the center board box. I replaced the rigging because Ciel warned
me that the original rigging was a bit too heavy. It was. It tended to
jam when you tried to bring the sail down. I saw a topping lift on the
drawing, so we added that and it sure is nice not to have the boom
flopping about on the rear deck. I also saw a thing called a downhaul
on the drawing. Never knew I was missing that.
I decided on a name: Firefly. It has a dual meaning for us. 1) Joss Whedon's Firefly and 2) The Swallows and the Amazons once borrowed a boat called the Firefly in Secret Water.
Lake Spalding
Our first trip this year was on Lake Spalding. Here's Daniel and John as we are just about to shove off.
See the new coat of paint? So shiny, it's reflecting the glint
off the water. New rigging. New thwart just aft of the center board
box. We had so much fun on the water, we forgot all about the camera
and took no more pictures.