Schooner

Schooner

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Teak Teak Teak!!!

 All my life on the yacht seems to involve is teak work. In fact i am approaching 200 hours of labor on it.
The entire deck, 45'x13.6' needs to be done. Right now i have about 8 boards completed to 100%, and an area 20'x10' completed to 50%.

Here is what our foredeck looks like under construction.

I also got to inspecting our windlass today. It looks like it just needs a keyway key. Time will tell.

Monday, July 29, 2013

The first post

Hello world!

 Its us, the crew of the Union Pacific! Josh, Dana, Leonardo, Daphne, Velma, Babs. That is the pecking order here on the S/V(sailing vessel) Union pacific. So i would like to begin by explaining what the Union Pacific is, and how it got it's name.

The S/V Union Pacific is a 48' Yacht. It is a sailboat, with two masts of the same height. Being both the same height makes it a special, very rare sailboat type called, a level headed ketch. Two masts, and a total of 6 sails could fly at once, if we so wished, but most we will fly on a long windy passage is 4. The height is 55' above the water, and depth is 6.5' under the water, we are very tall, and with good reason! The Union Pacific Was designed with racing in mind, and has a racing pedigree. It has competed and won races. However the crew was much more competent then us! In fact we came into this tall ship with 0 sailing experience. However i am a pilot, and the principals of flight are not much different then sailing. In fact your optimal sail shape, is that of a wing.

The Union Pacific started its life over 18,000 miles from where she currently sits. She started out being built in China. The company that built here, and her 4 sisters is Tayana, and they are still in business today. The Yacht was sailed to the west coast of the USA, where it was loaded onto a train, and transported on the Union Pacific railroad to the great lakes. It spent much of its life there, before going thru the erie canal and ending up on long island. That is where we come in. We purchased her from the previous owner on long island.

The condition we received her in was very poor. She was neglected for over 5 years. The teak was in need of major repair, and leaking quite badly. All of her systems were on the brink of failure, and most did fail. So far i have been working on the teak and essential systems. The progress is slow, but well worth it. This is our new home.