[Public-List] Rescue of 'Touch Wood'

[Michael Connolly]

Gordon,
   
  I would certainly like to hear from you, updates about TOUCH WOOD.  Even though our Alberg 30's are plastic boats we all revere the heart and soul of preserving wonderful sailing vessels.  Your Folkboat, and I mean that it was and is perhaps only your Folkboat is to be returned to it's faithful caring custodian, enough said.  I can't speak for others but hearing about a beloved boat saved from likely total loss is music of the highest order.
   
  BTW I salvaged and sold a solid wooden mast to a friend in Florida for a Folkboat that he was to acquire.  The mast for that boat was hollow, a la Cheoy Lee and had fallen apart.  I think that the deal has fallen through and he still has the mast.  If you would like I could see if he would be interested in selling it.  It came from some unidentified boat, but had all the bronze fittings and gooseneck attached.
   
  Michael

Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net> wrote:
  Hello all hands,

Just to cap the earlier discussions about my earlier discovery of my
Folkboat TOUCH WOOD; I have been quite moved and gratified by the offers of
support. I have formulated a plan and it looks like she is moving north in
a few weeks. My thanks in particular to my clients at Taylor Allen at
Rockport Marine, Maine, Thad at Redds Pond Boatworks, Marblehead MA, Matt
Murphy at Woodenboat Magazine and to A30 sailor Peter Milley.

I am going to truck her up to my business's warehouse in New Bedford Mass
and store her there until I can organize the next hop to Ontario. (she
might not come home to Canada for years but that's OK)

Apparently she suffered two hurricanes (Katrina and Wilma) after being
abandoned by the person I sold her to, and although she lost her mast, cabin
top and most of her deck fittings she somehow survived alone on her mooring.
The person who saved her wreck and is passing her on to me told me that the
dismasting was owed to the upper shroud plate assembly dragging its bolts 4"
down through the mast (consider 130 knot + winds...) allowing the shrouds
and stays to get slack - that lovely 36' sitka spruce mast then broke at
deck level, smashing the coach roof when it came down.

The funny thing is that when I first bought her in 1979 I had a recurring
nightmare in which I was standing on a shore in a terrible storm watching
her fighting for her life on a mooring, sawing back and forth on her lines
with short sharp waves breaking over her until a broken tree came along and
destroyed her. Well it nearly happened.

If folks are interested I will write a note time and again about progress.

Gord
Surprise #426

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