[Public-List] Rescue of 'Touch Wood'

[Gordon Laco]

Wow Michael, that's great.

I should temper my emotion with a pro-Alberg story; when we first got the
A30 we were waking up one morning in a bay up the coast, all of us lying in
our berths; two sons in the forecabin, Caroline and I in the main cabin.  I
started the day complaining that I didn't like the open space above me (the
Folkboat was a wooden womb) I had nowhere to hang my glasses, the reading
light was not like the other boat, I missed the smell of linsead oil and
varnish, the water outside didn't have that clicking chuckle you get with a
clinker hull... Caroline interrupted me and said flatly 'run your hand over
your sleeping bag; its raining and we are dry'.

I shut up.

;) Gord



> 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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