[Public-List] Wooden Folkboat news...

[John Birch]

Wow, under $5K Canadian shipped by rail. Great price.

-----Original Message-----
From: Public-List [mailto:public-list-bounces at lists.alberg30.org] On Behalf Of Gordon Laco via Public-List
Sent: August 21, 2019 10:46 AM
To: Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all
Cc: Gordon Laco
Subject: [Public-List] Wooden Folkboat news...

Hello friends, 

I’ve written a few times over the past years about my Danish-built Folkboat, TOUCH WOOD.  She’s on the Alberg30.0rg website being compared to the Alberg 30, which was the Folkboat’s direct descendant.  

To make a very long story short, she was my first boat.  I sailed her about 30,000 miles between 1979 and 1999 when I sold her to buy my Alberg 30.  I found her again in 2008 and embarked in a colossal refit that involved rebuilding her.  

Well here’s the next chapter in her story.   One of my clients, a professional boat builder on the west coast, phoned me this past spring and asked me how things were going with her.   I confessed that although she’s about 80% done, with all the jobs I thought at the beginning were impossible done… I was having difficulty finding time to work on her.

He told me he had a client who wanted a real Danish-built Folkboat to restore.  Well TW is one of the first Folkboats to come over into North America… she’s certainly the real thing.   I sent him a photo essay of what I’d done with her, and a list of the jobs that remained.

After a bit of to and fro, we came to an agreement.   Now, how to get her across the continent.   Trucking quotes came in over $10,000.  Then I recalled seeing online photographs of the Danish Folkboat team packing their boats into shipping containers to go to San Francisco to take the Gold Cup from the Yanks.  I made a few phone calls to the container company we use for containers of Epifanes from Holland to my warehouse… sure enough, a Folkboat will fit into a container with 3” to spare on each side, and a few feet in the vertical dimension.

I devised a way to lift her into the container where she’d stand on her keel with spring boards wedged in amidships on both sides.  I lagged timbers port, starboard, ahead and aft of her keel to prevent movement there, and set up guys spread fore and aft from her bow and stern to help stabilize her.   

We lifted her in at a local marina using the long fork forklift they use for powerboat dry storage… I set up wooden blocks on the padded forks so that they made contact at three points on each side so she wasn’t unduly stressed when picked up.   She didn’t even creak when the forks took her weight.   I’d done a good job with her 40-odd new ribs and felt a pang I was sending her away.

She’s been in my life for 40 years… and if anyone asked me how tall her sexy mast was, I’d say 36 feet.   Well now I know it’s longer because it barely fit inside a 40’ container!   I laid the mast on the deck of the container on carpet with wooden blocks lagged along its length so it couldn’t roll.

The container was taken away and in only a few days was delivered to Vancouver after traveling there by rail for a cost under $5,000 taxes in.  She’s in the workshop out there now and undergoing a professional rebuild.   I have an open invitation to sail her when she’s finally finished.

I was very sad to see her go, but on there other hand I don’t really need two boats… and I never really intended to keep her.  I don’t think I could have born the thought of selling her to strangers who might not be able or willing to look after her…    Well that didn’t happen.  She’s in the hands of people who respect her for what she is, and are lavishing resources on finishing her refit.  There is talk of using her as the pattern for a new Folkboat.   Her Danish name was ZANNE, (pronounced ‘Zah-nee' I’ve been told) I’ve suggested that might be a good name for the new boat, her daughter as it were.

If anyone is interested in photos of her, write off list please and I’ll send them.
 
Gordon Laco
#426 Surprise




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