Refurbishing Shirley Rose: Part 3
The hull and deck of Shirley Rose had been repaired, but what kind of sailboat would she be without a sturdy rig? I was told she was ready to sail, and that the owner replaced the standing rigging a few years before. Shirley Rose is a single-spreader masthead rigged sloop, with a 90 percent jib on a roller-furler. The traveler is aft of the tiller, and thankfully the boom is high enough that you would not hit your head even when standing on the lazarette. When I bought her, the halyards were rope to wire, which wasn’t exactly the best. The wire was appropriately nicknamed “meat hooks,” because it would occasionally fray and cut your hands while raising and lowering the sail. There was a little corrosion on the mast and boom, but colleagues at the yard told me not to worry about it. The jib looked to be in better shape than the main, but I took both down and sent them for repairs, while I fixed the hull and deck. When she was back in the water again, I reattached the sails, replaced the jib sheets, and Shirley Rose was ready to go.
The sailing was fantastic, although the shakedown cruise was a bit of a trial by fire, due to the fact it was blowing a good 15-20 knots out on San Francisco Bay. With the first sail in the books, I took my friends out for a number of weekend trips and watched them grow more confident at the helm. During one
