A New (old) Cradle

A little hard to see in the photo below, but I had my cradle altered by the the Cradle Shop here in Toronto. They took the cradle away shortly after launch and returned it to the club today. The bunks were replaced with 7 adjustable pads, and the cradle was adjusted so it will fold for storage. The club here has a bylaw that says cradles must fold for storage during the summer months. Having adjustable pads makes it easier to clean after haulout and do touchups on the bottom paint at launch. The Cradle Shop did a nice job using the good quality channel steel from the original Dufour cradle.

2008 Launch - May 10th

We splashed at about 8:30 on Saturday morning. It was a hectic few days getting VICTURA ready. We took Thursday and Friday off work to build the mast and get everything ready. The weather was great and we managed to even put a coat of wax on the mast on Friday. Everything went really well. Our friends Stuart Grey, Peter & Donna Howells and Paul Orava helped us with the launch and mast stepping. (Thanks guys). Saturday was a long tiring day and we got a lot of sun. We helped Peter & Donna launch CASSIS and Paul's boat SALTY HACKER and get their masts stepped.

With CASSIS and SALTY HACKER in the water with their masts stepped, Stuart & I turned our attention to VICTURA and got going with the rig tune and stuff. We got mast tuned and put on the boom by about 7pm. I had to go up the mast on my TopClimber to the first spreaders to tune the rig. The view up there is terrific and I took a couple of pictures.

Sunday was a very windy cool day with the winds blowing 15-20kts from the east. Since the wind was right on our bow, we managed put the gennaker on without too much difficulty. With the winds building and rain on the way, worked on the fresh water systems and put the anchor on. We called it a day around noon Sunday. We'll do the main sail sometime later this week after the weather clears.