Mirabella III and V in harbour today. James and i gave in to our curiosity and took Scott’s dinghy out for a look at the world’s largest. Well, yup, it’s big. Looks smaller than Athena (a much grander and prettier craft, IMO), even up close. i had been feeling sure that it would come off looking like an ocean liner at close range, but the proportions are still pretty spot-on; from 100 feet away, your eyes might decieve you and make you think you’re looking at a smaller boat only 25 feet away… until you see someone on deck for scale. Yikes!
The shrouds are solid stainless rod as big around as my thigh. The boom is easily as long, wide, and deep as the hulls of most every other boat i’ve ever sailed on. Silliness compounded by silliness.
In other news, the “new boat” is coming along nicely. The centerboard is done; lead cast in place, ‘glassed over, and painted. The decking is cut out and ready to go on. i’ve been putting off dealing with the rudder (technicaly correct, but estheticaly lacking) and instead throwing myself into all the niggly bits of mast hardware. Well, ta-da! i’m (mostly) done with the mast; i’ve gotten the many metal bits sorted, and the mast is on the spar jacks out back with the first coat of paint on the dry.
The spars are getting painted “Bristol Beige”, a common traditional off-white colour which i’d better describe as “milk with a little coffee added”. The hull of the boat will get sanded off before being repainted dark green. The bottom paint and bootstripe will be black, the interior Bristol Beige. The mainsail and stays’l, as befitting a traditional boat of such colours, will be traditional Tanbark, a deep russet red colour. The jib will likely look best white, as will the tops’l.
Still, paint and sails are just fantasies at this point. That darned rudder still needs to be completed, along with a proper tiller. The rigging must be done (although that part is more fun than work), and all the deck hardware needs to be completed. Still loads to do!