Lackey Sailing

January 13, 2021

Lyra 1

Wednesday

During what we’d had of winter so far–two “real” snowstorms (in that they accumulated and required plowing), one of which melted and washed away by Christmas, the other of which was only moderate in scope but had stuck around mostly unchanged for a couple weeks–I’d endeavored to keep the way clear around Lyra, as I knew I’d be moving her indoors sometime in January to begin the project. Happy to have had a relatively easy winter so far, meaning less work to keep the boat and my trailer clear enough to get to, I prepared for the boat move by removing what I could of the tarp over the boat. With no real framework above the deck, the cover was mostly flat and therefore still had a surprisingly heavy snow load atop that I couldn’t move from the ground, and the tarp itself had a lot of frozen water collected in various pockets and folds caused by the abundant excess tarp bundled all around the boat, so I chose just to cut the tarp off roughly at waterline level, which would allow me to move the boat indoors and then deal with the rest of it later. The tarp was damaged anyway from the weight and I didn’t see the bother in making any attempts to salvage it regardless.

One never knew when a real winter would hit (usually April now, it seems), so I was grateful that the conditions were so good for the move now, and was anxious to have the boat indoors as soon as possible so I wouldn’t have to worry what the weather brought in the coming days or weeks, even though it would be a few days to a week or so before I truly got started on the project. So with all other preparations complete, including uncovering and hooking up the trailer and getting the shop ready, I picked up the boat and moved her indoors without issue, placing her fairly tightly in the back corner of the shop to keep as much room open as possible so I could fit in another boat in the remaining space. Since the bulk of the work on Lyra would be on deck and in the cabin–no exterior structural or cosmetic work was planned at this time–I didn’t need a lot of room around her for staging or other work.

Once the boat was inside, I was able to get up on deck at my relative leisure and push off the snow and remove the rest of the tarp and the minimal framing over the cockpit, after which I could move back in the other boat. I suppose it would have been easy enough to do this outdoors first, but one never knows.