The winter that kept coming back to haunt me

This month the weather started out looking fantastic so I just had to get out on the water...

Never one to be put off by reality I shoved off into Denial ... ah... the Nip. (A pond in Bridgewater, MA)

punting in a canoe

I never did get much further than this.

The next weekend the weather held, so I took the tarp off the pocket cruiser (working name thus far either "Zombi" or "Dead Fish") and pulled off the companionway doors to replace the woodwork...

I wonder if there will be a sailing season this year.

At last, a thaw!

I finally got a chance to make a bit of progress on the Balboa. I looked high and low for information about dropping the swing keel from the boat, but I only found one site :
http://www.dcwi.com/~nybarra/keel.html
that deals with it in an Ensenada (same basic hull, identical keel, hung higher in a keel trunk). This method requires removing the axle from the trailer and constructing a jig to carry the keel. I wanted to get the thing out quickly and without much fuss, so I just jacked the toung of the trailer way up and blocked up the stem of the boat, then I dropped the toung enough to clear the front of the keel. This wouldn't have worked for the ensenada because of the deep keel trunk, but it worked out alright for me. I'll have to think about how to put the thing back without destroying the finish once it's been resurfaced, but that could be a long time away.
My wife took a few pictres just in case I did something predictable like dropping the whole boat into the neighbor's yard.