Welcome Vanguards

Peninsula Sailing Club has just acquired two new (used) Vanguard 15s from Silverdale Community sailing  program/Central Kitsap HS sailing. I would like give a tremendous thanks to Troy Hunter and Steve Trunkey for making the connection and keeping the gears moving on this club acquisition.

Steve arrived Saturday morning with a trailer full of boats, two of which were about to become part of our fleet. We carefully unloaded and rigged them at the top of the boat ramps.


It was great to have Steve show us all the little rigging tricks that they've engineered over the years while competitively sailing these boats. My first impression is that these boats will be much more efficient to rig and it appears more though has been put into it. I can't wait to try them out... well, I can probably wait a few months for warmer weather, but you get what I mean ;)



Troy set out on the maiden voyage from the ramp to the fuel dock about 300 meters away. I gave him a little shove on the boom to get him off the dock and nearly sent him for a swim. In my defense, I did ask him if he was ready. He made it over to the fuel dock while we got the second boat rigged.

We had to do a little bit of shuffling, but both Vanguards are now at the dock ready to rock and roll. I hope that this will give the club a little shot in the arm excitement it needs to have a really great year in 2016. Keep your eyes on the calendar for upcoming events you might be interested in.

Elbow Grease

Our dear Commodore has more projects than you can shake a ten foot stick at. Each new boat and trailer that gets donated to the club is obviously a blessing, but it sure takes a lot of hard work to get each boat rigged consistently. More hard work than I realized for sure.

A year or two ago, Commodore Troy took on the task of reviving "Old Red Boat" which has been laid up in our bone yard above the Brownsville Marina. Many of our esteemed members fondly remembers the good ol' days of the red boat proudly flashing that breathtaking red underside. It's days of sailing and glory were cut short by a hole poked in the side due to a cleat when she was being pulled up onto the dock. This accident was several years ago, I know, because I have yet to see her sail since I joined the club. Here she is now in her final stages of repair.

Saturday, she got some TLC from Troy and Chris. She had a few holes in her transom sealed up and got the majority of her hardware attached to the hull including a new traveler. She got a good scrub and her centerboard top cap got a nice coat of epoxy after some skillful router work. I took a moment to admire the beauty of the finished piece of wood. Although it had filled in holes and cracks and a variety of materials holding it together, it was something that human hands had touched, sailed, broken, neglected, then learned to love again.

In the midst of our Old Red Boat's revival, we were donated a couple more, one being our New Red Boat. This one came to us in pretty decent shape, but we've got a list of items in store for her. 

We've got a beautiful new centerboard top cap that is almost ready to mount. The hardware was fairly in tact, but we'll update a few items for fleet consistency. I think I remember that she is missing a halyard, traveler, and hiking straps and will also need her rudder refinished. Well, at least the trailer looks like it's in good shape!

Another donation that came recently is this new Yellow Boat. Well the top is yellow... I've really got to get more creative with our boat names. She's also in pretty good shape. Probably some hardware upgrades to match the fleet, but otherwise I only see a traveler on the to do list.

Primarily we just want to get these boats ready for the water and out of Troy's garage!

You can see in the background that boats are not the only project going on in this garage. In the foreground is the new centerboard top cap for the New Red Boat. Chris is just getting ready to use the router on the Old Red Boat's top cap.