Readying for launch

This has been a miserable Spring with constant rainstorms. I had hoped to get my Whitehall in the water at least once a month ago but flooding deposited so much mud on the boat ramp that I was afraid that I could not get it back out once launched.

Weather this weekend looks good. We are set to do a pirate event at Put-In-Bay so I will have friends to help launch and man the boat.

I have things prepped. In addition to soaking the boat with a hose, I left it out in some of the downpours. This helped swell the seams shut.

I redid the leathers on the spoon oars. They were too far down the oars and the ends of the oars would bump against each other when rowing. I cut them off and stitched them back on, further up. I also replaced the collar at the top of the leathers with thicker leather so the oars wouldn't slip past the oarlocks. I need to do the same thing with the sweeps but I'm running out of copper tacks.

One interesting thing - the leathers showed their age. They are a light gray but they were originally natural leather colored. Every place that was covered is still the original color. That includes the underside of the leather and the places covered by the stitches. I've never seen leather bleached out so light.