New Suzuki outboard

I broke down and bought the new Suzuki 2.5 four stroke. Seems to be a fine engine for the Caledonia Yawl that is if you want to stray from the path of righteousness. It is clean. It sounds not too bad and it was able to push our boat against a 20 knot wind and four foot seas. My spouse was quite pleased not to be sailing in those conditions. I will add a picture later.

Lake Laberge Kite Aerial Photos of Caledonia Yawl

Here are a few photos taken yesterday on Lake Laberge. Things didn't work out perfectly, but you do get a bit of a feel for sailing on Lake Laberge

Arctic Trip Update

I guess I better update things on the Artic Trip to the North Yukon Coast.
I am safely back in Whitehorse after quite a few adventures. For the most part the boat performed well.
I never made it all the way to Hershel Island.
The whole story, pictures, videos are at this webpage I created.

https://sites.google.com/site/caledoniayawl/home/boris-arctic-trip

Check it out.

Outboard Motor Well

It is a bit of a dilemma, " to cut a hole in your boat or not? " After stewing over it for a while I decided to plough ahead.

My hundred dollar noise and smoke machine.

A rough model

There she be, Almost finished.

The prop sticks down about 6 inches below the keel.

Any ways I am sure I will appreciate the motor when I am making my way back up the Mackenzie Delta to Inuvik.

Just slapped a coat of paint on it. Just have to seal the bottom with a sheet of rubber and make a box to fit it.

New Oars

The oars given to me last fall worked all right but they were the wrong size and were different weights. My first project was to build a new set. It is not an easy task when the selection of wood up here is so expensive and substandard. Basically the process is to laminate 3 one by six planks together then cut and shape them.

Here they are glued together.

Here they are cut out.

And finished product

Ready for some dry land rowing.

Spring is here.

Just a short update. I eventually bought a SS mast traveller and that has solved all the lugsail difficulties.
Am looking at two or three projects in the immediate future.

• making a set of new oars.
• installing an ouboard engine well
• maybe making a bowed tiller to get around the mizzen mast.

We have had an unusually cold prolonged spring. There is still tons of snow on the ground and the temperatures have been sub zero for most of the time.

I did take one crack at making the tiller. It was not successful and I will revisit it.

Come June 7 or so I will be heading up the Dempster Highway enroute to Inuvik in the Mackenzie River Delta. From there I hope to traverse the Yukon Arctic Coast. The trip will take about four weeks.

There is a lot to be done between now and then. This includes the task of learning to sail this boat competently.

I hope to take the boat out, fully loaded, for a test cruise sometime in late May.

Winter is here.

There she is looking pretty forlorn. Tomorrow off to SE Asia until March. Looking forward to getting back and watching the snow melt off. Two projects to tackle first thing in the spring is building the outboard well and making a new set of oars. I have bought an ancient 2hp outboard and got it going despite the fact that it was -20 C outside. First open water I will be learning to sail this thing. I am convinced when I am sailing by myself that I need a considerable amount of ballast. I will also be working on that.

Happy winter everyone!