Day One, Alaska Mess-About

[Mike Pennington]

Dear World,

Today, the Alaskan Fleet had our first official mess-about, on Harding Lake, forty-four miles east of Fairbanks, Alaska.

First on the role call was the Flyer, crewed by the Gudschinskys.

Next is the As You Wish, crewed by the Metzners.

Then our newest member S.V. Malena. Jeromy, decided to go sailing and paint the top next spring. Jeromy is one of those lucky skippers who lives near a West Marine store. He has some bucks sunk into his hardware, I was drooling :oops:

My Firstmate had to slap me upside my thick head and tell me not to touch :roll:

Oh and by the way, how all this fun started was that I was hanging around the boat launch, sailing peacefully along :roll: when three aggressive frigates came busting out of the channel and chased me all over the lake.

During the first part of the sail, the wind was very light, but picked up to a nice breezy afternoon. We jousted about, we even attracted two other sails, we overhauled one and he decided he didn't want to play. :wink:

Well maybe he heard me say lets go board him, I need a new jib :twisted: Hey, the little bleach bottle was cute with all those colorful stripes on their jib

We retired to Mark's Landing for overnight docking, and a real nice dinner prepared by Doreen and my wife, Joan. Mark is an excellent host, his open heartedness, made this one of the nicest sailing get togethers, I have ever participated in.

One more shot, four skippers and five Stevenson boats, Alexander missed out I he was helping out up at the house. He raised his square sail today, and gave the Weekenders a run for their money. The Amphora, actually kept up.

All in all, I can't wait till tomorrow for sail day two.

[Arnie Eaton]

WOW! What a fleet. Great pics and very colorfull boats. I wish there were other builders here in Montana but just my bad luck.

[Mike Pennington]

Arnie,

Your still far enough north, that you could participate in a Ak/Canada/northern US mess-about, someday. A guy can dream you know, I'm still thinking about going visiting. This may be a few years down the road, but I'm making plans. We've known each other for years through the board, as it is.

So far every sailor/boat builder I have met through the two Weekender boards, that I have met personally, I like and enjoy sailing with.

Hows the Battleship coming? Have I seen a picture lately? :wink:

(psst, Arnie, that's your cue, post me a pic) Oh Yee, who calls them the way he sees'em. And I don't know of any other way to live myself.

[Arnie Eaton]

Mike, it's coming along. About ready to glass the top. I've been under the weather a bit, but have made some of the small stuff. Making some belaying bits for the lines. I will have three on each side on the aft side of the main bulkhead. The last thing to construct is the mast. I've 4 pcs of 1x6 DF vert grain, two are 18 feet long and two are 20 feet. I'm going to do a birdsmouth mast. Also designing a topsail that be be detachable from the gaff and will have only one halyard. Flathead Lake is about 120 miles from me. This lake is over 70 miles long and varies in width from 8 to 12 miles. Runs almost to the Canadian border. It will be a great place to sail next year(or maybe this year if I get busy) I would post pictures if I knew how. I've asked but no responses.

[Guest]

The simple way of posting pictures is to hit reply, and load them to your reply at the bottom of the section. They will load directly from your computer, usually stored in your documents folders. If it is on a website, some will not link to this site. If they are too large, they will need to be downsized, Thats for someone else to walk you throught it.

Hit browse, and pull up your section in your computer. click on it and hit save in the file. Then hit "Add Attachment" wait till it goes to the next step and hit the reply buttom;

[Craig]

That looks like a great outing... Thanks for the photos.

[Arnie Eaton]

Oyster, lets see if this works.

[attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

[Arnie Eaton]

IT WORKS< WOW

[CLIPPER]

Nice pix. Do ya have any sun up there ? Made a trip up through the inland passage years ago, didn't see much of the sun the whole time.

:!:

[Mike Pennington]

The smoke is from 5.7 million acers burning :x

Going south in a couple of minutes, to Big Lake, 5 hour drive.

Cool Arnie.

Mike

[JMetzner]

Mike,

Great pics of the messabout! Cherrie and I had a great time sailing with everyone! A big thank-you to Mark and Doreen for hosting the big shee-bang!

I downloaded the video from the camera this evening. If I get a chance tomorrow, I'll chop some of it up into postable pieces. Cherrie got some great shots of the group! I'll try to burn some CD's with everything on them. For all of you interested in Mike's fuller, I think we have a good clip for you.

--John M.

Fairbanks, AK.

[MikeStevenson]

Great shots! Thanks for showing us!

Mike

[Mike Pennington]

Thanks Mike,

My wife went wading in the water to take several of the dock pics. The Stevenson project boats are really taking off in Alaska. I have been contacted by several builders over the past four years. And lost contact with a few, as well.

I wish I knew everyone who has built one of the project boats or in the process here in Alaska. Or even maybe on hold for whatever reason. I have seen several builders get together now, and say, "I wish I knew you folks sooner." Perhaps a boat might not even be on hold if they were in contact with us. So if anyone asks, you can give my e-mail to them, I'll do my best to help them.

jmpenn@gci.net

I also just want you and your family to know, your boats have changed lives for the better and also brought several people together with their common interest. It is very nice having sailing friends.

Mike Pennington