I have a new photo gallery website

[Travis Votaw]

My son set me up with a website to post my pictures to. He still has to tell me how to post them there :oops: There are a couple of galleries there now, one of when we first launched Pilgrim (no name on her yet) and the other with some pictures of a first launch of my grandson's dinghy that I helped him build.

I have a bunch of albums of different trips I've been on and will get them up as soon as I get a little tutoring .

Here is the website: http://www.votaw.org/gallery/

[Ken_Potts]

Good pics Travis,

I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[Tim]

Travis,

Good looking photos. The dinghy seems to be a big hit. Any plans for sailing it? Any Boots pictures? Where is Pilgram's builder in the maiden voyage shots?

Hope to see you at Texoma again this year. I would like to do the Beer cruise but no time for that now.

Tim

[Greg Luckett]

Travis,

What is that sail in the middle?

Thanks.

[Travis Votaw]

Greg, that's my mizzen staysail. Has a lot of pulling power in light to medium winds . Tim, I don't know if they want to rig a sail on the dink or not - they talked about it. Shouldn't be too hard to do. There are BOOTS 05 pics up now, but I missed a step somewhere and didn't get them into a gallery of their own :oops: . You can see them now, they are just not identified. I will get them into a separate folder when I figure out what step I left out

[Charlie Jones]

Tim- the builder was in Texas when the boat made her maiden sail.

Sadly I've not been able to make the first sail on ANY of the boats I built for others. But Laura and I DID get to sail on Pilgrim when Travis brought her down here last year. We had a joint cruise with Pilgrim and Tehani and at one point anchored Tehani and jumped aboard Pilgrim as Travis sailed her past.

She sailed really great Pretty fast too- didn't QUITE hold Tehani hard to windward, but as soon as the sheets were cracked, Pilgrim had NO problems keeping up- or even out doing us.

[PAR]

That's interesting, I've made nearly all the first sails on boats that I've built for clients. Most times they aren't even there (it's better this way I've found) I just splash the boat, check for leaks, sort out the various things that need attention and take a short spin. I hit all points of sail, note the wake, rudder angle, adjust sheeting angles, etc. I then usually park her in a soft batch of water and take a few pictures to reference the waterline.

I'm usually there come "launching" day and the boat works as expected, most of the time with few surprises as a result of my mini sea trial done previously. I consider this a responsibility of mine, to insure the product is acceptable for each particular customer. I'm not sweating the boat's going to float on her marks or have fouled lines aloft when it slides in the wet, I've addressed those issues and am ready for the congratulatory beers.

I have to admit some have been bothered by my taking "leave" with their boat, others didn't know or bothered to ask. A short explanation about my "fitting" them with a sail a way vessel, that is safe and has no issues, usually is more then sufficient to relieve their insulted egos.

[Charlie Jones]

Yep- I'd love to do that. Several of the boats were built for Strictly Sail. They got loaded onto a truck in January, hauled up there and shown. They stayed there, I came back to Texas. Way too cold to sail them there at that time, and I didn't see 'em again.

Travis's boat was finished in time for the Madisonville Woodenboat Festival and delivered there. He left from there to drive back to Oklahoma ( matter of state sales taxes ya know) so I didn't get a chance to sail HIS either.

Just circumstances. The one I"m doing now will get it's first sail on OUR beach and I WILL be there