Renaming...

Watching La Revenante's nameboards taking shape ( go Linda!) raises the thorny question of the renaming of boats. There is actually remarkable consensus among boaters that this is an matter to be seriously considered. In other words, I can find no one who suggests that the issue be ignored. So have we all been won over by the logic of Pascal's Wager ( present company included...). it remains therefore only to pick the right kind of denaming and renaming ceremony and identify those gods with whom we will share the champagne.

History is on our side. It is said that the Royal Navy was never keen to do so, but made exception for vessels built in foreign countries whose names were inappropriate to their new purposes. Also, Cook's schooner "Grenville" was renamed, having been originally "Sally".

This will be La Revenante's third name. She was originally 'Amanda', and respectfully kept as such by her second owners who lived aboard for a dozen years. Under new owners she became 'Buccaneer', and it is not known if this renaming was done with proper care, because the gods did not treat her well under than name.

What I know so far is that the ceremony must contain five steps:
- An invocation
- An expression of gratitude
- A supplication
- A re-dedication
- A libation

Gotta do the first four to get to the last!

There is a long list of gods to consider: Poseidon (Neptune) is the best known, but there is also Aeolus (god of wind), and individual gods for the north, west, east, and south winds: Boreas, Zephyrus, Eurus, and Notus respectively. I can see that more than petty cash will be required to appease that lot!

We will however stop short of slaughtering virgins - or scuttling the boat and re-floating her with the new name. Progress is progress.

Progress report

In case there is any concern that the pace of work has slowed - fear not! We just LIKE working in the cold... To be fair, we all have busy lives and even if we admit to our therapists that we'd rather be sailing, 'making it so' is another matter entirely.

The list of tasks accomplished is however impressive:
* We have acquired copies of Cook's maps of the St. Lawrence ( see detail above)
* We have installed two new planks and filled all but a handful of the plug holes.
* We have repaired the cabin tops and are preparing to canvas them in the traditional manner
* We have concluded negotiations for the Halifax Tall Ship Challenge 2007
* We have a plan right through to 2009
* We have roughed out a topmast and will shortly be considering the rigging and sails
* We are officially a non-profit association
* We have a web-site: revenante.com

The work will continue through the winter. We now have some wonderful images from Revenante's previous life as Amanda, and contact with her owners from that time, which will help the refit immensely.

Stay tuned!

September came way too fast. We are on an epoxy countdown. 300 bungs down, 3000 to go...At least our 'house' didn't blow down in the July twisters, and we continue to have enthusiastic supporters of our endeavour. The fate of the sloop "Canada" project reminds us to continue to move forward with reasonable dispatch.

Through the power of the Internet we have tracked down the original owners who bought this vessel from her builder, and who lived aboard her for over a decade. We hope to learn much from them, and perhaps welcome them aboard at some point. For sure we will be asking alot of questions.

Re-canvasing of the cabin tops will begin shortly, conflicting advice notwithstanding. Learning alot about the difference between #10 duck and 10oz cloth. Seems like a fine idea to have "duck" keeping us dry. The diesel stove should be installed shortly as well - she could almost be a landlocked liveaboard!

Between now and when the snow flies we intend to have the planking completed, the interior layout set, the engine properly trouble shot, and the sails repaired. The details of the voyages planned will keeps us warm until May. Stay tuned!

The work continues...

The interior begins to take shape with work continuing in the main cabin and the galley. That's an endgrain cherry countertop people! But will she float? A bee is happening this weekend ( on St. Jean Baptiste) and if I remember rightly he had something to do with water... We plan to stabalize the spars, prime and seal the hull above the waterline, and bung below. By the end of all this redesign she should sleep eight in excellent comfort, with any number of other louts on deck. A post-bee post will follow.

Schoonerus interruptus

It is clear who is in charge. The changing of the seasons has brought with it a sweet imperative. It's maple syrup time in Québec and boatbuilding must stop. The snow is fast melting away, but the night-time frosts and the day-time sun is bringing the sap out of the roots and into our buckets. Capt. Fairhead, a master for all seasons, is thus distracted. Instead of hammering planks into place we are staggering, sap laden, to gathering tanks and basking in the sweet steam of the sugar shack. There will be pancakes aplenty in good time, and many to eat them I'll warrant.

All's fair...

May her sailings be as smooth as her new planks... The new bow planks have been faired and we are moving on to other projects. There is a certain satisfaction from standing in the fo'c'sle and not seeing daylight! Each day it becomes easier to imagine her underway, but the launch date remains to be determined.

This will be the last bleat in this blog (sic) about the weather, but it would certainly help if IT WOULD WARM UP A BIT!!!

Revenante now has an officially constituted "Society" to support it. The Schooner "la Revenante" Society came into existance on Sunday, February 19, 2006. It will support not only the activities of the schooner, but also her fitting out and maintenance. The event was concluded with the official Royal Navy toast for the day: " To absent friends and those at sea".

Brute force!

The %&@## plank is in! This beautiful image provided by master photographer Harry Foster captures it all. In the end it took a forklift to do the deed. It's a tight fit, and this is good... In the process we learned alot about cold weather steaming, and the stubborness of oak. We also thought about how ships were built before the days of forklifts, and were humbled.

Much remains to be done. A head is being rebuilt, and the main cabin reconfigured. Actually we are putting it back as close as we can tell to what it was originally. This will allow for a quarterberth aft across from the navstation, two berths in the main cabin as well as room for three forward. If we add one or two pipe berths, the accomodations should be adequate.

The sails are being inspected professionally, and are in poorer condition than we had hoped, although as it turns out a storm trisail is part of the inventory.

Well, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so there will be six more weeks of winter, and that means that our epoxy days are still a way away. Until then it's wood and galvanized, and dreamin'

Winter planking blues...

We are learning about the vagaries of southern woods in Canadian climes. The plank was scribed and cut. The come-along was braced, the wood was bending... "crack"... it snapped off clean. In retrospect we were perhaps expecting too much from our imported longleaf pine, or perhaps it was the bend AND the twist that did it. So back to the drawing board, or, more specifically, back to the steambox! This however is the worst plank we have to replace.

The cabin is now closed in and work can begin on constructing a head amidships, a quarter berth at the foot of the aft companionway, and a proper galley.

Behind the scenes the re-enactors are busy plotting a voyage...

25 below zero...

It feels more like a Frobisher re-enactment than anything else, but if we can work at these temperatures we can do anything! Progress is happening, but slowly. We are almost able to close in the cabin, and the heater will then come into its own. Acquired from Alaska it has a good pedigree.

Bought a fir plank locally at a scandalous price - our own wood is still in Florida but a brave crew is on its way to collect it as I write. Imagine the sacrifice of a week in Panama City and Daytona Beach!!! Covering board removal has revealed some deteriorated upper frames, but nothing too unexpected. It will simply be a question of tackling one job at a time. Volunteers, your time will come...