When I realized that I would be spending some time in this beautiful little city, I decided to walk down to the museum. When I mentioned to a very helpful museum staff that I owned a sister ship to Trekka, and would love to talk with someone there who was very involved in her restoration, she recommended I call her husband, John West.
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| John talks about Trekka |
John was extremely generous with his time, has a lot of history with boat, allowed me to climb aboard and down below, and offered some great technical experience regarding the longevity and strength of the keel and fastening system used on Trekka.
I had some specific questions:
"Was the keel, and were the fasteners, original when Trekka came into the hands of the museum?
--Yes--
"And what were the condition of these at that time (after multiple circumnavigations and thousands of ocean miles)?"
--Very good, actually. The museum ended up replacing the galvanized flanges because they got misplaced, but the keel plate is the original. They sandblasted and epoxy-coated the keel plate, which is as good as new.--
"How did the rudder and associated parts hold up?"
--I was able to see the original rudder which looked fine. It differs from TERN's in that Trekka's is a steel shaft, TERN's is stainless.
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| The noble little ship that circumnavigated twice. |
There were some other interesting differences between TERN and Trekka, all of which made me feel yet more confidence in TERN;
1) Trekka was tight-seam planked in 3" wide red cedar, TERN was strip-planked, edge-fastened (and epoxied in seams) with 1.5" wide Port Orford yellow cedar.
2) Trekka is painted down below, TERN's interior hull is finished bright with Linseed oil.
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| Tern's interior |
3) Trekka is yawl-rigged, TERN is sloop-rigged.
4) Trekka was sheathed after launching and 2 ocean passages with polyester resin and glass cloth, TERN was sheathed with epoxy and polypropylene cloth, as part of the construction process.
5) Trekka's spars were of Sitka spruce, TERN's mast is aluminum.
6) TERN's rudder was replaced and a new one built of a slightly different design--a little more surface area forward of the rudder post lends to a very light helm.
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| Tern, showing rudder and keel. |
Even with these differences, the two boats are very similar. It was a very special treat to be aboard the boat that had been skillfully sailed around the world twice.
I so look forward to getting TERN launched again, and experiencing the feeling of sailing her again.
