View From The Boat 01Jul14

The view from the boat is sublime. Sailing out of Dillon Marina, the highest deep water marina in the world, on my maiden voyage aboard Mon Ami, was awesome. The days of preparation and investigation were worth that ride. I'm looking forward to a fine first season in this remarkable location.

Westbound Downwind Toward 10 Mile Range

Northbound Crosswind Toward Gore Range

Beatin' It Back Eastbound Toward Dillon Marina

I was fortunate to find a 25 year old Beneteau sailboat named Mon Ami. Surprisingly and luckily it was close by in Ft Collins - I thought I was going to have to transport from the east coast. It's a First 235, an awesome design from Group Finot when they were great and willing to dabble in smaller boats for common folk. Only 400 were made and I was focused on getting one.

Transport was the first issue as the original trailer had no brakes - not good for crossing mountain passes to it's intended home in Lk Dillon. I found a great shop in Ft Collins, D&E Trailers, with a sharp mechanic who fixed it all up but the process required a new axle to accommodate electric brakes available today. Those mods and new tires were done June 27th... a little later than desired but I was on my way.

I leased a slip at the highest deep water marina in the world, Dillon Marina (9150 ft elevation or so). I dragged the boat to Dillon at 60mph or so on I70 - really slow for me but the single axle and 4000# boat needed appropriate driving.

I readied the standing rigging and released the mast from its transport security. Bruce Kosbab offered to help raise the mast at the stepping stations at Dillon Lake. I'd not done this before so attempts one through four failed. On the second attempt the mast crashed through the Crusher rear windshield. It's repaired now but did require a glass cleanup crew including Janice, Sarah and Kala and took a couple hours. The fourth attempt was excellent at dusk but I ignorantly neglected a piece of tackle in the backstay setup and was confused why the fit was bad. It was dusk on Saturday and we rested at Pug Ryan's. I had to park the boat at Town Hall (illegally) as the Dillon lot was full.

With the right backstay tackle installed, a little additional reading on where to locate the lifting point, and some experience under our belts, Bruce, Kala and I got the mast stepped on our first Sunday attempt.

After parking again, we loaded the motor into place. I set the rudder up, added a mainsail, ran some of the lines, loaded the battery (which was dead BTW, should've tested that before). Kala got some gas and we mixed the 2 cycle fuel and tested the Mercury 9hp outboard. All getting ready for launch. I also did another sail inventory... we have 2007 Doyle main and working jib to original spec and 2010 North Sails main and 135 genoa as well a small storm jib.

On Monday, the Dillon Marina guys helped me put our F235 in the water - it floats!  That's always a good thing for a boat, but never a foregone conclusion with a 25 year old craft that'd been out of the water for a couple years. The launch was a smidge tricky with a long tongue on the trailer which also hadn't been used in some time... but Mon Ami floated right off and Kala & I drove her to her summer home in slip B21. We debated a while on our optimal dock line setup but finally chose a solid scheme.

I spent the rest of the day setting all the lines back to the cockpit for single handed sailing and rigging all the rest of the stuff. On Tuesday I got the glass replaced in the Crusher and then tuned up the standing rigging to assure correct sailing physics. Ultimately on a gorgeous and mid-windy late afternoon on Tue 01Jul14 I motored out, pointed into the wind, raised the main, spun about and sailed across the lake. Awesome.

Now it's onto a summer of sailing and some restoration - probably need to get electrical going at some point. ;)