I Jinx It | Ep. 353

Hauling out at a specialized boatyard along the Patapsco River near Baltimore, Maryland, solo voyager Kevin Boothby of How to Sail Oceans commenced the rigorous five-year maintenance cycle aboard his engineless 1984 Gilmer 31 gaff-rigged cutter, Ruth Avery. Operating without an auxiliary diesel engine across tens of thousands of blue-water miles, Boothby treats spar and rigging forensics as life-critical engineering tasks.

The primary objective of this yard visit was pulling the solid Douglas fir mast out of the vessel for comprehensive hardware unrigging and timber inspection. Balancing antifouling paint economics with traditional boat carpentry, the process quickly shifted from routine haul-out tasks to surgical wood rot extraction.

Bottom Paint Performance and Haul-Out Economics

Upon hauling the 13,600-pound displacement hull, Boothby inspected the performance of Pettit AF-33 antifouling paint applied during the previous season. While premium biocide coatings like Pettit Biocop offer pristine weed and slime resistance at $350 per gallon, Boothby deliberately selects AF-33 at $150 per gallon. For a traditional mariner committing to annual or biannual haulouts, spending $700 on premium bottom paint provides marginal technical return compared to knocking off minor oyster growth and scraping a couple dozen barnacles by hand.

De-Rigging and Lowering the Solid Bowsprit

Before the boatyard mobile crane could be positioned to sling and pull the main spar, extensive deck preparation was required. The most physically demanding prerequisite was unshipping the vessel’s heavy solid timber bowsprit. Because the timber is too massive to carry down a ladder single-handedly, Boothby rigged a mechanical balance system using the jib halyard to lift the spar from its crutch while running a stabilizing control line from the bobstay fitting to a shoreside anchor tree.

This opposing tension prevented the heavy bowsprit from swinging uncontrollably into the mast during its descent. All standing wire rigging, turnbuckles, and shroud attachments were meticulously coded with blue tape to eliminate reassembly guesswork. Following a supply run to downtown Baltimore’s Inner Harbor for spar varnish, saw blades, and spade anchor paint, Boothby extracted the seized screws from the bowsprit ironwork to allow complete wood scraping and recoating.

Spar Inspection and the Discovery of Rot

With the Douglas fir spar resting securely on boatyard sawhorses, Boothby removed the stainless steel hounds bands that clamp the standing rigging shrouds to the masthead. The mast truck cap was pulled to verify that end-grain water seal integrity remained intact. However, while probing longitudinal glue seams with a fine-toothed hand saw to evaluate epoxy penetration, a soft pocket of degraded timber was uncovered.

Just minutes after reporting a clean bill of health to yard manager Chris, Boothby discovered active fungal rot penetrating an opened glue joint. Because unchecked fungal rot spreads along the internal tracheid cells of fir timber, Boothby immediately initiated a deep scarfing operation—cutting back degraded wood to sound fibers before laying in an epoxy-bonded structural Dutchman scarf joint.

Maintenance Specifications: Gilmer 31

The structural dimensions and refit parameters of the Gilmer 31 gaff cutter highlight the mechanical demands of traditional spar maintenance:

Frequently Asked Questions