SV Ulladh (ul-la): June 2009

Friday, June 26, 2009

June 2009

Friday June 26, afternoon sail to Mifflin Bar Dike, 90 deg F humid and less than a 5 knot breeze from the south.

Sunday June 29, midday sail to Chester, a pleasant 85 deg F, 10 knot breeze from the north with gusts to 15 of Boeing and Eddystone, a fast beam reach to Harrahs with the ebb tide, then return against the ebb.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Spring 2009

-Remove engine and prop, close stern tube.
-Construct transom beam and install outboard motor mount.
-Remove engine through hulls and restore hull openings.
-Clean and prep hull below water line, base coat with coal tar epoxy, finish coat with coal tar epoxy and copper flour.

Motor removed, engine bay cleaned of almost 40 year of crud, propellor and shaft removed and sealed, through hulls cut out and fiberglass patched.

Transom beam installed and hull cleaned and sanded. Hull above water line sanded, primed and painted.

Hull below water line painted with coal tar epoxy.

Hull below water line finish painted with coal tar epoxy and copper flour.

Outboard serviced, alternator added and hung on transom beam. Down position. Copper patina developing.

Outboard up position.

In the travel lift sling ready for splash

Ulladh in its new home.

Ulladh

Ulladh pronounced "ul-la" (null lad).

Uladh the gaelic spelling for the territory of the U-Nail chieftains in the ancient Irish province of Ulster (English/Norse), originally the counties of Down and Antrim, but now including Derry, Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, also referred to as Ulidia (Greek/Roman),.

Uladh was the home of a pre-celtic, cruithne (crew-en-ya) pictish tribe, who may have been descendants of prehistoric tribes indigenous to the British Isles since the retreat of the last ice age.

Evidence from cut marks on deer bones from more than 30,000 years ago found in the karst formations of the Burren probably from hunters suggest a homonid precence. Archeological finds date first inhabitants (DNA evidence suggests dark or black skin and blue eyes) to about 6,000 BC and trade goods from Rathlin Island, County Antrim off the northeast coast of Ireland made from porcellanite stone appearing in Egypt and Crete by 2,500 BC.

The early tribes of Ireland where displaced by later waves of migrants from mainland Europe; about 1700 BC by bronze age tribes, celtic tribes about 500 BC, and in the past two millenia; Roman trading posts, Viking settlements, English plantations... and in the 21st century a welcome increasing diversity from the European Union and the world.

SV Ulladh (for vhf clarity I use "sailing vessel ul-la") is named for the territory of the first peoples to settle in Ireland after the retreat of the last ice age.

Fisksatra

Since 1949 Fisksatra Varv in the coastal town of Fisksatra Sweden, built fiberglass boats from dinghies to a 300 ton minesweeper for the Swedish Navy.

The Havsfidra 20's were built between 1968 and the late 1970's to Swedish Navy and Lloyd's certification standards.

The Havsfidra 20 and a larger version the Storfidra 26 where sold in the United States by Continental Yachts and Trawler Agency of Atlantic City NJ.

Havsfidra; sea-feather?
(fidra; to touch or tickle with a feather -Icelandic-English Dictionary, Clarendon Press 1874)