Building ‘Sharpy’ Part 120

Repairing the warts!

There was an opportunity this afternoon for repairing the starboard chine tape. While I was about it, I sanded both chines for a final coating of epoxy to fill in the weave. I also coated the interior of the keel box with epoxy. I’m a lot happier now that these things have been done. I’ll leave the epoxy to harden for two or three days before painting the exterior of the hull.

Woving filled.

From now on, my jobs consist mainly of painting and varnishing. Sorting out the sail and steering shouldn’t take a great deal of effort; then I’ll have to concentrate on preparing ‘Sharpy’s’ trailer to make it roadworthy.


I’m still struggling to find a suitable name for the boat. There was a famous yacht named ‘Golden Vanity’ that took a very long time to cross the Atlantic while participating in the 1972 Observer Trans-Atlantic Race. In fact, I think she was placed last. I was puzzled by her name, because I could not associate the connection between ‘golden’ and ‘vanity’.


There’s a great deal in the book of Ecclesiastes about ‘vanity’; indeed most of it revolves around the subject, i.e., as my Oxford English Dictionary defines the word – the quality of being worthless or futile. Ecclesiastes does not major on the other meaning of the word, i.e., excessive pride in or admiration of one’s own appearance or achievements.


In a strict biblical sense, all activity not to do with glorifying God is vane, and from that point of view most of us spend practically all of our time doing vane things, which leads me to think I should name my boat ‘Vanity’, for she does little to glorify God or to bolster my self-esteem.


I know of a boat with the name ‘Lowly Worm’, and that seems much more appropriate! However, I’d rather be original, and perhaps name my boat ‘Humble Bee’ or ‘Humble B’ – ‘B’ of course standing for Bill, but that would be too awful. You can see how difficult it is to find an appropriate name. There are thousands of them out there in Cyberspace, but not one strikes a chord.


Links


‘Golden Vanity’

http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9880


‘Lowly Worm’

http://dinghycruising.org.uk/are-we-a-solitary-breed