(Lake Rapel, Chile)- Many J’s find themselves in some of the world’s most unusual,
spectacular, and un-imaginable places to go sailing. One of these
happens to be a J/105 now sailing high up in the Andes Mountains in Chile, on a place called “Lake Rapel”, two hours south of the capitol of Santiago! Find it on Google maps here.J/105 #279 has now found itself in a “happy” place, lovingly looked after by a very proud family enjoying what is essentially a “maxi-boat” on one of Chile’s largest lakes. Her enthusiastic new owner is Marcelo Tapia. He sails mainly with his son and daughters. Most of the time with 2 or 3 onboard.
How
it got onto Rapel Lake is a story in and of itself! First, he bought
the boat from its American owner, shipped it to Chile and picked it up
in September 2012 at the Port of San Antonio. Next, he personally
unloaded the boat from the ship, then he painted it with antifouling,
cleaned and change all what was needed: engine supports, ropes,
instruments, lights, new WC tubes, new chart-plotter and VHF, all new
canvas made at home, etc. He recently renewed all the keel box gelcoat,
too.
The
boat was then trucked to the marina on Rapel Lake that only has launch
ramps. Then, she was backed down to the water’s edge next to a giant
tree. This was going to be the “mast crane tree”! You guessed it.
After attaching a block & tackle high in the tree, they hauled the
mast up and lowered it into the boat! Finally, to launch the boat, they
attached a long extension tongue to an old farm tractor and backed the
entire trailer, boat and all, into the lake, deep enough to float the
boat off! As the happy owner motored off to its new home in a cove in front of Marcelo’s house on the lake, she ended up securing herself onto a mooring line and block of concrete that Marcelo himself had put into the bottom of the very cold freshwater lake. Needless to say, Marcelo’s girls are ecstatic! Enjoy the photos of their happy faces and some key parts of getting their boat to Lake Rapel.
|
