I'm in an area with many shallows, and one spot with a bit of current at times.  A sailboat with shallow draft and some power in the motor are a must.

      Eventually found my way to the web site of an interesting boat:  The Luger Sailboat Mooring.  Lugers had swing keels and transoms that will take some horsepower.  It had a strange name, Luger. That's a gun.  I exchanged a few e-mails with  The Luger Sailboat Mooring about boat models and catalogs. 

      I continued to looked at many other boats, web sites, and forums over the following years.  Still not sure why, but I always found my way back to that Luger web site.
      Those Lugers must be good boats.  They were made to be finished by any handyma ..er ..person.  We all know how dangerous that bunch can be.  Not only did they float back then, they're still floating thirty years later.
      I didn't need a piano to fall on my head to decide a boat like the Luger would do.  Which one?  My house is a hundred feet from the lake.  I'm going to camp out on a boat?  The 21 will fit in my garage.  Done deal.
      Now the interesting part.  I live in Manitoba.  Not exactly the sailing capital of the world.  For two years I've been buying the local RV Trader magazine.  Thousands of items for sale, motor homes, boats, ATV's, trailers etc. etc. etc.  During all that time, three sailboats.  Now what do I do?
      Easy.  Buy the next edition of the RV Trader, and there it is.  A Luger 21, trailer, eight horse Honda, lifejackets, flares, cushions, port-a-potty, everything.  All it needs is water.         Coincidence?  Not a chance.  The Fates at it again.
      I've got two cats and a dog. Two were Humane Society goners, history, down the tube.  In both cases it was a long series of unusual events that brought me to them just before they were done in.  The third was a homeless mother cat with kittens.   Imagine how many people were waiting in line to take her in.  Could write a story about each of them.
      What were the chances things would have worked out the way they did?  There's no use trying to calculate the odds.  You couldn't do the math, they didn't make enough zeros.
      I'm not sure why the five of us were brought together.  Must be a reason.  An old boat, an old guy, two cats and a dog.  Sitting on a lot at the lake that I can't explain why I bought in the first place.
      Perhaps the Fates just gave me the job of caring for an old boat and a few stray critters.

- Lorence

Chicago Grip
(for handling stays)

Building a Gin Pole
(article by Dale Mack)

The Chicago Grip is a tool I
used many years ago working
as a telephone lineman.  It is a
tool for temporarily griping wire
when raising spans between poles. 
This model has a V-grove in both
top and bottom jaws.  Contact is
made at four spots around the
wire the length of the jaws.  The
model 1613-30 grip can safely
exert 1500 lbs. of pull without
slipping or damage to the wire. 
More info:  Klein Tools

I step my mast with a Gin Pole
similar to Dale Mack's method. 
The grip is used to hold onto
the forestay two feet above the
deck attachment.  The forestay
is under tension above the grip
but is slack below the grip, mak-
ing it easy to work with a short
piece of forestay near the deck
attachment while the rest of the
forestay is tight.