New rigging, more $$$$ spent

Pictured is $182 worth of wire and rope halyards. The roller furling jib halyard had to be replaced as the roller furling swivel failed to swivel last year and as we tried to furl it it, the wire halyard began to unwind. Fortunately, this happened on the last sail of the season. In an attempt for this not to happen again, my rigger friend, Martin, suggested we put a swivel clip on as well. Much like wearing belt and suspenders, I like the idea. I am also replacing the two lower mast shrouds as one looked dodgy.

The furling failure just emphasized my paranoia about all mechanical systems. The more complex they are, the greater the chance they will fail. A simple hanked on jib would not caused us that problem. Just saying.

I know a picture of wire and rope will not appeal to most, but I have seen similar pictures in other blogs and I like them so I figure someone will like mine.

Chain plate repair

Spring is here and I finally removed the chain plate and ground down the rotten and cracked surface.

The plan is build it up with resin and fiberglass. Drill over sized holes and fill them with resin. I have a stainless steel backing plate made and a friend suggested making a stainless steel top plate too. Makes sense to me so I will take some measurements and visit the local http://www.metalsupermarkets.com/. No order is too small for these people. The bow is now sealed with plastic and duct tape. I will open it up every evening this week and remove the moisture. It should be totally dried out by next Saturday when I apply the resin, weather permitting.

Our new skill: Splicing

The wife and I took a two hour seminar/lesson on splicing doulble braided line. It was most informative. The first photo are my three attempts when we got home, the first two were failures but the third was spot on perfect.

The second photo shows my wifes three tries, one wrong and two perfect. The marks you see are reference points for us rookies.

She is the better rigger.....

I learned you cannot splice used rope. Rope that has been wet, nor rope that has been stretched.

Being able to splice loops in lines will save a bundle of $$$ as buying unsliced lines is cheap, cheap, cheap.

Road trip to a boat wrecker

What you see here is our new to us ST2000+ Autohelm plus four turnbuckles. Not shown is our man over board bouy and a tiny anchor for our dinghy. All for a mere $140. Another boating couple and us went on a road trip for this place.

The autohelm does work, we ran it through its paces at the yard. What sucks now is waiting for our launch in spring to put her through sea trials.

Thanksgiving sail.

Our friend taking our picture while my wife was taking their picture.

Me looking the happy fool.

Waiting for our friend to pull in. Look at the algae, it is thiiiick.

Here is my wife Ellie showing off in our brand new to us dinghy. She had never been in one before and just clambered in and stroked away.

Here I am rowing a dinghy for the very first time. I found it very tippy.

This is where we store it.

Me looking cool and nautical.

Ellie in the fore hatch.

My wife Ellie on the bow.

Just a picture of my wife. I can't remember where we were going, or if we were comming back...that's sailing for you...lol