What are your winter boat project plans this year?
I've been working on the interior. Replacing teak and some of the wiring. Next item is to hunt down a small leak. Possibly from the hatch slides or teak grab rails on top of the cabin. Then the last item, removing the transducer and reinstalling it to see if I can get it to work properly. I would have been finished by now except for I caught a nasty cold and haven't left the house in over a week. Of course the weather and wind has been beautiful for sailing. Always is when she's on the trailer.
My list is still pretty long. I am fashioning some lazy jacks although I'm not sure I'll keep them. And I still have some work straightening out the sail track; refinish all the wood; re-bed the handrails, deck hardware, and portlights; fill and fare some nicks and dings in the hull; prep and paint the bottom; install a compass, GPS, and transducer; ...
Jeez, I think I'll be at it through the winter and beyond.
I winterized thanksgiving week which was pump the water system dry (so, so glad I installed DC pressurized water system many years ago) and circulate a gallon of marine anti freeze in the system. The only have to project is reroute the main halyard and the topping lift, delayed because of the holiday season. So hopefully if I get that done, I'll actually sail more during the winter than work which is as it should be but rarely is.
Edit: forgot one because it is rather low priority. Make and install new eyebrows. Got some teak long enough to do that now. And some minor repairs on the sail cover to replace broken snaps.
Have a bunch of little projects going on...
Planning on swapping the trailer over to the new Triad sometime in the next few weeks. Fortunately my wife's 4Runner can pull the empty trailers going to/from the ramp.
Building new hatchboards and also a set of bug-screen hatcboards.
Removing some snaps from the cockpit and filling the screw holes.
Going to do a round of AwlWash and AwlCare on the topsides and deck (boat is painted).
Recently rebuilt the foredeck hatch with a rebuild kit from Bomar.
Edit: forgot one because it is rather low priority. Make and install new eyebrows. Got some teak long enough to do that now. And some minor repairs on the sail cover to replace broken snaps.
I forgot all about the eyebrows. I bought a pair from Compac years ago. Cetoled them and put them up. Those need installing too.
My workshop (barn) is bitter cold this time of year (no heat source), so my projects are on hold until warmer weather returns this spring. I've got 3 Com-Pacs (Legacy, 23, & a 25) so there is plenty — and I do mean plenty— to keep me busy once we get that spring thaw. However, I did decide to splurge on having my 25's cabin cushions reupholstered with new Sunbrella fabric at Ship-Shape out of Duluth, MN — these are the folks that make those awesome custom winter boat covers — something else on my wish list.
sadly or maybe happily i can think of nothing on my catalina 18 that needs to be done. when the snow flies i just go out in the garage and sit in it for a bit.
I do have the advantage of of mild winters. It may drop into the 20s at night, but will climb back to the 50s by noon.
As I type this, I'm at our daughter's in northern Illinois. With a high of 28°, I'm glad I kept my heavy leather jacket.
McGivering nav lights onto a newly-acquired '83 Compac 16. Just revised the mast supports, lifting the mast 6" above the tabernacle, to carry it horizontal so it will get under the carport roof.
Nav lights for the 16 I just bought. Caused a helluva controversy in Sailboat Owners Forums by stating I'm putting a stern light on top of the rudder. Here's the background: I'll probably never intentionally have the boat out after dark, but "probably" isn't carved-in-stone certain. I'm rigging separate circuitry for sail and power, one switch each, just because I like to complicate things. So: red and green on the sides of the cabin; a two-bulb, 135/225 at the top of the mas, and a 135 stern light on a McGivered removable mount on top of the rudder, with red and green on the cabin sides, for power; a 135 at the top of the mast with red and green for sail. (A forward white isn't required on a 16 under sail unless I've misread both USCG regs and Chapman Piloting including color illustrations. Wiring with diodes so that I can flip one switch for sail, a different switch for power, and a third for anchor. Takes six little diodes that are configured like medium-sized two-blade fuses.
So a genius or two at the other site started yelling about (a) a masthead light halfway up the mast (not required on a 16) and how I'd open myself to "legal liability beyond my imagination" for having a stern light that turned. By that reasoning the rudder will be hard over the whole time I'm motoring and I'm legally barred from changing course if a boat is behind me, course changes also changing the direction of the stern light. But here's another twist that really got shorts in a knot over there: I wound up with two mast-top (as distinguished from masthead) lights, one a good Perko and the other a cheap Chinese knock-off. I'm contemplating using the knock-off as a stern light on top of the rudder and putting translucent red tape over the 225 lens, wiring that on it's own circuit, and using it for a cockpit ight. Oh, HERESY ! ! !
Now, to hide wiring from the panel to be installed in the cabin starboard of the hatch, I attached a plastic wire race to the teak strip below the hatch guide from the bulkhead forward to the downturn of the cabin overhead. I cut a piece of half-inch teak to follow the curve of the overhead so that there are points at the seam between overhead and side and attached that to the compression post with a pair of blocks that form a collar around the post and present a flat surface about six inches across to which to screw what I'll call a valance (the teak), which will hide the wires from the race to where I'll put a through-deck plug for mast wiring.
I've got the lights mounted at the top of the mast, on the bracket to to over the rudder post, and on the sides of the cabin. I'm waiting for the panel and the through-deck plug to arrive to finish the wiring.
I think that'll do her for winter projects.
Every sight site has someone that will warn you of doom and gloom if you proceed in a way they don't approve of.
Last fall I sailed my 19 into the harbor right up to the town dock. I walked across the street to the coffee shop and a guy tells me I can't sail in the harbor, especially to a dock. I simply responded "Get your eyes checked, I just did".
Oh boy. One time in a little. more than "brisk" winds I sailed a Chrysler 20 into a boxed-in marina with the motor up and the hood off At the inner end of the harbor there was a two-story building, marina office down and tablecloths restaurant up, with balcony. People on the balcony. Coming in a couple guys working on a big sailboat saw the motor, me under sail (jib only) on a broad reach and over hull speed and asked if I needed help. All full of Admiral Middy I declined. At just the right moment I turned upwind, doused the jib with a lanyard running inside the hanks, and drifted back to the perfect spot on the pier. With exaggerated nonchalance I dropped bow and stern lines over pilings and stepped off. Just like I did this every day and twice on Sunday, and not like I was puckered so tight it would have taken a phlebotomist to give me an enema. AND I HAD WITNESSES ! ! ! !