What are your spring plans?

[HeaveToo]

What are your plans for spring?

I have to bottom paint as I have decided to put my boat back into a slip this season after all.  I have to install a new anchor light since mine was giving me a fit at the end of my last trip. 

Not much else that I need to do for this year.  It will be nice to get back on the water and have the boat ready to go.

[AislinGirlII]

After being sidelined a year as of last week (knee surgery and other things) I hope to just go sailing this spring before it gets hot hot ! Only item left is finishing the remote controls for the Tohatsu (already done the outboard kit part), and running the jacklines and netting to help keep me aboard should the gimpy knee attack me up forward.

Now, that being said, the work list for the last year included lines led aft with a cabin top blocks and a winch and rope clutch, a new loose footed main from National Sails, lazy jacks, shortening the bimini so it fit, repairing a punky area of port settee from a bad toerail leak that hid from me behind the trim and under the cushions, adding a Garmin 54DV chartplotter/depthmeter, cleaning up some funky/sloppy wiring...oh, and a Thetford Curve porta potti for the admiral.

I do want a tiller pilot to slave to the GPS, but can't settle on one at a price I like. Between showers and an upcoming family wedding I've got two open weekends in the next 2 months....then life slows down a bit !

[BruceW]

Fixing up my yard trailer, pulling the boat, scraping the hull, try drysailing for awhile.

Get carb cleaned, change motor mount, add deckpipe.

Sail on some overnight cruises with the sailing club and other folks who want to go.

[HeaveToo]

All good plans.

I am planning another Chesapeake Bay cruise for the May/June time frame.

[alsantini]

First - get prepared for the trek home.  1300 miles of towing Off the Wind home to northern Illinois.  I will strip virtually everything off the deck leaving only mast and boom.  Add a strap to the stern and two bungees to let the mast float (from the mast to the bow pulpit.  Once home I have some mold voids or pops in the gel coat to repair.  I did some of them here in Florida but have many many more to do.  Long distance towing seems to produce them as fast as I repair them.  Horizontal ones are easy.  It is the vertical ones that are a challenge. I want to put in the inside hull depth transducer too prior to launching for the summer. A coat of wax and all things back on deck and I will launch in Pistakee Lake, Illinois.
This is the summer that I will replace sails on my Eclipse.  Looking at using Mack again as I was super pleased in the set they made for my Precision 21.
Sail On everyone - looking for a good summer sailing season.  The winter sailing has been great!

[DaleM]

Last year our lake levels were too low for sailing in Central Ga.  Recently we have had plenty of rain and the levels are up!
So, I'll be   sailing Ga.Gypsy and camping over the weekends when possible. It's packed and ready to go.  Also, planning trips back to Pt. St. Joe Bay, Florida where the conditions are simply outstanding!  If you are anywhere in the near the Florida Panhandle, I highly recommend St. Joe Bay where the barrier island of San Blas offers protection from the Gulf and there is never a crowd.  Accommodations are across the street and there are plenty of great seafood available. 
Fair winds to everyone for a safe season of chasing the wind!

[jdklaser]

Aux power upgrade, new mast, audio system.  Summer sails to include Nantucket, Edgartown, Block island, black sea bass and fluke fishing (old school) and general gunkholing

[brackish]

I am not looking forward to the following, but have procrastinated too long:
1. clean, sand and paint the bottom.
2. remove all the hull striping, replace same with new tape.
3. clean and wax the hull, clean and use woody wax on the topside.
4. sand, prime with zinc chromate, and finish paint with satin black the rudder gudgeon and pintle brackets.
5. rebush the above mentioned components with new bronze bushings and bolts.
6. Wash and treat all sunbrella components with 3M 303.
7. Finish building the tiller to motor linkage for which I have had the components for about a year.
8. Finish stripping the Bristol off the woodwork, a  job that was started and is well along, by the sun and weather, clean, brighten and seal with Semco sealer.  You know how this works, you just keep trying something else, looking for wood finishing utopia.
9. Install flag halyards so I can actually fly those burgees I have.
10. get the lights on the trailer working so I can pull the boat to do all this stuff.

Hope to finish all this in April so I can go sailing and cruising before it gets too hot.  I too look forward to going to Port St Joe/Mexico Beach area.  I may possibly move the boat down there for an extended time this fall.

[jdklaser]

Woody Wax a/k/a Carnuba ROCKS

[Salty19]

Brackish, that is one hell of a list.  If I may add washing halyards and lubing the masthead sheaves if you'll have the mast down to your list. For a flag halyard, I tie a small block with good 1/8" dyneema line around the backstay pin/shackle at the masthead. The block hangs down about 8" from the mast, just to keep plenty of distance from the sail head. Then pass halyard through block. Flags are tied to the halyard with thin annealed stainless wire.

[brackish]

Thanks for reminding me, I usually wash the halyards and sheets and soak them in fabric softener.  Also coil up the 30 amp shore power cord in a bucket with plug ends out and soak it in a mixture of bleach and jomax  (what is it about that cord, does mold and mildew like to be close to flowing current?) then dump the fenders in the same bucket.

Interesting about the SS wire for attaching the flags.  Do you thread it through the halyard to hold position?

[ChuckD]

You Captains are making me feel guilty!

My plans: no projects!
I've been working on various improvements right through the harsh (cough, cough) winter of Washington state. And sailing once/twice a week. Now that I'm in my sophomore year of sailing, my Spring plans are to venture farther:
. Out into the Straight of Juan de Fuca
. Around Protection Island
. Into Discovery Bay, and
. Off Dungeness Lighthouse

Sail on!

[HeaveToo]

Man, I wish I didn't have projects.

I HATE doing bottom paint!  I am going to do the whole damn thing this year too.

WestMarine had bottom paint on sale too. 

[Mas]

Oh my gosh, seeing all the projects out there makes me feel like i should be doing something! On Mas, other than putting on her new sail cover and rudder blade, she mostly needs nothing except to get back to the Bay. Was gunna set up oarlocks but much work on Interlude this winter, and still this spring, has said a no to further not needed to sail projects, well other than finding a couple 16's for some fine members here and a certain Flicka! (you know who you are!)

On a side note but related: i cannot imagine how folks are able to handle the costs on those large vessels you see sitting at the marinas. Interlude (PSC 31) is the smallest of the Pacific Seacraft line, (though actually more space below decks and cockpit than the 34) came with quality construction and gear, well maintained by her previous owner, but still an antique (1989), so needed some work (most of which we knew before purchase, some a surprise but anticipated). It cost us more to recover her dodger and bimini than it did to buy Mas. So many forget it is not a ratio of length to cost, Interlude is twice the length of Mas but her displacement is 12 times as much. We are fortunate that her sails just needed a little cleaning and a batten pocket restitched as they are 8 times the cost of a replacement set for Mas. Glad we also understood that reality of larger boats in advance. So many get a boat then find out they cannot afford to keep her. We love them both, but truly one of the most appreciated qualities of Mas is her simplicity in cost, maintenance and operation.

[Salty19]

Interesting about the SS wire for attaching the flags.  Do you thread it through the halyard to hold position?

Yep!