Renewing my vows – 2010

Well, as you can see it is already spring of 2010.  I was a bad blogger last year.   So much for vowing to take more photos!

The story is that the weather in 2009 was terrible.  I didn’t get Dragonfly into the water until almost the middle of summer, and then managed to get only four or five sailing trips in before hauling out in October.  Meanwhile, I have been crewing on a J/24 in Newport every week so I do take care of the sailing itch, but it makes taking Dragonfly out seem a little less pressing.

One casualty of this attitude occurred last fall, when I rowed out after several storms to find rainwater in the cabin – two inches above the cabin floor!  I have always tried to be good about going down the boat to pump out the bilge after getting rain, but I clearly got a little lazy.

Well, I’ll try to be a better boater this year.  The spring maintenance has begun!  This year’s projects are:

• Apply Cetal to all exterior wood trim
• Two (2) decent coats of anti-fouling to the hull
• Re-caulk all fittings on port side.

And I really, really do vow to take more pictures!

Spring 2009

I am about a month behind schedule. The weather this spring has been just awful and I have found all sorts of excuses to avoid getting the boat ready for launch. It is July 4 weekend and Dragonfly is still in my yard. Not cool!

However, the end is in sight. The following projects have been completed:

Clean and re-caulk the portside chainplates.
Caulk the portside hatch rail.
Paint the cabin floor and bilge hatches.
Apply anti-fouling paint to the hull.

I vow to take more pictures this year!!

Boom vang, part 2

Mast attachment 2

Originally uploaded by rick_barr

Here is the vang mast attachment ready to be secured to the base of the mast. I’ll attach the boom bail once the boat is rigged after launch.

Boom vang, part 1

Vang attachment parts

Originally uploaded by rick_barr

One thing my boat needs is a boom vang to prevent the boom from rising when sailing downwind. Rig-Rite Spars in Rhode Island still makes hardware for Pearson Electras and I ordered this boom bail and mast vang attachment from them. The screws are from West Marine.

Mainsheet system

Mainsheet_crop

Originally uploaded by rick_barr

I had posted previously about my new mainsheet system, but the boat was still in my yard at that time. I couldn’t post a photo of the completed project until Dragonfly was launched and had the mast and boom installed.

Well, better late than never, I guess. I took this picture today. I have been very pleased with the result. It makes me realize how HORRIBLE it was to have no way to cleat the mainsheet with the old system.

Nice sail today. Coudy with rain threatening all a round, but never arriving. Wind was out of the northeast and blowing 4 to 10 knots. I went up the Providence River to a point just short of Bullock’s Point, then back to the mooring.

Bottom paint

Motor is fixed and launch has been scheduled so it was time to paint the bottom. I had to dodge the rain for most of the weekend, but I did manage two coats of red anti-fouling paint and one coat of black striping paint for the bootstripe.

I had been a little nervous about moving the boat stands, but the hauler gave me some tips on how to do it safely. Everything went very smoothly.

Here are a couple of photos. I took them in the evening so the light isn’t great.

It’s the middle of June and I feel behind schedule. Can’t wait to start sailing!

New hatch installed

‘Couple of weeks ago I got the new forehatch back from Brian. He built an all new teak frame and re-used the plexiglass and hardware. The next step for me was to put some finish on. I used a product called Cetol, which isn’t a true varnish but is supposed to be durable.

Yesterday I put it back on the boat. It’s beautiful! Take a look:

Thanks, Brian.  You’ve earned mucho sailing time!

Outboard motor – Part 6

Home again. No picture (because it doesn’t look any different), but I got the outboard back from the shop. It sports a new power cable (yeah, all my electrical work was for naught) and a clean carburetor. I hauled it around in the car for a few days so I could enjoy the gas/oil smell during my commute(!) and now it’s back on the boat.

Time to paint the hull!

Outboard, Part 5: I give up.

So here is hopefully the end of the outboard story. After my last post on this topic, I had another test session with the motor hanging in a trash can full of water. This time, I wanted to put the motor in gear and see if that help keep the revs steady. Instead, the motor died as soon as I threw it into forward. Worse – I couldn’t restart. The motor cranked and cranked but would not fire. Over the next few days, I tried a few things but nothing worked.

So yesterday I lifted my 1991 Johnson 15hp off the transom and took it to the engine shop at the local marina. I’ve had to call the boat hauler and delay my launch date, but at least I’ve got some professionals working on the motor. In the end, I expect I’ll have a more reliable outboard and that’s probably worth a week or two of sailing at the beginning of the season.

Winches

I spent the winter looking for a used winch to replace the one that broke last fall. I could never find a matching Wilcox-Crittenden #2, so I settled on a reasonably priced Barient winch that I found at Marine Consignment of Wickford. Now I can sail while I continue the search for the matching winch.

A few nights ago I took both winches apart, cleaned the old gunky grease out and lubed them up with fresh West Marine winch grease.