July 28, 2016

Spent the weekend in LA at Carol's.  Very HOT!!  We did manage to get to an antique car and boat show in Marina del Rey Sunday morning before it got too hot.
Although I finally managed to get a good eyesplice using the Brion Toss fid and method on some 5/8 inch line, I failed twice on the expensive 3/4 inch.  Very frustrating.  I have an idea what the problem might be, and plan to try out a solution next week.  Meantime, I started on refinishing the starboard caprail and rubrail.  That side gets the most sun and suffers the most degradation as a consequence.  The first 2/3 of the caprail is done and looks great.  I've started on the first section of rub rail, which was done with Primo Teak Sealer and was pretty rough.  After grinding and sanding off most of the old Primo and applying one new coat, it looks surprisingly good.  I may try using Cetol over that initial coat of Primo, since the Cetol has proven to hold up much better (two years vs less than one year).  It also looks better.  If it fails, I'll need to strip it all off again, but I would need to do that anyway with the failing Primo....

  

July 21, 2016

Carol and I went for a sunset dinghy ride on Sunday, which led to most of this week being focused on dinghy and outboard maintenance and fixes.  After fresh water flushing and burning the fuel out of the carburetor, I changed out the zinc on the motor, and refurbished the lever system for tilting the outboard.  Polishing the plastic covers and coating them with 303 Protectant makes it look newer, if not run better.  I even lubed the zipper on the outboard's cover.  I also fabricated and installed a spacer block to align the starboard beaching wheel which was grossly out of alignment with the dinghy's center line.  The port wheel also needs adjustment, but it's not as far off, so maybe next week.  I also wrestled some more with the Brion Toss method for doing double braid eye splices.  I'm getting better, but still haven't got it down yet.  With the arrival of the series drogue extension this week, more splicing work is in the cards for next week...

  

 

July 17, 2016

It was an “interesting” week. I was informed too late that I had lost my spot in the boat for an outrigger race in Long Beach and that resulted in my plans with Carol getting loused up and my being pretty ticked off at the coach and a few others. Ahh well. I again frittered away a lot of time running errands such as getting the car smogged, making calls and so on. The new section for the series drogue arrived yesterday, but before I picked it up I got a call from Dave at Ace Sailmakers: he had shipped the wrong one, and was going to send out the correct one that day. The delay was not a big deal because I was waiting for my new splicing fid from Brion Toss anyway. I did manage to get the sailmaker moving, and Gary spent some time at the boat making measurements and discussing options with me. New main and genny should be ready about the end of August. I also stopped by the canvas shop and got on Vanessa's calendar for a new sail cover. Although the current cover is relatively new, I'm sure it will not fit the new main which will be stiffer and made of heavier fabric and therefore significantly bulkier. I squeezed out enough time to refinish the flange around the aft hatch, and painted it safety orange. It was about the only thing on the boat that hasn't been refinished and I was concerned that if I or any of my HaHa crew failed to notice the open hatch, serious injury could result. It looks more finished now, and is noticeably obnoxious, just what I wanted. Next week I'll start on freshening the finish on the brightwork....

  

July 7, 2016

The week's project progress was truncated a bit by the three day weekend I spent in LA with Carol and friends as well as by all the time frittered away Jousting with bureaucrats, filling out forms and running related errands.  Although I completed another eye splice around a heavy duty stainless thimble for the drogue bridle, the poor result brought to a head the second thoughts I'd been having about the eyes resulting from the Samson fid kit method.  The core end is simply pulled into the cover at the throat.  If you're lucky, it looks okay, but really is a weak spot.  With the thimble, the core went in too far, leaving a couple of inches that were cover only.  No good.  I will redo all the splices with new line using the more complicated, but stronger method developed by Brian Toss.  I will use the original line and splices for dock lines that will have much lower loads than the drogue.   About the only other project I got done was installing screens on the cabin-top hatches.

A few more pieces of gear came in, and the remaining line and cones for the drogue are on their way from Ace Sailmakers.  Still no progress from the local sailmaker, and no callbacks from the Coast Guard regarding my modified documentation or from my insurance company about final settlement for my claim re: the Mini.  I did read a piece in Latitude 38 indicating that it would be okay to use documentation numbers rather than hull identification numbers on the Mexican TIP form, so I should be okay even if it does take six months to get an HIN added to the documentation.  I also need to get the Mini smogged so I can renew the registration.  Sigh.  Still making progress, but it's definitely like climbing a sand dune!