How to Reinforce Your Stem Fitting

November 2, 2024November 15, 2024 $tingy Sailor

While removing and rebedding all the deck hardware on Summer Dance with butyl tape, I decided that I would reinforce the stem fitting while I was at it. A popular online Catalina parts retailer’s website says:

Boats built before ’82 had an inherent weakness: The forestay load was forward of the stem fitting’s forward mounting bolts, supported only by the deck, in an area with many holes in a small space, all forward of the marine plywood reinforcement. It is common to see these Catalina 22’s with stem fittings that are being pulled up from the deck.

Deck failure begins by looking like the picture below. Notice the line of cracks just in front of the forward stem fitting bolts.

Rigging21 Comments

How to Rig a Self-Tacking Jib for Free!

July 27, 2024July 26, 2024 $tingy Sailor

You may not have seen or even heard of a self-tacking jib before. They’re usually only found on luxury sailboats. But that’s exactly what one is, a headsail that sheets itself when you tack. You don’t have to cast off the working sheet and haul in the lazy sheet on every tack. In fact, after you set it up, you don’t have to touch the sheet again while sailing. You just push the helm to lee, come about as you normally would, and the jib passes through the fore triangle by itself and stops on the new lee side at the same sheeting angle as it was before the tack. I set one up for free and you can too.

Accessories, Rigging13 Comments

Quick and Simple DIY Turnbuckle Boots

February 24, 2024February 23, 2024 $tingy Sailor

This project is one of the easiest you’ll ever do to your sailboat. There’s no epoxy, painting, drilling, wiring, or splicing involved. If you can saw through a piece of PVC pipe, you can do this job. Heck, this might be a good project for a junior crew member to work on their stingy sailor skills!

Rigging3 Comments

Handy and Cheap Line Hangers

January 27, 2024August 29, 2024 $tingy Sailor

When I first started sailing, I stored all my unused lines, sheets, and cords in a large plastic bag in the starboard lazarette. I knew there was a better way to organize them, but I hadn’t seen it yet. First, I came across some teak line caddys. And while I liked their design and the fact that the teak would look at home in Summer Dance, they wouldn’t afford a lot of storage for the amount of space that they would occupy. In a C-22, you have to maximize every cubic inch.

Rigging, Sails41 Comments

How to Rig a Cruising Spinnaker in 4 Stingy Stages

January 13, 2024January 12, 2024 $tingy Sailor

If you don’t have a spinnaker for your sailboat yet, aren’t you a little envious of those big, colorful, billowing sails you sometimes see at your favorite cruising spots? Nothing says, “Yeah, we’ve got this!” quite like a racing or cruising spinnaker. It’s as though the sailboat is puffing its chest out with confidence and strength. No wonder it’s called the fun sail.

In this post, I describe the strategy I used to get started with an asymmetrical spinnaker. You can use the same strategy with a symmetrical spinnaker but the cost is higher due to the required whisker pole and its control lines.

Rigging, Videos5 Comments

Turn Those Chain Plate Bolts!

December 16, 2023December 15, 2023 $tingy Sailor

Do you have problems with your shroud turnbuckle T bolts or toggles binding or bending when you step your mast? If so, your chain plate bolts might not be rotated at the right angle for those parts to work the way they’re supposed to.

Rigging, Videos31 Comments

Quit Spending Setup Time on Turnbuckles

September 9, 2023September 8, 2023 $tingy Sailor

Turnbuckles are great for tuning your rig but they’re the least convenient way imaginable to loosen and detach the forestay and lower shrouds for unstepping the mast. I vowed long ago that I would quit wasting time on turnbuckles during setup and tear-down.

This post is a companion to my previous post How to step a mast single-handed with or without using the boom as a gin pole. I mentioned quick release levers in that post and you can also see them in use there, but they need more explanation together with the other topics in this post.

Rigging, Videos10 Comments

The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Winch Maintenance

May 20, 2023May 20, 2023 $tingy Sailor

The winches on your sailboat are the workhorses of your rig. They do the heavy lifting and make your job as skipper easier so you can enjoy the ride. They’re also the most expensive hardware aboard so it only makes sense to take good care of them. In this post, I describe how they work and how to maintain them in peak condition. If you’re a beginner to winch maintenance, this post will bring you up to speed with the savviest captains.

Rigging25 Comments

Install a Double Duty Headsail Downhaul

March 25, 2023March 24, 2023 $tingy Sailor

If you don’t have a headsail furler, a downhaul line is one of the easiest and least expensive control lines that you can add to your sailboat. It adds major convenience and safety for around $30. The line can be used with any size jib or genoa.

The $tingy Sailor

DIY trailerable sailboat restoration and improvement without throwing your budget overboard

Category: Rigging