If you’ve already read 15 Outboard Motor Maintenance Blind Spots You Can’t Afford to Miss and discovered that your outboard motor’s water pump (#7 in the list) is one of your maintenance blind spots, then this post is for you. It’s also for you if you didn’t read that article and you don’t have a clue how to maintain a water pump.
Continue reading “How to Rebuild an Outboard Motor Water Pump”
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.
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.
Continue reading “Quit Spending Setup Time on Turnbuckles”
How do you step the mast on your trailerable sailboat? With a gin pole? With the trailer winch? With the help of friends or family? With your fingers crossed? No single system works for every sailboat or for every skipper. If you’re new to mast stepping, you don’t like your current method, or you just want to simplify or speed up the process, this post is for you. I must warn you though, this is a long post, even for me. To make it as short as possible, I’ve included five YouTube videos that show how this system works. By the end of this post, you’ll know everything about how I step the mast on Summer Dance single-handed in minutes, even on the water.
Continue reading “How to Step a Mast Single-Handed With or Without Using the Boom as a Gin Pole”
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.
The first mate didn’t care much for the original equipment water pump in the galley of Summer Dance. She uses a lot of water for making coffee in the mornings, sponge baths, or to wash her hair. Pumping that much water by hand with the tiny, manual pump was more trouble than she wants to take when we’re cruising. And she let me know about it. Every cruise.
Continue reading “Upgrade Your Galley With An Electric Water Pump”
This short video by Pixillion is just too good to not share it with you. It was selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick recently and has many of the things that I love in it: sailing, woodworking, living simply close to the land, and a soothing acoustic guitar soundtrack. I hope you enjoy it and it inspires you to pursue the things that you love. Continue reading “From Timber to Tide”
Do you have a heavy four-stroke outboard motor on your sailboat? Is it a chore to raise and lower with your current motor mount? Maybe you have a back injury that makes lifting a risky behavior. What about your first mate, can they raise and lower the motor if they need to? All these are good reasons to consider whether your current motor mount is adequate for your needs.
Continue reading “Upgrade to a Gas Spring-Operated Outboard Motor Mount”
It was supposed to be a short casual cruise to a waterfront restaurant and dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary. My wife and I were spending a four day weekend on our favorite lake with our Catalina 22 named Summer Dance. I had spent the last year refitting and restoring her from stem to stern and she was now a gem we were proud of and enjoyed cruising in. It turned out to be a grueling night that we’ll never forget and our worst anniversary in 37 years.
Continue reading “Summer Dance Badly Damaged in Freak Storm”
The $tingy Sailor 