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.

Cockpit/stern21 Comments

How To Repair a Rudder

August 10, 2024August 29, 2024 $tingy Sailor

Rudders damage easily. Although they work similar to a keel, they aren’t nearly as tough. If you dry sail, the edges can accumulate nicks and dings in the fiberglass from loading and unloading. The rudders of some sailboats can hit the outboard motor’s propeller if you’re not careful. Add in accidental groundings, storage damage, and stress cracks and it doesn’t take much time in water to make the wooden core swell and damage the rudder even more. Without repairs, a weakened rudder can even break into pieces under stress. It pays to protect your rudder.

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.

Cabin19 Comments

Refinish Your Interior Teak To Better Than New

July 13, 2024August 29, 2024 $tingy Sailor

One of the things about older sailboats that I appreciate most is their abundance of teak woodwork. As a woodworker, I admire good craftsmanship, creative design, and a fine finish. It’s harder to find on today’s modern sailboats. Teak is in short supply so it’s more expensive than it once was and most modern sailors don’t want to spend time maintaining their brightwork. For the rest of us, beautiful teak appointments are an opportunity to set our sailboat apart from the rest and a sign of pride of ownership. Few improvements freshen up a sailboat’s interior like well maintained woodwork.

Cockpit/stern, Sewing2 Comments

Sew Your Own Winch Covers From Scraps

June 29, 2024June 29, 2024 $tingy Sailor

Do you keep your lovingly maintained sailboat in a slip or on a mooring ball but want to protect your hard work from the elements as much as possible? Covers on your winches can protect the plated parts from corrosion, the plastic parts from UV damage, the bearings and pawls from rainwater and salt water spray, and keep everything cleaner if bird droppings are a problem for you.

Trailer12 Comments

How to Replace Trailer Bunk Boards

May 18, 2024August 29, 2024 $tingy Sailor

How strong is a zip-tie? Could one hold the end of a bunk board carrying a 2,200# sailboat for 250 miles at highway speeds, including over a mountain pass? Would you do it with your boat? How about two, one on each end with a rusted bolt in the middle of the bunk?

Pretty strong as it turns out. The picture below shows the aft end of the starboard bunk just as the previous owner had tied it before I purchased Summer Dance and towed her home. The other end was like it. They held the whole way. Notice that there is no bolt holding the bunk to the bracket. Don’t try this at home, kids.

Cockpit/stern2 Comments

Turn a Locker Lid Into a Cockpit Table

May 4, 2024May 3, 2024 $tingy Sailor

At the risk of overstating the obvious, trailerable sailboats are cramped. Some are more cramped than others. Cramped inside and cramped outside. But we tolerate the cramped conditions because they’re so much fun to sail and to camp aboard. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be made more comfortable.

Boom, Cockpit/stern, Tips13 Comments

Make This Boom Tent: the Poor Man’s Bimini

March 23, 2024March 22, 2024 $tingy Sailor

It’s a cloudless mid-summer afternoon. You’ve had a great day of sailing but you’re ready to drop anchor, start dinner, and relax for another stunning sunset. You’ve been in the sun all day so some shade would be great but you don’t have a bimini on your sailboat. You don’t really want to go down into the cramped cabin yet. The first mate will be making dinner and you’d just be in the way.

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!

The $tingy Sailor

DIY trailerable sailboat restoration and improvement without throwing your budget overboard

Tag: Catalina Yachts 22