Tag: Catalina Yachts 22

Cockpit/stern, Sewing1 Comment

Make Your Own Lifeline Cushions

$tingy Sailor

This is a quick, easy, and cheap project if you have any scraps of canvas left over from earlier canvaswork projects. Lifeline cushions are tubular foam with canvas covers that fit over the lifelines that run along the sides of the cockpit. They’re great as headrests when laying back in the cockpit seats while you check your Windex or just watch the clouds roll by. They also make sitting on top of the coamings more comfortable if you want to hike out a bit when heeled on a reach.

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Sails, Sewing5 Comments

How to Make a Mainsail Cover

$tingy Sailor

Summer Dance didn’t have much in the way of canvaswork when we bought her: an original mainsail cover and an old outboard engine cover that also looked pretty ghetto. Besides being 1980’s brown in color, the canvas of the mainsail cover was faded and shredded in places, much of the stitching had disintegrated, and the zipper had come almost completely loose. It was unsalvageable but it did work as a pattern to sew a new cover out of Sunbrella, the gold standard of marine canvas.

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Cabin1 Comment

Make a Door to Storage Space Under the V Berth

$tingy Sailor

Storage for gear, clothing, provisions, and sails is a universal problem with trailerable sailboats. I began solving my onboard storage dilemma with an under galley storage solution. This project is a repeat of that one but claims the unused space under the V berth in my Catalina 22, specifically on the starboard side next to the portable toilet.

It’s also different from that project in that I used different wood for this project. The first door that I made was out of stained Philippine mahogany. I made this one from Honduran mahogany with an oil and polyurethane finish instead of stain. The result is almost indistinguishable from teak, as you can see below.

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Hull11 Comments

What to Expect From a Professional Bottom Paint Job

$tingy Sailor

When Summer Dance got beat up in a freak storm back in 2014, the damage was mainly in two areas. The worst damage was the deck rim and the rub rail, for which I described the repairs in Storm damage repairs. The collateral damage was the bottom paint, which also got hammered as you can see in the following picture. In some areas, the top layer of paint was knocked off and exposed an underlying layer of paint. In other areas, it was knocked off completely down to the fiberglass. It all needed fixed, so it was included in the insurance claim that I submitted. Our insurance company promptly paid the claim so that meant that I wouldn’t have to do all the work!

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Electrical26 Comments

How to Completely Rewire Your Sailboat

$tingy Sailor

It’s an enduring truth that appearances can be deceiving, especially with electrical systems. When I inspected Summer Dance before buying her, the electrical system looked like one of the boat’s strong suits. It had an upgraded panel and a new battery. The wiring was all original except for spliced connections to the panel. There weren’t any added accessories so the system was simple and I expected it to be relatively problem-free. Granted, I’m no marine surveyor and if I had ordered a survey, it would have caught many of the problems that I later discovered.

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Rigging18 Comments

Single Line Jiffy Reefing Made Easy

$tingy Sailor

Your ability to reef your mainsail is one of the most important sailing skills that you can learn. Your reefing rigging plays an important part in that. You can do it with just a few short lengths of rope but it will be more time consuming and difficult than it needs to be. That method is not very safe to use during the weather conditions when you’re most likely to need to reef. Having a system of reefing lines in place and ready to use at any time increases your ability to reef smoothly and efficiently (in a jiffy) when conditions warrant it, particularly if you sail single-handed.

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