This is one of those little things that I did on a whim and I didn’t think would last. But it has turned out to be so handy that I’d miss it if it were gone.
Continue reading “Add a Solar-Powered Flood Light in Your Cockpit”
This post is the continuation of Refinish your swing keel for best performance – Part 4: Sealing and painting and the last post in the series. I describe: how to prepare the hull, tips for keeping the keel centered in the trunk, the proper method to tighten the hanger bolts, and end with a materials list and a brief project cost analysis.
Continue reading “Refinish Your Swing Keel for Best Performance – Part 5: Installing”
This post is the continuation of Refinish your swing keel for best performance – Part 3: Fairing. I will describe: building a fiberglass reinforced guard on the leading edge, applying the final waterproofing coats of epoxy, bonding centering spacers on the upper end, priming with a barrier coat of epoxy paint, and applying ablative bottom paint last.
Continue reading “Refinish Your Swing Keel for Best Performance – Part 4: Sealing and Painting”
This post is the continuation of Refinish Your Swing Keel for Best Performance – Part 2: Cleaning. I will describe common keel defects, the fairing system I used, sealing a freshly sandblasted keel, applying body filler to build up an accurate hydrodynamic foil shape, and paying extra attention to the shape of the leading edge of the keel.
Continue reading “Refinish Your Swing Keel for Best Performance – Part 3: Fairing”
This post is the continuation of Refinish Your Swing Keel for Best Performance – Part 1: Removing. This week, I describe using hand tools and power tools to remove most of the old coatings and rust, one way to lift and move the keel so you can work on it elsewhere, and the different methods of removing the remaining rust either chemically or by sandblasting to prepare it for fairing. Fairing is the process of making the keel fair, meaning the right shape, smooth, and pretty.
Continue reading “Refinish Your Swing Keel for Best Performance – Part 2: Cleaning”
No matter how well organized your gear is in your lazarettes, it doesn’t help you to hold the lazarette lids open while you dig that gear out. It’s not so bad with small items like a hank of rope or a fender but larger items that take two hands like a BBQ grill or an outboard fuel tank will leave you one hand short.
“Double your pleasure, double your fun” used to be the Doublemint gum slogan because of its double strength mint flavoring. You can double the utility of your main sheet by upgrading it to double ends. What you already have, a working end at the fiddle block that attaches to the traveler stays as it is and you can continue to use it from the rear of the cockpit. But instead of the opposite end of the sheet terminating at a becket at the boom block, it continues forward along the boom to a swivel block with a cam cleat over the front of the cockpit. This allows you or another crew member to also trim the main sheet from a forward seating position.
Continue reading “Upgrade Your Main Sheet to Double Ends”
Do you know how to reef your mainsail when the wind gets overpowering? If not, you really should learn how. If you already know, is your sailboat rigged so that you can reef and unreef quickly in high winds while underway? If not, besides a jiffy reefing line like I describe in my single line jiffy reefing article, you’re going to want to install mast gates of some kind.
I won’t get into all the nuances of reefing in this post. There are many other excellent resources for that. For a condensed, illustrated description along with many other sailing techniques, consider reading my review of Royce’s Sailing Illustrated Volume 1: Tall Ship Edition.
Continue reading “Product Review: MastGates Sail Track Gates”
Catalina Yachts was a true innovator when they introduced the Catalina 22 back in 1969. Perhaps the most iconic feature was the optional pop top, which gives much-needed headroom inside the cabin. Extended stops and anchoring out overnight are much easier when you can stand upright in the cabin. In hot climates, the extra ventilation can’t be beat. The pop top turns the C-22 from a daysailer into a more comfortable cruiser. With the addition of the optional snap-on, vinyl curtain, the cabin becomes a weatherproof and insect resistant camper.
The $tingy Sailor 