Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

So it snowed here again Wednesday.  Nothing stuck and hopefully it will be the last time for the year.  The orchards in the area are looking like they are getting ready to bloom soon and a hard frost canbe devastating in this area for the farmers.    Regardless, it is still cold here this Saturday morning and the boat yard was pretty quiet until afternoon.  I ran into one guy who came over from Chicago to work on his boat.  Our marina has a lot of boat owners from out of state due to the high cost of keeping a boat in the city.  He said he is hoping tomorrow it will get warm enough for him to do his bottom paint.  If the forecast is right he just might get lucky before he has to head back to the city.   The cold weather isn't going to interfere with any of my plans for the day. I  started by cleaning the teak in preparation for varnishing.  This time I used Meguiare's teak cleaner.  It came with a pour out bottle top but I switched it out with a sprayer top.  This made cleaning

So this Saturday I started some varnish maintance.  It has been three years since I've done anything to the toe rails. I think, at most, I put two coats of varnish on them to begin with. So, it is no surprise they have started to break down.  The drop boards, and combing boards look great.  Plenty of maintance coats on those pieces so I won't mess with them.  Looking around online I read the best way to pull the old varnish up is to use a heat gun.  It worked great the varnish scraped right off with minimal damage to the teak underneath.  I'll go over it with some teak cleaner and try to get some varnish back on them before launch the launch date.   Today, Wednesday it is snowing.  Have to laugh sunburn and frost bite in the same week.  Hope it warms back up before the weekend.

So last weekend I headed down to put a coat of bottom paint on Kraken.  I knew I did not have enough paint to finish the job and figured I'd stop for lunch and pick up a quart on the way back.  After searching West Marine's shelves and finding nothing, I got some help and found out the nearest quart was in Washington.  They would have to order it in for me.  Kraken sat for the week with three quarters of the bottom painted. It looked kinda silly. This weekend,  I am on a winning streak,  just like the Detroit Tigers.  I picked up the paint this morning and even made it into Randy's West Shore Boat Repairs.  Randy's shop is tucked away I the back side of Douglas. It is a friendly place.  It also happens to be one of the only places I know that carries the spark plug I need for my Mercury 2.5hp in stock.  I've also dealt with him a few other times when rebuilding my British Sea Gull.  An over all great place to get weird parts and pieces.  I found out today they also

Here is an old pic. for throw back Thursday.

Well I packed up and headed for the marina this afternoon.  I spent the morning running around town gathering cleaners and buffing pads.  When I left it was 19 degrees.  By lunch time the temperature had broke freezing we are at about 34. Figured I'd get a jump on cleaning the hull.  After getting to the marina and untarping the boat, I went to get water.  The marina understandably has not turned it on yet but I was hoping.  So plan B work on the boom tent.   I started by sizing the tent poles and clipping them to size. Then I spread the canvas over the boom just to get a look at things.  The final plan the canvas will be below the boom and it will be a free standing structure. Here is a view from the inside.  After a few minutes it started to get warm inside.  Which confirms my suspicions.  This tent will need some screening for ventilation especially once summer arrives.  I even got a chance to test out the water proofing.  The canvas beads up really nicely. Back to the sewing ma

Someone asked the other day what I sew with.  So, I figured, why not walk you through my set up.  This is what I use: a Singer Stylist.  It is not as strong as my old Singer and it makes a cute little beep beep noise when it hits something too hard. I'd buy something a bit tougher next time or an old machine again but it works for most everything I do. One of the things I particularly like is the clear bobbin window. This helps with really long runs as you can peek under your cloth and plan when you will need to reload. I t also has a ton of cool stitch patterns. For my set up I have this old thread reel I use as a spacer.   Then the sailing thread reel goes on top.   I'm sure the professional seamstresses and sail makers are cringing at this but it works. From here on out I thread the machine as normal. Laying out the material for measuring uses most of the house.  Yeah to open floor plans. I did my cutting with a hot knife after marking it out with chalk.  The dimmond pattern

So,  it has arrived.  The material for building the boom tent. This stuff is looking really neat.  It is a rip stop nylon, bright and blue.  It has a real interesting waxy coated feeling to it. I'm sure it will repel water.  This is going to be an interesting one once I get it going.  For those wondering where I picked up this fine material, look no further than ebay.