Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

In and ready to start another great season here on Lake Michigan!

This boat is a 1976 Mirage over the years it has had three previous owners making me the 4th. Today I'm starting the work of rigging her.  Each owner surely brought their own ideas and flare to modifying and improving the rigging and today I am puzzling together what goes where and how. I started by tuning in the mast.  I'm not sure exactly what the tensions numbers are supposed to be on a Mirage 24.  After scouring the internet the best I could come up with were tension numbers for a C&C 25. So I started slightly below those numbers for tuning and straightening the mast. After a little turnbuckle tweaking, I was satisfied with the mast column and the ease of it all.  The adjustable backstay in another super nice addition to this boat, I've missed from my previous boats.  Next, I moved to the foredeck.  The last owner had used the boat in a few races with his grandson although I think they were racing J.A.M.  He made some modifications over the winter to t

Mother Nature has really been playing some tricks this week.  We have had a ton of rain and very patchy sun.  Thursday after work and between the Thunder Storms we stepped the mast for the 1st time on this boat.  About halfway up I noticed one of the running rigging blocks mounted to the mast step had flipped itself over and was under the mast after a few seconds I was able to free it and we were able to finish getting the mast up the rest of the way.  Myles our videographer on this and BB with the editing.   Regardless we got the mast us and secured just in time for it to start raining.  As we left the marina drops started landing on our windshield once more. I will have to spend some time tuning in the rig and getting all the running rigging on later this weekend.  

The clock is ticking with just 6 days left until our scheduled launch it is time to break out the respirator and bottom paint materials.  Today we had ideal weather for painting. The temperature was in the low 60's. So it was warm enough to paint comfortably but not so hat the paint evaporates of your brush.   Gloves, paint sticks, respirator, and grimy clothes.  I start the bottom by cutting in the water line with a paint brush.  I use the disposable foam brushes because nothing I dip in VC-17 is coming home.  Then I roll on the first coat of paint.   Two coats later and two hours I have a nice sleek copper bottom. 

The most stressful part is over.  After planning packing and preparing the boat to be moved it is over.  The boat arrived today around noon and I got right to work on it.  No time to waste as the launch date is 9 days out.  The boat is heavily oxidized so I started with washing it and then hit it with 3M Super Duty Compound.      After the first half of the hull, was done I stopped to take a break and it took me a good 5 minutes to find those safety glasses.  Yeah, the ones on top of my head.    Zoomed in here you can see the difference.  Left size compounding complete, right side still looks like a powdered doughnut. Sunday we picked up where we left off and I ran over the entire hull again with 3M Fitness Polish. This is a fine polishing compound that really brings out the shine.    #Bestwife ever came down on mothers day and helped out by painting the cove line. Then we put on a coat of wax to seal in all that polish and painting.

This weekend I finalized the transaction on our new boat a Mirage 24! This boat is a Canadia Sailboat Hall of Fame boat, designed by Cuthbertson & Cassian ( C&C yachts ).  This is the boat I went to look at back in January when it was 14 degrees out and blizzarding.  It was snowing so hard we actually stayed at a hotel instead of coming home that night.  These boats are built with amazing quality and care.  While not as weighty as the Cape Dory"s neither of the Mirages I looked at were decaying from core rot that seems to plaque so many other boats of the time period.   This particular Mirage is the Tall Rig version. Which set it ahead of the other Mirage I looked at off the bat.  The Tall rig has a slightly taller mast equating to a bit more speed.  Not that we are planning on racing but some times a bit more speed can help us cruisers  get to our destinations a little sooner and can help us duck incoming poor weather.  Overall the boat is in good condition, structu

Some people were surprised that I sold our Typhoon. Truth is, the Typhoon is a great boat but it was time to move on.  We simply want to be able to make some slightly longer passages have a bit more room for overnight camping and the Typhoon just was too small to do those things with.  For some time, I have been looking over the horizon and creating a list of cool boats.  Here it is.  Note: you will not find a boat over 25 feet on my list.  The annual dock costs double for any boat here over 25 ft.  So, while there are a lot of great boats over 25 ft long, financial costs have to be considered. The Classics:   Albergs, and Hershoff's Herrshoff Eagle  22  is one of my favorite boats.  A great classic look, that topsail in just too cool.  The killers here are the cabin size is to small for our family weekending purposes and the desire to stay away from any mechanical swing keel boat as we plan on doing more Lake Michigan coastal sailing trips.  Cape Cod Marlin