Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

We could not have asked for a better day for a shakedown. We set off to Lake Michigan in the early afternoon to a smooth lake and winds between 5 and 10 knots out of the north. We made several passes straight out and back. Trying out the new roller furler. Wow, I don't know why we didn't put one of these on our boats sooner.   Then we flew the asymmetric for a bit.  Video of a Tack Master of the Cleats.  Helm works. The Red Hot Challenge continues.  How long can you keep it on your tongue?  Lazy feet. Bow Watch Man An amazing first run for the season. Happy faces and all the new rigging and sail changes worked great. 

If you have been following along you know about our plans to install a roller furler aboard Woodstock, our Mirage 24. This process started last year when I purchased an old Schafer cable style furler. Unfortunately, I was not happy with the way it worked and felt it was unsafe. I mounted it inside of the forestay it rubbed up against the cable when furling and unfurling. So it simply did not work for my application.   I decided to go with the CDI FF4 furler. After looking at Harken, Schafer, and several other models it became clear that CDI has a great product at a fair price. It may not have all the bells and whistles some of the other systems have but they have a strong reputation and have been in business over 40 years, so parts should be available in the future. The flexible furler also appeals to me. Should I need to take the mast down there is a lot less chance of bending or breaking the foil components. One of the other big advantages of CDI is the self-cont...

The weather here is starting to warm up and people are starting to prep their boats for the season. There has been a lot of speculation about whether boats would be put in this year due to the Covid-19 outbreak or not. The boatyard has been pretty quiet up to the last week or so and boats are starting to go in.  Last season I had to go up the mast in the Bosen chair. Most of the people climbing masts don't recommend climbing wire halyards. The main halyard is actually in pretty rough shape so this season with the mast down I decided to replace it with an all rope halyard and eliminate the wire split. This will give me a lot of peace of mind for the next time I have to climb the mast. This Spring I am preparing for the conversion to roller furler. This required a rigging change for Woodstock's forestay. I needed to switch out the turnbuckle at the bottom and the top needed to have a toggle end. I picked up a new forestay at Rigging Only   Sometimes ...