Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

  Market Place Score!  I picked this up a few weeks ago. An Asymmetric Spinnaker nice and yellow to match Woodstock's hull. I'm excited to fit this to the rig this Spring. While I already have one Asym this one is shaped a little differently and I'm hoping it will allow me to point a bit higher on those light-wind days. I might even need to run a second halyard up to that masthead and see if I can fly both of them at the same time LOL or do on-the-fly swaps. Regardless this is the season for bargain hunting. I've been lucky enough to pick this up as well as a bag of hardware so far this year. 

It is the end of December here in Michigan and we are experiencing 40 and 50-degree days. I'm starting to wonder if we even needed to pull out for the winter at this point. I'm sure the winter will get here soon enough. Hopefully, its late arrival doesn't me a late departure as well.  Usually, this time of year I am working on a sewing project of some sort but with the warm weather, I decided to push back canvas work and go down to work on the winches. The black tarp I use to cover Woodstock really helps to keep it warm inside on days like this. Here is a recap video no step-by-step but if you are working on your boat it is pretty easy to pop them apart clean them up and snap them back together. This Fall when winterizing my good old Evinrude I drained a lot of frothy oil out of the lower unit. I've known this has been coming for some time. Each year that lower unit lube looks a little worse at the end of the season.  So I also replaced all the seals and the water pump....

Over the past few years, I've started to gather quite a collection of cleaning supplies, polishing compounds, and waxes. Having a yellow boat has accelerated this collection. This being the third year with Woodstock I've had the opportunity to try three different polishing compounds head to head.  The first two years I used 3M Heavy oxidation remover followed up with their Finesse Polish. The first year I went over this with the 3M paste wax and the second I used Turtle Wax. I personally feel the Turtle Wax held up better and gave a nicer shine.  This spring I decided to give something else a try and ordered some Total Boat after watching Andy at Boatworks . If you have not seen his youtube channel you should check it out.  This is a two-part product as well Total Buff and Total Shine.  My father also came by this year and he has been using the Mcguires Products on his boats and camper. So we gave them a head-to-head comparison on the yellow hull. While the Mcguires ...

Sometimes refinishing is not the way to go. Our Mirage 24's teak handrails have been in pretty rough shape and I decided it was time to do something before I get a splinter in my hand. While they seem sturdy enough they are starting to crack and show their age I removed one and started to sand it but by the time I get it looking good, It will be pretty thin in some areas. It is time for them to go. One of the things about owning a boat is sometimes you can't just find the part you need right off the shelf.  I went down to Wolf's Marina and they had several of these grab handles in stock but none of them fit my boat so It's time to fabricate something.   For $15.00 I found this teak block in Wolf's scrap area. A crazy bargain for this bock. I was able to get my brother to rip it down on his table saw into pieces for me.     Next, I set up my belt sander and band saw and got to work. The pieces started taking shape pretty quickly.  To get the hand grip...

This past week has been super hot and there has been a significant lack of wind. Today we finally got a light breeze and Myles and I took the boat out. We were not exactly screaming along but made good time.  After a while, we decided to take a swim. BB meant us after work at the beach and I brought Woodstock back single-handed. There is some question as to whether it was a Mutiny of the Crew or a Marooning of the Crew Member. 😂

Over the last few weeks, we have been sailing at least once a week. We are really just starting to get the feel for Woodstock. We are also really just starting to organize and make things our own.        Using the leftover Sunbrella from the sail cover and a mesh laundry bag I did a little cutting and sewing to make a few stow bags for all the lines coming back to the cockpit.   I also made two new winch covers, the Self-tailing Winchards I installed last season increased the size of the winches heads so the old covers no longer fit. I used velcro wraps on the bottom to secure them.  I know a lot of people use elastic but with Covid-19 it can be hard to come by and I like the way these came out better.   Here are some weird people, you might see in the channel.          Asymmetric Spinnaker Day 2  We have loved this sail in light winds. On this run, we caught up with a cruising catamaran. They gave us a nice...

We set out to the lake again today.  It was a great time.  We are still getting a feel for the procedure in tacking.  Moving the traveler setting the genoa blocks, prepping the sheets, changing up the backstay tension. This boat has a lot going on compared to the Typhoon and we are loving every bit of it.   We spent our first night out in the anchorage after we returned.  This panorama of Lake Kalamazoo early in the morning show the tranquility before the channel gets busy. The new mosquito netting on the forward hatch and companionway worked great for our first night out on the hook. I attached both of these with industrial strength velcro. This velcro is supposed to hold up to 10lbs and work when it is wet, so I know the netting is not going to fly away in the wind. We even got the privacy curtain installed. Now the head can be used without flashing everyone on the boat. Again I used industrial velcro but at the top, I installed ...