Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

Genoa Sleeve Cover Repair This season sail cleaning and canvas repairs are the order of business. A few years back I sewed this Sailrite Sleeve for my foresails and I really like it a lot. It might not be as convenient as a roller furler with a UV guard on the leach of the sail but I can get a better sail shape when underway and think that it is totally worth the extra work of putting the sleeve up and down. Mid-season one of my webbings broke free of its stitching at the time it was not a bit deal but I decided now that the cover is off for the year and home for the winter it would be a good time to do a little repair job. I grabbed out a few tools and got down to it.  The hardest part of this job was finding the end of my thread. Stuffed in a box for the last year it was a bit tangled up.  Once that was done I used my speed stitcher to sew the webbing back on. Note I'm really not great with this tool but at this point, I really want to get better so instead of going back into the

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 complement as we sailed passed. Then a few minutes later we went to take the s

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-contained hal