Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

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...

Getting ready for the Venitian festival fireworks we pulled out the cushions and sat back and relaxed.  Hammock up too.

This year I have decided to switch up not just my bottom paint but I'm starting to phase out the varnish for teak oil.  The varnish does a nice job but it tends to have some difficulties holding up on horizontal services and the toe rails.  The other problem I tend to run into with the varnish is the need to have several good warm days to apply it.  My plan is to have the boat in the water sometime in the next week and frankly we've only had a few days that would have been warm enough to varnish. This season, I have moved to a mixed medium; some areas varnish and some teak oil.  By next season I expect all of the wood work on the boat will be switched over.  I have been pleasantly surprised how well the two have worked in combination.  The teak oil color matches very well and two coats of oil bring the sheen right up to the same level of the remaining varnish. Starting sanding of the rails. Nicely scuffed up peeling and flaking removed. Ho...