Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

Some quick photos of the first coat of primer and a little more putty to smooth out the rough spots.

This is what it looks like outside here today.  Brr.   I stopped down and checked on Kraken Friday she remains warm and cozy under her tarp.  So with weather like this it's back to the half hull.  Here are a few photos of the progress. Hull lay up. Hull fairing.   Top view.  Cut out and deck glued on and cabin top placed.  This is about it for now.  I have a bit more faring to do on the hull before I paint it up and mount it. 

So I have decided to start the half hull project.  The boom tent is still in the back of my head.  I just keep thinking I will need to get on and off the boat to take a few more measurements as I sew that up and with it under the winter cover that could be tricky. In the mean time the half hull is a good thing to play with troughout the on coming winter months.  ... Wonder if winter will ever get here it's looking like a green Christmas. Here I am starting to lay out the chines.  The line drawings came from Todd Dunn link here .  Upon getting all the chines laid out I scored them all out with a utility knife and razor blade. I used my dremel to rough cut out the chines and I'll go back with a sanding bit to form them up later.   Myles needed something to do so we decided to pull apart my old Dumas Gee Gee sailing sloop.  This is an old pond yacht. My uncle and I built when I was a kid.  My brothers and I spent many summers swimming across la

One little thing that bothers me is finding water in my winches after it rains.  I decided it was high time I sewed up some winch covers.  This little project took very little time once I sat down and got it started.  The tape measure made several trips back and forth to the marina in the bottom of the cooler before I used it to measure the winches.   The winch is three and a quarter inches tall so I started by making the sides up.  This gets sewed to the round top piece. Turns out a Bush's bean can is the perfect circumference.  I put the cover on the can to pin up so I'd get a nice tight finish. Completed i turned it right side out and it looks like this is finished. I left the elastic extra long to tie under the winch mounting brackets. There we are. Nice, cozy and dry winches tucked in under their covers. The long elastic ties under so the wind does not take them away. 

Well the time of season has come.  We are past the wind swept spring and moving into true summer sailing.  This week I swapped out my main sail.  I'm running all Sail Rite sails this week.  These sails are the newest on my boat and look sharp and crisp as they fly in the air.  The previous owner sewed up the main sail and I sewed up the jib.  Together they look really sharp.  We sailed for about 4 hours this Thursday I had to drag Myles back in.  He has this new thing he wants to sail at night.  I think he just wants to stay up past bed time but I think I'll be humoring his request soon.   As a side note all my Android Educational Apps are Free on Amazon this week to celebrate the release of my new app Sight Word Football! So if you know a teacher or have a child learning to read check it out here. http:// tinyurl.com/kss7l3n  

Here we go Fourth of July and we are at Tower Marine again.  Really you just can't find a better place to watch the fireworks.  We have tried.  We started off the evening with a little grilling.  Hot dogs, chips ketchup and oh yeah Jones Blue Bubble gum soda that stuff is he best.   Next we sailed for a couple of hours out on Lake Kalamazoo.  Looking around for the fire works barge. We never saw it until later that evening when it floated out to the middle of the lake.   We followed this up with a trip to the play ground,  We decided it was to cold to swim this evening so we went back to the boat to do some fishing.   We are the worst fishermen ever.  We never catch a thing.  Next we fed the ducks.  Then our friends started arriving.  The fireworks where spectacular.     

 We have had a few good days of sun.  BB is pretty sun burnt so she volunteered to stay ashore with Myles and take a few photos today.  Enjoy these shot of Kraken under sail. TY Cape Dory 150 Genoa Typhoon Sailing Genoa Down Sock Up.  Ghost ship.   Spinnaker Set Sled Ride Down Wind Close up

It has been blowing here all night shortly after yesterday's post I went and raked the snow off the tarp.  This may have been a big mistake.  This morning it appears that the wind has shredded the front half of my cover.  I'll have to get another tarp here in the next few days and brush off the deck right now no one is going anywhere.  The county, schools, colleges, even the local pizza joint is closed.  The main part of the blizzard is past but now we are in for some serious lake effect snow and wicked cold days. Hopefully these winds will settle down soon the snow drifts are growing pretty quick out there.  Good luck all and stay warm.  Just for fun here's a link to a Saugatuck Harbor web cam.