Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

  Another great project from Sailrite.  This is one of the more complicated projects I've done.  There is a little cutting, long sewing runs, and a bunch of hardware.  Sailrite has moved to a paperless model so study up on the  You Tube video first. Sailrite service is super.  On this project we had a miscommunication about the color of the fabric and Sailrite's service stepped right up and fixed it.   Measuring is the first step. There are two ways the fabric can be laid out depending on the diameter of the rolled furler. After the measuring it is time to get out the hot knife and cut. Sew Sew some more. Bam UV protection for your fore sail without a bulky cover on the edge of your sails.   Video Montage 1 Installed video.

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

Santa Clause was good to Woodstock this year. He brought me a new Sail Rite mainsail cover kit and some luff tape for a roller furler conversion.  After some debating back and forth on whether or not to just order the fabric, parts, and pieces I decided to go with the kit for the cover.  First I thought I would just make a copy of the cover I currently have but by the time I added it all up the kit was only a few dollars more and offered pre-laid out directions and patterns.  The first step is to layout the material. I went with Sunbrella silver to match the bimini I installed this summer.   Sail Rite  marks all the lines you need to cut right out for you on the fabric.  I lay a cutting board underneath so as not to mark up the floors. Then it is pretty simple to just follow the pre-laid outlines with a hot knife. My hot knife is not a $150 specialty tool. It is a harbor freight job that doubles as a wood burner. It does a really nice job cutting and sealing the edg