Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

After a week of nearly 60 degree weather the plan for today was to go pull the cover off Kraken Up.  Then Mother Nature gave us a curve ball.  35 knot winds with one and a half inches of snow.  So instead of removing the cover we just brushed the snow of again.  Hopefully it will warm back up this week. 

Time for the hand sewing.  This is the stitch by stitch stuff that adds real strength to the pressure points on the sail.  For this, sailrite has sent along wax coated Dacron thread and a sail makers needle.  The needle is like a tiny bayonet.  Three sides and super sharp, poking yourself and you're sure to bleed a bit. I use a few other tools when doing this. One of them, is my trusty sewing awl.  This is a must have in my opinion.  I'm sure you could get by with a regular awl, but this thing makes punching through finishing leather, nylon strapping and six layers of Dacron a bit easier.   I didn't bend the needle,  it came curved.  I suspect this little curve adds some strength or at least takes direct pressure off the shaft of the needle as you jam it into something hard. This is a thick brass thimble.  Last sail I made I punched right through a little tin one and into my hand. I'm not making that mistake again....

DN 241  Kraken ICE! There has been a break here in the sewing action on the Genoa for some sailing.  Yes the ice the weather, the work schedule all fell into place here for the perfect sailing weekend. Wow and did we sail about 6 hours out on the ice between Saturday and Sunday.  My brother and I zipped up and down the lake and 40+MPH trading boats back and forth from time to time. If you have never ice boated before it is a wholly different experience than soft water sailing.  First off you're going fast, you defiantly don't want to flip so your a little more likely to ease off the sheet line sooner, and the ride can be a bit more chattery although, the ice today was in very good condition.  That said I'm a bit sore after two days of sailing.  We sailed two different kinds of boats this weekend, my DN  and my Dad's Skimmer.  The DN is clearly the dominate speed boat in this pair off but the Skimmer has a much more cushioned ride which...

I've been chugging away on the Genoa project bit by bit here.  So I'm throwing up some more photos of the project. Corner reinforcement patches. Equal lots of layers. I use my basting tape sparingly, placing it so it is some what off center.  This way I will not have to sew through it.  I figure 4 or five layers of tape could really add up and I don't need any more layers to sew through.  Each corner's vertex is six layers of Dacron thick.  Once I got all the layers on, I drew some light lines on the top patch so I could see where to sew.  This will secure the whole patch. The clew is one of the most complicated assembly's.  To start, I cut and melt the nylon strapping to the right size. The clew will have a steel ring embedded into the corner.  The first step is to cut out a space for the ring.  I recommend sharp scissors.  See earlier (6 layers). It actually cuts pretty easily. The next thing I do is lay out my straps and bast them int...

Today, I started sewing up a new Genoa for Kraken .  This summer, I patched and taped the old Genoa several times.  It is ripping down the luff seam, the foot seam and it is pretty thin in several other spots so it is well past time for the old sail to be retired.  I believe the Genoa may have come with the boat in 1978.  Happy birthday to me and the boat; at 38 years, we are the same age.   This is my second sailrite sail. A few years ago, I built a working jib. Here's a link to that project.  The previous owner built a main and a storm.  So this will fill out the sail inventory with all sailrite sails.   Over the last few weeks I've been working on getting a sewing machine fixed and tuned up.  It has been interesting as I have pulled apart and checked the timing on my machine. I even made a few modifications to beef it up a bit and allow for some extra clearance at the base plate.  Friday the kit from sailrite arrived! This wa...