Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

As we move from beer can racer to weekend cruiser there are a few things we are working to add to the boat. First off we are looking to fill out the galley. The boat is equipped with a sink and water tank.  So our thoughts are we need is a way to make some coffee. So I picked up this sweet german made alcohol stove. Off course it needs a little work. I pulled it apart and replaced all the o-rings and seal.  An afternoon well spent to ensure a safe working stove. Frame Cleaned up. Many of the seals were pretty hard and dried out from sitting. Packings for the valves were the trickiest part. Time for re-assembly.  One burner is a go. Flame on two burners. Hot coffee in 10 minutes or less. Yeah, alcohol burns hot.

So the P.O. of our Mirage was using it for club racing with his grandson on Lake St. Claire. Fun but we are planning a bit more relaxed sailing and have started making some modifications to allow for more extended weekending trips.   One of the first things I needed to do was sort out the mast lighting system. Coming down the mast he had two sets of wires run. The first set ran the masthead anchor light and the second set the steaming light. Coming through the deck there is only one port to be plugged into and the plug only matches the steaming light. So the anchor light simply had no place to go unless you hooked wires to in and stuffed them down the plug. This did not seem like a good long term solution. So it is time to get creative. I called my brother up, the electrical engineer and told him what I wanted. He sourced out the parts for me on Amazon and drew out a wiring diagram for me. I got to work wiring it up.  The results are a waterproofed 3-way switch lo...

Last weekend we headed out with my parents for our second trip on our new to us 1976 Mirage. The winds were blowing from the east and most everyone out on the lake had their furlers reefed in. We sailed under main only and hit a new speed record of 6.4 knots.  This boat just zips along.  I need to get the reefing lines sorted out and figure out how they are all supposed to run. Something is telling me that with this tall rig mast I'm going to need to be reefing more often. Here are some great pictures from the day.  Wild blue yonder.  Myles was not too happy at the start of the trip.  This was his first experience with this boat heeling over and he was struggling with where to hold on.  As the day went on and he got more comfortable things improved.  Crewing today my Mom and Dad just back from their first retirement RV trip.  The return trip up the channel is great fun. 

Sunday morning we made it down to the marina in time for the club's annual meeting and blessing of the fleet.  Upon our arrival, we were met with some beautiful blue skies. The skies, however, changed pretty quickly and we spent most of the day playing around in the cabin waiting out the storms. This was a good thing because the Coast Guard Auxiliary was doing safety inspections.  The officer was very helpful.  He suggested I check into the fire extinguisher, apparently several of the Kidde ones have been recalled.  Turns out our's has not been but it was an easy thing to check. We passed our safety inspection without a hitch. These safety inspections are a good thing to go through especially with a new boat.  It helps you work through and make sure you have not forgotten anything important. BB ran into town while we were waiting on the weather and Myles and I had our first lunch aboard.   Finally, our patience paid off...

In and ready to start another great season here on Lake Michigan!

This boat is a 1976 Mirage over the years it has had three previous owners making me the 4th. Today I'm starting the work of rigging her.  Each owner surely brought their own ideas and flare to modifying and improving the rigging and today I am puzzling together what goes where and how. I started by tuning in the mast.  I'm not sure exactly what the tensions numbers are supposed to be on a Mirage 24.  After scouring the internet the best I could come up with were tension numbers for a C&C 25. So I started slightly below those numbers for tuning and straightening the mast. After a little turnbuckle tweaking, I was satisfied with the mast column and the ease of it all.  The adjustable backstay in another super nice addition to this boat, I've missed from my previous boats.  Next, I moved to the foredeck.  The last owner had used the boat in a few races with his grandson although I think they were racing J.A.M.  He made some modification...

Mother Nature has really been playing some tricks this week.  We have had a ton of rain and very patchy sun.  Thursday after work and between the Thunder Storms we stepped the mast for the 1st time on this boat.  About halfway up I noticed one of the running rigging blocks mounted to the mast step had flipped itself over and was under the mast after a few seconds I was able to free it and we were able to finish getting the mast up the rest of the way.  Myles our videographer on this and BB with the editing.   Regardless we got the mast us and secured just in time for it to start raining.  As we left the marina drops started landing on our windshield once more. I will have to spend some time tuning in the rig and getting all the running rigging on later this weekend.