Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

I am working towards installing a roller furler on Woodstock this spring.  To this end, I decided to convert my Tri-Radial cut Mylar Genoa. While this sail is getting up there in age I feel pretty confident that I can get another season or two out of it before needing to replace it. This is a pretty complicated process as it involves your boat's specific measurements and I can't say enough about the support from Sailrite on this project.  Sailrite's Jeff Franks has a great video on how to do the conversion step by step. I highly recommend watching it here:   https://youtu.be/8AY9c28aicA   The team at Sailrite even got me in touch with Jeff via email to answer a few specific questions I had. Many people want to know about my set up. Specifically my sewing machine So I'll start there. I am using an older Sears/Kenmore sewing machine. It is a pretty strong machine but has its limitations as you will see later on in this post.  Perhaps someday in the futur...

As winter's go this year we have had it pretty light here along the West Coast of Lake Michigan.  So far I've only really needed to clear the driveway 3 times.  However last weekend we finally did get some accumulation.  Once I got the house and driveway squared away I headed down to the marina to see how the boat faired.  Not so bad the cover is holding up well and the deck is dry.  I can't ask for much more.  I decided to brush it off anyways.  With the mast down I'm trying to keep the weight off as much as possible.  I know Spring is just around the corner.  

Preventative Maintenance Water Pump Impeller  This weekend we have had some unseasonably warm weather. I took the opportunity to do some much-needed maintenance on the iron genny. I'm not sure when the impeller what changed last but it was clearly overdue.   Slimy and gross.  It took me about an hour and a half but I got it all cleaned up and reassembled.

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 ni...

When taking the mast down for the season I removed the gooseneck slide from the mast. In doing so I split the solder job someone had done on it previously at the thumbscrew.  Given the condition of the part, I figured it was time to just replace it.  After looking around a few local places I ended up calling Rig-Rite. They shipped me one but it turned out to be the wrong size. I ended up shipping it back to them after talking with New Holland Marine Products in Canada. They told me they had the correct part. So I was relieved. Rig Rite had quoted me $300 for a custom-built replacement. Turns out New Holland didn't have the correct part either but it was a lot less expensive than the one Rig Rite sent me so I decided to modify the part myself.   The first step was to gather the tools and parts I need; saws, marker, bronze bushings etc.  Then I transferred my measurements to the new part.  I started sawing with my hack saw simply to get...