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 future, I'll u

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 nice job cutting and sealing the edg

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 a clean straight cut sta