yet another DS I grenie!

[Lil Maggie]

Spinnaker sheets: 3/16 works fine, no need to go to 1/4.

Hmmm...good point on that; and I understand the need for keeping the chute sheets as light as possible; however, I happen to have handy about 100 ft of 1/4" double braided line, which not only is easier on the hand but also easier to splice in brummell hooks. I can probably get hold of 3/16" line at around $.39/ft, but that would also involve making me a custom size fid for splicing it...maybe, but now between shelling out extra $$ for the new main , then the busted gooseneck have put a cramp on my "fun" budget for the year

And if it weren't for my plans of building a new foil CB this winter(from the Bob Hunkins post on Dave Misunas' board).....(as you can see, the speed bug has bitten me, and hard), let's see how much $$ it chews up off my budget....(I figured about $100.00), we'll see

cheers
Mike

[GreenLake]

Well, of course, anything to get going, but I guess you'll find out soon enough whether the 14/" will work for you or whether you'll add another future upgrade to your list.

[Lil Maggie]

What a difference 24 hrs make; last evening I did a little solo sailing on Long lake with barely enough wind to fill the sails and a top speed of 3.5-4 kts...on full sails (spinnaker included)...today, on Keoka lake we hit 8.2 kts on some puffs and were doing 6 kts sustained on just the mainsail with a reef...despite the craziness (wind shifts over 30 deg. and gusts to 25 kts), my wife still wants to go sailing with me...I think she's a masochist!

Cheers
Mike J

[Lil Maggie]

well Green lake, I tried the new 1/4" spinnaker sheets yesterday and they worked fine in 8-10 kts, with puffs up to 12 kts...I was single-handed and got the boat really cooking...even did a jibe by myself and put the boat on a 90 degree reach and really got moving....I saw the GPS flicker into the 7 kt range here and there and was doing a steady 6 kts for quite a while...exhilarating ride!

I think 3/16" line would have been fine too but try to find a fit in 3/16
" to splice in brummel hooks...

cheers
Mike J
pictures soon to follow

[GreenLake]

Look, I'm usually fine with "using what you got". My own jib-sheet is something that I had lying around and which is not particularly optimized for the purpose - but it had precisely the right lenght and fit inside all the blocks, so I took it, and haven't looked back. When it gives out in a few years, I probably won't replace it with the same stuff.

[Lil Maggie]

having not been able to go sailing the past two weeks (for various reasons)...I took the time for some tweaks to my boat/trailer; the first of which used to look like this:


now looks like this:


The idea came from this site and hopefully not only improve trailer light visibility, but also cut down on my launch prep time(yes, I could have rewired & left the lights on the trailer but have gotten tired of replacing trailer lights every couple years either due to corrosion or backing into an unseen rock...)

The next improvement was adding a length of HD shock cord to the foreguy (thanks Phill & Green lake) to provide some give to the spinnaker pole, especially during single-handed jibes


the last one, and most important, was on my reefing setup. I set up a jiffy reef on the leech side of the main and initially just took the cunningham line and pass it through the reef point on the luff; that ended up being very impractical and a royal PITA! Reading this site I found that someone (can't remember who) had installed a small tack hook with a 1/4-20 bolt through the horizontal clevis pin on the gooseneck..Thanks for the idea, now my setup loks like this:


hopefully I'll get a couple more trips this year
cheers
Mike J

[Lil Maggie]

Now that spring finally is here (in New England), getting back to the boat!

First, a dry launch on the driveway and a careen to inspect the bottom, centerboard and do some work on the trailer:








then the fun began; replacing trailer bunks for longer, better ones:





The old bunks were 5' long 2x4's on end; the new ones are 7' long 2x6's flat down. I realize I could have gone bigger but my trailer is tiny and pretty rusty in places...in fact, the bottom of the tongue looks suspicious, hence I don't want to sink tons of $$$ on it. The boat sits a little higher up now (7" off the x-member instead of 5") so I adjusted the keel rollers accordingly to give the CB a resting point...all good so far!

Can't wait to put her in now
Cheers!
MJ

[GreenLake]

Trailers are so simple, that I count them as infinitely repairable. Unlike a car, you can always weld in something to replace a piece that's rusted out. And unlike a car, there's usually enough strength in the sheet metal that you can scrape rust without coming out the other side. First thing I did when I got my trailer was to take it apart completely, scrape/sand off all the rust, and coated it with Hammerite. That lasted many many years including salt water use. I did have the springs replaced, because the old ones were so pitted that I didn't trust them any longer.

[charsmith]

Nice work! I too just picked up a baby blue '64 with some of the same issues but otherwise (I'm told) sailable. Ice is officially off the lakes as of last Saturday so I'm starting to get anxious to get out there!

Your aft mast brace which mounts on the rudder studs is brilliant! I think I'll have to do that.

How did you match the baby blue on the cuddy crack repair? Is that just paint or did you match it with gelcoat? I have a plethora of tiny cracks in the gelcoat in various locations on the boat...lots to learn!

[Lil Maggie]

I found a spray can of rustoleum of the same approx tone and used that..no time or $$ to redo gelcoat on the deck. Yes they are great little boats and the lads on this site have a ton of good tips and info to get you going
cheers
MJ

[Lil Maggie]

some recent sailing pictures of Lil Maggie:

[GreenLake]

Nice pictures.

But I can't help notice your fore-aft boat trim.

By sitting as far back as you do in those photos, your boat tilts up in front (you can see that one the waterline) - it looks a bit like one of those small powerboats. The result is that your transom is immersed, in other words, your boat squats. This has the effect that you are increasing the drag resistance through the water - the equivalence of sailing with a parking brake engaged.

Don't know whether you were aware, or whether you care, but I remember way back early in my sailing career somebody had to point that out to me. I found it hard to relate to, at first, because sitting inside the cockpit, it's not obvious, and you can't lean over the rear to see how far your transom dips in, because doing so would definitely submerge it.

In the picture where you are standing up, the trim looks much better.

[Lil Maggie]

Thanks for pointing that out, Green lake...however, I'm afraid that weighing 220 lb, it won't matter much where I sit, especially on that day where there was hardly any wind at all> I was sitting to leeward to help keep the sails drawing...an exercise in patience that day was! Despite the bad sitting position, on those occasional "puffs" I had the boat doing 3 knots with the chute up ....the previous week I was running that same leg at 7 kts

As always, thanks for the pointers
M

[jeadstx]

You would be suprised at how moving forward will help.

John

[Alan]

" I was sitting to leeward to help keep the sails drawing"

Hmmm. Ya know, I thought when I saw the photos that that's what was happening. I may get the hang of this sailing thing yet...