Organize, repair, repeat

It’s a beautiful sunny morning in Portland, so I will take some time to organize my thoughts before I start to organize things on the boat and continue with small repairs here and there.

Sasha and I went through all the big storage compartments, but we left the scary small cabinet with lots of kitchen-related stuff untouched. That’s going to be tackled today. Yesterday I went through another scary compartment where pots and pans are stored. Turns out there were things there that we haven’t used ever, and yet they take space. Out went the large pot: its bottom rusted away. Then a baking tray with so much rust that it would be an archeological find were it not covered with Teflon too. The two drawers with kitchen utensils were emptied, washed and dried.

Of course, that’s not the only thing going on in the saloon of the boat: I need to combine 3 medical kits into one, there are propane bottles that need a home where they won’t rust, not all the tools are stowed either cause there are other projects in progress. Therefore, yes the boat looks beyond “artistically” messy.

Sail modification

The major project that I completed yesterday was to shorten the new foresail. When I was halfway through it, the sailmaker confirmed that my intent to shorten the head is the best course of action, so that gave me a bit more confidence that I was doing the right thing.

The yard manager allowed me to use a large room where I could lay out the sail, which was very nice. He also allowed me to use the sewing machine, which was a huge time saver.

Step one, lay out the sail and examine how it looks in the finished state.

Step 2, undo the stitching to see how it is made.

Step 3: cut off 30cm. Here I made a small mistake: I should have kept the sailcloth that ultimately covers the very top a bit longer to avoid adding a patch. (Yes, Frank is right that I hurry too much. But only sometimes.)

Step 4: finish the top and resew the loop with which the sail will be attached to the halyard.

Step 4.5: walk over to a Vietnamese place for lunch and see France score the only goal against Belgium. Back to work.

Step 5: sew the strap to the other side of the sail. I deliberately sent it to the leech (back side of the sail) so that it would take the load from the leech line that can be used to prevent the sail from flapping under certain conditions.

Step 6: cover the sailcloth with the UV-resistant fabric. This is the first time I used this superpowerful sewing machine, so I couldn’t get get it to work well when the total thickness got too big, so a few stitches I finished by hand.

Step 7: add 3 reinforcing stitches, sort of matching what the sailmaker had. It’s not the prettiest sewing job, but it will hold. We’ll see how the leech behaves now that its top is somewhat compromised.

Step 8: grab a beer and enjoy the view of the Casco Bay!

The head of the sail looks rather dirty. The primary reason for it is the fact that the double sided tape was used by the sailmaker to connect the panels before sewing them. When I removed the stitching, the sticky residue from the tape attracted all the dirt in the room. It’ll get washed by rain and eventually by humans.

The hoisted sail is about 10 cm away from the sheave on the mast, so perhaps I shortened it a bit too much. At the same time, there will be some stretch over the sail’s lifetime, so overall it should be fine.

The missing Bimini

Unfortunately the cockpit cover is lost forever, so we will have to start the voyage without it. Now the question is how much of a temporary thing can I whip up before we take off. I found an old tent on the boat. It seems like it can be modified to give us shelter until the new one gets sewn together. Something like this.