2013 The First Year of our New Life

Or at least with any luck! It is difficult for us to go cruising when we still own the house. Its not impossible, but its uncomfortable for us personally. So if the house doesn't sell, we'll not likely go cruising this year.

Please someone, buy my house...

You never know though. We seem to change our minds like most people change their underwear, and why the hell not! We don't have any real responsibilities left, other than to each other. Our baby boy will be 20 years old tomorrow, and although our kids still need us once in a while, they are way past us having to keep tabs on them, or reminding them to brush their teeth. Our parents are still able to look after themselves, and we have other siblings they can lean on should the need arise. We were parents at 18&19, and missed all those irresponsible young years, so we are taking advantage of being younger empty nestors, and living a little more flippant lifestyle now.

Xmas was good, but I am glad that it is over. Its nice to see everyone, nice to give gifts, and nice to receive them. But it gets overwhelming quickly, and if you are like us, you overindulged in good food and good drink which although nice going down, made you sick for 3 days. Thank god I am back on my regular diet. But more importantly now that the hustle-bustle is over with, I can get back to boat stuff.

Yesterday was day one, and it was a good day. My Dad is layed up with a recently "modified" right foot. He can't walk on it, and has started to go crazy laying around on the couch, so I invited him over to help me out in the shop. He is a little limited on what he can do, but he thoroughly cleaned a couple winches and provided me a lot of advice while I plodded along.

I was surprised to find that the original Lewmar 7 winches that came with the boat, have no bearings. Apparently they were their CT series (Composite Technology-some type of fibre reinforced plastic, like marelon), and since they no longer make them, I have to assume that it wasn't their best idea. However, the winches still work good, and they will stay on the boat until that changes. I have to say though, that they work so much better after cleaning. It seems that whoever lubricated them last didn't know that you are not supposed to put grease on the pawls or springs. Of course, neither did I until I looked at the maintenance manual this morning. Live and learn.

I worked on the new boom, adding a small Barlow winch that came with the mast extrusion I bought to make the new boom. I added 3 aluminum cleats, also from the mast, to tie the clew outhaul and the three reef clews.

 I installed an exit plate for the clew outhaul, as that line will go through the boom. The reefing lines will go on the outside of the boom guided by eye straps. But I won't worry about them until I get the sail up and see exactly where to mount the check blocks etc...

 And lastly I notched out the mast end of the new boom to allow the boltrope on the foot of the main to easily slide into the boom track. I'll finish the end plates after I get some other materials.

I spent an pathetically long time making the jig(below). Looks simple, I know, but it needed to be perfect. And since this was another one of those, "I've never done this before", projects, I figure it was worth the 2 hrs it took. I had been holding off on this one because I was nervous about it, so I am really glad it is done.

And now we have handles on the doors to the fridge. 

 Serena wanted these larger handles because the little ring pulls allow only one finger to lift the lid. And these lids are very heavy. So relieved to have this done, and it worked.....

You can tell by the pic of the sacrificial plywood below, that I needed to route out wood at two different levels to accommodate the recessed handle, one using the jig, the other, deeper area freehand.

 And, I finally put the cockpit table together. I can't even remember when I made this, it was a while ago. I could look back in the blog, but that's more effort than it deserves. I never finished it before because with the boat in such a mess I didn't want it to get destroyed. Although it doesn't matter too much. This is more of a temporary setup. We don't know what we really want for a cockpit table, so I made this to try for awhile. Then when I make the next one it will be what we want.

 All folds up nice against the binnacle support frame.

It may not seem like a lot, but it was several hours work, and big progress for me. Tomorrow I hope to get into cabinetry. Or at least start it. I still need to make sure I get my ducks in a row for the Toronto Boat Show in a little over a week. 3 days at the show will fly by, and we need to have an attack plan, otherwise we get lost in boat candy land. Schedule, seminars, location of important manufactures, shopping list, gear research lists. Its a nightmare, and I love it.....