A New Year and Another Step Forward

 

Happy New Year!  As we kick off 2023 I was able to get away for a night on the boat.  Who would have thought that January 1st would have provided an opportunity to put on some shorts and a t-shirt and spend the afternoon working on a boat?  It was an absolutely beautiful day and I was able to get us another step or two closer to getting this old girl out of the slip and sailing in the wind.

The last major project that has to be done is getting the mainsheet system "fixed" and rigged.  What, exactly, is the problem?  Where do I begin?  Let me say that none of this was a surprise to me.  When we looked at the boat the previous owner...who by the way, has done nothing to mess up the reputation that many "previous owners" have...assured me that all the parts were there and this boat was basically ready to go sailing.  Well...none of that was true.  Two issues related to the mainsheet system.  

First, the mainsheet traveler had been relocated from the stern of the boat...where Catalina put it...to the cabin top.  This is a modification that is not necessarily uncommon.  When I asked about the traveler car sliding freely from side to side (which it really shouldn't do), he confidently replied, "Oh, this is a floating traveler."  Well, I suppose there may be such a critter, but I've never heard of one.

So, it finally dawned on me that I could make a bracket for each side of the traveler track to mount cam cleats to hold the traveler car in place and allow us to adjust it as needed.  It should work great...once I get my measurements right.  I made them, but when I went to install them it seems that my measurements were wrong.  (I know, measure twice and cut once).  So, new material ordered.  But for now, I have the traveler car tied off in the middle of the boat...so it is at least possible to go sailing.

With that issue temporarily fixed (until the new brackets are completed) I was able to finally install the new mainsheet.  Despite the previous owners insistence that the mainsheet was rigged correctly, it was clear that it wasn't.  There was no way to adjust and lock the mainsheet to adjust the sail.  Now, what he had in place looked good...but honestly, it was a piece of junk.  Thanks to the good folks at Catalina Direct they helped me design a new system (ok, they designed it and I just took notes) and shipped the parts out promptly.  I think it looks good...but more importantly it should work pretty well.

With the mainsheet and traveler basically settled, I now need a way to secure my halyards.  Honestly, I'm not sure what the previous owner had in mind.  He had the halyards (lines to raise the sails) running back to the cockpit and tied off to the winches...which are needed to adjust the jib/genoa.  Now, the correct way to do this would be to add rope clutches on the cabin top, but that is out of my price range right now.  So, I am putting cleats on the cabin top...so while not ideal, it will work.  I have the cleats...now I just need to drill about eight holes in our boat!  For some reason I kept putting this step off, but yesterday I finally did it...drilled them holes right through my boat.  I drilled the holes oversized and filled them with epoxy.  Next, I'll drill the correct size hole through the epoxy which should protect the deck core from water.

 

So, we are really close.  Really, really close!  With very little wind at the marina, I decided to unfurl the head sail and raise the mainsail to get a look at them.  Both are old...OLD, I tell you...but hopefully they will work.  We don't race so as long as they hold together we should be good to go.  Next up on the to-do-list will be installing those cleats and tightening up some cleats that have worked loose over the years and then we might be able to push her away from the dock and find some wind.

A new year...and another step forward on this sailing journey!  Happy New Year!