Nice May sail - though winds a little light

Nice Spring sail with Steve and David - winds hovering around 10kts but a few puffs pushed us to 6kts through the water. 

With the light winds, figured it was a good time to play with the asymmetric.  Unfortunately by the time we had it rigged, the winds were down to nothing.  Regardless - it was good practice.

Pedestal Cover

After success with the winches, I ordered the material for the pedestal cover.  Sailrite also sent an instructional DVD which was really helpful.   

Patterning this cover was difficult due to the nav pod (GPS and autopilot) that I installed last year.  David suggested using muselin to create the pattern and that worked out very well. I used double sided tape to hold it in place while using a sharpie to mark the seams.  

Mom provided some helpful advice and recommended pinning the pieces together after cutting and having a trial fit.  I only needed to make adjustments to the creases and after 1 day of sewing, had a completed cover.   It fits and looks great!

2013 Launch and halyard retrieval

Brought the boat from Waukegan to Montrose with David and Steve.  Was a last minute trip as the engine work was completed and needed to vacate the slip asap for later launches.

Larsen Marine did alot of work on the boat - new water pump, temporary seal of the heat exchanger (awaiting new part), new running rigging, new spinnaker halyard, and fresh bottom paint.  

Weather on the trip was interesting.  Knew we would see a cold front pass with 20 kt winds.  We were prepared and dressed warm, however the front passed with a bang - at least 40 kt wind and lost the main halyard shackle.  We were able to douse the sail and motor in. But the halyard at the top of the mast was trouble.  Did some searching on the internet and came across a posting where an owner used pvc pipe with a duct tapped pasta spoon on one end.   Run the pipe up the backstay and a few twists and it's caught.  

I did the same using 3/4 pex and a metal pasta spoon - worked like a charm!