Spinnaker setup progresses.

Got the last couple of pieces in place over the weekend and during a short lunch break.

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The asym Tack line that came with the sail is, well, it's 3 strand 'rope', nasty stuff. So a trip to the new West Marine Store in Fort Lauderdale (HUGE) put a new Spin Halyard (60'), Tack line (25'), and Tack Block line (6') plus a couple of other goodies. Somehow I never get to leave that store with just what I intended to pickup. Also in the bag were 3 block sheaves to run the Tack line aft.

So over the weekend (oh, Merry Festivus) while Pegs was at work, I made up the tackle for the Tack Line. Bent (there's a good seaman's term) the Spin Sheets to the Clew, and the Tack line, surprise, to the Spin Tack.

With the Masthead work completed last week, the last thing on the list was installing the cleats for the sheets, port and stbd.
After discussing this with the folks on the Catalina 25's forum, I decided to put Cam Cleats aft by the Cat Bird Seats, using the original holes for the Bimini (I relocated the Bimini onto Rail Clamps last earlier this year), those  holes have been bugging me ever since I did a miserable repair job on the fiberglass. Just so happens that the Cam Cleat holes matched the old Bimini base holes perfectly. The new Cam Cleats are bedded in Butyl tape, and secured with 3" SS screws that pass through the Combing and the inner liner.

Anyone that knows the backend layout of the Catalina 250, knows that the 'trunk' is big but awkward to do anything within. To get the nut and washer on each bolt, I used a 1/4" socket on the end of an 3" socket extension and my cordless drill. Using a piece of the Butyl in the socket and around the tip, I was able to adhere the nut and washer to the socket while I reached up to the inside of the trunk to attach them to the bolts.  Peggy was on the outside with a screw driver to prevent the screws turning. Worked really well, took less than 30 minutes to install the cleats.

So now the hardware is complete. All we need now is a few more hours of boat prep for the trail down to Biscayne bay this weekend and some light winds. It would be very cool (according to the weather channel, it's going to be very cool) to fly the new Spinnaker on New Year's Day, but even better to have that big golden colored balloon leading us through the waters this year! Saturday.. it's a plan!

Harsh Mistress

One of the long time posters on the Catalina 25's website wrote this... worth engraving on a plaque.

The sea is a harsh mistress, you love her, but she cannot be trusted even for a minute. Her regular customers Neptune and Poseidon are always looking for a way to pay her off. Boats, tools, bodies, she takes it all in trade. No one is immune to her power. Stop paying attention and she'll take you in an instant, and that's where you'll always be, floating somewhere in the sea.

Just love that description.

Always wanted to fly a spinnaker

When you see a sailboat gliding through the calm waters on a sunny summer day with that huge balloon pulling it through the water, did you ever think what it would be like to be on that boat... soooo many times!

A few years ago we purchased a cute looking spinnaker designed for another boat, not ours. We flew it on temporary lines in really light air in the Pensacola B.E.E.R. event. The sail was too big for JD, and we had to let it go to a good friend that had a boat that it fit just right. However, the pleasure flying that sail was lasting. It has taken nearly 4 years for us to consider getting a replacement.

At the end of this summer, we recognized that our main and jib sails needed cleaning. We found a reputable sail cleaning company in Fort Lauderdale. While I was delivering the sails, I asked about the sails they had in the loft. And they had an asymmetrical spinnaker that was the right size for JD. I could barely contain my enthusiasm. A week later when we both drove down to pick up the cleaned sails, I asked if it was still available. Merry Christmas JD! She now has a bold gold asym and chute (the sock that is used to snuff the sail before lowering it.) Now we just have to get everything together to fly it. Hopefully that will be during our New Years eve cruise.

First item to tackle is the Sail Head attachment. The C250 mast head has halyards for the main sail and the jib sail, but not for the Spinnaker. After seeking advice on the Catalina forum, I realized we needed a 'Spinnaker Crane', that's a stainless steel bracket that is mounted at the masthead over the existing Jib sheave pin so that a bracket sticks out ahead of the mast to which we attach a block that is used to hoist the sail. Catalina Direct has them in stock so that was the first item ordered.

Of course, a Smart Car would get better mileage pulling JD.

While attaching the new crane to the masthead, I found that the sheaves were breaking down. They are the pulleys that the halyards pass over, if they fail, then we could not raise or lower the sails! So they had to be replaced. Another order to Catalina Direct. They arrived yesterday, so should be able to fit them on Saturday... oh! that's Christmas eve! Santa better not need any help this Chirstmas Ho Ho Ho.

Today I stopped by West Marine for a pair of 75ah 12v Deep cycle batteries, that blew the Christmas budget. At least we'll be ok for power over the New Year Weekend cruise. Hey, not a lot to do before then, just keep going and it will get done.

You have to love doing this stuff.

More later.

Paul

Early Days

Just in time for Christmas, we're starting our new Blog for JD. So first a bit of history.

In 2005 we visited the Strictly Sail Boat Show in Miami Florida. On the way there, we discussed, amongst many other things, how we were not going to buy a boat, nope, not us! We already had a Laser Sailing Dinghy in the back yard and we had trailed that to both sides of the Florida.

While at the show we visited the Hunter exhibit. I took a look at their smaller 25' and 27' boats. The 25 was a bottle and the 27 was gorgeous but way up there in price. Then onto the Catalina exhibit. Some really nice, really big boats, really out of our price range so not even worth looking at. The Girl at the Catalina booth asked what we were looking for. I asked what was the largest boat we could trailer in Florida. "That would be the Catalina 250", so I stepped aboard. Wow! Nice features for such a small boat.

At this point, Peggy had not stepped aboard any of the boats, but I asked here to step on the C250, she did, sat in the cabin and almost instantly suggested "Let's write a contact on this one!"

What was I going to say! Duh!

A couple of months later we were at the dealership in Cocoa Beach taking a test sail and confirmed the purchase. It would take a few months for the boat to be built and shipped.

Of course, we're now reading up on sail boat ownership every minute we can. We found the Catalina-Capri-25s.org website and read even more. The bug had bit, we couldn't wait for the boat to arrive.

Almost daily we discussed the name of the boat. NotALot, NotBig, Notting Doing, that kind of idea, but we could not agree, you know how that goes. Finally I suggested that I really didn't care what the boat name was as long as it was a joint decision. And that was it "Joint Decision" got her name.

Since then we have put a lot of miles on 'JD', trailed her from her 'dock' (at the side of our house) to as far west  as Pensacola , north as far as Orlando, and south as far as Long Key, and sailed her for several nights most months. JD has had many upgrades, from the install of an AC unit to make the summer Florida nights bearable to important things like GPS, VHF, Storm Riding sail, and many many more.

JD at Black Point Marina - very quiet day!

But most important of all is that sailing! Boy, were we novices when we first sailed her. There were several bouts of hair pulling as we learnt to sail and enjoy doing so. Now that we have learned each others limitations, we are getting much more pleasure from our 'cruises' and so it's time to start to record them in our blog.

My greatest challenge is to keep it up, the blog that is! So I'm hoping that both of us will write and post pics of our adventures on JD.

Paul.