Live Your Dream: Sail Lake Michigan

Restore a Sailboat – March 2020

I got a lot moving forward this month, but little is finished. Had days of sanding waiting for warm weather to paint and varnish. Watch the list get short quick with warm weather! However, with the health and movement restrictions put in place by the government, I lost one solid weekend of work, not sure the shipyard would be open and backed off this project boat temporarily.

The shipyard rules with Covid are now posted and clear. Two are allowed to work on a boat at a time, and no social gatherings. This means in April I can get back on the horse and keep riding her. However, the sailing season is looking very unclear at this point. Only time will tell. After last years engine fiasco losing 6 weeks of sailing season, I really planned on being on board the boat as much as humanly possible this year.

309. The Raritan electric flush is using excessive water per flush filling the holding tank rapidly. This wastes electricity as well. I’ve been back and forth with Raritan. We use a weird system to flush – open the intake water thru-hull lever, press the electric button to put water in the bowl (which also evacuates the bowl), ahem, then flush which doesn’t seem to do much, stop, then flush again which works leaving water in the bowl, then shut off the intake water thru-hull, flush again to remove the remaining water.

What was designed was to remove the water intake impeller from the Raritan pump (which works simultaneously with the evacuation pump). Add a 4gpm water pump with its own switch and additional hosing from the thru-hull through the pump to the head. This way there is one new button to add water to the bowl, and the original button to evacuate the bowl. Me thinks this is a great advancement in reducing the filling of the holding tank.

Additionally I removed the plate on the evacuation pump and found a lot of long hair woven with TP wrapped around it. This could help explain the slow evacuation as well. Women – never ever ever put hair in a boat head! I remember removing hair from head pumps when I was 15 and now I’m 60. Knock it off!

310. Installed stickers 1, 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, (the numbers represent the headsail size) A, A (“A” for “Afterguy”) on rail. The old labels fade, and don’t stand out in the dark with night sailing, now they stand out!

When jumping a halyard, all mast position crew look back to see which line the pit trimmer is holding. By marking the halyards on the mast, that need is no longer needed. I label Main, Jib, Spin and Pole on mast.