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Sunday, June 5, 2016

New sail!



Finally, my new mainsail for the Oday 19 came in. A neighbor happened to stop in at the same time. Together we down to the lake and set up the boat.

The new sail is a bit different than the old. One of the big differences is that this one is loose footed. It's not attached the whole length of the boom -just at the far end. That's the new trend in sails. It's supposed to give the sail better shape. Whatever. The good news is that it fits well. We took it out for a little spin around the lake.

The only problem now is that the jib sail looks shabby by comparison. No matter. It still works just fine.

While in town a couple days ago I bought a spare mounted tire for the sailboat trailer. Right now it's a spare. In a month or two I'm going to buy a another one and mount the new ones as a set. That will give me two older tires for spares.

The boat is pretty well set up for lake sailing right now. The electric trolling motor is used so little that a 30 watt solar panel has no difficulty keeping the battery charged. Sure beats messing around with gas cans and spark plugs.

I've come up with a design where I can drop in a lazerette box with two additional deep cycle batteries and a charge controller. Another 100 watt panel will sit right on top of the box. That should give me all the power I'll need for longer trips.

Of course, it is a sailboat so I hope to hardly use the motor.

-Sixbears

4 comments:

  1. Can you use the old sail for anything?

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    1. I know someone who wants it in trade. He has a small sail that work well on my other boat.

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  2. Our lake is actually a mountain ravine they put a dam across in the thirties. The only place wide enough to sail is right by the dam. Up in the next county they have a big, wide lake. Wish somebody rented lightning or rebel class boats, I'd go up there and give it a run. I learned to sail (small boats) at the Marina at Camp Lejeuene, and it sure was a lot of fun.I wonder if I remember any of it now?

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    1. Small boat sailing is the best. It's like riding a bicycle, it will all come back.

      I'm blessed with many natural lakes in my area.

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