The Season of breaking things.

[noelH]

Relative to normal have not sailed much.

But have been breaking or wearing out things.

Both jib and main needed a patch and sew tear repair. Too many days of fluttering leech. My fault for not properly setting the leech tension. +3500nm under sail has tattered the mainsail leech telltales. Replaced with some light weight dacron strips. Tim's Sail and Canvas to the rescue. Strongly recommend if in this area sailing and in need of sail or canvas repairs. He also does 1st rate repairs on windsurfing sails.

Tiller clutch required new line. Simple fix, but a bit of a pain threading the line into the clutch.

Then yesterday. All was fine until I dropped the sail to motor into the marina. Down comes the sail without the halyard attached. Looked up. My halyard is now barber polled around the starboard shroud. Halyard shackle failure. Have a spare. So today was replacement day. Halyard hitch. Could not untie the hitch even with a marlin spike. Gave up and cut the broken shackle off. 

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

Good thing it failed when you were already dropping the sail, and not on a beam reach!

[noelH]

Have yet to sail a day where I have not set the 2nd reef at least once. Wind range this season has been significant. Guessing the locking lever on the shackle might have flipped open and loose. Then the side load just bent the shackle allowing the sail to let loose. Needed the vise grips to bend the shackle back straight. Retired it to the waste bin. Into town to the ships store. The Washburn Marina had none in stock. The slips are now 50% power boats. The forest of masts is no longer. No ships store in Bayfield. It is now another gallery. Just what the town needs.  Another gallery. On the way home stopped into the Port Superior store. Plenty of choices.

If heading to Bayfield to sail and in need of hardware. Only real sailboat ships store is the Port Superior shop. Guessing, but not sure there might be a shop at LaPoint on Madeline Is.   Pikes Bay and Port Superior Marina are side by side. Still a forest of masts. No ramp for trailer sailboats.

[Timm R Oday25]

Yesterday we finally launched for the season .The outboard started everytime at home..in the barrel .
Out on Lake Michigan... nope .
For some reason the forestay was about a 1/4" to short .. Had to throw a shackle in the mix..
Now the furler drum twists too much and the furling line rubs up against the stainless steel drum...
Sailing sure is relaxing ..