Jobs

No more procrastinating about the bush, it's time to get my winter job list down and commit it to the blogosphere. I figure guilt through public declaration of intent is my strongest motivation. Last year I had an ambitious list of 15 items that I mostly completed. This year, it feels more manageable. 1. Get the #&!@&ing outboard working: When we bought the boat in 2008, the outboard needed $800 worth of work to get it functioning. Even then it ran unreliably. Last summer, it ran OK until Idiot here, broke the key in the ignition with his foot while single-handing Messing About. I was then informed that one of the pins that held the bracket on had sheared and under no circumstance was I to run the outboard any more lest a major marine disaster befell me. At that point, Alice and I decided to wait till the winter to fix the bloody thing. Alice and I had an exciting summer sailing the boat on and off the mooring, old skool! We were all the better for it but a bit nervous about taking company on the boat. This year the outboard is getting fixed come hell or high water. I have been given a lot of advice on how to fix the issues with the outboard, what tools to buy, time of day to do it, which way the wind needs to be blowing. I have bought books on the subject. With all this information I am taking a much better route: Throwing money at the problem. I am getting a professional (and I use the term loosely) to fix it. 2. Sand and paint the bottom: I have been toying with taking the hull down to the fiberglass so that I have a nice smooth bottom (Where's Benny Hill when you need him?). I don't believe it's ever been done on my boat and as it's nearly 30 years old, the bottom looks like the surface of the moon. Frankly this sounds like a major pain in the neck so I will probably just keep it simple and sand a lot and paint a bit. That said I have had hours of entertainment just thinking about doing it. 3. Clean and grease the winches: Easy peezy lemon squeezy. 4. Touch up the wood: (Benny Hill again) Last year I put on this great Australian product so it will be interesting to see how it's held up this winter. Hopefully will just need to touch it up here and there. 5. Clean and Polish the Fiberglass: The deck is filthy so this is going to be a pain but it's needed. Nothing I like better than giving my hull a good polish. (What is with it boats and double-entendres?) 6. Replace the boom vang eye on the mast: This will be the third. I totally underestimated the force exerted by an accidental jibe. The first eye was a puny plastic thing that lasted for exactly one jibe. The second was a metal eye that was too lightweight. Got myself a meatier doohickey that's gonna work this time. Oh yeah! 7. Re-bed the Halyard Clutch: More to the point BED the halyard clutch. I installed a halyard clutch last year and it's been a great addition. As I am learning boat maintenance, I had no clue that I was supposed to bed it with silicon goo. It hasn't caused a problem yet but I suspect that it is the cause of a very minor leak. 8. Get up the mast and fix the wind indicator: For some inexplicable reason, when we stepped the mast last year, the wind indicator was nudged out of position. Now rather weirdly the bracket that holds the wind indicator to the mast swivels to leeward on every tack. It's quite unnerving and my wife has been caught out by it on the helm a number of times causing her to sail off course (well that's her excuse). 9. Inspect the rigging: blabla. 10. Install Traveler: We have a traveler but it's the kind that doesn't use a line to shift it to leeward and back. You have to grab a springed catch and drag the sheet bock across at the base. It's not a great arrangement, especially when I am on my own. Having lines to move the traveler will be tidy! Now I just have to wait for the weather to warm up don't I! Hmmmh! More time to catch-up on Benny Hill on Netflix.