Christmas time in Corpus

Christmas always means new boat parts around me…..  Woo hoooo!  I got a new mainsail and lots of cool stuff for my sailboat.   We spent time and money on the boat when we first got it so even on our first big trip… she was nice.  Since then we have more than kept up with maintenance.  I’m not saying ours is the best Seawind 1000 out there because there are some nice boats floating around, but I’m sure proud of “Sea Yawl Later !!”  We have just about every trick known to man on that boat/… lol.

This trip I added all new rope clutches, new traveller hardware, added a cool 3:1 outhaul that leads back to the winch, and a brand new high tech Calvert radial cut mainsail!!!  We also had quite a few maintenance items taken care of, fresh varnish on much of the interior, she will have new bottom paint and safety lines before we go, just stuff you have to do… but I’m super excited about the new main.  I know it will look pretty, but I’ve felt that my pointing ability has fallen off with the 8 year old mainsail.  I’m going to lead my lazy jacks back to the cockpit as well.  My new Calvert is longer, so I’ll need to slack the lazy jacks manually now.  My old sail lifted the boom sufficiently that the lazy jacks slacked on their own.  The new setup will be a bit more effort to operate, but it should really pay off in light air.   Another great advantage of the new radial cut sail is.. she should be easier to haul up.  The sail is lighter, and the last 3′ of halyard won’t be lifting the weight of the boom anymore…  nice.

While the main was off we had the boom sandblasted and powder coated, we also upgraded the gooseneck.  Normally the gooseneck connection is just a bolt thru a hole, we are adding a nice brass bushing and side spacers as an upgrade.  I can’t wait to go sailing with the new main!  Dave Calvert is a multihull expert, I have his square top main on my 27 Stiletto… it’s a sweet setup on the 1,100# cat.  Dave and I discussed a square top for the Seawind… but there’s just no advantage.  On the Stiletto I can lift a hull by moving lift up the sail to create less hull drag… on a cruising boat lifting a hull is not something you ever want to consider.

Anyway…. we hope to leave for the Bahamas in late March.  Some good friends of ours may sail the boat down to Florida for us so we can spend more of our time off in the Bahamas.   The way Linda and I travel (sleeping somewhere almost every night) it takes a couple weeks to get to Florida.  We have made the Gulf trip a few times now… yeah I’m sure it would be fun to go offshore… but I’d rather start my vacation in shirt sleeve weather.  we’ll see how that plays out.

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