More Improvements

This mid-June weekend was very overcast with heavy winds and seas so I decided to make some more repairs and improvement to Julianne. My dock neighbor Tom helped me hoist a used 1.2 oz drifter sail that I picked up from Joe the painter. The sail came off Joe's 29' Ericson and was a bit larger than expected. It should work well for sailing more into the wind than down wind with less than 10 knots apparent. I can't wait to try it!

Tom then pointed out that the Aqua-Signal Series 25 bi-color bow light was heavily faded. Although the light worked fine, he shamed me into replacing it with a new one (dock peer pressure!). Since this was something that was suggested in our pre-purchase survey, I decided to go ahead and replace it. Of course, the old fasteners were seized, so I had to break off the old wire mounts. Lonny helped me strip the wires and connect them to the new fixture. The new light bolted on nicely and looks great. It should project better with the new clear lens and really dresses up the bow.

While looking for the Ullman Sails shop in Ventura (in case I need to modify the drifter), I discovered Beacon Marine Hardware. In addition to the bow light, they had some other parts and services that I have been looking for. For example, they have a person on-site that will make swage fittings for lifelines and rigging. They also had some replacement ladder latches that I think will work well for our cockpit ladder. It's nice to have an alternative to West Marine now that Boater's World went out of business. Since I now had a source for the lifelines, I decided to replace what I think are the old and rusty original equipment lifelines. I went back to the boat, removed the old lifelines, and dropped them off at Beacon for replacement. The new lifelines were ready a couple of days later and I installed them on Sat, June 27th. They turned out nice and were less expensive than I originally estimated. I may take one of the long upper lifelines back to have it shortened by a couple of inches.










I noticed that the Nicro Solar Day/Night vent I installed in January was no longer turning. I pulled it apart and verified that it wouldn't work under solar power without the battery. Since it had a two year warranty, I took it back to West Marine for a replacement. They told me that they've had problems with these and gave me a replacement which I installed the following weekend.

I also rigged a four foot length of 1/4" shock cord around the tiller with ends clipped to the stern pulpit stanchions on each side to act as a tiller dampener when the boat is docked. This will also come in handy for holding the tiller steady while under sail when I don't have the auto-tiller mounted. While in the cockpit I installed some drink holders and solar lights.










I look forward to enjoying these improvements next week during my Summer vacation!