Life on the Hard.

[thomm225]

Every few years, I have my boat hauled for 4 months so I can sand and paint the bottom among other things.

I have found I really enjoy being at the boatyard seeing all the different types of sailboats, and all the owners (or yard guys) completing various maintenance projects they had planned.

This year is a bit different with the EPA rules so I had to convert my orbital sander to attach to my Shop-Vac.

I installed the new filters on the Shop-Vac and used a rubber coupler the PO had left on the boat which was probably for one of the stuffing boxes onboard to attached the vacuum hose to my sander.

It was a great improvement and now almost no paint dust falls to the ground.

During sanding breaks it so interesting to go and look at the other boats and see what repairs are going on.

Plus this dock has quite a few large, late model catamarans and monohulls docked there.

There are also older Good Old Boats that have been restored.

There's an Alberg 30 with a Hydrovane and cutter rig setup plus running backstays. It has a beautiful paint job and new dodger that closes in the back.

The 4 month fee is the same as I would be paying in my slip so the only cost is the haul, launch, power wash, and maintenance supplies: Paint, pans, brushes, etc.

Photo of the boat about to be hauled at the standby dock. They were launching a couple 50'-60' boats and needed the dock space.

[capt jgw]

I've been using vacuum sanders for years, I use the cheap DA sander from Menards that has a round attachment for the dust bag. It just happens to fit the smaller size wet vac hose if you take the rigid end off. No adapter needed. The more expensive sanders usually have a rectangular or oval shape connector which makes you have to buy their adapter which costs more than the cheap sander.
I do a lot of epoxy work and wood sanding dust makes a great structural filler. You can buy it but I just keep the dust from the wet vac when I'm sanding wood.

[thomm225]

Luckily on the little 5" Steel Grip Orbital Sander I bought at a local Mom and Pop hardware store, it had a round connection to it's rectangular dust collector so then all I needed were the filters for my shop vac and the adapter the PO left on the boat in 2006.

I found and bought the boat in 2011. It had been on the hard for 5 years. The PO left it near here on his trip back North from Florida and the Bahamas after a 2 year cruise from 2004-2006.

This sander replaced my 6" Porter Cable Sander with no dust collection.

See photo below using tarp to collect the dust in around 2017.

[Bowdrie]

Thomm, perhaps it's the camera angle or an optical illusion?
In the pic of the boat at the dock the mast appears to have just a smidge of forward rake?
Sometime a perfect vertical can look like a forward rake.
Anyway, those older/classic designs always look better with some aft rake, it doesn't take much, just enough to "take the curse off".

[thomm225]

Yes, it does have forward rake.

The PO or someone he paid must have cut the forestay too short.

There is no adjustment/turnbuckle there, and the turnbuckle on the backstay is tight as it can go. No more adjustment.

I’ll be replacing the forestay and backstay when I launch the boat at the end of February and rake it back bit.

The rigging is probably 20 years old or more.

I'm actually used to having lots of mast rake especially on my last racing boat. We would adjust our rake each race if necessary for the conditions.

Winds were near 20 knots on this day, so I had in lots of mast rake.

In photo for the lake race, still had quite a bit of rake in.

Sometiem I had to adjust rudder rake for a light helm after raking the mast.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by thomm225

I’ll be replacing the forestay and backstay when I launch the boat at the end of February and rake it back bit.

Good man.
A turnbuckle at the bow is also a good idea.
Put in enough rake to make it discernable.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Bowdrie

Good man.
A turnbuckle at the bow is also a good idea.
Put in enough rake to make it discernable.

I just replaced a couple turnbuckles when I replaced the chainplates so I'll use one of those for the forestay.

They are bronze anyway so should be fine.

I might even move the forestay with the furler aft to the center cleat there and then add a forestay for a cutter style rig and use hank on sails for the forward most jib.

My masthead has two pins forward and aft for rigging attachments.