Ask SAIL: Refitting Shrouds and Backstays
February 15, 2014
The shrouds and backstay on my 17-foot Montgomery trailer-sailer are maybe an inch or so too long, even with their turnbuckles screwed down as short as possible.
The shrouds and backstay on my 17-foot Montgomery trailer-sailer are maybe an inch or so too long, even with their turnbuckles screwed down as short as possible.
I’d always dreamed of using a spinnaker to propel our Tartan 31, Solace, along on a light-air summer’s day, but the thought of wrestling with an unruly kite (prior to running it over, of course!) was never appealing. Then one day I read about the benefits of rope-luff sails and their ease of handling in the January 2012 issue of SAIL magazine and decided, “I can do this!”
I have a 1977 Pearson 28 and have replaced the old Atomic 4 gas engine with a three-cylinder Universal 20hp diesel engine. Do I need to change the original propeller that was driven by the Atomic 4?
In your October 2013 Ask SAIL section (“Bigger is Better”), Don Casey states that doubling a boat’s windage increases the load on an anchor approximately fourfold.
I just purchased an ocean-going sailboat at a foreclosure sale and will soon install an SSB radio and an AIS transponder. The existing VHF radio is tied into the GPS receiver, and there is an existing maritime mobile ship identity (MMSI) number that comes up on the VHF display when I turn it on.
I recently bought a share of an older boat, a Cape Dory Intrepid 9-meter, and put new 12-volt AGM batteries in her. Something, however, is draining the batteries.
I recently purchased a Beneteau Oceanis 41 and keep it on a lake just outside Dallas that has mainly a mud bottom.
As a Christmas gift to myself, I asked Hans, my Norwegian cabinet-maker friend, to build some new upgrades for my old and beloved 1968 Venture 21. These included drop boards for the companionway, a bulkhead liner for the V-berth and a mounting board for a bilge pump, all of which he delivered on time to my dock in Olympia, Washington, rough-sanded and ready.
Problem: how do you install an inboard autopilot on a boat with such cramped hindquarters that finding somewhere to put a drive unit is next to impossible?
We had no inkling that there was a problem with the running gear on our Pearson 323, Alma, until the diver we hired to clean her bottom told me the propeller was binding. Time for a haul-out!
Under the new policy, all products from Airmar will have a three year warranty, instead of the previous two year warranty.
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