Tag: maintenance
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Water system upgrade
Blue Opal’s water system is fairly simple – a large stainless tank under the forward berths, plus a triangular Plastimo tank ahead of the big one. They’re both connected to a T connector that heads off towards the Jabsco pump. There’s an in-line filter attached to the pump inlet, and after leaving the pump, there’s…
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Building better bases for the coachroof winches
After I sailed Aslana for a while, I decided to re-fit her for single-handed sailing. This meant leading lots of lines back to the cockpit, and upgrading the captive winches to self-tailers. The ones on the coachroof were installed at a bad angle relative to the triple clutches ahead of them, so this winter has…
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Finishing off the rudder for Aslana
With the primer on, I picked one of the bright white Toplac paints for the upper half of Aslana’s rudder. The first coat had to be sanded back off, as the roller brush left a bunch of “lint” all over the surface. That’ll teach me to use a cheapish roller when using gloss paint. The…
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Priming the rudder
With the damaged portion of the rudder repaired, it’s time to paint the rudder. Priming coat first, second priming coat in two days if needed, and then I need to decide on a topcoat colour. Mind you, since I’m selling her, I might stop at primer and leave it to the last moment to put…
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Patching up the rudder
Towards the end of the last season, it was mentioned to me that a dinghy from the local sailing school had been observed colliding with Aslana. When she was lifted out, I discovered that a chunk of the rudder was no longer present. Today was the day to get the chunk repaired. A bit of…
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Dremel for the win
Aslana came to me with a clutch and a cleat on the starboard coachroof, and a cleat on the port coachroof. Unfortunately, everything is in different positions, so the access hatches are in different places. To top it off, the pads behind the old winch and the old cleat were feeling their age (as evidenced…