Our worn and torn sail cover (last year's contest pic)!
If you've been reading our blog for a while, you know that last September we were the lucky winners of a sail pack kit from Sailrite. We were so excited to win the sail pack kit, because our sail cover sucks! Since I don't sew and we didn't know who to trust with sewing our sail pack kit, it has been untouched for nine months ... until now!
After writing a "Frugal Fridays" post about DIY (Do It Yourself), Dani from Sundowner Sails Again mentioned that her mom sews items for boats, and she lives just 20 minutes away from us! Dani shared her mom's web site, www.thebasicbag.com , which has some great bags and storage items made from Sunbrella. After looking at the site, I immediately contacted Robin (Dani's mom) .
We're confident Robin can do the job, so we'll meet her in a few days to turn over our sail pack kit. Ken has to take a few measurements, but being in the construction business he ought to be able to handle that! =) It just goes to show how this blog has enabled us to meet some great people. We hope to meet Dani and her husband, Tate, soon. They live less than 30 minutes away, sail in the same lake that we do, and also have plans to cruise in the next few years.
Now that a sail pack for Nirvana is in the near future, we're starting to think about the lazy jack system.
With so many online stores, we really don't know where to start. However, after seeing the prices being charged for lazy jack systems, we're thinking of making our own. If any of you have some suggestions, we'd love to hear them!
We're really excited about finally having a new sail pack for Nirvana. It should be a real asset once we're cruising!
Hasta luego ... until then. Mid-Life Cruising!
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4 comments:
Ken and Cheryl;
My recommendation is to stay away from the lazy jacks and Dutchman's on the smaller boats like a Catalina 30. I had a Dutchman on my previous boat (NorSea 27) and I hated it. The main kept jamming on the cables going both up and down. I eventually removed it.
In an earlier boat I owned (Catalina 25) I had a lazy jack. I found the reefing to be harder to ease down and keep a good sail shape. I was always balancing the main halyard tension to offset the lazy jacks. On the lazy jack you sometime lose your topping lift as the lazy jack carries the boom load while not being up. I adjust the topping lift a lot while at anchor and docked.
After I replaced the mainsail on NiSe we found it easier to flake and easier to reef using the jiffy reef. I would encourage you to sail with the new main sail for a awhile before considering the lazy jack.
Nice blog - keep going....
Terry
That's so cool! I will have to check out Dani's mom's site. It's great to be able to make connections with other people trying to do the same thing we are, and learning along the way. Can't wait to see your new sail cover.
I'm interested to read Terry's comment above. I'd like to have some kind of 'lazy' system for the main around here, but had not considered the points he has made for extended sailing. We use our reefing system quite a lot so I'd hate to think that it would be interfered with. The only reason we'd like lazy jacks is because our main is just so large for me to handle when getting it down. I'd like to think I could flake it neatly and get it tied off my self, but, alas, my arms are not long enough to gather it all in without it looking like a big hot mess. I hate to treat a good sail like that.
I'm so glad you and my mom are going to meet:D. She does all of the canvas on our boat, and is soon going to teach me how to use her machine so I can sew our own things.
We also want to get a lazy jack system and Tate is confident he can make his own. I'll let you know where that goes.
Looking forward to meeting you soon! Hopefully this fall when we start sailing again we can bring your out on Sundowner, or we can meet at Nirvana.
Terry, thanks for the advice! I'll definitely mention this to Ken. We have a "tall rig", and the main is just so big!
Dani, we've met your mom and she is great! We enjoyed talking to her and we know our sail pack is in good hands. You're lucky to have a mom that knows how to sew canvas!
We're looking forward to meeting ya'll soon! We've been consumed with renovations lately.
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