Well, winter looks like it has finally decided to give up and move on. The boating season is almost upon us. I have been told that the Pretty Gee will be coming out of storage mid-month, and I have a few spring projects to do on her. Unfortunately, my schedule for projects last year was badly disrupted.
I’m almost done installing new genoa sheet bags for the Pretty Gee. They should make the cockpit a bit neater this season. I’ve almost done installing the second solar ventilator. The initial location I had thought of, in front of the mast, isn’t where I ended up mounting it. It is being mounted just aft of the mast, but required me to remove one of the interior cabin lights. This means I have to find and install some new interior cabin lights.
Other projects include getting the ground tackle installed… This has been on my list the longest, and is a priority for this season. I hope to get this started this weekend. I’ll have to pickup some 1/2″ plywood for use as backing board, if I can’t get some 1/4″ aluminum plate. The plywood might be easier to work with and less trouble, since it doesn’t have the galvanic corrosion risks that the aluminum does.
I’ve started taping the bottom for the new bottom paint and raising the waterline. I’m still waiting on getting pricing on soda-blasting the bottom of the boat. I’ve found one tool that might make sense to get for doing sanding work on the boat. It was over on Kevin’s Cool Tools, and is a Magna MT800 Sand & Kleen Hand Sanding System. It should reduce the dust caused by sanding fiberglass and such on the boat.
Another project that I am thinking of, is the creation of a bridgedeck, to give myself a bit more storage, as well as make the Telstar a bit more seaworthy—by reducing the ability of water to get into the cabin and reducing the cockpit volume at the same time.
One other thing I am exploring is the modification of the cockpit to add a medium-sized locker in the aft end, that would be suitable for storing the dinghy and a few other things. This might be workable, if I were to modify the stern end of the cockpit, move the house batteries forward a 18″ or so, and extend a locker into the space under the cockpit. Done properly, this would probably increase the strength of the stern end of the boat—done wrong it’d be a disaster. I want to talk to Tony about this. This is a huge project and would probably lay the Pretty Gee up for a few weeks, but would make the cockpit much more usable. Right now, the only lockers in the cockpit are rather shallow.
Hopefully, I should be posting with a bit more frequency, now that the boating season is here. This winter was spent recovering from various colds and such that my nephews were kind enough to share with me. I’ve already seen Aja’s crew, and they’ve been working on her already. Pretty Gee is stored right next to Aja, a Cape Dory 25. I’ve also seen Charles and Hilary, from Ship o’ Fools, an Corsair F-31 trimaran. I’ve also seen Rick, from the Heather Dawn.
I’m planning on getting my USCG OUPV this season if I can. It will depend on how much time I can get in sailing. I’ll keep you all posted. I hope to see some of you out there on the water.