Preparing the buoy

I have a place to moor Xiao Feng in our small harbour but for various reasons I have not managed to get the mooring buoy in place. Hopefully I will be able to do it shortly so yesterday I prepped it.

Gadget

I bought a gadget... It measures the wind speed, accurately as well, the nice thing is that there is no electronics involved in the thing. It attaches to your smart phone and have two magnets inside so that the rotational speed can be measured by your phones magnetic field sensor!!! See more here www.vavuud.com

Cargo cover

I was planning to put a net across the cargo compartment under the foredeck, to keep all my gear in the boat in case of a capsize. But as I had some canvass left from making the cover I decided to use this instead. So this is what I did:

Drew the shape on the fabric

Cut it out

Hemmed the edges and added brass eyelets

Installed it in the boat using hooks and bungy cord (in the picture you can also see that I use the main downhaul as the centerboard uphaul)

Sikaflex gasket

Spent the day fixing the things I identified on my latest sail, the biggest job was to arrange a gasket for the centreboard cap. I put a piece of plastic on the casing that I had lubricated with WD-40. Applied the sika to the cap and screwed it onto the casing again. After a few hours I removed it and peeled of the plastic. So now I hopefully have a gasket shaped after my casing. Will let is cure some more before I screw it back on and then it is time for the test of tightness.....

Sailing lessons

Had my first 'real' sail today, before there has been virtually no wind. Went out at four and it was blowing between 6 and 10 knots of wind and the direction was good for a trip around Prästholmen (Priest Island, no idea why it is called that....). Had a great four hours on the water and I also learnt a few things, some that need fixing before I go out next time.

- She is really fast!!!!
- She is very responsive and fun!!
- The centreboard cap really need a seal! I had to bilge the boat a few times.
- I need to shorten the connection slings for the halyard and downhaul, the way it is now I cannot tighten the downhaul enough. (See pics)
- I need to tighten the out haul on the boom and yard. (See pics)
- Make sure everything is attached (I lost the rudder up haul in the water)
- Keep the push-pull stick in the boat. (She was steering herself nicely so I let go and it fell in the water and ended up trailing the boat pointing aft, a bit of acrobatics on the aft deck to retrieve it ;).

All in all GREAT!

Cover done

Got home late from work so no sailing, instead I finished the cover.

Cover (almost) done

Almost finished the cover today, just need to get some more cleats. I assumed ten would be enough but need about eighteen to get a nice stretch.
Also finished the mast crutches.
Now it is time for a swim....