More tent trials

Finished the tent mockup, now I am confident it will work in reality. A few details such as the attachment to the masts etc need to be worked out when we do it for real. In the pictures the zippered tent flaps at the ends are missing, to fiddly to make in 1:10 scale (so another thing to figure out in real size).

The actual stitching of the tent will have to wait until 'Xiao Feng' is unwrapped in the spring.

Tent mock-up

Started fiddling a little with the tent and how it may look. Drew the deck on a piece of scrap wood and added the masts. After some discussions around design (with my mother the expert) I added a ridge line and some tent poles connected at the row lock position (and yes I stole play doh from the kids to secure them). Tomorrow I will add the tent if all goes according to plan.

Merry Christmas

Long time since I updated but nothing boaty has happened lately, 'Small Wind' is sleeping under her cover. We have had a very warm winter so far, no snow and no ice on the lake, so I actually could have been sailing. Will be starting some boat projects early next year the tent, galley etc.

In the meantime I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tucked in for winter

Even though we have perfect sailing weather (sunshine, +15C and 8 knots of wind) I decide to prepare Xiao Feng for winter. I will be travelling a lot the coming weeks and I do not want to be surprised by snow.
Cleaned her out, rolled up the sails and opened up the hatches. I left the cover on and added a tarp stretched between two 'pillars'. The tarp is mainly a snow cover we will see how well it works.

I launched later than planned and have not had time to sail as much as I would like but I am very happy with my little boat!!! The plans for winter is to get her ready for overnight trips, i.e. a tent, some way of cooking food and a good way of sleeping.

Mounting the new winch

Mounted my new winch, had to drill a few new holes but it went smoother than I expected. Was supposed to do a few more jobs but it got too cold.... Winter is coming, last night we had almost freezing temperatures, so soon it will be time to pack her up for winter. I still have hopes for a few nice sailing days in October though.

New winch!

My new winch has arrived, it is made in France and is called Goliath. It is rated to 700kg so a lot bigger than I need but I am hoping that it will turn out to be sturdier than the old one....
Naturally the footprint is quite different than the old so I will have to modify the trailer a little.

Buoy and winch

Yesterday my dad visited so we decided to go for a little row and 'launch' (or maybe it should be 'sink') the mooring buoy.

When we were retrieving the boat we found that the winch on the trailer have been worn out (some of the teeth on the winch drum) despite only having been used maybe 10-15 time (rubbish!!!!). So now I need to find a new winch, turning out to be an expensive hobby..... ;)

So today I removed the old winch and measured the footprint to see if I can find a new that does not require me to drill new holes.