Sunday, February 28, 2010

Altair Updates!

So I've been working on the boat a lot, and here's some pictures of what I've done...
First off, I went out to my Dad's place and built a gimballed box, so I could put the stove on top of it and have a gimballed stove. The way it works is that it has two bolts that hold it up, and it can pivot on those, so if the boat heels over, the stove still points up.
I also built a new stern spool, which is just a spool of rope on the back of the boat. And then I mounted the solar light that I got for Christmas on it, along with my depth sounder and a fishing rod holder.
I also built a new wind vane with my dad. Its a complicated thing, but it works pretty good. Here's the rudder, and the vane part.
A few weeks ago I broke off the bowsprit when it was really windy, so I've been working on making a better system, so it won't break again. I started with a better mounting system for the side stays (the cables that keep the stick from going left or right) and then I put another set of cables on, so I have two side stays on each side now.
I put a set of stainless plates on both sides of the rail that I was mounting to, so I'll have to rip up a big section of the rail now if the mounts are going to fail. Hopefully they won't fail.
My sail cover was torn a long time ago, and wearing out in all sorts of places, so I made a whole new one, and just put it on. Its black gore-tex, like the dodger, but I had to use the blue canvas parts for the fasteners, (little clip things that you can button it up with) and so its blue and black. I'm going to make the canvas of the boat be black and since it has a blue stripe on the side, I think it fits. Blue and black. Now I need a black canoe.
I think the boat looks much better with the bowsprit back on. I was really missing it when it was gone. Soon I'll finish with the jib (I have it off the boat to sew up the part that tore when the bowsprit broke off) and I've been making a sail cover for that too, so it will be black gore-tex sexy when it comes back on.
And the roller furling is hella sweet too. Coming up soon.

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