Boat work

Those of you who read this (all 3 of you) must get a bit tired of seeing the repair work that goes into keeping the Snow Goose in good shape. I’ve considered stopping any entries into the blog of my repair/maintenance work but if I did that it wouldn’t give a proper look of what it is like to live on a boat. I believe that no matter what type of boat, or the age of it that you own there is always maintenance that has to be done. So, I’ve decided to keep putting “boat work” into the Blog instead of just day to day things that interest me. Saying all of that, WOW! What a great sunset last night!

Well, back to repairs,,, I did something dumb, I forgot to undo the rope ties that hold up our center “tent” over the butterfly hatches before I let out the boom to go sailing.

The ‘D’ rings on the tent ripped out creating another sewing project. I also had a few minor sewing repairs that I had to be done to other things so, out came the sewing machine. Some cruisers just take these type of repairs to a canvas shop but since I bought a Sailrite Sewing Machine many years ago, I just get it out from under the bed  and I’m ready to repair or create any sewing jobs that needs to be done. Mind you, the work isn’t always up to the standards of a canvas shop but, it is good enough and the cost is GREAT! I do believe that this sewing machine has repaid it’s purchase price many times over. Anyway, about the repair.

When I built the “tent” I purchased 2 stainless steel “D” rings to tie the support ropes to. As you can see, one of them was made of plain steel and has rusted to the point of breakage. So along with repairing the aft side that was ripped out I also had to remove the forward, rusty one and replace it with a bronze ring that I had on hand. About an hour later, the tent had new rings and was reinstalled over the hatches just in time for the scheduled afternoon rains. The tent allows us to keep the butterfly hatches partway open so that we have air flow down below during rainy times and during sunny, hot days it keeps direct sunlight out of the cabin keeping it a bit cooler too.

Ripping out the old ring

 

 



My "tent of many colors" is back in place.