Back in the saddle

We took a long bike ride yesterday to talk to a number of fiberglass repair shops. Our initial plan was just to gather together the materials we need to reinforce the support beam, but as we talked to people we started to think maybe it would be better to just get someone else to do it. Faster, less mess, definitely less shouting. There’s a local boat show coming up so scheduling may be an issue and we might end up doing it ourselves anyway, but we’re exploring the possibilities.

One of our stops was to Mack Sails. We explained our crooked batten problem to Colin Mack and he said bring in the sail and he’ll fix it. We should have done that today, but we took care of some other errands and business instead. Getting the sail off is a royal pain, but we’ll try to get it done so his guys can pick it up here Monday morning.

We told him about the bracket on the boom that connects to the boom vang and how the welds need to be reinforced. He said there’s an official Leisurefurl cast piece — no welds — and it would be stronger. He even had one and we bought it because it’s definitely heavier duty than the thing we have now. But when Jack took it up on the arch to make sure it fit, we could see that the boom has been so boogered up by previous “modifications” that we can’t see how it will work. We’ll consult with Joe Hanko on that, and return the fitting to Mack Sails if we can’t use it.

We ended up riding about 12 miles all told, all of it on city streets and sidewalks with endless traffic lights and crosswalk signals. It takes a lot longer than trail riding where you just go non-stop. Our ride was punctuated by visits to Starbucks, Importico’s Bakery for lunch and a post ride ice cream reward. It felt great to be back on the bikes and get some much needed exercise.

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  1. If you see Colin at MACK SAILS tell him Hi from us. We like Colon and trusted him, though we will check the work closer on future orders from them. They put in ourFACNOR behind the mast reefing furler – but used too small sized screws to mount it to the mast, causing the whole thing to slip by the time we got to Fort Myers doing the cross FL canal. THEY FIXED IT THOUGH AND SENT A TECH OVER FOR A FULL DAY TO FIX IT RIGHT. When crossing the Atlantic we found out the hard way that they reused some of our original stamped shackles at the topping lift (not strong enough) on the back – which failed before the Azores. We also had them redo all our standing rigging … left rear cable of which a rigger over in Holland condemned due to a twist & separation in the cable – Colin’s brother defended the rigging work as something that straightens out when under load. Their prices were the best – WE STILL LOVE THEM AND THINK THEY ARE GREAT FOLKS!

  2. Anita

    Nice to see you out and about. Shirt sleeves and shorts are the order for the day. It is warmish here in NJ – 43. Rosalie even ventured outside. Enjoy!

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