I was going to write this last week, but with April 1st coming up, and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not being particularly “April 1st-ish” this year, I’ll share video from late last year. The boats are at brother Andre’s place, and they’re probably getting close to being free from…
Here it is, September, the spiders have created their usual havoc, the waterline looks like a science experiment, and you need to go from a parka in the morning to shorts in the afternoon. Late afternoon. Tell me again why we live so far north? I continue to be amazed at the performance difference that…
One of the things about the lake is that it plays with the weather. What I mean by this is that when a storm blows though, there is a possibility that the clouds will magically split in two with one half going to the north, and t’other to the south. Now, before you go calling…
Marek did a refurb of his sea hood this year, and was good enough to take some pictures and write it up to share. Here is that writeup. The Catalina 270 has a “sea hood” on top of the cabin top. It is there to protect the companion way cover from sea water ingress, and…
Catalina supplied nice plastic vents with white covers on the boats up until who knows when. The plastic turned a nice sun damaged yellow over time, and appears to get brittle. An upgrade was in order. Actually, the condition of the vent was not the thing that precipitated the upgrade, it was the damm spiders,…
While our intent for 2020 was to go to the coast to cruise, and we all know how THAT story ended, or has yet to end, as it were; late last year I realized we had a problem. So, here we were, sitting in the dingy dock pub in Nanaimo, absolutely enjoying the reputation that…
Most BBQs mount on the stern rail. The little Catalina doesn’t support the SeaBQ off the stern rail as there is a small interference with the propane bottle, and if you put it at the side, the bimini gets in the way. Oh, the joys of compromise. The tube for the mast crutch, which is…
The 7artisans 7.5mm 2.8 “fish eye” lens is not a daily device. It is most useful for getting the “GoPro” look of a seriously curved horizon, and getting a lot of landscape into a shot. Used creatively, however, you can get the whole boat into the shot, and depending on the angle, the shot may…
The trouble with backstays. They are in the way. They are in the way when traversing the cockpit, sitting on the aft seats, and mostly, they are in the way when there is a bimini involved. The bimini rails used to be attached to the deck just forward of the stern rail. This was a…
Painters tape and wind do not go together. You heard it here first. (or not). The rails for the bimini were cut, new fittings applied, and the Gemini struts measured (very carefully) and cut. The bimini moved up from the deck to the top of the stern rails. Simply put, previously, it was a beach…
Lots of boats have lifeline cushions. Some are as simple as pool floats on the lines, some have nice wrap. I was watching uTube the other night, and the nice folk from Sailrite (who sell sewing stuff to sailboat types) have a video of what they called a “French Seam”. (talk about getting sidetracked) The…
The rudder reference was installed and epoxied into place. One of the best thickeners out there for epoxy is sawdust, it helps bind the stuff, and absorbs epoxy whereas glass strand does not. For this installation, I used my go-to, G-Flex 650 toughened from West. If you need to make “peanut butter” so the epoxy…
The nicest thing about an autopilot is that it can steer the boat. Downwind, for whatever reason, there seems to be an issue holding a straight line. Adding a rudder reference sensor will remove that, and add a little more stability to other points of sail. The little Catalina does not have a whole lot…
There are lots of pictures out there with nice vinyl storage bags in the head and aft berth. The little Catalina came fully equipped with a bunch of holes in the bulkheads, something that has bothered me from day one, and it finally got rectified. There was a wee bit of the nice weave vinyl…
Update to the dodger project – today 6 holes got drilled in the hull, well, ok, technically the cabin top. It still emitted that lovely aroma of drilled fiberglass. (and that was not a sarcastic statement, I really do actually enjoy that smell) While this wrist is still not working properly, I managed to get…
Sailing in western Canada 