Time for the trailer.

The trailer makes it so that I don't have to keep the boat at a marina.  But the trailer needs to be maintained and cared for as well. So it was time for it to get some love and care!

Time for a new tire!

It is hard to believe that we have had this little boat for several years now! It is crazy how fast time slips by.

When we got the boat we where told that the one tire was recently replaced. But one tire had been on there for a couple of years. It was news to me that tires where only good for about 5 years! I always thought you just replaced them when they wore out. With a trailer or an RV that does a lot of time sitting and does not get a lot of miles put on them. The rubber will actually deteriorate as they sit and wait to be used.

So the one that was not replaced was getting cracks in the sidewalls. Even though there was a lot of tread still left on it, I didn't want it to blow out while driving down the freeway! So off to the Les Schwab that I have been going to for years.

Interesting company!

Luckily we have standard trailer tires on the trailer. Luckily no repeat of the RV tire problem! So they had the tire I needed in stock. They told me they would be able to swap the tire out with the boat on the trailer. It was nice not trying to deal with that!

Got the old tire swapped out for a fresh new one. It is good to go for at least 5 more years!

The other little change I did was swapped out the old trailer lights. They had a couple of issues. The light bulbs where not very bright and hard to see in the day. Also I kept forgetting to unplug the trailer before we launched the boat. So  I would heat up the light bulbs by using the brakes moving the boat to the water. Then dunk them in the cold water, and the glass bulb would brake. So I had to keep replacing them. Each time reminding myself to remember to unplug the trailer when we started setting up the boat for the water. The new LED trailer lights should help with both those issues!

Heading home and ready for more trips to the water!

Back on the water!

Back on the water!

Sailing down wind!

Got to take our little boat out on the lack again! The sun was out and the weather was perfect! A good amount of wind to sail. It was just a great weekend to spend out on the water. There is just so many reasons that it brings me so much joy and pleasure being on our little sail boat.

I sure wish that I was one of those amazing, quick, and funny blog writers. What some people have shared in their blogs, posts, and videos have really helped me out. Some of them have been so witty and funny as well has helpful and inspirational. I am hoping I would be able to do that as well.

Enjoying the water

I know the work is not done. There are still several things we need to do to get the boat totally finished. There is still many hours that I have to spend ripping out the old wiring and putting in new wiring. Then when I am done running all the new wires where I need them. Then I can put the wood on over the bare fiberglass. I am also working on making my first cushions to make her more comfortable.

At least we can continue to put her in the water to enjoy this sailing thing! It is funny how the feeling of happiness and joy I feel out on the water fades after being away from it for awhile. Getting back out on the water just brings back all those wonderful feelings. It helps me be motivated again to keep working on this big project.

Not only did we have a lot of fun. Got to enjoy some nice easy sailing, we also got to practice and learn quit a bit on this trip. So the first fun thing we got to work on was a man overboard drill. Shortly after we got started my new hat got blown off my head. So we got to practice with the making sure one crew member kept sight of the hat and pointing to it. We actually missed it on our first pass and had to make another pass to be able to get it out of the water.

The next thing is that I am so glad I fell in love with a sailboat, not a power boat. We where going to meet up with a friend who has a power boat. Shortly after they left their slip the motor kept cutting out. So with motor problems they headed back in. Luckily they got back in without any problems. It sure seems like those motor boats are a lot of trouble!

The other thing we got to practice was heave to. It was something he have not done before. It was hot and we wanted to cool off and jump in the lake. Lake Washington is really deep in many areas and we don't have enough rode to anchor. So we gave it a try. It worked pretty well. Started to do a slow tack. Did not release the head sail. Then lashed the rudder all the way over. It worked pretty well. Then I let them jump off and play in the water until they where happy.

Boat dog!

We went up to Kenmore where they have a pretty large dock that you can use for awhile for free. A perfect place to take the dog out for his potty brake. After a bit we fired up the bar-b-que and made dinner. Cleaned everything up, then headed back out on the lake again.

We found a nice place to be able to drop anchor. I checked to make sure it was set very well. We where able to relax and hang out for a bit. We got a bottle of cherry wine that we opened up. Unfortunately it didn't taste as good as we imagined cherry wine to taste!

We crawled into the v-birth and settled down for the night. It was a good and calm night. The boat rocked back and forth just the perfect amount. I feel asleep pretty quickly. I love the sound of the water against the hull of the boat. The feeling of it rocking.

Got woken up pretty early as a wake it the boat and we got rocked pretty good. Luckily we had some cold brew for coffee. Supper simple there! Plus we had a simple breakfast. It was so beautiful being out on the water. The fact that I started out my day on the water and didn't have to do anything to get to the water, besides taking a few steps, was so awesome!

After spending the day working on sailing skills. We are getting better at working together as a team. We are getting better at all this sailing stuff! We had to pack it all in. It is a sad feeling putting her back on the trailer to take her home. We just have to work hard at getting her back out soon!

Getting back to work

Getting back to work!

It feels so good to get back to it. There is still many things that I want to work on and learn. I thrive on new things. On learning new information. On learning new skills and putting them to good use. Of coarse, as a newbie that just jumped into this sailing thing, I had absolutely no clue how much I can learn! I thought I was just going to learn to sail and a few things about a trailer!

I never imagined that I would be learning about so many new and different things. Being able to put old knowledge back to work.  I didn't think I would be learning about fiberglass, epoxy, cutting foam, making cushions along with the wind!

The main project I am working on right now is the cushions. It would be so nice to have nice soft places to sit. We are not going to let little imperfections and lack of some creature comforts keep us from taking her out on the water! 

Getting ready to get wet!

We got to check out these cool little remote control hydroplanes that were racing! The detail that people are able to get onto models is so impressive!

How can you not stop and check out the little ducks that are growing up? I sure can't. Had to grab some pictures of them too!

So back to the work portion of the program!

I have been checking out YouTube videos, reading blogs, and websites. I just want to say thank you Sailrite! The instructions seem pretty straight forward. Get the right foam. Cut the foam to size. Sew a cover, boom all set and ready to go! My big hang up is worrying about screwing it up and wasting a lot of money. Then I am just worried about screwing it up and it looks really bad.

Well I found a sale on foam and fabric at 60% off! So I figured if I totally messed it up really bad and lost all the money put in to it, it should not be very much. So once again I jumped in with both feet and figured that I should be able to learn this and do it at least close enough. Any way it is a good way for me to learn and to figure it out. So here is what I have done so far.

I measured the area. Then measured and marked the foam. I found that the soft foam lets the tape measure move around a lot more then on wood! I didn't even think about that. As you can see I marked one side almost an inch off of what it should have been.

Measure and mark carefully!

I have learned that using an electric carving knife is a good way to cut the foam. Use that or a hot knife. I was able to get my hands on an electric carving knife. It worked out pretty good. Definitely not perfect. I found not moving the knife up and down like you would normally do to cut with a regular knife makes the cleanest edges. But my knife kept getting caught in the foam and would not keep cutting. So I had to saw up and down to cut through the soft foam.

The long cut.

After cutting it down to size I checked the fit. I used the factory edge to face out toward the cockpit. It looks like a pretty good fit!

Test fit.

I wanted to see what it would look like with the cover on it. So I placed the fabric over it to see what it should look like. I am thinking this looks pretty good. At least a little bit better then just bare boat. It sure is a lot more comfortable to sit on.

Looks better then just foam.

So far looks like I have not messed it up completely. Now to learn how to sew together a cover so that it can be beautiful all the time. So time to move inside and start working with the sewing machine. Luckily I was able to find an older machine on Craigslist for very little money. It is recommended to find an older machine with metal gears. I was able to find one that fit the bill.

Old school sewing machine!

So now I have to spend some time working on the sewing part. Hopefully I can figure that out pretty quickly! I think I have all the gear and stuff I need to put it all together. Do a few practice seems and then give it a try.

Finally get to sail.

Finally getting to blog about sailing our little Reinell sailboat! We took it out for the weekend.

There is still several things that I want to get done on the boat yet. But everything that needed to be done to make sure she was safe on the water was taken care of. We got to sail in Lake Washington for a bit, then the wind totally died. So we dropped anchor and jumped into the cool lake.

It is just so cool that we can be hot and ready to cool down, all we have to do is drop the anchor and we can go. It is a very unique feeling to be in the water next to your boat in the water! We got to test out the swim ladder and we found that we need a little support to keep the ladder from folding onto the hull. That made it really hard to climb aboard the boat. So we have to work on that.

We had to motor the rest of the way to Andrews bay off of Seward Park. As we rounded the point to head in I was very happy to not see very many boats at all. I figured the weekend before the 4th of July this place would be packed with boats. As we finished rounding the point we saw there was a good number of boats anchored there.

Luckily having a shoal keel we where able to find a spot pretty close to the shore. We anchored in about 20 feet of water. It didn't take long before our friends showed up. We got to do our first raft up! That was nice. Being able to hang out and chat with friends on our boat was a nice new experience.

The kids where able to jump of the sailboat and swim to our friends power boat. They have a nice swim platform and it was easier for the kids to get out of the water. Then they where able to walk over to our boat and jump in again!  The laughter of the kids and us as we chatted was awesome!

We had a simple dinner of burritos to fuel our hungry bodies. Watching as the sun started to dip below the hill. The kids where set on doing some night swimming in the Lake. It didn't take them long before they where back in the water. Being able to swim when ever you want is such a nice perk of this!

After the kids had their fill of the water, it was nice to relax and hang out on the boat. Watching as more and more stars started to pop out as the sky gets darker. Just being able to take it easy and relax. Listening to the sound of the waves lapping at the boat.

We got to try out our new V berth and it worked pretty good. Unfortunately the mast really rattled as the boat rolled on the water. It was a little hard falling asleep.

After some breakfast the wind started picking up. We where able to put up the sails and sail along for awhile. Again we stopped and enjoyed a dip in the lake.

We enjoyed a beautiful weekend. Beautiful views of Mount Rainier, sunsets and the water. Getting to spend time with friends. Getting some time with the sails full as we glide over the water. Of course the weekend had to come to an end. We took the boat into the dock and loaded her onto the trailer.

Until next time.

Swim ladder success!

Well I finally got the swim ladder installed. I was thinking it would be one of the easier projects! Well by now I should know that there are no easy projects. This is the finished product.

So the first thing that was an issue with the ladder mounting plates had a little lip on them. So I could not mount it flush to the hull. Plus I wanted to have something to spread the stress out. So I went with some wood. I stained it and wrapped it in fiberglass and epoxy. That should help keep it protected from the water.

The part that was really hard was figuring out how big of a backing support I would need. I couldn't find anything that gave an idea of square inches per pound of pressure or anything like that. So I just figured I would make sure to over build it so it was plenty strong enough.

Some how when I got the 4 stainless steel bolts to put this all together I though 2 inch bolts would be long enough. With the 3/4 inch wood that the ladder is sitting on, plus the 3/4 inch wood for the backing, they where not long enough.

So had to run and get 4 more bolts and pull everything apart. Clean everything up and apply more butyl tape to all the bolts. I ended up with one bolt a lot longer then the rest. So I had to run off and get the right sized bolt. Pull it apart and clean it all up again.

This time everything went together just as expected. Got it all tightened up. Tested it and it held my weight without a problem! So finally a task totally done and complete!

Moving inside.

I know this is supposed to be a blog about sailing a Reinell sailboat. Before we can sail we have to have the boat all set up and ready to go. I think we are almost there! I really only have the swim ladder and we can put her back into the water. The rest really is to make the inside look awesome and by very usable and comfortable for us.

Looks like I finally got all the leaks and the hardware stuff on the outside taken care of. So now I get to move on to the inside.

I am even more excited and nervous about this aspect of fixing / customizing our boat for us. I mean what is a good set up for us? What works on a sailboat and what doesn't? It's not like I have ever been on a sailboat to get some ideas.

Plus it is not like I have a lot of space to work with. There is like 16 feet from the front of the V berth to the companion way. Plus a little quarter berth that is perfect for the youngest. So in that space we need our space to sleep. We have a little sink and an area to make food plus a little ice box. A spot for the table and a place for the little john.

We we got the boat there was really nothing inside. So no ideas to start from really. Just a blank slate we get to make in any way we want to. That whole blank slate and filling it with something creative is definitely not my strong suite.

So the first thing that I saw was a problem was the front of the V berth. It had an area that really was wasted. Couldn't store anything or make use of it really. So that was an easy thing to see needed to be fixed for us.

What the V berth looked like after all the old nasty 1970's carpet was removed from the inside.

One thing I see is a lot of is having lockers everywhere. So I figured I would make one to make better use of that space.

I figured some furring strips epoxied on both side so that I can secure the face of the locker to it. Then I epoxied to horizontal furring strips to place a shelf on. Then I fiber glassed them to the hull just to make sure.

Then I used some cardboard and made a template for that area the best I could. Then I used that to cut that shape into a piece of 3/8 inch plywood.

It ended up with a really odd shape to be able to fit all the different contours of the boat.

Then I cut an opening. Then just cut a solid piece for the door. Stained them and applied several coats of varnish. For some reason the varnish on these pieces really was not very smooth. I kept carefully applying a coat. Letting it dry, then sanding it. Then carefully apply another coat, then lightly sand it. I tried foam brushes and regular brushes. I even went out and got a new can of varnish and tried thinning it out a little bit. I just couldn't get it to turn out as good as I wanted it to.

Because it can get dark in this area I figured some lighting in the locker would be a good idea. So I wired a small strip of LED lights. I put in a USB charge point for our electronics.

It is nice to be moving forward. It is nice when I can look and see a difference with what I am doing to the boat.

Just a few more steps and I am positive we will be able to be back sailing again!!

New port light #3 of 3! Finally done.

Well it looks like the saga has come to an end! I think I figured out a way to have shiny new plexiglass on the boat.

Seeing how the screws into the wood were not holding on very tight. Noticing that the professionally made ones bolted through the hull. Much easier to get them nice and tight, much harder for them to come out! I wanted to find a way to bolt the port light to the hull.

The inside of the boat is just bare fiberglass. No wires or anything important in the way. It sure looks like I should be able to drill through the boat and bolt the portlight on. I did see that one of the screws lined up with the little bulkhead we have in this boat. No surprise there, life as usual. Always something, right?  I can easily drill out a small area for the nut to sit neatly inside.

All that is left to do is get the bolts and drill more holes in this little boat. So I was able to get a bag of 100 stainless steel bolts the right diameter. I also got fender washers and nylon locking nuts.

I was able to remove all the screws holding the starboard side and the portlight stayed stuck to the boat. So I was able to just drill through all the holes.

Carefully lined up the drill, and drilled away. It went through the balsa core pretty easy. Took a little bit to get through the fiberglass on the inside. After drilling all the holes, I cleaned up the inside a bit. Some of the fiberglass holes were a bit rough.

Then I started wrapping butyl tape around all the bolts that I would be using. Making sure that I had enough to easily fill the holes in the plexiglass and the boat. I made sure to wrap it down the bolt pretty far to make sure I would have some butyl tape contact the hole I drilled and fill the space between the bolt and the hull. Man do I know how to have a good time or what?

Then cleaned up the inside fiberglass. Bolting through the boat and making sure to have large washers on both the inside and the outside. Then tightened it down, not cranking down really tight. One thing that prevented that is that the bolts that I could find was considered a "security" bolt. So it has a special head that used a special tool bit. After tightening down a few of them I snapped the bit. Luckily I got 4 bits just because of that.

Made sure to use plenty of butyl tape around all the bolts. It looks like they sealed up pretty good. The next thing to do is test it. So I grab the hose and soak down the portlight really well. Not a drop of water on the inside!!

Some of the bolts needed to be so tight that they snapped the bit. So I had to make a tool to be able to tighten them enough. Looking at the two little round places for the bit to hold on, it looked like a nail would fit in there. Luckily I had some finishing nails that fit pretty good. So I pounded two through a little board with a long handle. I was able to really tighten down the pesky few that needed to be really tight!

Simple wood and nail tool

Put the bulkhead back in place to mark where I need to drill a little hole to make room for the nut. Luckily I was able to bulkhead right next to the nut and screw it into place night and tight! So something went quickly and easily. Man I like it when that happens.

Then the next day I was able to repeat that whole process on the port side! Now I have 2 shinny new portlights to look out of. They sure make a difference with how much light gets inside. Not the most perfect or beautiful of jobs. But so much better then what was there before.

I am so glad that most of the anxiety of trying to figure out how to work on a boat and doing it right, is gone. There is so  many new things that I have had to learn. It is very different then working on cars. That is my greatest amount of experience working on and fixing.

I have just been so worried about messing it up. Cutting the plexiglass, you can't just put it back together. If I don't seal something up perfectly and we are in the middle of the Puget Sound it would be really really bad for us. Its not like driving down I-5 and having something not working on my car. I can usually get to the shoulder.

I am very glad and happy so many people share their experience, knowledge, and information on the internet. It would have been so much harder for me to try and figure this stuff out if it wasn't for people sharing with the world!