Ulua is sailing!

I finally got the Pineapple Express on the water with a working sail rig. So much fun! Sails great using the sunfish rig and steering with my rough carved steering paddle. This pics show a rudder, but I have to redo the hinge. 

Overdue Islands 17 Update

Before I could enjoy this view of St Joseph's Sound back in November I had to do some work on my trailer before I felt comfortable hauling it across the state. New hubs, new springs and a new trailer jack. New winch is on the list. Not shown - I converted from bolt rope to slugs for $50 at JSI. Now with my topping lift I can just drop the sail and tidy things up on my boom.

Windy night but lots of fun!

Ulua Launch and up next:Wooden Surfboards

The Ulua was launched over the holidays, and has been great fun to paddle. I still need to finish the mast step and rudder, but it is finally out of the garage!

Next up after some honey do items are checked off the list is a couple of these:

"Free" Sunfish found a new home

Craigslist and days off don't mix. Normally when I see a post for a free boat, I can safely ignore it due to workday responsibilities. Not this time. The "free" Sunfish is all there, I've even had it out for a sail. In my oh-so-abundant spare time I just need to patch a bunch of holes, re-do the foam inside, paint it and patch the sails. No problem! 

Taking Honeypot and baby girl for a quick paddle this morning #mojossawdustfactory #lovefl http://t.co/2tOWL0Bkmn

Taking Honeypot and baby girl for a quick paddle this morning #mojossawdustfactory #lovefl http://pic.twitter.com/2tOWL0Bkmn

— Jon Van Vuren (@JonVanVuren) August 15, 2015

from Twitter https://twitter.com/JonVanVuren

August 15, 2015 at 08:42AM
via IFTTT

Helped Father-in-law with his Lumber Yard Skiff build this weekend #mojossawdustfactory #lys http://t.co/jC68D0EiGE

Helped Father-in-law with his Lumber Yard Skiff build this weekend #mojossawdustfactory #lys http://pic.twitter.com/jC68D0EiGE

— Jon Van Vuren (@JonVanVuren) July 26, 2015

from Twitter https://twitter.com/JonVanVuren

July 26, 2015 at 08:29AM
via IFTTT

A riveting project

I have been making a few changes to the running rigging of the Islands 17 to make it a bit easier to handle coming in and out of the canal. 3 recent projects have been adding slugs to the sail, a fair lead for the jib halyard, and a topping lift. 

I had to try out the rivet gun for the first time, it was rather anti climatic. Figure out where I wanted the hardware, drill pilot hole, instsall rivet. But the results were clean! Now I can raise and lower the job without the block getting jammed.

With the topping lift and sail slugs dropping the main no longer means a mess of sail, and boom to deal with in the cockpit while bringing her in or out of the canal!