Stopping the Leaks?

So, for Labor Day, I decided to spend three days in the boat yard taking care of projects before the Rockport Yacht Club's Race to the River. I'm planning to use the race as a pre-Bahamas shakedown event to work out whatever needs attention. One of the primary items on my list is stopping leaks in the centerboard case and the trailer pad-eye on the bow. So, I reserved the crane at the Austin Yacht Club and hung out for a few days!

It was very hot. So, I started at sunrise three days in a row, and hosed myself down several times throughout the afternoons, but I got through all of the projects.

The centerboard case is composed of two pieces with a seam running down the middle. So, my plan was to add a strip of fiberglass along the entire seam. It would have been easier to do if I could have turned Ama Mama upside down, but that was just a daydream on a hot day. What happened instead - I cut the fiberglass strip to size, soaked it in freshly mixed resin, grabbed a couple of paint stirring sticks, and did my best to hold the strip in place over my head for about 10 minutes while the resin hardened. Yes, I did end up with a little resin in my hair! Here's what the center board slot looks like from below.

Once I had the centerboard case glassed in like I wanted, it was time to get the centerboard back in place. I took this opportunity to replace the centerboard control lines and a baffle to stop water from entering the control line sheave case (see below).

As I was putting the centerboard back in place, I remembered reading something on the Tramp Yahoo Group about wedges that hold the centerboard in place (see below). When I took the centerboard out, there were no wedges. So, I had to fabricate a couple if I wanted to put the centerboard back properly while I had it up in the air on the crane. I remembered seeing some 100% PVC trim board at Home Depot and though it might work well. So, I picked up a piece, and after cutting it to length, the height and width of the trim board (approximately 0.875"h x 1.625"w) worked perfectly for this application! 

I knocked out a few other items on my list including remounting the trailer attachment pad-eye on the bow which doubles as the bowsprit bobstay attachment point, adding hatch seal tape to the bow locker lid (see below), and installing rubstrakes on the top of the bimini to protect it from the boom.

It was a great long boat yard weekend that checked some major items off of my repair list!

A New Home for Ama Mama

We finally got Alex signed up for sailing camp at the Austin Yacht Club this summer after trying to make it happen for several years. He had a great time at camp and decided to continue on with the Junior Sailing Program at the club.

We have been in Austin for almost 9 years, but I have held off joining the Austin Yacht club because I didn't want to be spending all of my time at the club without the family joining me. However, now that Alex is getting into it, we decided to join the club and move Ama Mama from across the lake onto the club grounds. Also, Alex and I convinced Carmina to join us for doing some club races on Ama Mama. Here's some pictures of the action (photos courtesy of Russ Shermer. Thanks, Russ!).

 Ama Mama taking the lead (not for long) off the line with an F-31 1D passing to starboard.