Canvas and sails day

Thursday 8 Feb, St Maarten day 10: Work on Spinnaker and Bimini.

Today I arrange to have our asymmetric spinnaker snuffler repaired. The hoop on the lower end was made of wood, so yes, second time we flied the spinnaker the hoop snapped! We had used the spinnaker a few more times after this, but the broken wood is threatening to rip its way through the cloth. Now that we have the Parasailor spinnaker this asymmetric is for sale, so best I get it fixed. The biggest problem, same as any of Cloudy’s sails, is to maneuver it off the boat – especially challenging by myself. It’s about the size and weigh of a dead body in a body bag (sorry for the analogy).
Eventually I get it on deck and literally dump it in the dinghy. The exercise is good practice for disposing of any unwanted “guests” in the future 🙂 Ashore someone helps me out of the dinghy with the monster and luckily the sail loft, which is 2 floors up, has a crane to lift it up there.
Then to FKG to arrange them to make a new hoop out of solid aluminium rod, 5/8” diameter. That should not break! I’ll have that covered in pipe-lagging foam before we sew it into the snuffler.

I also remove the bimini to have it repaired. A while ago the boom rubbed on it and wore a slit over the bimini arch. It’s been taped up with sail repair tape since, pending a repair.
While dropping off the Bimini they give me back the repaired cockpit cushions and also the new bow hatch cover. This triangle of sunbrella goes over the bow hatch. It should stop the sun coming in (damages the interior teak) and more importantly allows us to keep the hatch open when it rains.

Late afternoon I apply the last bit of Borecol on the decks and again do a little prayer for it not to rain in the next 24 hours. Note … it didn’t work 🙁

Then it’s off to the yacht club for the crew briefing evening in preparation for the multihull racing tomorrow. The briefing is very brief and it’s followed by food and free rum punch. The club is packed with people and I find it amazing how many faces I recognize from the yacht services businesses, and people I’ve seen in chandlers or Lagoonies. Oooph, I must have been here too long already! But it’s nice to chat to lots of people, all of the same mind. As the run punches are flowing freely (very freely!) I decide to head back to Cloudy Bay while I’m still able to drive the dinghy! People are leaving by 10pm anyway. Tomorrow we head out for the first race at 11am. Pity about the forecast … very little wind 🙁