Here I am sailing my lovely Ilur class sailboat, Cloud Atlas, on the St George River estuary in Maine. Its a placid evening, and I’m just lazily moving along under full sail. The tiller is held by a “huntingford helm impeder”. This is like a lashed tiller, but it permits quick adjustments.
I have a list of improvements and maintenance though. I’ll post it here.
- Paint the floorboards, foredeck, thwart, and sternsheets. I’m tired of the oiled wood, which gets dirty.
- Varnish the rails, spars, and oars.
- Replace the shock cord on the centerboard and rudder.
- Weld ring on mainsheet block.
- Proper quarter cleats.
- Finish the starboard cupholder.
- Put the name on the stern.
- Fabricate a wooden mast gate.
- Install the motor mount.
- New rudder head.
- Bilge pump and battery.
Those are the immediate items. There are some long terms projects also:
- Make a boom and new sail, to convert to balanced lug.
- Fabricate a self steering windvane.
It’s a dream of mine to write an article for a small boat sailing magazine on the windvane, if I can get it working. The plan is to make a horizontally pivoting vane, that steers the boat directly, without a pendulum.
