Small Sailboat Projects, Sunshade, Jibsheet Jam Cleats, Unstepping a Mast, Hank-on Striking Line.

Sun Shade
Starting with nursery shade cloth, or a painter's drop-cloth, a nylon sheet, or sail material, this Sun Shade is a must for lounging around under a hot sun.

Catalina with a Sunshade

Sitting at your mooring and enjoying the views is the next best thing to a day of sailing. So to protect us from the sun I came up with an easy-to-store sun shade. The Shade is held open by two stretchers, one placed forward of the boom-vang and one placed aft of the mainsheet. A line running from each corner of the Shade with the help of barrel-cinches adjusts the Shade.

Note that you can make the side pieces (shown in the drawing as 14") even wider and they will cover more of the sides of the boat. If you make them much wider you'll probably want to add some reefing-ties to hold them up when you want them out of the way.

Start with the main piece, 88" x 97", and add a 1" double hem (that's 1/2" rolled twice for those of you who are new at this).

Sun Shade Finished Size Aprox. 112" x 93"

Add triangular gussets at each corner and in the middle of each 88" side. Then cut the two side flaps 18" x 95" and hem them as well. Sew them to the larger piece. Also sew four triangular gussets in each of the four corners. Finally, go around to all ten gussets and add a brass grommet to each one. (You can get a brass grommet kit at hardware or marine stores).

The two middle grommets on the 87" side will need lengths of thin line tied to through them. They will be used to tie the Shade to the boom. Cut two lengths about two feet long, folded in half and the folds tied to the grommets so that you end up with two lines hanging from each of the two grommets.

Note: Since writing this I have replaced the two 14" side panels with larger panels that cover the entire side down to the boat. I just "reef" it up to a couple of reefing points that were added in. I also made a panel that simply hangs from the aft stretcher to cover the back end of the boat. The corners are held down with small tie-strings.

Barrel Cinch
Adjustment Barrel Cinch

Adjusting the corners. Now cut four pieces of the same light weight line about 48" in length. Tie one end around each of the four corner grommets. These lines will anchor the corners of the Shade to the aft and to the midship mooring cleats. Make a loop at the end of the line and run it back through a barrel cinch. You can use the cinches to level the shade or to tilt it to block a low setting sun. Barrel cinches can be found in the camping department of most big department stores or outfitters.

Constructing the Stretchers that hold out the sides of the Shade is fairly simple. Start with a 1x2 stock and cut it to a length of 66". Then rip the stock down it's length so that you end up with two sticks 3/4"x1"x 66" (aprox.). Bevel smooth-off the edges. Bevel the ends of each stick 45-degrees, not quite to a point. Pre-drill then drive a stainless flathead or round-head screw into the end of each Stretcher stick leaving about 3/8" of the screw extending out. The head of the screw should just squeeze through the grommets.
Sunshade Stretcher
To set up, roll the Shade out on top of the boom and tie off the forward and aft center lines to the boom. One Stretches goes aft of the mainsheet and the other goes forward of the boom-vang. Hook the stretchers through the corner grommets and cleat off the corner lines. Finally, adjust the corner lines with the barrel cinches and you're ready to relax. To finish the project make a draw-string sack that will stow the rolled-up Sun Shade when it's not being used.

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Jib Sheet Jam Cleats
A must for the solo sailor. Change your standard jib cleats to Jam Cleats for quicker control of your jib.

Raise the Jam Cleats on blocks that are cut a little larger than the base of the jam cleat. Round off the corners and add a finish.

Align the cleat on the deck to receive the tailing end of the jib sheet. Add support to the cleat by backing the nuts with some large washers and/or perhaps a piece of plywood.

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Fwd Cockpit
Quick additions you can use on almost any size sailboat. Here's a view of the cockpit setup just under the companionway.

Add some bungees to secure bottles and accessories.
A bungee stretched between eyestraps is a great way to secure articles around the cockpit. I also found a that good location for storage was just inside the companionway above the battery hatch if you stretch a bungee across there.

Rails make the cockpit into a double-bed
The wood rails under the edges of the seat cushion hold plywood panels that turn the cockpit into an outdoor double bed so you can camp-out under the stars. (Also see "Sun Shade" above to keep the dew off you.) The rails are 3/4"x 2-1/2" mahogany (finished size), stained to match the teak, and secured with bolts through the inside. Be sure to use a stip of wood and large washers on the inside.

Cut a piece of exterior plywood to fit inside the cockpit between the seats. Then cut the plywood into 13-1/2" sections. That length can stand upright on edge inside of aft the seat hatch for storage. The forward section can be used alone as a convenient cockpit table. To keep it from sliding add a couple of dowels sticking up from the rails thru a hole or notch in the plywood.

Safety Harness Attachment Point
Add an attachment point under the companionway for a safety harness by securing a pad-eye with a backing plate of plywood and fender washers. This location for attaching a safety harness will keep you in your boat while still letting you reach most of the boat's vital areas.

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Aft Cockpit

Tiller Locks -
A must-have for the solo sailor.
Cockpit - Aft
The addition of a tiller locking/braking system is another "must" for the solo sailor. A tiller lock (brake) will free up your hands when tacking so you can use both of them on the jib sheets, or to give you time to go forward to unsnag a line, or to hold the tiller to one side to help swing the boat when you are leaving a mooring or a dock solo. Really helpful when picking up a mooring solo because it holds the tiller centered to keep the boat from falling off. Also, while sailing in a steady breeze, once you trim up the boat you can set the brake and take your hands off the tiller, she'll pretty much sail a straight course on her own until the wind shifts. Just don't fall overboard ! Very helpful when you would like a little time "hands-free" for a meal break.

There are a number of brands available. The one that I use has a squeeze handle that locks/unlocks the tiller with just a squeeze of my hand. And there is a lock-out button that will fully disengage the brake so that you aren't squeezing the handle all of the time. Also it can be quickly locked/unlocked with just one hand. I find the one in the picture, called the "Tiller-Brake", to be excellent and it's the only one that I've found that doesn't require you to turn around and release something. The Tiller-Brake is distributed by RWO Marine in England (Item R0810), and can be ordered through your local chandlery, or through "Svendsens" at www.svendsens.com or 510-521-8454.

Keep an Air Horn in the Cockpit
We probably all deal with weekend boating traffic so I attached a cup holder on the transom to hold a hand-held air horn (see under the tiller in the picture above). Now I can reach a horn quickly when I need to warn off inattentive skippers on other boats.

Relocating the Main Traveler Cleats
On older boats the cleats for the Main Traveler are located on the inside of the transom where they are often blocked by the cockpit cushions and only accessable by the skipper. By relocating the cleats to either side of the boat they are more easily accessed and reachable by either the skipper or the sheet person. Relocating the cleats is a 15-minute project since the cleats are held in by just screws.

Cockpit - Main Traveler-1 Cockpit - Main Traveler-2

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Rudder Safetyline Safety
Run a safety line to your rudder from the stern of your boat to save the rudder should it ever get pushed up and out of the gudgeons. I added an eye bolt to the top of the rudder and clipped a line to it from the stern with a snap-shackle.

Outboard Safety Line Outboard Motor Safety Line
After a stormy night in which large swells came through the harbor and in the morning I found the motor barely hanging onto it's bracket, nearly knocked off by the bouncing of the boat in the storm, I then added this snap-on safety line running from the main-traveler bracket (1), around the back of the motor, and snapping to a eyestrap on the stern (2).

Gas Tank Safety. While under power my boat rolled from a wake and the gas tank turned on it's side, pouring gas through the loosened gas cap and into the boat. So I ran a safety line with a shackle from the inside of the hatch and around the gas tank handle to to keep the tank from tipping over.

Fog Charts
Getting caught by a fast forming fog bank can be unnerving at best and unfolding a large chart in the cockpit for guidance often requires that you have two-more hands. My solution was to photocopy the areas that I generally sail in and place the copies in clear acetate 3-ring binder sheets. I pre-marked common course lines and headings directly onto the photocopies so that I can refer to them quickly. You can put two photocopies in one acetate sheet, back-to-back. Tape several acetate sheets together or place them in a thin binder to keep them organized.

Download PDF Charts of Mass Bay
View Chart of Mass Bay

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Un-Stepping A Mast
The basics of getting your mast down safely and easily.

b-unstep-1
Photo A | (Fore to Aft): Here's Chip, Kevin, and myself conducting our Fall ritual of unstepping my mast. The hardest part of the endevour is usually getting three of us together at the same time on a Saturday morning.

Before you begin you'll need to build a crossframe (Item-3) to catch the mast when it's down. The one in the photo is a little short so next year I'm going to build a taller one. I'll let you know later how to build one for yourself.

Also I tie a safety line to the forestay or roller furler (Item-1) and run it through the pulpit, then aft through the jib car, and up to my hand (Item-2). This allows me to control much of the decent as the mast comes down.

Place the tall guy in the middle.
Begin by loosening all six of the shroud turnbucks. Then disconnect the two foreward lower shrouds completely and tie them to the mast. Disconnect the mast light, antenna, and pennant halyards.

Here Chip has already disconnected the forestay and has moved to the base of the mast, ready to remove the bolt holding the mast to the step once the mast is all of the way down. Put the tall guy in the middle to help lower the mast while the person standing in the cockpit feathers-out the safety line.

b-unstep-2
Taking her down.
Photo B | Meanwhile the cockpit person (furthest aft) is keeping an eye on the spreaders as the mast comes down to catch the mast with his hands above the spreaders. Once the cockpit person has the mast in hand move the tall guy quickly aft to help. He needs to keep his hands at the spreader to be above the pivot point for the mast or else the top of the mast will teater backwards into the water once the pin is pulled out at the step. Note that I've moved Kevin all the way aft (our tall guy) and that his shoulder is positioned above the spreaders.

b-unstep-3 The Crossframe
Photo C | The third photo shows a good view of the crossframe supporting the mast. This one is too short and needs to be several feet taller.

To make a crossframe support start with a 12-foot 2x4 and cut it into two 6-footers using a 45-degree cut. Place those two angled ends down and connect the tops together with a 1/4" bolt about 9-inches down from the top ends. Next take a 12-foot 1x4 and cut it into four 3-foot lengths. Screw them to the 2x4's to create the legs as shown in the photo.

It's really helpful to place a sheet of plywood over the cockpit footwell to give everyone more height and so no one will fall into it. In Photo-C you can see the plywood panels that turn my cockpit into a double-berth (see cockpit projects) that help out great for this project. All that's left to do is to disconnect the shrouds and backstay and tie them to the mast as we are doing here.

Ladder rack holding mast Photo D | I have a removable ladder-rack for one side of my pick-up that I use twice a year to move my mast back and forth between my back yard and the dock. A couple of saw-horses in the back yard and the mast is resting for the Winter.

~ A thank you to Richard for the photos and
to Kevin and Chip for their labor.

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Tuning the Mast
The basics of tuning your mast by eye.

Unless you are racing, this method will tune your mast pretty close to where it should be.
Note: Be cautious of how much you tighten things, don't overstress the hardware to their breaking point.

Once the mast is up, tighten the upper shrouds so that both of the turnbuckles are tightened equally.

Tighten the lower shrouds equally. Lay on your back on top of your boat and site up the mas mainsail track to make sure that the mast is straight.

Tighten the backstay.

Tighten the lower aft shrouds.

Some boat models have a bow in their mast. You may have to loosen the aft lowers a little to help create the bow.

Finish up by tightening everything one more time and then tighten the turnbuckle locknuts. Some people will take the boat out on a close-reach and then tighten the leeward shrouds a little. Tack the boat and repeat the tightening proceedure on the other side. Note: Be cautious of how much you tighten things, don't overstress the hardware.

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Ladder for reaching the spreaders
A Quick Way to Reach the Spreaders
Faster and easier than restepping the mast.

Some weeks after starting the sailing season I discovered that my forward lower was unraveling so I immediately placed an order with Catalina Direct for all new lower shrouds. Of course the difficult part would be to find a couple of guys with a few hours free-time on a Saturday morning to help me get the mast down, make the repairs, and then restep the mast again. Not to mention all the time to replace the sails and retune the rigging. So here's what I came up with instead.

I put together a ladder with two 12'- 2x4's and two 8'- 1x3 strapping for the rungs. I tapered the ladder to about 8" wide at the top and about 24" wide at the bottom and then spaced the rungs every 18".

After bringing the boat to the dock I tied the ladder's legs to the boat to keep it from slipping out. I also tied a line around the top of the ladder and the mast. About fourty-five minutes later I had replaced all four shrouds one at a time, and all by my self. If I'd dropped the mast it would have taken a couple of hours of my day and tied up two other people!

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Gull Swatter
Keep gulls from using your boat's bow for a diner table.

Gull Swatter If you have a hank-on jib.
1. If you use a mooring pick-up, cut the line that's attached to the weight. Thread about a foot of the line through the weight and tie a knot on each side of it to keep it from slipping. Tie a shackle to the end of the length of line and clip the shackle to the bow stem.

2. Tie a thin line to the pick-up just under the styrofoam float and then tie a loop on the line's other end. The jib halyard shackle will clip onto the loop. Adjust the length of the line so that the pick-up hangs from the halyard and completely suspended above the deck.

3. To keep the "swatter" from whipping back and forth wildly, tie another line, again just under the styrofoam float, and the other end of it to the bow cleat. Leave just enough slack in the line so that the pick-up will just swing the width of the deck.

If you have a furling jib,then instead of the jib halyard, run a line from the spreader with a shackle attached to the lower end. The lower end can be secured to an eyestrap on the mast when not in use.

If you don't have a mooring pick-up, then suspend a broom handle (wood or plastic) or a dowel over your deck instead.

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Hank-on Sail Striking Line
Here's an easy, permanent system for hauling down your hank-on headsail without having to leave the cockpit.

Basically you are going to end up with a permanent "messenger" cord that gets pulled up with your headsail when it's hoisted and then is used to pull the headsail back down later on. All that you'll need is about 50' of cord (1/8th or 3/16th), a few small swivel snap shackles, a small cleat, and some eyestraps or nylon bulls-eye fairleads of some sort which you'll run the line through.

Begin by taking your headsail to the bow and clipping it on. Then take some swivel snap shackles and starting from the top of the sail, count down in-between the first and second hank-on, and clip swivel snap-shackle #1 onto the forestay. Tie the end of your cord to the swivel ring on the back of this shackle.

Clip another snap-shackle, #2 onto the forestay about halfway down the luff inbetween the hank-on shackles. Thread the cord down through the swivel ring - don't tie it off to the shackle, just thread it through.

Now, as you can see, when you raise the headsail the two shackles and the cord will get pulled up with it. And when you pull the cord the headsail will be pulled down. To finish up we need to get the cord to run back to the cockpit.

You now need a turning point close to the stem fitting so that the cord can turn across the deck.
To one of the holes in the stem fitting plate add shackle #3 and thread the cord through it's ring. (You may have to try different types of shackles to find one that works well with your stem plate. You could also attach an eyestrap to the deck if there is no place to clip on a shackle.)

Clip another snap shackle, #4 to the toe rail near the aft end of the bow pulpet for another turning point. (Some boats have an attachment point at the bottom of the pulpet for the life line, boats that don't will have to add a small fitting like a eyestrap to the deck). If you are trying this on a larger boat you may have to use other hardware along the deck that would have small pulley wheels to make the line haul easier.

Run the cord through the swivel ring of shackle #4 and then to the cockpit over the cabin top or along the toe rail. To help guide the cord along the cabin top you'll want to add a fairlead or an eye near the forward end of the cabin top.

Add a cleat at the cockpit and tie-off the end of the cord to it. Hoist the jib first before you cut off the end of the cord to make sure there will be enough cord when the sail gets pulled all of the way up. By having a cleat to tie the line off to, once the sail is pulled down by the messenger and cleated, the sail will stay down snug on the deck and not blow around much. Great when the conditions get bad and you don't want to go up on a wet and bouncing deck to tie down the jib. If your jib halyard also leads into the cockpit you'll now be able to haul and strike the jib without ever leaving the cockpit.

At the end of the day remove the jib from the forestay and put it away, but leave the messenger line, still shackeled to the forestay, and ready for the next sail.

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Pre-Launch Check List

Launch Date: ______________________

To Buy :
__ In March: Fill-out and send mail order list.
__ Buy 2-qts. bottom paint
__ Buy 3-4 small paper paint buckets, 2-med. paint rollers, 2-disposable roller trays, 4-sm. foam brushes.
__ Buy 3" masking tape.
__ Buy clear liquid wax for hull.
__ Buy boat motor oil.
__ Buy new sailing gloves.

To Do :
Vaughn in French Curves, Marblehead, MA __ Empty cabin and check interior hardware.
__ Check all mast and boat hardware and boat's
electrical problems.
__ Make any hardware or electrical repairs.
__ Wash curtains, clean cushions.
__ Check dingy and painter.
__ Scrape and sand bottom of boat.

__ Check motor spark plugs and clean or replace.
__ Check motor shaft level.

__ Lay sails out on lawn, wash and inspect them.
__ Check stitching on sails ___, sail cover ___,
ensign ___, curtains ___.
__ Check tell-tails for replacing.

__ Check winches for repacking.
__ Sand teak, tiller and oars with 100# sandpaper
and apply 3-coats of finish.
__ Check and clean scupper hoses.
__ Wash and wax cabin.
__ Tighten toilet drain plug.
__ Close sea cocks.
__ Wash entire exterior except bottom.
__ Mask and paint bottom, two coats.
__ Wax cockpit, deck and hull.

__ Recharge boat battery.
__ Reinstall battery, clean bulb terminals and check circuits.
__ Reinstall cushions, curtains, radio, boom and sails into cabin.

__ Buy fresh gasoline on way to launching. Mix in oil.
__ Take Windex and install just before raising mast.

Additionally :

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Vaughn McGrath, when he's not sailing around Salem Sound on "French Curves",
owns McGrathics.com, an advertising design studio in historic Marblehead, MA.

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McGrathics, owner Vaughn McGrath,
has extensive experience providing creative services to area corporations, businesses, advertising agencies, and colleges. Experienced in developing complete corporate identity packages, websites, national and local advertising campaigns, brochures, trade shows, logos and packaging for a wide variety of fields including financing, engineering, electronics, retail, real estate, health sciences and education. Able to design and manage all aspects of a print or web project from concept through print/ftp. Illustrations for magazine and newspaper editorials, advertisements, childrens books, and text books.

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Marblehead, Massachusetts, MA, 01945

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