It was October 10th of last year when I published my final blog entry on my very abbreviated 2010 sailing season. We bought a used 1988 Catalina 22 sailboat in July, got it into Lake Ontario in August, and then pulled it out in early October.
The pull-out date was a bit early because of a shredded forestay, the cable that goes from the top of the mast to the front of the boat and on which you raise the jib. To refresh your memory, this is what it looked like:
This happened as were lowering the jib at the dock, it was not something I sailed with. It did indicate that the standing rigging, all those cables coming down to the front, back, and sides of the boat, also needed replacement. I have no idea when if ever they were replaced last. Since 10 years is a good lifespan for them, I was really pushing it on a 22 year old sailboat if indeed they were original.
So as I looked out the window here in northwest New York at the snow covering the ground, I performed my first specific action to kick off the 2011 sailing season: I spent money.
The boat will not go into the water again until late April, but I had to do something to replace that old rigging. Catalina Direct is a good source of replacement parts and so today I ordered a new forestay (16), a backstay (15), and shrouds. Then I popped over to CatalinaOwners.com and ordered a new mainsail halyard and headsail halyard. These are the ropes that raise and lower the mainsail and front sail, or jib, respectively. I also ordered a new mainsheet, the rope that controls the mainsail swinging left and right.
In the blog entry from October I considered the possibility of ordering a furling jib sail and the hardware for it. As I thought about it this winter, I decided that it could wait at least another year, and the $78 investment in the new forestay would be fine with my current jib.
Furling jibs make it much easier to manage the boat solo or in bad weather, but I figured that if people made due for thousands of years with non-furling versions, I could wait another season. It’s still in the “it would be nice” category, even for this size of boat. For a much bigger boat I would consider it a necessity.
That’s probably it for right now, though I’m considering getting cockpit cushions and a solar panel to charge the battery. Those can both wait for a few more days or weeks if I want then at the beginning of the real in-the-water season.
Update: When I ordered the set of new shrouds, I couldn’t tell whether a forestay was included in the package, so I went ahead and ordered one independently. Thanks for Catalina Direct for calling me to tell me that one was already included, and they were removing the extra item from my order. $78 saved.
