I just finished a new canopy cover for my friend, Irene’s, garden swing. I popped over this morning and we put it on. Looks great!
Tag: DIY
Aloft!
Okay, I’m a tiny bit ecstatic. I finished the mainsail repairs today. And the slow, endless rain of the last week or so has moved on. So we drove out to the marina and tied the main back on, then took Nirvana out for a sail for the first time in about 3 months. We hoisted both the main and the jib. It was the first time taking Nirvana out since I repaired each of the sails. The winds were light, but I loved seeing them out and in the wind.
Ready to sail.
Time has flown by since we took Nirvana’s mainsail home at the beginning of December. But we’ve not been idle. We’ve had a lot going on; a few visits from family and friends, an Atlantic coast boat delivery, the holidays, the bathroom remodel, yardwork, life, etc. But I think I’m almost ready to start repairing the main.
I’ve made a scale drawing of the sail and all its detail (including seams, layers of dacron, batten pockets, luff and leech tape, direction of the warp & weft/fill – or weave – of each piece of the sail’s construction, etc). On top of that, I marked the location of the damaged areas that need to be repaired. Using this, I can figure out a strategy of what pieces to replace, the dimension of each piece, and then lay them out on scale drawings of 54″ wide dacron yardage so I can figure out how much I need to cut out all the pieces with the weave in the required direction.
Nirvana’s sail is a bit unusual – at least for a US boat – in that it has a furling boom (a Forespar LeisureFurl furling boom). It’s a very nice upgrade that is reportedly prevalent in Australia and New Zealand sailboats. We like the convenience and the fact that our furling boom allows us to have full battens in our main. As I’m preparing to repair the mainsail, I’ve learned that sails for LeisureFurl booms are built with multiple layers, or plies, toward the leech end of the sail, which is required to ensure proper furling of the main. It just makes things a bit more interesting (complicated), as that is where the majority of the damage is. I’ve also spent time on the phone with Sailrite and Forespar to ensure I use the right weight of dacron for the replacement pieces.
The repairs I plan to make to the mainsail include:
– Replacing the bolt rope tape on the luff of the sail. This goes into a track on the aft-side of the mainmast as the sail is raised and lowered. It is well worn due to wear and UV damage.
– Replacing the dacron tape along the leech of the sail. This is well worn and cracking due to wear and UV damage.
– Replacing areas of varying widths along the entire leech of the sail where UV damage has degraded much of the top ply of dacron. The previous owner neglected to replace a worn sail cover before selling her, probably for a couple of years, resulting in a wide swath of cracked and torn dacron that remained exposed to the sun when the main was furled.
I’ve been taking my time, as sail work is new to me, and I have a lot to learn. The first 2 sets of repairs are straightforward. The third set of repairs is non-trivial and essentially requires replacement of much of the top 2 plies of the sail.
The picture below shows the drawing I’ve made of the port-side of Nirvana’s approximately 13 1/2′ x 38′ mainsail. The brown lines represent the batten pockets that are on top of all the layers of dacron and the luff & leech tape. I essentially need to remove and replace the pink and blue layers of dacron on the aft-end of the sail.
Because of the order in which the parts of the mainsail are sewn, I’ll have to pull up the existing batten pockets to remove the worn pieces of the sail, then sew in the new pieces of dacron, and then sew the batten pockets back down, before sewing the luff and leech tape on. I’ll also have to replace a couple of the numbers on the sail when all the repairs are done, as some of the sections that need replacement are under the sail numbers.
This is definitely more complicated than the repairs I made to the jib a few months back. But, I’m cautiously optimistic that I can do this. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.
Next step.
The new Silestone (quartz) countertop and under-mount sinks were installed today. Then I installed the faucets. Looks good!
After this: floor tile, wall tile, and baseboards!
From leaky to squeaky clean.
Several months ago, I noticed water leaking from our 10-year old GE front-load washing machine while doing a load of laundry. Upon inspection, I saw that a little piece of the rubber seal between the drum and the door had been torn away.
For a while, a temporary repair involving tape worked. But the leak returned and eventually got worse.
After a little internet research, I found and ordered a replacement part – a new rubber door gasket – and found a couple of videos walking through how to replace it step by step. I suggest watching more than one, as each one highlights slightly different things. These are the 2 videos I found. I decided to give it a shot.
The part came in last week, so today was the day to install it! The videos are only about 15 minutes long. My total elapsed repair time was around 3 hours, though, which included collecting the tools I needed, moving the washer out to where I could work on it, cleaning everything as I went, and playing/pausing both videos as I proceeded from one step to the next.
The patient, with new door gasket sitting on top of the machine:
While the videos say the repair is an easy one, it does require you to disassemble much of the machine, or at least more than I thought would fall into the “easy” category.
New door gasket part-way installed!
I think it went pretty much as the videos showed. Removing and reattaching the second clamp was not as easy as the videos made it look, but I went very, very slowly and it eventually worked out fine. I’m doing the first post-repair load of laundry as I write this, and I don’t see as much as a drop of water on the floor. Thank God.
The machine is fixed, it’s clean inside and out, and I finally leveled the washer after ten years of having it wobble a bit. Bonus!
Leaf me alone!
I truly enjoy the trees in our yard. But, there are many of them, and they collectively drop billions and gazillions of leaves every year. Over the last day or two, we raked and scooped up 5 or more trailer-loads of those bad boys – a good workout. Our new pile-o-leaves (and future garden soil):
I can’t complain though. It has been lovely outside. Today the temps were close to 70 degrees F. Thankfully, cedar pollen levels are below the threshold that triggers my allergies. As I sit here, sore and tired, I’m sipping a glass of wine listening to the news guys report on the cold and snowy weather up north. Yeah, I’ll take yard work in the winter in Austin over that any day.
On the move.
This weekend brought Julie back to Texas! 🙂 But, it was only to pack up the contents of a couple of storage units into a U-Haul and head right back to Washington. 😦 She has a great new job up there.
Though I’m sad to see her go, I think Texas has a way of calling one back, after a while, so I’ll keep hoping. Bon voyage! I pray that Mother Nature takes it easy on them over the next few days as they make their way through the mountains.
Progress on the homefront.
The bathroom remodel continues. Monte has finished the cabinets and they look great. Next step: wall paint.
I love being in the queue!
Demolition.
When we bought our house we spent 3 months updating it before we moved in. Then 10 years ago we lived through a 6 month remodel. It’s time to make dust again! This time we are updating one of our bathrooms. Tile gone. 1980’s era massive 4’x9′ mirror gone. Hideous 12-ton countertop about to be gone. Monte is making new cabinet doors, and sanding and painting the cabinets and doors. One tall cabinet done, and looks great. One long cabinet is next.
Lofty goals.
We brought home the jib from Nirvana. It has several tears and wear that needs some TLC. I’m setting out to mend this 42′ x 17′ triangular mass of Dacron. Who will win? Stay tuned.
Pretty boat.
Over the weekend, we took out Nirvana and Cupholder at the same time. Monte wanted to get some photos of the catboat underway. Kurt came along to steer while I stood on the bow and took photos. The light was lovely, with a slight northerly breeze.
Taking 4 years to build, starting in 2000; launched in Lake Travis in 2004; heavily sailed and thoroughly enjoyed for years; hauled out in 2012; driven to the coast for its saltwater christening and to sail the weeklong Texas 200 in 2013; lovingly restored over the course of a few more years; relaunched on Lake Travis in 2019. Monte has taken great pains over the years to keep her looking and sailing like new. A pretty boat, indeed. Also, still the best dancefloor on Lake Travis. 🙂
Companions’ cover.
I think I’m on a roll with this boat canvas thing. I made a companionway cover for Marty & Sue’s boat. I love the color. It’s insulated, with a layer of Reflectix between two layers of marine Sunbrella. Stitching it was a bit like wrestling a bear at times, but my new machine handled it well. 🙂
Simple favors.
I had a nice visit with Laura today. When she came over, she brought a pair of exercise bands that she wanted made smaller by a couple of inches. Frankly, I don’t think I could get one of these over both my arms up to my elbows, but Laura can actually put both her legs in these!
I was pleased to see that my awesome new industrial sewing machine could not only sew through layers of this really thick rubber elastic band material like butter, but the machine’s walking foot just stepped right over the 1/4″ thick rubber label along the way. I’m thrilled at the big and small projects I’m able now able to do.
Whatever works.
One of the salon cushions on our Catalina 320 tore along a center seam. I tried mending it once and it just tore again, as the fabric had significantly weakened along the seam. I think the material is Ultrafabric Brisa Original (from around 2005). I haven’t been able to find a color match yet. It’s just as well, though, as the fabric runs around $65/yard. I’m not ready to reupholster the entire set of salon cushions yet. Soooo, what can I use for a temporary fix?
I decided to repurpose a length of Tear-Aid Type-A tape that I originally got to patch a few holes in our Sunbrella bimini skin. It should adhere well to Brisa’s polyester and rayon backing. It’s not supposed to be sewn-through, but I don’t need a waterproof seal. I simply want to use it to patch along the back-side of the rip and to strengthen and reinforce the area around the tear so I can stitch a new seam through it, about 1/4″ in from the tear.
So I gave it a shot… and I’m happy with the repair. Now I just need to wait and see how long it holds up. Fingers crossed!
Before:
And after…
If you’re interested, here’s a few pics as I tried the fix.
I removed the cover from the inner cushion pieces, and ripped out the old seam on all 3 pieces of fabric involved in the seam. The alcohol is to clean the Brisa fabric backing, where I want to apply the Tear-Aid. The hair dryer is to help me flatten out the old folded seam allowance, and also to help dry the backing after I cleaned it.
Both pieces of Brisa are torn along the old seam. I’ll need to patch both pieces in a similar fashion before trying to sew a new seam.
Tear-Aid says to clean the application area with alcohol and let dry. As I cleaned the fabric with alcohol, I saw that the backing material was rotted away in places. So I removed all the non-adhered backing along the tear. Not sure how it got in this condition. Maybe something caustic spilled here and weakened the fabric. Or maybe 15 years is all you can get out of Brisa.
After cleaning and drying the pieces of Brisa, I used scotch tape on the right side (outside) of the tear to hold the edges of the tear together, temporarily. I’ll remove it after I apply the Tear-Aid to the wrong side (inside) of the torn fabric.
I cut a length of Tear-Aid Type A tape and applied it on the backing-side of the Brisa fabric along the tears. Tear-Aid recommends leaving an inch of patch around any torn area, but I didn’t have that much of material along the old seam allowance, so I used a smaller piece than they’d probably recommend.
I removed the scotch tape from the right-side of the pieces of Brisa, and clipped the right-sides of Brisa together to prepare for stitching the new seam. This time I’ll sew THROUGH the newly applied Tear-Aid, approx 1/4″ in from the tear along the old seam.
Stitching the seam was a bit challenging, as the adhesive from the patch gummed up the needle every 6 inches or so. But, as long as I cleaned the needle each time with alcohol, it stitched pretty well. I used a ballpoint (recommended for Brisa) needle, size 16, and V-69 poly thread, and I also found I had to lower my top thread tension.
There you have it.
