Plastic Classic Forum

Welcome. I was impressed by everything I saw the first time I went aboard a W28 in Ft Lauderdale around 1983 and met the owner who had just returned from a solo trip from his home port (I think it was Chicago) to Sri Lanka and back.

Maybe someone else has an idea but I can't imagine what that number would be. Whatever number a yacht designer came up with for sizing sails and rig, they'd add a substantial amount for inertia and shock loads, boat size, specs and other factors. And you can carry different amounts of sail at differ...

There's many ways to set up the reefing system so I'll just try to answer your questions the way I'd set it up. To reef the sail without having to go through the drama of turning upwind to luff the sail, I'd install a small winch and cleat on the boom as in the video links above. That will take care...

Don't forget to check earlier posts by using the search box. There is an enormous amount of good info there. I recently answered a similar question at the link below that you can check: http://plasticclassicforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=6199&p=51530#p51530 But that was for a smaller b...

Kurt

Have you reconsidered which of your other two boats you want to keep? I think your plan was to keep the Ariel and sell the A30?

That defender link is a good resource. You may want to compare their prices and splicing services with cajunrope.com. I've used cajun for all my lines and halyards for the past several years and they seem to have the best prices, good quality and free shipping. For your boat I'd use their standard d...

Thanks for updating your big ongoing project. I've also had problems getting primers to go on smooth enough that you don't have to sand most of it off to get it level. I found that just rolling it on with a foam roller was better than roll and tip because it dries too fast and doesn't level itself. ...

We're very relieved that you and all your boats came through intact. Chafe is the killer in long spells of high winds. Some good lessons learned there.

I can't think of a reason to remove the entire liner since its extensive and useful in many areas. Assuming you just want to remove portions of it where you want access or to modify some cabinetry, The liner is easily cut away and patched in with plywood and glass as needed. Under the liner the hull...

I was concerned about how you and all your boats fared during hurricane Flo but it seems you got thru OK. I've used a 5hp long shaft 2-stroke that was in a fixed well on a Taipan 28 that I delivered from Venezuela to Brazil. When at sea I removed it from the lazarette to store in a cockpit locker. M...

I sailed for years with a roller furling boom that I disabled the roller by drilling and tapping a bolt that jammed the gears. I guess you could squeeze in a gob of thickened epoxy instead. Sometimes the booms don't move out of vertical on their own so you don't even need to jam them. On several boa...

Not sure about good yards in your location. Unless you go to a known do-it-yourself yard it is very hard to find a place that is affordable and that provides consistently good service. From the yards point of view they have huge overhead and needy boats and troublesome customers. From our point of v...

The Garhauer 30-US 4-1 should be adequate. I order mine with the standard shackle at the top and an optional snap shackle at the bottom cam end. That way I can connect it to a bail at the mast base if available or move back and forth to a stanchion base. https://garhauermarine.com/catalog_process.cf...

You select the pole by the length you need and the diameter of the tubing so it is strong enough not to bend under load. If you can afford it I think you'd want an adjustable whisker pole rather than fixed length. The Forespar Line Control LC 10-18 is long enough but a bit undersized for your boat. ...

Here's a couple links that can answer most of your questions: https://www.forespar.com/pdf/F6.1-whisker-pole-brochure.pdf https://www.forespar.com/whisker-poles.shtml You can see on the top left of the page that a twist-lock telescoping pole is only rated for up a 25' boat with genoa in heavy air an...

My first choice would be to replace the old genoa with a new one around 135-145% (depending on what other light air headsail options you have) with foam luff and that might be all you need, especially for lake sailing. If you don't want to do that there are lots of examples online of how to set up a...

If you are fighting excess weather helm you handle that by reefing the main more than the jib until you have less weather helm. There are many variables that go into a reefing schedule (sea state, displacement, stiffness of boat, direction of travel relative to wind, size of furling jib, full batten...

That boom looks in rough shape. The simple thing to do is lash the tack of the sail to the narrow spot of the boom using something like a 5/16" line or a webbing strap. If you have space to drill somewhere near the top and avoid running into the roller mechanism then you could add another shack...

You could try something like the Trident, Straight-Thru Fitting - Liquid and Vapor Tight:

https://www.go2marine.com/product/92459 ... tight.html

Check that it is the right size to pass your end fitting through.

Unless you plan to run your motor nearly every day it seems like adding to your battery bank is a priority. One GP 31 (105 AH) for house bank is a minimum and two is much better. You can only use 50% of battery capacity without damage to the battery so your current battery only gives you 40AH and le...

I've painted right over very small pinholes filled with two-part fairing compound with no problem. I've been using Alexseal on the past couple paint jobs and the tech support said it was fine as long as it wasn't a single part filler.