CatManDeux

With the repair completed I took CatManDeux off the cradle and loaded her onto the renovated trailer and finally the day came to hook her to the truck.  Ironically enough she was placed on the cradle on 14 June 2014 and hooked to the truck on 14 August 2014, exactly tw...

The keel on CatManDeux is a 500 pounds of cast iron that hangs on hinge pin that is attached to the bottom of the boat in a pair of brackets and is secured at the far end to a hinge cable that works off winch inside the boat just under the companionway hatch.  The keel...

What a great song by Harry Chapin and a great thread title.  During the last sail I noticed quite a bit of water coming in from somewhere in the bilge and deduced it was more than likely around the keel lock bolt.  In fact it took running one bilge pump all night and a...

With the arrival of the new spreader brackets it was time to replace the defective ones, unfortunately the new ones neither look like or are the same size as the old ones.  The first thing I noticed was the new ones weretwo piece stainless steel, a major upgrade from t...

In the course of lowering and securing the mast for the ride home after a fantastic first sail I noticed a crack in the port side spreader bracket, pretty easy to see actually when the mast is resting on the bow and stern rails and is a foot above the cabin.  The sprea...

I always loved this song and it makes a great thread title.  I knew in October when I put the boat up it was going to be a long winter and very hard to deal with, but man this winter was ridiculous.  Even with the projects I worked on not being able to actually get on...

After a brutal winter it was with great anticipation that I removed the tarps to get CatManDeux ready for this years sailing.  I have covered my boats a few different ways over the years, single tarps, built frames out of 2 x 4's and covered the top with plywood then t...

With spring finally arriving I decided to move all the boat projects from the basement to the Garage and reassessed my decision on the finish of the tiller.  It became very clear to me that I wasn't going to be happy with how dull it appeared in the sunlight, so I deci...

When I bought CatManDeux one of the things that i really liked was the roller furlng jib which made single handed sailing so much easier and really works out well with being able to reef it in rather quickly when the winds get a little to gusty.  It's always nice to be...

I'm not really a Cat Stevens fan, but always felt that this song title was really cool and would make a good thread title.  Tillers are used on sailboats to steer with, until you get to larger size boats which use steering wheels.  The tiller connects to the rudder on...