Good wind

Wind looks good for sailing tomorrow pm 22 with 30 gusts:

Expect some pics here soon...

Volts

Besides working with wind and water energy, Vanessa will be equipped to deal with electrical energy. Basic electrical backbone (battery, bus, distribution panel, with appropriate fusing along the way) and the first application of fixed VHF radio with antenna is still in engineering and financial approval phase.
The process of learning about electrification and marine comms is half the fun.

Epoxy old?

Drilling holes in deck for water flow to cockpit so it can be pumped out was a dreadful thing. But after putting it off too long I finally did it. Followed by treating the bare ply with epoxy for waterproofing. But the epoxy mix did not get hard after one day. Usually it goes off in one or two hours and hardens in about 12. But after two days of waiting and testing it seems to have hardened. Phew...  Now the plugs and hoses can be fitted.

Boom fittings

Testing out the camera's timer function as a big exception I pose here at Vanessa how she is being worked on in my garage. Note the mailsail on the floor so I can take measurements for the work on the boom. Also note the cleat with the roller furling line for the jib on the port side, what seems to be the standard. I like following standards. Just have to learn them first. 

 A rare view of the shop in total disarray. But this is how it looks like now. Note the speakers which I installed today. They come from the outside shop where Vanessa was built. I am organizing  all the stuff, believe me. I like the process of cleaning up and organizing.

Some actual work was done on the boom today. This is the attachment for the boomvang, now necessary with the new gooseneck arrangement.

This is the cunningham itself. The clamcleat is temporarily put there to see how things work in practice.

The boom was outfitted with reefing hardware. Taken from Joel's setup I just setup the first reefing line. The second reefing line makes the sail a postage stamp. We should be ok with being able to quickly get the sail sized smaller to the first line. Again, testing it will give better insight and improvement possibilities. This pic is of the forward section of the boom. Same setup aft on the boom. The reefing will be done by lowering mainsail and pulling in the reefing lines forward and aft and setting in clam cleat.

Next is the lazy jack eyes on boom.

Refits

After some time of radio silence, I decided to start blogging again. This mostly to log stuff for myself. Very private. Besides some (sailing) friends nobody will be able to view this blog.

The idea to change the mainsail boom to a gooseneck fitted to the mast instead of using the original sprit boom setup started a few small changes. 
1. Cut the boom shorter
2. Make and fit wooden plug with hole to take the gooseneck pin
3. Install boomvang
4. Install lazyjack system
5. setup 1 line reefing on boom for easy reefing under sail

 

More small things are being done to the boat.Safety issues like replacing weak blocks and adding wires to safeguard pins on various places:

 

I like to sit on the deck with hard wind, but needed something to keep me from falling overboard:

 

 
There are some more projects ongoing on Vanessa. Biggest one is an electrical system. A simple one, still in engineering phase, but will probably have one or some of the following features:
1. fixed radio
2. music
3. auto bilge pump
4. nav lights and
5. onboard lights for camping
The electrification of Vanessa is a major step forward and I hesitate to do it because it may complicate matters more than I like. But I also like the learning associated with engineering and installing it. The latter will probably win.

There is also a soft or hard sprayhood/dodger in Vanessa's future. Ocean sailing necessitates some kine of cover from spray. The boat gets very wet and that is not good for longer sailing passages.

Lastly, a drainage system from the foredeck (in case of a wave coming in) needs to quickly get the water back to the cockpit.