Projects Accomplished

We didn't waste our 3+ months of time in Maz this past late summer/early autumn. In sewing projects alone, here's what I did with my trusty Pfaff sewing machine:

Mending/revisions:

2 pairs of shorts; 3 shirts; a skirt; a jacket; a pair of sandals; one pair of Capri pants; a laundry bag, tote bag, geniker bag; one spray shield (3 times); a LifeSling bag; the cockpit shade covers; one mesh pocket in the cockpit; the main sail cover; and the main sail's leech line at the grommets.

Here's a list of the new products I designed and sewed:

New sheets for the V-berth.

A roller furler cozy (the better to protect the drum and furling line from UV damage, and to foil critters searching for a place to nest). Drawstrings top and bottom, vertical Velcro closure along the side.

A halyard bag located at the mast (basically, a long Sunbrella purse with a webbing handle that hangs over the mast-side winch and closes at the top with Velcro). Could double as a shopping bag – heh.

A staysail ready-bag (for those times when a staysail burrito just isn't satisfying).

I hybridized the designs of two very reputable boat canvas sewing guides. Mine has two zippers – a regular zipper on top and a jacket zipper forward around the inner forestay with the zipper facing downward when it's closed (theoretically, to help prevent the zipper from opening with the force of boarding waves thus spilling the sail) – some suede anti-chafe material at the two points where the bag wraps around the staysail's inner forestay, and some Sunbrella flaps over the zipper to prevent water penetration and UV damage.

A heavy-rain cover for the companionway hatch I designed and almost finished, remains a work in progress. After our experience with tropical storm Rick, I had to create something that would turn water away from the gap where our overhead companionway hatch cover slides in and out. Seems that when one strips all the canvas off a cockpit in anticipation of a storm, the heavy rain from said storm will flood the gap between companionway hatch and coach roof, overflow the fiddle that acts as a water barrier, send about 1-1/2 quarts of rain water between the coach roof and the cabin's inner ceiling, and flood the bookcase next to the mast. Which overflows on to the settee cushions, and pours down along the mast into the dry bilge. Fortunately, I keep practically everything I stow in Zip-Loc bags, so the only casualties were 4 books whose Zip-Loc bags had developed holes in them. Still took a couple of days to dry out the cushions, mop up the bilge, and dry out the other books that only had small amounts of water damage. (Ever had to iron a book?) Afterwards I was well motivated to create a solution.

I created a Sunbrella cover with an upper edge that attaches with Velcro to the inside fiberglass edge of our windscreen, and attaches with snaps to cover the vertical plane of our instrument panel, as well as snaps on the horizontal plane of the cockpit on either side of the companionway hatch. The only task I must now complete, is installing the snaps and the Velcro around the companionway perimeter. Easy enough to finish, but hey, we didn't have the right adhesive for the Velcro (well, we did, actually, but we found that the unopened tube had solidified over the past 2 years).

Hopefully once this cover is finished it will prevent flooding in those cases when our cockpit is uncovered, by turning away most of a tropical storm's heavy rain while still allowing water to drain normally down the grooves on either side of the companionway hatch; and also be firmly attached with the Velcro and snaps to stay in place during a storm's high winds when all our other boat canvas must be stripped. I also designed the heavy-rain cover with a view toward having it do the job both in times when we're living down below, and times when we may be off the boat. Unfortunately, we'll have to weather another tropical storm to find out if this design actually works. Do Not Want.

For me, that was a lot of sewing for 14 weeks. I'm spent. Individual results may vary.

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