Prodigal Boat Work - Canvas

I had the riggers mount the Spinnaker Pole on a Mast Track.

Today the North Canvas crew showed up 

to measure for my new Bimini.

Later in the afternoon another crew came out to measure for the new Mack Packs.

I just found this photo of, "my first sailboat" and wanted to share it.  

(a rental boat on Lake Grapevine)  Circa 1982.

Merry Christmas 2015 in Kemah

It's not a white Christmas, 

but shorts and a tee shirt are pretty nice too.  

I hope you are enjoying a great, safe, Merry Christmas.  
Happy Birthday Jesus!   -Skip

Christmas 2015

I had to travel up to Dallas for a Corporate Division Meeting last week. As luck would have it i got to attend the PSAV Christmas Party.  (i got in some photos) Then i stopped by Arkansas to see my dad.  He's getting older and about to his 'use by date.'  He needs lots of visits.  We spent a few days sitting looking at each other.

It was fun.  

I hope your Holidays are full of Cheer!      -skip

PSAV Christmas Party 2015

New Found Metals Ports arrived today

I got my ports from UPS late today.  I only had time to hold them alongside the openings.  I'll have to do some minor cutting to get them to fit but they look great.  These new ports are very Heavy Duty!

Prodigal port work

I'm working now to replace all my Port Lights. 

Mine are old cheap plastic ports that have worn out. 

Some leak, some are cracked and crazed. All need replacing.

3 small ports in the front and 4 Large ports in the back, on both sides.  14 total.

I am replacing mine with New Found Metals stainless models. 

I spoke with Ms.Teri in the NFM customer service dept and she walked me through the measuring dance.  They have a video showing me how easy it is to install the new ones....  So, i ordered two sizes for samples to see how they fit.  Next i took two days to remove the old ones.  Note to self, there is a pretty large learning curve involved in the port process.  (the install video shows how to install, not how to remove 30 year old cracked crappy ports with hard thick adhesive.)

I'm still learning.  But i'm better today than yesterday.

i went to Home Depot and got:

• NEW hawk bill vinyl knife to cut out the 'adhesive' from the deck side around the port.
• NEW wood wedges to help loosen it inside.
• Cut a lot around the outside to remove adhesive.
• THEN got mad and kicked the damn thing....
• Used new, more powerful curse words!
• heard it 'Pop' on one of the kicks, so i kicked it a bunch more
• came inside and used my massive strength to wiggle it out of the hole.

My new ports will be arriving later this week. I'll post photos after the install.