Stir crazy

This evening I took the sail back to the boat after making a repair to the leech.  I think this sail is destined to be replaced sooner rather than later.   I did this repair myself as I wanted to see what kind of a mess I could make of it :0)) I bought some 4 inch wide repair tape, some waxed thread and a book on repairing sails.

It's a good book with not only advice on sail care and repairs but also DIY projects like over boom sail covers and sea anchors.   The leech had torn about 8 inches just inside the hem.  I cleaned the area around the damage with acetone. I then used the self adhesive main sail repair tape, which I cut it to length and folded over along the edge of the sail. I then used waxed thread and hand sewed around the edge.  It's not as pretty as Jans repairs but it looks ok to me and it means that I now have the kit on the boat in case I need to do any small repairs while away from home.
Before fitting the sail I replaced the shackles on the main sheet gear.  The shackles that were on were probably originally galvanised but the zinc had long since disappeared and the shackles were very rusty.  During the trip to Newport the other week we had to replace the shackles on the main sheet traveller as they had both failed so it seemed prudent to change the other dodgy looking bits.
Once the sail was on, I put two reefs in and decided it was too good an opportunity to miss.   I dropped the mooring and set off across the harbour.  I unrolled a small amount of Genoa and practised my single handed tacks.

One of the problems I'd been having was getting the Genoa wound in in good time when there was a lot of heel on the boat.  I over came this today by putting a couple of turns on the leeward winch then leading the sheet across to the windward sheet and winding it in.  This way I can sit on the high side and face forward while cranking in the Genoa.

I made my way over towards Northaven as I wanted to have a look at 'Lady of Ower', a Fantasie 19 which had made it into the water this week.  The wind had picked up to F6 and was too risky for me to be trying to thread my way through the tightly packed boats so I gave up and moved out towards the main channel.

I decided it was too blowy for me to be out single handed so I rolled away the genoa, sailed back towards EDSC; turned into wind; dropped the main and motored back to my mooring and packed everything away.  

I wouldn't normally have gone out in these conditions but I'd been going stir crazy and it was good to get out on water, even if only for a short sail.