Sail Far Live Free

As you may recall from some posts late last summer, most of the teak on our sailboat's deck was severly rotted. Perhaps the most rotted of all were the teak railslides for the sliding companionway hatch. I was fortuntate enough to come acrossed a fellow Helms 25 owner who happened to have a spare set of used railslides for that fit my boat perfectly (Thanks Wayne!). I continue to be amazed at the level of support and information provided by other sailors whom I've met online at places like Sailnet and the Yahoo Helms forums. The railslides I received from Wayne were dirty and definately in need of some cosmetic work, but the teak wood was solid. I begin restoring the old railslides by sanding them. Next, I washed them in our shower much to the chagrin of my wife with a mixture of dish detergent, TSP and bleach. Then I carefully applied three coats of Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane over the course of four days. I also used more epoxy to patch a couple of spots on the bottom of ...

This post will briefly highlight the cosmetic enhancements we made to our auxillary outboard. As previously mentioned, the motor cowling fell off on the highway while the previous owner was towing his boat. During the tumble down the highway, the cowling sustained cracks, scrapes and broken corners. I start the repairs by filling in the hollow spaces between the fiberglass outer-cowling and the foam insulation with styrofoam. Then I used hand moldable "metal" epoxy putty from PC Products (similar to the PC-11 marine epoxy used on the hull) to pactch the cracks and holes in the cowling. The epoxy sets really fast, so you need to be quick with shaping it. Unfortunately, this epoxy doesn't sand down very nicely, so you're mostly stuck with whatever shape the epoxy sets in. Next, I cleaned the cowling and sanded it with fine grit sanding sponges to remove grime and painted decals. I then used 3 coats of an exterior latex paint with ceramic additives to finish the job....

After a lot of research and much debate about how much of the overall restoration budget should be spent on an outboard motor, we finally made a purchase. We ended up spending well below our targeted price of $600 and picked up this little Johnson for $240. There are some old salts that will tell you a sailor doesn't need a motor at all. After all, sailing is about coming to balance with the forces of nature (wind, currents, waves, etc.) through a sailboat. However, we feel having auxillary power will be a huge blessing on those days when the wind doesn't blow. We also anticipate using the motor to move to and from our mooring as well as helping us navigate through busy channels and marinas without having to use our sails. And of course there's an argument that a motor on a sailboat can provide a bit of safety if your rigging gets damaged. Whatever the ultimate reason, we're happy to have an outboard. We spoke with several other Helms 25 owners as well as owners of ...