Maintenance and renewal
The dreadful weather notwithstanding, I sailed a lot this summer, and have the tan to prove it. I've also had a number of maintenance challenges, all of which have worked out well: Replacement of the throttle cable - a day and a half job that should have been 2 hours. Lesson: take pictures before you take anything apart. Rebuilding blocks - the backstay blocks were in pretty bad shape. They get knocked around on the deck a lot, and the varnish was way overdue for renewal. I took them entirely apart, sheaves included, and refinished them and replaced the leathers. The strops are wire-rope and in good shape, except that they needed to be slushed. The recipe for slush in Brion Toss's Rigger's Apprentice: 6 parts stockholm tar 3 parts boiled linseed oil 1 part spar varnish 1 part japan drier (I used two parts, because the first batch didn't dry completely... I think the stuff I got was oldish) I did lifelines and shrouds as far as I could reach as...
