Ahoy, fellow DSII sailors.
Up here in SE Michigan we had 70 degrees yesterday and I'm getting ready to pull my boat out of deep storage. Among my projects to get her ready for sailing season I'm replacing my masthead (worn sheaves) and both halyards. I also plan on adding a topping lift and some deck and hull cleaning and waxing. I also have a small spot of wear on my main that I need to address perhaps with a circle of patch tape.
The wife and I like to heave to and enjoy a lunch and apparently part of the main got trapped in between the boom and the sidestay. I didn't rig my vang last summer and this must have contributed to the problem. When I heave to I wasn't cleating the mainsheet to keep the boom from resting against the stay and I now realize my gaff. I should probably replace the sails since they are the originals but I'm hoping to get one more season out of them. I have been thinking that I may add some shrink tubing to the sidestays just in the area of the boom in case this happens again. The only problem I see here is that it could allow water to get trapped inside the tubing and corrode the stay. I know they're SS but it does worry me some.
Regarding the deck cleaning...
I've got a few stubborn stains on the deck that need attention. Dawn dish soap diluted in warm water is my go-to method for general cleaning but its not getting the stains out of the deck. I've been thinking about some muriatic acid used carefully and just on the stained areas. Any suggestions? I'm not sure what the stains are but I suspect it was some bird droppings that contained berries because the stains are grape juice colored. Or, maybe something with a mild abrasive such as toothpaste? I really don't want to damage the gel coat.
I'm also not entirely sure how I'm going to wax the hull. I really don't want to pull the boat off the trailer but I don't see anyway around it if I want to do a thorough job with the wax. If anyone has any experience in this matter I'd love to hear about it.
So, share your spring boat projects with me and any thoughts or suggestions you might have on mine.
Thanks.
Eric