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Just thought I'd start my own thread for updates and modifications to my new to me Spirit 23.
Got it for $1000 with the trailer but no motor and brought it home this past weekend. Looks complete other than that. Came with the original sails and one other jib and one genoa. Upholstery for the V berth and the port berth is in good shape, although they used 6 inch foam for the V berth which is too firm and too thick. I may cut it down and resew it just to gain a few more inches of head room and it will be plenty comfortable with the addition of a one inch memory foam topper. I could then use the other bit of foam for the starboard quarterberth.
There is rot in the bulkheads from leaky chain plates, a couple of cracks in the forward hatch and the cable to the keel is broken of course. I haven't gotten it in the water since one of the cockpit thru hulls is broken off so it wouldn't float for too long! Also one of the winches is missing/broken off. And probably my least favorite, is the hull has been painted, some of which is flaking off with a power wash. Hoping it will strip easy so I can work from that, otherwise it will need to be sanded and painted at some point.
So projects for now:
1. Replace thru hulls, getting some stainless ones
2. Add bilge pump (nothing at moment).
3. New mounts for battery in front under vberth.
4. Replace winch (found one on ebay for $60)
5. Get my little 3.5HP motor running well enough to get around. That will be fine for the lake around here.
6. Add a keel board to the trailer, keel rests on rollers right now, not good.
So that will let me float it and play a bit, many other projects to follow.
you planning on using it in lake norman ?
make sure you read the threads here the mention the swing keel ,its really bad if it comes down and gets stuck between the trailer rails .
If your going to take the boat off the trailer to replace the keel support, AND your swing keel cable is broken, now would be the time to do the cable pulley mod described in another thread. I highly recommend that mod, if you don't do it you'll be replacing the cable in another few years. Do it and the cable will outlast the boat.
I definitely plan to add the pulley as you did. But I need to figure out whether I want to try to weld stainless or get someone to do it for me. Did you get someone to do it or do it yourself?
I welded it myself. There really is very little load on this bracket, it's supported above & aft (with the cable fitting) & even if your welds stink you can always grind & redo, hell ho one's going to see it! When you route the cable through & finally swage an eye on it make sure you use 2 swage fittings I only did one initially & it slipped out this year (after 2 years in service) so I had to take the keel out again just to re swage!
I don't expect to ever take it out again. Swing keel length is as long as it can be to fit in the trunk slot, just measure from the pivot pin back. The cable is attached with 2 stainless bars through bolted with 2 bolts through the keel & a third with a bushing that fits in the cable eye. Pretty simple really.
Started in on power washing and replacing the bulkheads so I can get the chain plates solid again. I also epoxied the heck out of the rudder stock and tiller. The tiller was really rough, but at least epoxied and varnished it will be solid.
be careful when double swaging, to get then as close to the mounting piont as possible, otherwise to CB will not retract fully into the slot (ask me how I know)had to redo mine after finding this out.
Omg !! Yes keep the swages as close to each other as possible and tight up to the swing keel fitting for sure!! Then you should be OK. There's not that much room up there but enough.
Ran through the electrical and started to clean some stuff up. Added a battery box under the companionway. I decided to keep the weight centered instead of putting it under the vberth where it was originally.
Let there be light!
Also made a couple of new hatch sliding boards since they were both seriously rotted. I used recycled plastic boards so that won't happen again. Went with grey for a weathered teak look plus it's what I had laying around!
Got the bulkheads back in and the chain plates attached so now I can raise the mast. Also replaced the plastic cockpit scupper thru hulls since one of them was broken. I went with stainless steel of course.
Made up a mast raising system and raised the mast, looks like a sailboat.
You can see its stable enough to pays partway up, had to lower it to adjust the stays. I need to rig a pulley though since it was hard to reach the winch when I was starting out.
Actually got to finally sail it yesterday! Was on a narrow lake simply because I wanted to avoid traffic for my first trip out but that also made for somewhat fluky winds. Overall, happy with how it sailed but the mainsail is definitely worn (original) so that will be an expense down the road. Didn't try to get the centerboard out, not sure how I will accomplish that but I'm happy enough without dropping the centerboard for now.
Was also happy that I was able to launch it without having to have an extension or anything difficult. I'll post pics at some point.
congrats on the sail ,my centerboard has been under my carport for a year I need to get around to fixing it and putting it back on .
I had a great sail myself last Thursday .
I have found that having a line on the stern that I can hold the boat straight with the trailer helps with getting the keel in the cattle chute
need to see some pictures of your boat in the water
I have a mast raising system under the title" Mast Support During Trailering" the raising system is also the supporting system while trailering. It uses no 2X4 & can be done alone with an electric winch that you use while holding / supporting the mast while raising & lowering. I've used this system for 2 years now in total safety with NO hassles at all. Instructions are also under that title. If there is a down side to this system, it's the boat has to be on the trailer to use, but I've never had to raise / lower the mast anywhere else.
I'll try to get some more pics but the gist is a 2x4 with an eye bolt for the jib halyard to attach to, a winch that runs through the 2x4 and connects to the center cleat and the 2x4 sits against the pipe running across in front of the mast step. At the mast step there is a pipe running across that is held at each end by two winch straps. From the end of the pipe are two lines, one that runs to an eye bolt on the 2x4 and one that runs to a ring thing riveted to the mast. Those lines keep both the 2x4 and the mast from moving side to side. You can sort of picture it in the first picture above.
It actually works really well. I need to change a couple things to make it easier to set up, but once it is set up it just cranks the mast up in about a minute. You can stop in any position and move around if you need to get stays untangled or some such. I'm really happy with it.
The biggest change I want to make is to move the mast further down the 2x4 and put a pulley at the top. Right now when the 2x4 is straight up (either starting to raise or almost down) it is pretty hard to turn the pulley handle when it is 7+ feet in the air!
Also the PO had remove the lifeline stanchions previously and put cleats on. The stanchions are actually in a really good location though so when I put them back on I may look at getting rid of the horizontal pipe and connection directly to the stanchion. Position is important because the two smaller lines need to be roughly on an axis of the base of the mast so they maintain tension as the mast comes up.
Your system is very slick WindyWay but I do have a question for how you prevent the mast from swinging side to side as it comes up? In any case, there is certainly more than one way to skin a cat and while mine is not optimal it gets the job done safely. I would like to do something similar to yours but it's a case of picking and choosing my efforts at this point...
Anyway, here are some pics of the day.
Preparing to dunk it.
Was under just the main for a while but went up to put a head sail on.
"...how you prevent the mast from swinging side to side as it comes up?"
I have a remote for the electric winch that raises the mast. I just stand at the base of the mast, push the button, and hold on to the mast while raising. The sidestays used to always tangle up as well but since I put 3 stainless chain links on the chain plate it's never done it again. (those pictures are under the mod thread). Your pictures are calling me to launch as well. I'm just too busy lately!
Also installed a 5w solar panel next to the mast step and put the lifelines back on. One of the POs had take then off and installed cleats. And the aforementioned auto pilot which I loved.
Redid the v berth cushions. Made them shorter and went back to the original layout so I could use the porta potty. They were too tall and really firm so it made it tough for me to climb in and out at 6'3"
Replaced my companionway boards today. Lowes carries a plastic board now that is 11 inches wide and only 5/8 inch thick so it fit really well. The board was $30. The downside is they are a little heavy, but I plan to put some spare smoked acrylic in the middle one and a vent on the top one so that should help. The bottom one probably won't come out much.
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