I would recap our 2024 summer with its own post if there was enough to tell, but I think we can sum it up a handful of bullet points:
This summer our usage patterns made us look more like poseurs than experienced offshore cruiser / racers / liveaboards but…
… we had an absolute blast and loved every minute of it!
This was our first time leasing a slip for a season since we sold our J/29 over 24 years ago. What a treat! We got a ton of use out of the boat right at the dock – randomly eating lunches and dinners aboard, sleeping aboard right at the dock, and generally such easy access to her.
We only had one overnight cruise all season, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
We got in a bunch of day sails, which we combined with late afternoon anchoring off of the Naval Academy wall for wine with friends. Fantastic!
As usual she blew the doors off of any other cruising boats she came across, which we of course “raced” with every opportunity.
We hauled out at the end of November and got to work winterizing her. Nice and simple on this little boat!The next step: strip all of the rigging and prep the mast to be pulled. We know this drill well after having pulled our Sabre 42 mast six years ago for her truck ride north. We still had lots of the packing materials on hand. We are pulling the mast to conduct a number of minor maintenance items, most importantly re sealing the chainplate caps, which I have been resealing one by one with the mast in place. It’s not really a job that can be done properly with the shrouds in place on these boats.Out she goes!Resting on its stands. I removed all of this packing material to be sure it would not trap moisture.Next I began assembling the full-boat winter cover the boat came with so I can work on sealing whatever items I need to on the deck irrespective of the weather. It was the first time I’d set up the cover and it was a LOT of work! Over the last ten years of storage, the original furring strips had rotted away so I improvised with some Home Depot lumber. It will be fine for this winter, as I will probably fashion a different winter cover for scenarios where the mast is still up. I’ll only use this cover every few years when I pull the mast to do major re sealing work.Firring strips installed per the manufacturer’s instructions.Now we can get some work done no matter the weather!
Such a great idea to use a cover that allows access to everything during the winter! That would have proven nicely on the P-40 of Astrid’s in Newburyport! But here is the fun bit: The match racing results of the season should likely be attributed to the deep, fixed keel! This is always best IMO!
Rover's Blog 
Such a great idea to use a cover that allows access to everything during the winter! That would have proven nicely on the P-40 of Astrid’s in Newburyport! But here is the fun bit: The match racing results of the season should likely be attributed to the deep, fixed keel! This is always best IMO!