Upgrades and changes after the first sail

After the Memorial day first launch, I of course found several things that needed to be changed or finished before heading out again.  Brand new boat and trailer setup, so that's of course to be expected.  The first thing I did was replace all of the sail ties with high strength tactical cord.  Sailing was ended for the day by the zip ties at the tack blowing out.  I had been running the sail loose footed, so of course that was a very entertaining couple of minutes and we came home on Dave's 2.3hp honda that we'd thoughtfully exchanged for the trolling motor before heading back out.  I wasn't sure how much charge was left to run the trolling motor after the first excursion with Greg.

The entered foot is now tied to the boom, so if I have a blowout at the tack again it won't be catastrophic.  The grommets were already there, i just didn't use them before.  Something about adjusting sail shape with a loose foot configuration.  Turns out I have so much area there's no reason to add camber for light winds.

The second big issue was getting the boat back on the trailer.  The winch tower was way too short, and didn't have the right angle to pull the boat all the way on.  It was pulling essentially straight down the last couple of feet.

 I had bought an old drift boat trailer with a wider axle so the boat could ride lower between the wheels, but it's pretty rough compared to this trailer.  The height didn't seem to be an issue, i didn't have to get the truck wheels wet.  I happened to notice the winch tower was much taller on that trailer.  Broke out the tape measure and was pleasantly surprised.  I swapped towers and now it's much more useful.

 I had loaded a bunch of water jugs into coolers for temporary ballast, and it worked out OK but i really wanted to get the permanent steel mounted.  It will ride much lower for better effect and take a lot less room in the boat.  These are 36"x3"x1/2" thick steel and 16lbs per.  (4) will mount at the front of the cabin and (2) at the rear.

I also want to get some reef points into the sail for next time.

I also brought a brand spanking new honed 2.3hp.  I have the old Evinrude shown in earlier photos, but between mixing gas and the fact that it has no centrifugal clutch,  I really preferred Dave's Honda.  You can leave the motor running but not in gear, a BIG advantage.