Genoa Removed from ECHO for cleaning and folding.

Another major milestone.  It may not seem like a milestone, but it was a very difficult job, pulling my Genoa out of the V-berth, rolling it up as best as possible, hauling it up on deck through the companionway, and binding up the middle with some rope, hoisting it up and over the lifelines with a spinnaker halyard, and then carrying it up the dock and up a narrow ramp into my pickup truck Bruiser.  Actually, it involved stuffing the sail into the bed of the truck with the equivalent of a football tackle to shove it in there.  All in 84 degree heat and 85% humidity.  Not fun at all. 

My niece helped me and was very unhappy it was so hard.  I could not have done it alone.  As it was I needed several rest breaks because each spurt of effort was a maximum effort.  This sail is 600 sq feet and weighs about 80 lbs.  It felt like much more because it was so awkward.

Next up.  Pressure washing it and rolling it up, and then lifting it back into my pickup bed and carrying it to my tent garage for storage.  I have a few tarps to protect these two sails and cover them.

This opens up a lot more possibilities for me.  I can set up my V-Berth as a place to live while I refinish the floors in my bedroom.  I can start to plan to remove my fore stay and start assembling my roller furling--which will require a couple of helpers.  I want to buy some new wire and Norseman fittings--I can start to plan that as well.  I'm thinking about hauling the boat out soon.  So it makes sense to pull the mast out and make a few changes to the shroud attachments, and fabricate new shrouds as well.  I need to replace my VHF antenna feed line and make some repairs to my wind vane--also to be done with the mast out.  It would make sense to do all this at once.  On the other hand, I'd like to have the fore-stay work done so I can measure the Genoa for luff groove and to shorten the head for a furling system.   

After fixing the leak in the inner fore stay attachment well, my next priorities are to repair the topsides, and begin work on installing a new head and holding tank.  It would be nice to have the stove installed also, even though I might be removing it again to work on the ice-box/refrigeration system.  I might want to remove the boom and spinnaker pole--just to clear the deck and prep ECHO for haul out and mast removal.

Regarding the ice-box.  I will have to remove the deck lid and build a new one with formica and new doors.  I have a supply of stainless steel I can use to fabricate the interior, or it might be easier to use fiberglass cloth over foam insulation.

Finally, while I like big boats, they are really way too much work for one person--particularly in a renovation such as this.  Everything is easier on a smaller boat.  Once ECHO is back in service, though, I'll have a ready supply of students and crew to help me with this work. I could probably find a ready supply of helpers now, but the problem is it takes more work to organize them than to do the work myself--with the exception of the two and three man jobs.