Winter is upon us

That's maintenance and upgrade season here! We need to fix what wasn't absolutely urgent in time for the next sailing season. Here are some of the upcoming projects for Elise

1. fix and recalibrate the autopilot (after the Pac Cup damage)
2. clean up Elise's interior and put some new teak oil on all wooden parts
3. fix wooden stern bulkhead (one of them has a small crack)
4. fix lifeline for Bay mode
5. clean up deck (remove stains) and wax
6. re-install main pre-feeder (I can't find the other half but I am sure it is somewhere...)
7. fix winch/lead: they are not quite at the same height and it causes a host of problems when we try to bring in a jib quick: a series of overrides usually. So one of them must come down or the other must go up. I am also wondering about self-tailing winches (you don't have to use the self-tailing option in a fast regatta) - it could be a nice to have for short-handed sailing. I am thinking especially, adjusting the pole angle for instance in heavier air - I am not sure if they are available in Elise's size and I don't think that I want to carry a ton of extra weight ;-)
8. tiny gelcoat repairs
   
9. Electrical install: permanent 'charge' system for the small solar panel
10. Install the stereo: all the parts are here
11. Adjustable cars so we can change their position while under load
12. Engine refilling system
13. Install laptop (and closer to the next Pac Cup, the Pactor Modem or equivalent)
14. put wind instrument at the top of the mast. It is more weight at the wrong place but then Elise isn't absolutely optimized for the bay since she is also an Ocean racer. There are certain things we can remove, but others that are a little harder (second bilge pump for instance...)
    

There might be some sailwork as well - Elise has new spin sheets and when it is time to change the main halyard, we also have a nice one in stock.

Well, not all of this needs to be done during the winter - but it is starting now on weekends when there isn't a race. So far, my weekends were busy with home improvement projects. It is now time to get back to the really important things in life :)

Most of the work that we did for the Pac Cup will apply to the Coastal Cup. And before the next big ocean race, we'll look at the emergency rudder and getting a second water bladder (Elise has one but we used two borrowed ones this time around)