I-36 Mon Ami

Jim Joubert, Alamitos Bay, Long Beach, CA

Here's a couple of gadgets that may be of interest to some.

I learned somewhere that CD disks flashing in the sunlight really spook birds. Since AOL had bestowed several CDs upon me that I really didn't need, I thought this might be a good way to make use of them!

The bird chaser is made of PVC pipe... one 1/2" four way fitting and two four inch 1/2 inch pieces of pipe. Drill a 3/8" hole in two opposing ends of the four way fitting.(These will accept your flag halyard clips for hoisting).

Drill a small hole near each end of the 1/2" pipe pieces to accept a fishing swivel. Glue the pipe pieces into the undrilled ends of the four way fitting with the holes in the pipe both facing the same direction ("up" or "down"). Attach the fishing swivels into the holes and then attach a 6" piece of stainless/monel wire to each swivel. Drill a small hole in each CD about 3/4" in from the edge. Thread the wire through the hole in the CD and and then wrap it around itself.

You should now have a gadget to which you can attach the flag halyard clips to the hole in each end of the pvc fitting. When attached properly, the two 4" pipes should be horizontal with the CDs suspended below.

Raise it, and watch those CDs flash light all around the marina!

The other gadget is a shroud cleaner. After spending big bucks for some new sails, it was disheartening to watch the Genoa turn from pristine white to a grimy black where it rubbed against my shrouds.

The shroud cleaner evolved to solve the problem. (it's easier to stick the towel in the washer than the sail!)The shroud cleaner is made up from some 1" webbing and velcro tape. The picture will give you the idea. By attaching the spinaker halyard to the upper end and about 8 feet of line to the lower end, you can move a small towel up and down each shroud to up to the lower spreader. It does a good job of removing the residue that seems to grind into those nice white sails.

It takes about 10 minutes to clean the shrouds before going sailing, but I believe it is well worth the effort. The picture of the towel shows one week worth of residue that was wiped from the shrouds.

Fairwinds,

Jim Joubert
jwjoub@earthlink.net