I got the leather from Tandy Leather. I believe they are a Texas based company. The stores are closed but they have on line shopping. The leather was called belt leather. It is about .14 inches thick. 3.64 mm. I think I paid about $30 for a piece big enough to do three covers. It needs to be waterproofed. I have some left and will take a picture to post. The shop was open when I bought so I was able to go through their stack and pick a piece that worked.
Deb just buys the cheap grey work gloves at Home Depot. Cuts the fingers off and we use a cable tie through the middle of the block. They last about 3 - 4 summers…
I have found a good source of leather to be shoe repair shops and leather upholstery shops. One can find useful offcuts large enough to fill our needs at reasonable prices when one practices financial distancing from the recreational marine trade and the horsey set.. The block with becket for the choker requires a leather “mitt” to keep it from clanging on the mast.
Another source of leather suitable for this block cover is an old purse. My daughter gave me a good supply for just this project when I was looking a few years ago. Then I saw the winch pocket solution at a LONA event. Was probably on Sashay.
Here is an pic of the winch pocket solution. Just drill out the bottom drain hole to give clearance around the line.
The pattern at the top of the photo was an oops. I did not leave the top long enough and when I folded it in, it did not meet in the middle. Before you start cutting the leather make sure of your pattern is correct.
I spaced the hole a 1/4" apart, used whipping twine with what I call a baseball stick. It requires two needles and a certain amount of attention when stitching.
While reading through old copies of Practical Boat Owner I cam across this article about covering blocks. The pattern looks simple so I thought I would include it.
It turns out that a previous owner seems to have installed an interesting solution to the chafing problemat the upper end. If you look closely at the attached you can see a round tube that appears to run along the top of the fairing block.
Instead of running over a metal edge, the line runs over that rounded surface.
Got to the mast before it was stepped this year and took attached photo. This shows what I assume is a similar adjustment.
Not sure when this was done, or if it was original setup.
When I finally got mine repaired and the old one taken off, the old one had an identical piece of half-round welded on.
I didn’t know this until after I had my broken block replaced. Had I known, I would’ve taken the replacement to a shop and had a similar piece welded onto the new block. It’s a brilliant, simple solution.
I definitely plan to remedy this the next time I’m having anything done on the mast.
