Saturday, October 27, 2012

Rigging update

Scott at the second spreaders
Alright, we got all excited thinking we're going to have to yank the mast out of the boat in order to get to the top-most attachment points.  Horror of horrors, how awful to be at the mercy of the boat yard while the clock ticks and the money streams out of our pockets. 

After diligent work aloft I think I've figured out a way to avoid pulling the stick.  With careful study I found that you can remove a little mast cap on top of the big mast cap and see the very top of the stem ball fitting.  To do this you must get hoisted to the very top of the mast then rig some slings from the top so you can stand up into the slings to finally get your torso above the whole shebang. 

I was able to extract one of the really big shrouds out the top of the mast, then with enough persuasion was able to to get the spreader tips opened up to release the same shroud.  Broke some tools getting that done.  Now I have in my possession new intermediate shrouds and new to shrouds.  Once those are installed all that is left is the backstay and the forestay.  Perhaps we'll leave the forestay and all its roller furler complications alone for now and concentrate on the big backstay next.
Shiny parts galore

Baptiste showed up this morning, fresh from adventures sailing into hurricane waters and Rebecca arrives this coming Friday, so I should have someone to crank me up the mast for more torture.  And all this will be done before Connie arrives on November 14th.  We will push on.  We will persevere.  We will get south!

1 comment:

  1. Scott, I have a climbing harness you can borrow if you need it. I found it very helpful for working on the spreaders because I could anchor myself by my feet at the mast and lay out horizontally to reach the ends of the spreaders without worrying about falling out of the bosun's chair.
    Twenty minutes of that was like a few thousand ab crunches. In fact the spectators remarked on my Rock Hard Abs by the time I descended.
    Steve at landfallvoyages

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