Rigging, pt. 5

Rigging, pt. 5

Hello!

Spring is cold this year, lots of wind, rain, clouds and not-so-impressive 24h average temperature of less than 10 degrees. Last year same time people were swimming in the sea, enjoying a sunbath in 30 degrees C. Still, temperatures seem to go up. This is good, since I can start applying Sikaflex and paint outside. Both require a minimum of 5 degrees C working temperature. Rigging work is nearing completion, with one exception: unsure of using spreaders. Since we have a rotating mast, building the spreaders will be a wee bit technical, but doable. Without spreaders we can use the mainsail, but only a storm sail in front. The forestay fixes at 2/3 length of the mast, at the mast pivot. The stay angle is too steep to fit a larger sail at the moment. The coming weekend will tell. Work will start on aft railing and the main sheet traveler, which will be fixed to the railing. The boom vang is complete, together with some other hardware. I had to refit the boom goose-neck. Guess why? Because I spent too little time with the plans. Well, it is all good now. And most importantly, the mast stood up on its own for the first time!

: Getting up…

: And got up!

: A lovely shot, the mast standing and the boom test fitted. Rudder sheet hanging loose here.

: Here we go! It is like a puzzle now, fitting all the pieces together. The rudder sheet is attached.

: Some deck hardware, a large mooring bollard.

: Chainplates are in place.

: The inside of chainplates. I had to drill lots of holes into the boat. Drilling a hole in the boat always makes the stomach go cold. But it worked out nicely.

: The boom vang took some time to figure out because it needed a mast fit first. When that was done, it was up to welding, drilling and Sikaflex, the magic white stuff.

: Rudder tiller is on its way. Our belt sander died in the process and I had to resort to the hard core tools: the rasp and the hand plane. True, final sanding was done with a rotary sander.