...or maybe not...

I took her out again rigged square without the mast retention loop (see previous post); this time with moderate winds and more boats out on the lake.  As I was hoisting the yard-spar, the boat got rolling a bit due to a passing powerboat and the yard-spar really started swinging back and forth. The braces were necessarily slack as I was hauling on the halyard so the dampening effect wasn’t as great as desired.  Once the sail was raised with the halyard cleated off I got back to the helm and tightened the braces, and all was well, but single-handing in these conditions is not ideal.  In the future, I will want another crew member along at the helm to monitor the braces as I hoist the sail.  

So, it looks like I’ll have two configuration options: the first, for calmer conditions, will exclude the mast retention loop; the second, for single-handing and/or more challenging conditions, will include the mast retention loop.  [NOTE: this problem was solved by installing 1.25” T-track and matching battcar to the front of the mast and attaching the center of the yard-spar to this battcar with a soft shackle]. Another improvement I’ve wanted to make is to find a way to lower the yard-spar close to the deck to get it out of the way when tacking while fore-and-aft rigged.  This hasn’t been possible because the wiring for the mast lights and VHF antenna enter the mast at its lower front base.

As you can see, lowering a twelve pound spar onto this wiring would definitely do some damage, so I fabricated a cover out of some plywood, then stained and epoxied it:

Now I can lower the yard-spar far enough to make tacking the boat less of a hassle; it gets the spar out of the path of the sheets as they drag across the front of the mast, it protects the wiring and gives a solid base for the yard-spar to rest.  I also added a couple of u-bolts to hook the crossjacks onto to get them out of the way as well.  Here it is installed:

I also fabricated a new storage bracket for the yard-spar with some help from my friend Bill who donated some scrap mahogany and has an amazing wood shop in his garage.  Here’s a picture of the old bracket, which has seen better days, and the new one, before being stained and epoxied:

The new bracket with chamfered edges will not only offer a more secure way to store the yard-spar, but it will look a heckuva lot better!  Lastly, I tackled a project I’d been putting off ever since I got the boat.  The starboard lazarette has  a cover made of plywood, foam and vinyl cloth.  It looks nice and makes for comfy seating, but it prevents the cover from fully opening and makes it impossible to clean the water channel on the backside.  I had tried to remove it when I first got the boat, but one of the screw heads was stripped so I put it on the backburner. Well, that pot on the backburner is now way overcooked, so I finally figured out a way to prop open the cover just enough to get my angle drill underneath and was finally able to drill out the head of that stripped fastener.  Once, I got the cover off, this is what I found:

Yeah, pretty gross!  I was now able to clean out the backside channel, give the lazarette door and the plywood underside a good scrub, fill in the old screw holes with epoxy, tighten the hinges, remove a threaded fastener from the plywood that had its head broken off, drill new holes and finally reassemble everything with new stainless steel screws.  When it needs to come off again in the future it will be a much easier job!