Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Mods



I've been working hard on upgrades, and just today (with a lot of help from Alan) I put on a new Bowsprit (see picture) which has a bunch of cables attaching it all over for lots of strength. So since its all so super strong now, I've put the rollerfurling jib out on the end of it. I took it out for a little sail this evening and lo and behold! It works like a dream! Now I have two forestays, which are the cables that attach to the top of the mast and come down in the front of the boat. One attaches to the front, and one out on the bowsprit. (forestay and spritstay) So the roller is running up the spritstay, and I can still run another jib up the forestay, making this boat into a cutter rig. The only trouble is that when I tack, I have to slide the entire outer sail through the narrow gap between the spritstay and the forestay, which is not as easy as I would like. And I need to get longer lines, and make a new attachement point on the boat for the "sheets" which are the lines that pull on the Jib to make it tight.
You might also notice a little black blob just in front of the cockpit in the above pictures. I made a dodger! In these pictures its not finished, but I taped it on to see what I needed to do to fit it perfectly, and now I'll sew in the attachement points so it will stay put for good.
I only need to make the windvane and I'll have all my projects for this trip done!

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