 |
| What a diference a stay makes! |
I have so much to write about, but so little time. These past few days have given me much food for thought and there many things I want to share, but time is of the essence so I'll stick to the basics for now and put the future blogs in my pocket for a rainy day.
First of all, the
stays'l issue: turns out, the fix was simpler than we thought
(don't you just love it when that happens?). While I was in the anchor locker looking at the fitting just before Scott was about to rip it from the deck I noticed something special: a threaded hole in the middle of the fitting.
"Wait!" I yelled up to Scott. The wheels turned quickly in my head. "T
hat hole couldn't be there for nothing" I thought to myself. After a little super sleuthing I connected the dots and realized that the threaded hole was for a mini-stay. This little stay would then connect to a fitting glassed into the base of the hull
(the strongest part, mind you) thus reinforcing our deck and making the stays'l strong. Scott came down and took a look, gave me a high five for figuring it out
("I wondered what that hole was for") and we called the
(very good) riggers who did our
marine survey to make sure my hunch was legit.
 |
| That there hole in the middle is meant to house a mini stay! |
 |
| The new fitting for the say, top of the anchor locker. |
 |
| The fitting for the mini-stay at the bottom of the anchor locker. |
Not twenty-four hours later the problem was solved and the stays'l is now ready for action.
Krikey. What a pain in the butt
that "
little project" turned out to be. We're still very glad to have it though, because this small sail will be tremendously useful when the weather turns ugly. We always
longed for a stays'l on our first boat, Rasmus, and we're thrilled to have one now - even if it was a
humongous pain in the boo-tay to get it.
In other news, it looks like our
weather window for crossing the Gulf Steam is soon, very soon. I don't want to jinx it, and I don't want to make any promises; but if the chips fall as we hope, we should be Bahamas bound by next Wednesday. As such, things are a bit busy around here grabbing last minute spares,
provisioning the boat, and doing small projects that we've put off. If you have a spare
"good vibe", we'd love for you to send it our way to ensure we can get off the dock with no major hiccups...
6 comments:
Good detail sleuthing on that hole! Isn't it nice when you act on a "wait, what was that..." hunch (that would be so easy to ignore!) and are rewarded for it?
So was the fitting at the other end, that anchors the tie stay to the bottom of the boat, already there? Or did you add it? How is it attached to carry the load?
Boats with masts that can be bent, fore and aft, usually have a hydraulic baby stay working in concert with the back stay to optimize main sail shape. In this case, the baby stay goes through the deck, along the same plane as the inner or baby stay, and is attached to a strong point on the boat near where the keelson meets the bow. I first saw this arrangement on some of the old IOR boats.
Sending good a good vibe your way. Hopefully we are not too far behind you...
Good on ya!
The "good rigger" is you!
I have the same arrangement on my Quickstep 24 in Coconut Grove... When it's a bit windier than your comfortable with its a real nice way to keep driving to weather...
All the good vibes I got coming your way...
Danville in NC
I am a little confused. Was this boat already setup to have a detachable stay for the staysail ?
Best vibes your way and to remain with the vessel and crew for ever! Fair Winds and following seas WT's!
Post a Comment