She was actually there the first time I went up. Chris / FUGU was there to help too. Thanks again Chris.
That time I used a bosuns chair. Chris ground the winch and Tish tailed the main halyard and secondary safety line.
I think the mast climber is the way to go. My legs were a bit sore the next day.
Thank you Jackie
The dodger is cool!
And the trysail works. The tack is on a reef hook but that seems a poor idea as the foot of the sail would be flying loose while being hoisted. Suggestions?
While the courageous are preparing for the Long Pac I am fooling around the boat with simple projects:
1. Brian came to help diagnose the autopilot and we should be set for another sea trial.
2. A buddy came to help with the electrical system. No progress to report yet but we understand a little more; well, he does.
3. I tightened the tiller head to remove play.
4. Installed the dodger to see if I fit. I mostly do.
5. Hoisted the trysail.
And that was a day at the boat ... Happy fourth!
Last edited by jamottep; 07-02-2017 at 09:34 PM. Reason: Typos ...
And today I tested the emergency soft rudder. I went slowly about it. It's a bit of a process ... It took me about two hours and I didn't tie everything down snug. I think I can take it down to 45 minutes. I haven't tried it on the water but the previous owner did and says it works great.
A couple pictures ...
Love to dodger? Where'd you get it? I would like one for my Hobie33.
Time passes and folks qualify for the SHTP ... Darn, of course, I'm running behind!
I've hit a bit of funky place. Maybe it's the lull after charging ahead with my plans, or being home alone with the family out and about in Europe, maybe it's not being in the LongPac, or being unemployed ... anyways, gotta get out of it!
Here are a few things I did lately:
Cleared the bow deck of clutter lines that I won't use, which freed two spare shackles and a few small lines;
Moved the two shock cords used to temporarily secure the jib on deck to put a bit more tension in them;
Replaced worn out bow shock cords;
Installed jib tack pennant;
Moved outboard leads further aft (to account for tack pennant);
Marked max hoist on halyards;
Switch jib halyard bowline to halyard hitch;
Oiled spinnaker pole ends, marked rings, repaired line that opens jaw;
Added a life line to Brian's tiller wand;
For the trysail pennant I've attached a shackle to the cunningham;
Added permanent reef ties.
All of this looks like simple stuff ... but I must be living in a separate time continuum because it all took me the better part of about 10 hours ...
We think we've identified the problem with the autopilot: the extension is too short and as such the autopilot can't handle a tack as well as the other (being that it can pushed the tiller far out to port).
Somehow the GoPro mount that was on one of the rear seats has disappeared ...
I went out for a sail yesterday too, only to discover that the little I knew about spinnaker has dwindled to not much: "don't use it ... lose it" very much applies here. Two key things jumped out: when jibing the pole I need more slack on the foreguy (way more) and I haven't figured out how to get the spin sheets out of the way of the jib sheets (really should drop the jib). I mean I know the theory ... it's the doing that ain't working yet.
A few more days and I'm out to Gosport, UK ...
Forgot that I also tried to bring that main down when under way and hoist it back. It's a bolt rope main (no slugs here) so as it comes down it goes loose. I don't have a process yet. I had two reefs in at that time, maybe 20 kts AWS. I dropped it in 2-3 steps and wrestled the sail on the boom each time with a sail tie. To hoist I didn't think it through and simply removed all sail ties at once and the main luff went flying ... So I was back at the mast pulling the bolt rope in line with the track and hoisting, like that several times. All this happened upwind with the #3 up. I need to give this a try downwind, in stronger winds, and last from the full down to nothing.