zondag 28 juni 2009

Working on rig.

My brother Hans has gotten really enthousiastic about working with the dyneema ropes and is making all kinds of handy parts for my rig, like soft hanks and, below, a tackle for my back up forestay (nylon washers make sure the lashing-rope doesn't bind).
Below picture for my wife Jacomien: yes, I fitted the wind-pointer (???). She demanded I'd fit one (she still has good memories of two boats I owned earlier on - a nordic folkboat and a waarschip 7.25 - which had the same pointer). Telling it's not necessary to have one were to no avail: she gave me the pointer for my birthday and how can I refuse this present?
For ease of mind I made a backup fitting for the shrouds with a piece of 6 mm dyneema and some vulcanising tape (later on a picture which will be more clear). The knot is the same knot used for the soft hanks (don't know the name), and is made by Hans.
Finished.
My plan was to attach the shrouds with 8 mm olivier links produced by Precourt. However, I got fed up waiting for a response from Precourt about the links he is supposed to be working on, and decided to use two pieces of hardware that were delivered with my mast-section. They are actually meant to anchor ball-terminals, but I figured they might as well anchor a dyneema loop.
Below the overview of the setup: 6 mm dyneema soft hank (the line is fed through itself and then finished with a big 'turkish' knot). The end-knot is not finished smooth: instead the two ends are left proud and there's an extra knot in both lines to make sure the knot won't slip and open up. I made a hdpe bush on the lathe to make sure the loop doesn't chave.
Below an overview of the attachment of the shrouds: 8 mm shrouds (SK75) anchored on the ball-terminal-loops, and secured to oneanother and to the extra mounting point with a piece of 8 mm SK75. The mast will only come down when all three mountings fail, which I don't expect to happen. I will be cruising only, and this setup seems plenty strong for that purpose.
I will for the time being keep my rig very simple. Main halyard with a stopper on the mast (not running to the cockpit) + a tackle at the mastfoot to tension the luff of the main + backup forestay + furling jib with a fixed swiffel (jib will be hoisted with a dyneema line 2:1) + 2:1 sheeting of the jib with no winches. Unfortunately the swiffel & furling drum take up a bit too much space: the jib would hardly fit in between and would not furl properly as the backup forestay was in the way. I need to make a separat tab a bit higher to mount the forestay.
Below a detail of mast raising setup: the trailer winch-band which I use to raise the mast is kept central with a dyneema loop round the bullnose. Here you can also see the stainless steel furling drum which I could buy second hand for not too much money. It's difficult to get anything attached in the hole in the deck with the bow web below and I don't think this setup will work properly (just too small). If I remember right Ian Farrier wrote this is still a loose end in the design.
A part of the design I didn't follow (yet?) is the mast raising wires-supports bolted to the side of the cabin. Instead I made a wire between my lifting eyes with shackles at the ends, and with an eye at the height of the pivot pin. This works well, just onhook the wire and you're done. Loads will be a bit higher because the wires are not at the edge of the cabin, but I don't think loads will be too high.
Overview of the setup (sorry, forgot to turn the picture).
And this is how it looks the right way up....
Below: mast raised 30 cm and feeling steady. Before rigging all the support wires we tried to raise the mast with just the raising pole, but quickly quit. Although this mast is quite light (30 kg or so) it's not easy to handle. Raising it with just some muscle and faith is not for me.....
And.... the mast is up. The rake is of course way too much in this picture. We kept the shrouds short to make sure we wouldn't tip the mast over when raising. You can see the support wires for the mast raising pole are slack, that's my mistake: I used the maststep ball as a reference point for the mounting point of the support wires instead of the pivot pin.
Finishing the boat and all the hardware has taken a lot of time, and I'm still not there. Need to lower the mast again, make a new tab for the backup forestay, grind a slot in the mast for the cars of the main, fit the outboard (will be tight), make a tiller, try to lower the furling drum 2 cm to get a bit more clearance at the top of the jib, etc. etc.
Still the plan is to launch in about three weeks. I'll sail the boat for a week with my brother, and use that week to tune the boat and see if everything works the way it should.

1 opmerking:

Rod zei

Excellent work. The boat is looking great. The close up mast pictures are really helpful for those of us still building. I look forward to seeing the boat with full rig up & sailing.
Cheers
Rod
F82#80