After a relatively cold start to the year, the marsh has returned to a pleasant normal of sunny days with highs in the 60s and even 70sF/18-23C. Lovely. I have biked down to GANNET most mornings to chip away at the list of items that needed attention after my recent thousand mile sail. Nothing serious broke, but the small items numbered fourteen, eleven of which have now been marked as done.
main sail luff slide—a clevis pin somehow worked its way loose despite being secured by a split ring from a slide the last day at sea causing a substantial sag midway up the sail, though no measurable reduction in speed. The pins are small and metric. I telephoned North’s Charleston loft who sent me four of them at no charge.
Replacing the missing pin was an ordeal. It proved impossible with the sail on the mast and removing the sail on GANNET requires disconnecting the solid boom vang from the boom and the boom from the mast with lots of easily lost tiny pins and rings. I managed to get the sail off and back on and the boom and vang reassembled without dropping any bits overboard. In doing do I found a clevis pin in another slide broken and replaced it too.
test tiller pilot—I swapped out the new tiller pilot I had been using for most of the sail for a different one because I thought it was failing to response to its control buttons, but this happened at night and after I got in I wondered if I had inadvertently put the tiller pilot into stand-by, so I tested that tiller pilot and although it did get wet it is working properly now. Good.
secure iPhone—During the sail I mostly read and navigated on my iPhone instead of my iPad Pro and whenever I went on deck I slipped it into one of the bins on either side of Central only to have difficulty in finding it when I returned, so I decided to make a permanent place to stow it. Shock cord with a piece of felt to keep from scratching it or the counter top.
sail ties—I bought webbing to make new mainsail ties several weeks ago. I finally got around to cutting it to length, melting the ends over the JetBoil and making four new ties.
fill compass wire hole—The light in the cockpit bulkhead compass failed quite some time ago. I seldom look at that compass, setting course by the Velocitek on the mast or my iPhone. So I removed the wire to that light which left a hole in the bulkhead. I filled it with epoxy putty.
reglue tiller pin—Toward the end of the sail the pin in the tiller to which the arm of the tiller pilot connects pulled out. I have spares, but fortunately it fell into the cockpit and I was able to slip it back into place and tie the tiller arm to the tiller. I reglued it with SuperGlue.
retape turnbuckles—Routine maintenance to prevent cotter pins from catching lines and ankles.
new tool bag—The zipper on the old bag had corroded frozen open. The bag lives directly under the companionway and gets wet. I measured the space. It is 18” wide. The old bag was 16”. I found an 18” one at Amazon. The extra 2” make a significant difference in stowing tools and I have coated the zipper with zipper lubricant.
glue nonskid—The edges of two of the Raptor nonskid pieces lifted. This has happened before. Raptor comes with an adhesive backing that after some years needs help. I used SuperGlue.
running backstay cleats—I sometimes sail off the wind under jib or asymmetrical alone. After the passage from San Diego to Hawaii at the start of GANNET’s circumnavigation I emailed Buzz Ballenger, who made GANNET’s mast and boom, about this and he suggested running backstays in addition to the normal fixed backstay, so I had them installed. This was eleven years ago. How to stow them when not in use has been a problem, so I finally went to West Marine and got out of the store having spend less than $10, by far a record low, for two small plastic cleats and six screws—two spares. Problem solved as it should have been years ago.
Evo grip—The rubber grip on the tiller arm of the Evo electric outboard developed a split and shifted so that neutral was no longer directly down but off to one side. I repositioned it and again used SuperGlue.
Eleven down. Three still to go.
I crawled forward and determined that the problem with the port bow light is not the wiring. The light has failed. I would like to have just a single red/green bow light, but that won’t work on GANNET with the carbon fiber bow sprit in place, so I have ordered Hella replacements for both the starboard and port bow lights. They should be here in a few days and I will install them.
The jib furling line needs to be replaced or end for ended. Too much wind today. I will try to end for end it soon.
The interior wood needs attention. I oil it with Deks Olje Number 1 and probably will sand and do so again, but I do consider painting the piece at the companionway white. I have not yet made up my mind.
From TuFu 712-770.
4 comments:
That’s a long list Webb! Great progress so far! Excellent Poem with sage advice! Thank you for sharing!
Sincerely,
Rich
Thank you, Rich. I am always pleased when someone appreciates the poems I quote.
A front passing this morning so no work on the little boat. I am watching the gale force wind blowing the live oaks and Spanish moss about.
Hope you made it through the storms ok! We had the front roll through here in Terra Ciea, FL by 1pm with only a little gusty wind and very little rain.
It was a morning event here too. Strong wind and rain for only an hour or so, followed by a warm and sunny afternoon.
Post a Comment