Tuesday we finally got some wind to test/tune the rig. Wind was SE at 10-12 knots. It seems I got the rig fairly taught when I did the static tune on the hook. The worst offender was the cap shroud once loaded. It was fairly slack on the lee side.

I used a marlin spike along with a marlin spike hitch to do the tweaking on the rig. I untied the offending shroud, then hauled on the lanyard with all my might with the marlin spike. This technique got the shroud snug. We tacked  over and snugged up the other side.

Hauling on the lanyard with a marlin spike.

So how did the boat perform? Definitely stiffer as would be expected. In the gusts ( from 10 to around 14) she stood up amazingly well and just accelerated. When we went over some large boat wakes she pitched much less and did not cycle through another pitch after going over the wake.

All in all it was great day. Beautiful with a 10-2 knot breeze. Great company. My Main squeeze, Deb. And Kevin from a pretty little gaffer the Ruth Avery.

New years eve Deb and I plan on sailing over to Jost Van Dyke and try and make the party at Foxy’s. Weather permitting. Leaving St. Thomas we will have to beat into some predicted heavy trade winds (20kts). It will be the true test of the rig and it’s performance. After our little tune up sail, I have high expectations. When we return I will post a full report on this fascinating project.

My loyal crew. Kevin and Deb.

Until next week….CHEERS and a Happy New Year!

Done! Well almost, still have some tuning to do and clean up the lanyards. All the rigging is on. Took the last coils of old heavy, rusty rigging off Shanti yesterday. It was a bit of a challenge working at the top of the mast with a little bit of roll and pitch in the anchorage. Mostly from people hauling ass through the anchorage.

I have a new saying … “I hate wire”

Shanti is happy. As Deb so well commented … Women are always happy when they lose weight. Already seeing a difference. Where I keep the boat can be a little rollie at times. Shanti would rooolllle way over to port, then slowly rooollle way over to starboard. I would roll more than any other boat in the anchorage. Now she kind of rolls to port rolls to starboard. She seems much happier.

Hope to take Shanti for a tune-up sail this weekend. More photos and comments once that is done.

Merry Xmas!

One manufacturer has my interest, Dynex Dux. I will include some links, but here is a recap of the advantages/disadvantages of this incredible line:

1) Can replace size for size (my wire is 5/16 and the Dynex Dux has a min breaking strength of 25,000 lbs vs. about 10,000 for wire). Although other considerations my call for up sizing by one size.

2) Most people are using deadeyes and lanyards for this stuff. Can you imagine deadeyes on a BCC…oh sweet! They make machined aluminum ones, but you can use the wood ones too. This stuff can not take a staylock or swage. You can also use turnbuckles if you wish.

3) Large savings in weight aloft. My rig is 5/16 316 w/splices. Using this line (it floats) will cut out 65-70 lbs aloft from my rig. Jeez, I’m getting so excited I’m starting to wiggle. This will be a HUGE boost to the performance of the boat.

4) Very high chafe resistance. They use it for butchers aprons and drag lines on fishing boats. You can read more in the links I’ll post. One guy is a commercial fisherman, after using the line for 3 years and seeing how well it held up he decided to rig his trimaran with it.

5) They are still testing the UV resistance. Right now they feel it will be well north of 5 years. But it is so inexpensive and easy to splice up yourself, doesn’t seem to be a prob. For me here in the salty/sunny Caribbean I won’t have to worry about corrosion. Also no fatigue.

6) It stretches less than wire. but there is “creep”. So for the first year you would have to tune 2-3 times, but then it would be fairly set. Then maybe once a year. I need to do a little more research in this area. Since this line has SO much strength to it they say to size for creep as opposed to strength.

Here are some links:
This is the forum over at Brion toss’s website.[briontoss.com] I believe Brion re-rigged his own boat with synthetic.

And a great thread on the stuff at the cruisers forum.
[www.cruisersforum.com]

The people I will be using for the hardware, including a continuous line furler Precourt Rigging

Gary

Anybody wanna race?

Hi All,

This has been a bit of a journey already. I started out by looking for a roller furling solution for Shanti. The bowsprit is just a little to long to safely work out at the end in heavy weather. In fact I think there is only 2 BCC’s left with hanked on sails, Shanti and Elizabeth. During my research I came across Synthetic rigging. it’s line instead of wire. I also discovered that my rig is the original from 1988. The good thing is the wire is eye spliced around solid bronze thimbles, about as strong and reliable as you can get. The bad thing is it’s HEAVY and really impacts the sailing characteristics of the boat. Saving weight aloft will be the primary purpose of going with the synthetic rig. This blog will be devoted to the re-rigging of Shanti with this new technology.

Note: If you would like to leave a comment, have a question or imput, just click on “Comment” below each post.

Gary