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!

I only have the backstay and forestay to install, IF the anchorage is not to rolly. If I can do it, I should be able to take Shanti on a tune up sail monday.

So far:

This has been a measurement nightmare. The BCC is overbuilt. So her chainpaltes are oversized. So hardly any of the rigging pieces (deadeyes) fit. I have had to use Link plates many places. So that meant a lot of new clevis pins. Could not find any the proper size on the island, so they had to be ordered. And on and on….

Above are the 3 sizes I have used. 7mm Dynex Dux for the shrouds. 9mm for the stays, and an 11mm piece for the bobstay.

My complete rig for Shanti. Weighs about as much as one of my intermediates.

My rigging kit. Note the tin snips for cutting the Dynex. Pretty simple.

When I was installing one of the cap shrouds I had a bit of a problem. The wind was blowing pretty good. I had hoisted up the new shroud and attached it to the mast. but the wind kept blowing it out away from the boat. This stuff was so light…LOL.    very strange…

I am actually attaching my lowers in this photo. Used very nice custom mast tangs Eric Precourt made for me to accommodate the two larger thimbles the dynex requires.

A nice benefit to my 2 part halyard with a larger self tailer that I installed for my furler. My girlfriend (Deb) can easily haul my butt up the mast.

Another custom plate for the rigging. This holds the aft-lower and the intermediate. I have also decided to use some all black NE Ropes V-100 for the lashings. A little bit harder to tighten up, but not that bad with a little water for lube. This line has a vectran core that has low stretch like the Dynex does. Plus it looks so niiice….

You know what they say?

If you can’t sail good, you should at least look good!

More after the sail.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends … 

Or at least that what it feels like with this project. I installed my first pieces of rigging yesterday as a test. Measuring is a bit of a challenge. First you need good measurements. I started out using the factory measurements, but it appears mine is not standard. Easy enough to remedy, just measure your rig before you start. Oh, and don’t forget to add in the bury part of the splice for BOTH ends. I didn’t and it cost me another $300 to buy more line for my longest pieces. The hard part is figuring out how to set your measurements. when you do the splice the piece will shrink considerably. But then some of that will stretch out when the piece is set up taught. I will have more details on this when I am finished. 

My initial impressions so far: 

1) Forget about the mad Haitian with a machete, this stuff is TOUGH. Could not even faze it with a large pair of scissors or a very sharp knife. I had to use tin snips to cut it, and even that is not easy. 

2) Very stiff to begin with, but softens up when fiddled with. 

3) Splicing is easy as far as type goes, but it is time consuming. Also your hands will get sore if you try to many at once. On a scale of 1-5 with swaged fittings by a rigging shop a 1 and wire eye splices a 5, I would rate this a 3. 

4) The most difficult part is getting the measurements right.

Another big change to Shanti besides the rigging will be a furler for the headsails.

Using a second sail like a drifter or storm jib etc with a foil/furler is not an easy solution. You either have to change the sail on the foil, set it flying or just use your engine (ugh). That is one of the reasons I have stuck with hanked on sails for so long. But the sprit on the BCC is just a tad to long to work out on easily, particularly in heavy weather. Of course I don’t see other boats changing out their sails on their furlers on a regular basis either.

I was on a cruise in the Sea of Cortez with my engineless Falmouth Cutter years ago. I had a jib, tri-radial drifter and a cruising chute. It was a great combo for just about any wind situation. I remember all the “cruisers” grumbling about there was not enough wind to sail. A number of us were going further north, about a 20 mile sail. Of course the next morning the winds were light and everyone took off under power. Except me. I set my drifter and was off on admittedly slow sail. The beer was cold and the trip was easy. I arrived last by about only an hour and a half, and got to sail the whole way on a beautiful day. I like to sail, thats why I have a “sail”boat. The sail all the cruisers had on their RF were to heavy for the light air. And I didn’t see anyone change or set flying a drifter.

I’m lucky that I don’t have a “standard” furler yet. So the cost of dumping it will not prevent me from doing something a little different. Although it’s not really that different, just different from todays norm.

This is going to be another example of a “new/old paradigm crossovers”. I will be going back to using a bowsprit traveler (ring, this one here ). On this traveler I will be mounting a code zero continuous line furler (something like this but by Precourt ). Also I will be have a torque luff rope sewn into the luff of my sails, this will be out of the Dynex also as this line under load is very torque resistant. The torque rope helps the flying furler (code zero) work better. This will all be topped off with a 2/1 halyard purchase and a #16 halyard winch. I should be able to set the tension on the luff at somewhere around 1200lbs. This way the sail will perform well to weather.

A gaff rigged cutter using a bowsprit traveler.

The way this system will work is: I attach the tack to the traveler (ring) and the head to the halyard. Haul the tack out to the end of the sprit, then haul the halyard up tight. Go sailing. At the end of the day I can elect to leave it set and just furl the sail, or I can douse it. The sail will be all rolled up and easy to put in a sail bag. If while I am out sailing and the wind goes light, all I need to do is drop the sail or furl the sail and drop it. Attach the drifter in the same manner and continue to sail. At the end of the day I can just furl the drifter or drop it and stow. All of this from the relative safety of the deck. I think this system will give me the best of both worlds, namely hank/furler. Oh ya,  when I get my new asymmetrical and can just furl that also instead of using a sock.

I hope to have this system up and sailing in 4-6 weeks. At this point a lot depends on how fast the traveler gets here from the UK. This weekend I remove my sprit to round and refinsih her.