Sunday 9 April 2017

W'em ready...

...and the sun shone, and the waves lapped, and three old men gathered together yet again for the annual wrestle of the pole into an upright position, whilst not killing themselves, any passing wildlife, or damaging anything on the boat..

A remarkably stress free and relaxed event in the end - we have been doing this for a few years now though so we tend to know what we're up to...

The drilling out of the lower hole on the tabernacle was a limited success...  better than if we hadn't but still not 100%...  what we actually need is almost a slot to allow for the movement of the bolt...  I will give it thought over the summer and next winter..

Another change I plan for this summer is to modify the crutch the mast sits in...  one the legs are too long as the mast sits way up in the air...  a foot of the bottom, cut at 45' to sit flat on the deck when deployed will help - and two, the arms are too long, as it is a right palaver to lift the mast spreaders over the arms when inching it back to position the foot in the tabernacle..  what I plan is to leave the arms as they are, but put in a hinge and peg so that you can drop them when not required...

...either way... mission accomplished with the minimum of fuss...  and the beers were cracked open and the pork pies eaten in the sunshine which was superb... they are good mates!

Having said good bye to the work party, I then pushed on and put the sails and boom on...

...oh, and check what's still present on the top of the mast!
..no excuses.. four day weekend coming up... better go sailing then..

2 comments:

  1. Hi Steve, Whilst I don't have a Hurley, I do have a 22' Jaguar of 1980 vintage. You may be interested that I can step and lower the mast single-handed by using a gin pole (though I like to have some able assistants around). The gin pole sits at right-angles to and near to the foot of the mast and by leaving a pair of the stays attached I wind in the winch and up she goes. If you search Google for gin pole there are lots of home-made versions to be seen. Happy sailing Doug

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    1. Cheers Doug - yeah - one of the other guys in the club uses a gin pole as well... definitely more than one way to skin a cat! :o)

      PS. Apologies for the delay in publishing the comment by the way - Blogger filed it and then didn't tell me it was there..!

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