More jobs done - and the mast is raised for the first time..

..with the new rigging that is..  and not without some issues...  but that's for later. 😏

With the first sunny day in some time I managed to get a quorum of the Jolly Boys to pursue my plan to raise the mast with the new rigging..

First day in an age with some decent warm weather saw Dave, Rodders and I clambering all over Sparrow while we started to put it all together..  I'm not going into detail on the what and how of the mechanics of this, as it is all documented here (clicky). I usually have a read of that step by step the night before as a refresher!

All the new rigging was now back on the mast, and the only addition to the checklist was to jettison the old Goiot roller furler so that it was no longer in the way - I'd already disconnected it at mast head when I I connected the new Furlex furler, so it was just a matter of handing it down and storing it under the boat for the time being..

All went fairly well getting ready - a problem with the split back stay cable run was fixed before we raised the mast, but when we went for the mast raise somehow the burgee halyard had got caught on something, wasn't spotted, and before the line snapped it bent the spreader on the starboard side causing some of the pop rivets to fail in the spreader base..  now idea how it happened but it did... 😏

Once the mast was up, all the side stays on port and starboard were good - lowers and uppers - right length and room for adjustment - but the backstay/forestay combo was definitely half and inch too short even with the minimum adjustment on the backstay bottle screw. We resolved the problem in the end by refitting the original shackles used on the old rig and that provided the necessary extra length to connect everything up correctly...   my guess is that the rigging will stretch slightly over time and we may be able to get rid of them eventually, but for now the job's a good'un with the shackles..

While the rig was up, I took the opportunity to try the genoa - the riggers had warned me that it might need some adjustment and they were right. The bead in the luff of the genoa was too thick for the slot on the Furlex..  not surprised really as the old Goiot furler came off a far bigger boat originally so was oversized. Happily the luff length is fine, and the sail is now with my local sailmaker to have a new bead fitted to the luff..

While we were putting up the mast one of the old temporary cockpit locker lids also gave up the ghost...

..think Rodders may have been balancing on one foot on it.. 😁

So next day down to start doing some repairs...  first the cockpit lid...  I put these temporary one's on over the winter purely to save the actual one's from weather damage over the 6 months on the hard..  the temporary ones are in two layers of heavy duty bin bag sealed on all edges to (try) and stop water ingress but they're not 100% and this one had basically rotted after three years doing service..

I launch in 3 weeks so the replacement was a quick and dirty from something I had laying round in the garage..

Before.. 

..and after... 

..then it was time to focus on the spreader plate...   I'd done the other side back in 2013 [clicky] so was happy with what needed done. but first I needed to do some panel beating on the plate to flatten her out. 

Ideally I would have like to take the whole thing off and flattened it out in a vice, but there are 8 to 10 pop rivets and also a through mast bolt, and that bolt was not going to come undone even with application of the largest socket, and Plus Gas penetrator, so I decided to fix in situ using G clamps and hammer with wood to protect the metal..

Just that one at the top to do which needs a little help with a drill to straighten the hole to get the rivet in..  job's a good'un..

Next - and in order of importance:

• antifoul needs doing
• companionway hatches need paint
• cockpit board (where the solar and the VHF aerial sit) and the outboard pad needs a coat of wood protector
• then I need to do a few small jobs on the tender...  
• I want to put another length of steel pate on the bottom to protect the keel from rubbing, and 
• I fancy putting another coat of floor paint on the floor - it takes days to dry so I can paint it and then just turn it upside down to dry over the next 3 weeks.. and finally
• touch up the black paint on the topsides/bottom