...and more ticks...

More work is being done/has been done..

• Companionway hatches have been sanded, filled, sanded again, and had a first coat of paint - they need another but look OK, some further remedial work is required on the upper one..

• An addition steel keel plate has been added to the bottom of the tender to help protect against dragging when I come ashore..  it and the rest of the bottom of the tender where it was scratched over last summer have been painted.

• The tiller pilot rest, and the tiller pilot support have both been sanded and painted - calling them done

• I also went round the waterline with a detail sander and removed as much as I could of the ingrained green staining she's picked up over the years - she looks a ton better

• Yesterday I went to pick up the foresail from the sailmakers where they have been fitting a smaller luff bead/tape to allow it to fit the new furler - here's hoping! 😏

Launch day in a week...  better get cracking with the last bits, first though the Jolly Boys are going on their first trip on Monday!

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

Jobs completed... boom cover... genoa adjustment... main sail adjustment...

Weather has just taken a turn for the worse - it was -3' C this morning when I got up but some signs of spring are evident..  well in the garage at least..

A check of the sail cover confirmed it really was beyond the pale... I'd been hoping to get this re-stitched, if not just taped, but the material was tissue thin and tearing in multiple places...

UV had done for the stitching along the top, but 6 years of gently flapping in the breeze had broken down the material as well..  no matter, checking back it cost me £60 in April 2013, so £12 a year, not as much as you spend on a trip to the pub in an evening - it owed me nothing..

I stripped the buckles and the tie ropes (all re-usable) and took the rest to the tip..  a new one has been ordered - but not before I measured the old one...

..think these were the guys who sold me the last one!

Separately - the genoa has been picked up following a re-cut - too early (of course) to see if it has done the trick as I need the mast up, and the sail up, but the cost was reasonable, and the sailmaker has a good reputation (Batt Sails [clicky]) - I was fascinated to see how they had done it.. =>

So the issue with my genoa has always been that the LP value was too high - OK for long beam reaches, but for short tacking, or indeed any regular tacking, it was too "deep" and I invariably rolled in three or four rolls - sailmakers solution was to shorten the foot (the green triangle) - basically leave the luff length and sacrificial/UV strip as is, but cut out a chunk of the foot as a wedge - LP reduces, and the only downside he says is that the clew will be a little lower - but it was fairly high anyway... cost? Less than £70 - I thought it was going to be three times that so I'm delighted..

I dropped off the main this morning to have the luff shortened slightly - my suggestion was to re-position the head plate, and it turned out that was the right way...  top of the plate will now be where the bottom of the plate currently is....

...that is to give me a little more wiggle room on the downhaul for the sail - currently I have no more than an inch or two - so if I want to tighten it right down in a breeze I am stuck...  the addition 3" or 4" will allow additional tightening/adjustment while not affecting the overall dimensions of the sail..

He'll also put new numbers on, and a Hurley 20 insignia (in white)... 

Good progress - that's jobs 9, 10, and 11, complete!

New jib/genoa arrived!

Oh yes... 💪👏👏

Got a phone call from Arun Sails last week to let me know that the new sail was ready to collect, so I popped down Saturday morning to get it..

Couldn't help asking if I could lay it out to see it in comparison to the sail I was using last season..  here it is on top of the new one...  blue stripe is the UV strip on the old/smaller sail...

Strop to extend the head....

I reckon at least 30%  bigger... that's a real driving sail...  looking forward to trying it!

Last of all, for reference, details on size.. I find it  kind of comforting that they still work in feet and inches..

Launch is a week on Thursday (17th April) and I still have some work to do (nose repair, and name decals to go on) but the weather this weekend was rubbish (wet and windy) so I'll be keeping an eye on next weekends weather..  I have visitors though so I may go for a cheeky day off..

New jib/genoa

Wouldn't have had any trouble with seeing approaching traffic...

 

Having had a bonus at work I've been given permission to spend some of it on a new foresail ...  you may remember from last year that having put a UV strip on the foresail that came with the boat, when the time came to actually put it up it was far smaller than I expected... With a luff of approx. 20 feet, and a foot of approximately 8.5 feet I think it is roughly  85 sq. feet; having spoken to the sail loft this morning it appears to be a working jib.

The new sail (from Arun Sails [clicky]) has a full length luff of 22 feet (so I can lose the strop I've been using) and a perpendicular of approximately 11.5 feet giving me an area of about 120 or 130 square feet - that's 30% bigger...

I've ordered it with the UV strip, and it should be ready in 2 to 3 weeks...  very excited!

Separately, the outboard went in for servicing this morning... clearly the season is beginning to get closer, there are 14 other engines in front of mine in the queue...