How did I get here?

[BubbleheadMd]

Took my rig down for inspection, upgrades and winter maintenance.

Man, never underestimate the ability of boat costs to spiral ever upwards. This has been a lesson that hopefull will help me plan better in the future.

Anyway, the job is coming along well. I'll have a mast-top anchor light, VHF antenna, a decent Davis Windex, new steaming light, all-rope halyards, extra cleats, and all winches upgraded to standard, star-drive ones.

All mast power and antenna connections will be relocated from inside the mast, to inside the cabin for ease of maintenance and troubleshooting. All mast cabling was wrapped in foam pipe insulation to eliminate "slapping" inside the mast when at anchor. The standing rigging has been inspected, cleavis and cotter pins were re-oriented to prevent accidental snags on any flogging sails. Rigging tape re-applied to cover any immobile, sharp objects that might come in contact with a sail.

Unrelated to the mast work, I pulled and cleaned my Honda 9.9 and replaced the impeller, and changed the oil.

The most aggravating part of the whole project was working in the cold. I'm glad it's almost over.

[AirborneSF]

Did you do all the work yourself? How much did the boatyard do? Thanks.

[thekeip]

You will probably come to regret using the pipe insulation inside your mast. Should have gone with a pvc conduit. Quick, easy, and your yard will love you.

Howard Keiper
Berkeley

[BubbleheadMd]

My "yard people" are friends who work for a bottle of rum or lunch at the local watering hole. I do all of my own work as the boat is only a 5 minute walk from my house, at a private dock. We simply carried the rig home and I put it up on a row of saw-horses.

I weighed the pros and cons of the conduit and decided against it because I didn't want to drill so many holes in the mast to anchor it. I've talked to several people who've gone the insulation wrap route and none of them have reported any problems.

Care to elaborate?

[CalypsoP35]

Originally Posted by BubbleheadMd

All mast power and antenna connections will be relocated from inside the mast, to inside the cabin for ease of maintenance and troubleshooting.

....Rigging tape re-applied to cover any immobile, sharp objects that might come in contact with a sail......

Moving the connectors to inside the cabin is a great idea. I never thought of doing that, ...until now.

I switched from using rigging tape to using tubes to cover the turnbuckles. I like it much better. I don't have to wrap all the cotter pins every year and I think it's probably better for the stainless not having the moisture trapped in tape 24/7.

Spring is just around the corner, ....I hope! I've had some cold days under the shrinkwrap as well. I stripped my brightwork (except for the toe rail which I did last year), maintenance on my winches and a few other odd jobs which included one duh moment.

At the end of last season my batteries were reading very low and somewhat erraticly on the meter. After running the engine they seemed to register OK, then the reading would drop on one sometimes on both my batteries. So, I'm thinking my batteries are going bad and am getting pissed , because I have gel batteries and they are not cheap. One is only a couple years old and seemed to doing better and the other one which is about 10 years old, so I'm expecting to have to replace it anyway.

Now the duh moment. It turns out the leads to the meter were loose. The batteries are both fine. whew!

[BubbleheadMd]

Hey, at least the "duh" moment turned out to be an inexpensive, easy fix.

I'm not wrapping my turnbuckles in rigging tape, I'm using heavy, canvas anti-chafe tubing, split length-wise and secured with heavy velcro. My racing skipper has had his for years, and they are tough and stand up with sunlight and weather.

I did have the plastic/PVC anti-chafe tubing, but they became brittle and the tops broke off, exposing sharp edges. You can't get the d---d things off without disconnecting the turnbuckles.

The cotter and cleavis pins I'm referring to, are fittings on the mast itself, not the shrouds and stays.

Oh man! I just realized that I haven't attached the tiny block and line on the spreader for hoisting burgees and pennents. I'll shoot for that today.

[chef2sail]

My experience with the puipe wrapping around the cables was that it deterited and turned to sawdust in a few years and then when it got wet appeared as mud and pieces when it rained in the bige at the bottom of the mast.

Do yourself a favor before putting up the mast. Rig a spare messenger line in it for when you will need it in the future...and trust me you will eventiually and be glad you did it.

Dave

[degreeoff]

on another note who (other than me) is playing hookie and sailing friday? its going to be 70 degrees with SW @10-15kts...I'll be leaving out of Rock Creek on GG and if all goes well out all damn day!

[BubbleheadMd]

Originally Posted by chef2sail

My experience with the puipe wrapping around the cables was that it deterited and turned to sawdust in a few years and then when it got wet appeared as mud and pieces when it rained in the bige at the bottom of the mast.

Do yourself a favor before putting up the mast. Rig a spare messenger line in it for when you will need it in the future...and trust me you will eventiually and be glad you did it.

Dave

My mast is deck-stepped, so nothing's going to end up in the bilge, but I hear you. I'll drop the mast next winter, or the year after that, and re-examine everything.

Thanks for the tip on the messenger line.

@degreeoff: I wish I were playing hookie. I'm hoarding all of my time off for sailing later this year. The mast probably won't be re-stepped until next weekend.

[lapworth]

Sounds like your fixing the old boat up real nice. Hope I see you out there real soon. I would like to do a little sailing Friday but if it gets in the 70s there is some fiber glass work I can do.