Change it!

 

Before putting too much money into modernizing the rigging on a 60 year old twin keel boat I would clean up the hull and inspect it thoroughly especially if its one of the glass over plywood versions made by Hurley.

Here is an example of restoring a plywood Alacrity done in Boston:

Many would just clean it up and flip it so they could buy a newer trailer sailor with more modern rigging unless you really have your heart set on having a twin keel vintage Hurley or Russel Alacrity.

Here is an example of how one owner deals with mast raising on his Alacrity:

 

What a downer! at least give the person a chance to clean up the boat before you tell em to get rid of it!

I still wonder why twin keelers aren't more popular here in the USA

 

I had seen that video of raising the mast and thought it seemed overly complex when on a boat this size you can just put it up there.

 

He did indicate that he simplified things getting rid of the wooden X brace (the one he was juggling and dropped in the video) and such. The point of interest though was that he was able to raise it with the rear shrouds in place.

Is yours the plywood version or one of the newer fiberglass models?

Again I would live with it for a while and go through the hull and keels first to ensure they are all ship shape before re-engineering the standing rigging. It would be a shame to spend a fortune on rigging upgrades only to find a show stopper once the hull and keels are cleaned off of all the marine growth.

You may also want to have a rigger take a good look at the mast itself to ensure its suitable to have the standing rigging simplified. Understanding what loads its bearing and why it was set up that way will help determine if its feasible to reduce the amount of stays. They do appear to have overbuilt some things though however may have had a compelling reason for it.

Have you checked out the Hurely Owners Association? They indicate that between Hurely, Russell and others that about 900 were built so not a bad run.

http://www.hurleyownersassociation.co.uk/

 

I don't know how common these boats are so I don't know if I would get much response from the Hurley owners club. There is no doubt that the boat is in rough condition. But here is the deal, I enjoy messing with boats, and fixing up old sailboats is great fun for me. If I can save an old sailboat from the land fill and fix it up and sail it a few times it is worth it to me. I will, with out a doubt, loose money when I sell it and that is fine with me. If I mess with it for a few years and put a little bit of money into her I am happy. What more can a man ask than that.

As far as the rigging goes, it will probably be my last task in the rebuild process, but it was one of the first things I noticed. So no I am not going out tonight to buy all new rigging before I find out the condition of the hull. From the Hurley owners website I did find where a previous owner had done a bunch of work to this boat. It never had its own trailer so it had been through several hurricanes and struck by lighting and sunk. All that damage was repaired and put back in the water for another 10 years before I got it. Plan is to first get the outside cleaned up. I did give it a once over with the pressure washer but right now it stinks so bad I would not be surprised if the neighbors light it on fire before I get back home. Which brings me back to my original post. I was wondering if others had example of easy to raise mast rigging. I wonder if I could eliminate the front inner stays and move the main stays back so they will only get tight when the mast is fully vertical. Then just attach the fore stay and we are done.

 

I don't know how common these boats are so I don't know if I would get much response from the Hurley owners club. There is no doubt that the boat is in rough condition. But here is the deal, I enjoy messing with boats, and fixing up old sailboats is great fun for me. If I can save an old sailboat from the land fill and fix it up and sail it a few times it is worth it to me. I will, with out a doubt, loose money when I sell it and that is fine with me. If I mess with it for a few years and put a little bit of money into her I am happy. What more can a man ask than that.

As far as the rigging goes, it will probably be my last task in the rebuild process, but it was one of the first things I noticed. So no I am not going out tonight to buy all new rigging before I find out the condition of the hull. From the Hurley owners website I did find where a previous owner had done a bunch of work to this boat. It never had its own trailer so it had been through several hurricanes and struck by lighting and sunk. All that damage was repaired and put back in the water for another 10 years before I got it. Plan is to first get the outside cleaned up. I did give it a once over with the pressure washer but right now it stinks so bad I would not be surprised if the neighbors light it on fire before I get back home. Which brings me back to my original post. I was wondering if others had example of easy to raise mast rigging. I wonder if I could eliminate the front inner stays and move the main stays back so they will only get tight when the mast is fully vertical. Then just attach the fore stay and we are done.

That's quite a history on the boat already! Clean it up so the neighbors don't burn it on you or come after you with a tar kettle and some old feather pillows.

Is there something that prevents you from raising the mast with just one of the aft sets of shrouds attached and then attaching the others afterwards such as things finally ended up in the genglandoh videos (yes I went through the laborious task of watching them all)? He had a bunch of extra challenges since none of his standing rigging save one appeared to be correct for the boat so that he had to add over a foot of extensions to some with the added issue that a previous owner lopped off the top of the mast hinge and bolted an aluminum foot to the bottom of it making it so you had to drop the mast onto the foot without any of the shrouds attached until he built a workaround.

It was designed to be sailed in England and some potentially rough weather so it may be setup that way to better deal with harsh conditions. Most video I see are of them being sailed in the North Sea around Stockholm and such so they appear to be stout little boats when restored to like new condition.

I enjoy a project too and completing one is sometimes a let down when all the challenges have been met and all is done.

 

I have reviewed what details I can find. It looks like a fairly small light mast (7meters).

I wouldnt emliminate any of the sta nding rigging, it seems like a lot, but I am guessing the designer felt it was necessary.

For a mast raising process I might consider something like the following.

-replace old split rings with easier to use split rings, the kind with a little bend in the end.
- remove all standing rigging from the vessel
-bungee colrd all standing rigging to mast.
-remove lower pin from tabernacle and place in your pocket with the nut removed
-Stand approximately 1 meter aft of tabernacle. Lift mast using legs to waist height, then with arms onto your shoulder.
-wallk mast on shoulder to vertical.
-hold mast with shoulder, place lower pin through tabernacle.
-place nut on tabernacle pin
-now attach standing rigging, beginning with a forestay, then a set of shrouds
- once standing rigging is in place, tune as appropriate.

Or some variation of the above.

 

I would recommend you take a look at the video of the MacGregor mast raising system that uses a gin pole with a brake winch on it. The brake winch makes it easy to lift mast with boat sitting on the water.

I believe BWY yachts sells the kit to MacGregor owner's only. Tell them you have a MacGregor and they'll ship it to you. Or look at it and get the parts locally. A brake winch does not have a pawl like a trailer winch. You let go of the crank and it stays where you left it. You have to crank in and crank out. It makes it a lot safer as you can stop cranking and go untangle any snags, come back at it's where you left it.

https://shop.bwyachts.com/product-p/3418-1v0.htm

 

its a 19 foot boat, replace shackles with snap shackles...
step the mast by lifting it into place.

The forward lowers should be removed, along with forestay..... and down comes the mast.

Yep, I'd only put 1 bolt in the tabernacle, no reason otherwise.

 

Yes it would seem simpler to work with whats there and just leave the rear shrouds in place and raise or lower with relative ease setting the other shrouds in place after you've gotten the forestay latched in place. They potentially made 900 like that so it would seem that they have stood the test of time.

Once you get the pattern down, as with anything else, it becomes second nature and gets easier along with faster to do.

On my boat I run the jib halyard to the forward mast crutch on the trailer and just pull it up with ease cinching the halyard on the front deck cleat while I set the tabernacle along with the forestay and I have a 21 foot mast that's a bit oversized for the boat but only one set of shrouds.

 

Here is the owners manual for the Alacrity which has instructions on raising the mast (page 10) using the forestay to assist with no complicated lifting equipment:
http://www.hurleyownersassociation.co.uk/pages/manual/p1.htm

It appears for a while some may have been made by Catalina in the USA too.

In 2014 it appears his wife Norma offered to provide information on her husbands design and was pleased to hear that so many of the boats were still being sailed.

Here is a picture of the boat with its designer Peter Stevenson in the foreground sailing an Alacrity: