Replacing the Standing Rigging. P iii

 

Replacing the Standing Rigging. ( Part 3 )

( Here's the link to Part 1 )

Having fixed the issue with the Mast Mate, and had it tested by a sailing buddy that has a Catalina 36 - same spars as Eximius, I removed the mainsail slugs from the mast track and hoisted the Mast Mate. Then the weather decided to offer a challenge, it got cold - in the 40's and windy - in the 20+ knots in February 2026. I'm not going to commit to climbing the mast 16 times in those conditions. So leaving the Mast Mate setup on the mast, I took a those couple of weeks off waiting on a weather window. 

Good weather returned mid February - and with it I came down with the flu ! Argggg! That took me out of the picture for another two weeks. Now we were within our next sailing club event, it's a big one - the Change of Command Circle Raft Up February 28th 2026. So I pulled the Mast Mate back down and put the mainsail back up. We participated in the Circle Raft up - rotten weather, so no actual circle rafting but we still had a good time with sailing friends on Lake Boca.

Now Peggy was getting a bit antsy about preparing the boat for the Insurance Survey that needed to be completed before renewing our Marine Insurance early May, this Year!  So I bit the bullet and hired a company to do the standing rigging change out. It's going to cost around $3000 for the work. I do have all of the rigging, so this should speed things up.

So, yesterday, Thursday March 5th, I went down to the boat and removed the Genoa from the Furler and withdrew the Furling line from the Furler drum. I also removed the shoddy horizontal support brace that was connected to the lower end of the Back Stay above the Bimini that connects to the Radar Pole on the Port side of the Cockpit. Not sure how I'm going to replace that brace but it will not be Aluminum nor will it connect to the Standing riggings.   

Today I'm taking all of my standing rigging supplies from Catalina Direct. I'm not certain of the ETA of the Riggers on Monday but I'll be down there by 07:30 unless I hear from them to be there earlier.

While down at the boat I checked each piece of the new rigging just one more time. The only thing that is slightly different from the OEM rigging, is that the Original Back Stay has a single turnbuckle just above the split ( which is just above the Bimini ) and the new rigging has no turnbuckle above the split but has a turnbuckle on each leg of the split. So when the backstay is put together, the length of the Stay is fixed and each leg of the bridle are adjustable. Not that we'll ever need to adjust them.

I also checked that the Dock 11Ov Power supply was working - we never use it as we have our onboard supply that easily meets our requirements on the boat.

On Monday, I will take Gasoline to run our Honda eu2000i generator just in case shore power goes out.

I think we're ready. No pressure - right!

Replacing Standing Rigging - Prep the boat

Preparing the boat for replacing the Standing Rigging. ( Pt ii )

( Link to Part i of this post )

Let's clarify the names of the Standing rigging parts.

First the Wires:

• Shrouds: Wires running from the mast to the sides of the boat, preventing lateral (side-to-side) movement.
• Stays: Wires supporting the mast in the fore-and-aft direction.
• Cap Shroud: Runs from the masthead to the chainplates for upper mast support, sometimes via the Spreaders.
• Lower Shrouds: Attached to the lower section of the mast to provide base support.

On our Catalina 34 Tall Rig, the lowers reach up to just below the Single pair of Spreaders and the Cap Shroud is held away from the mast by passing in a groove of the spreaders.

The method that we're going to use for climbing our mast involves a Mast Mate, ours is 50' long so it easily reaches our Mast Head with a few steps laying on the deck.

The Mast Mate has slugs that fit inside the sail track groove in the aft edge of the mast. It's pulled up to the mast head using the Main Halyard and then tensioned at the bottom to keep it taught. 

We needed a safety line running from the top of the mast down to the deck so that line was also secured to the main halyard.

To install the Mast Mate we first removed the sail slugs from the mast groove and moved the sail about a foot further aft from the mast to get it out of the way.

Next we had to ease the Lazy Jacks to prevent the Mast Mate catching them as it was pulled up the mast.

In the event of me being stuck up the mast ( incapacitated ) then Peggy would be able to lower me by easing the Main halyard on the winch in the cockpit.

With the Mast Mate and Safety lines rigged, next was to measure the tensions in the shrouds and stays. I used my Spinlock Gauge to do that and recorded the numbers in the RigSense app on my tablet.

The first shroud to be replaced is the Stbd Cap Shroud. In preparation for that, we used the Spinnaker Halyard to act as a temporary shroud. One end of the Halyard was attached to the Stbd Fwd Shroud turnbuckle, it then went up to the block at the front of the Mast and then back down to the Stbd Aft Shroud turnbuckle. Then to tension the line, we took a few turns of a spare line about 5' up from the deck and applied tension between the two ends of the line which gave us control of the tension of the temporary stay.

In this image, The Black line is the Spinnaker line secured at the lower ends at the Turnbuckles and the Red line is the tensioning line.

All of this prep took a few hours as we had to figure out which lines to use and how to tension the temporary stay.

We're all set for replacing the Stbd Cap Shroud - once the wind dies down!

The plan then is to ease the Stbd Cap Shroud Turnbuckle, then climb the mast, detach the top end of the Cap Shroud from the Tangs on the side of the mast just below the mast head, lower the shroud on a messenger line ( it would probably do damage if we just dropped it from the top of the mast. )  

With the shroud on the dock, we'll measure the new shroud and cut it to the correct length, make up the Hi-Mod connection for the turnbuckle end, then climb the mast and hoist the top of the shroud to the mast head and replace the fitting in the two tangs, insert and secure the cotter pin into the pair of tangs on the mast.

On the way down, stopping to remove the two forward shrouds, hoping to save climbing the mast unnecessarily. 

After replacing those three shrouds, we'll switch the temporary shroud to the port side and replace those 3 shrouds too.

At least, that's the plan. We'll see how it goes. It's definitely going to be hard work and we'll change it to do what we can when we can.

Wind is expected to be in the 20's most of this week. So hold tight till Wednesday/Thursday.

See you on the water...

(Here's the link to Part ii )

Paul

Mainsail Reefing line markings

Marking the Mainsail Reefing Lines

We had crew aboard last weekend, so I was not doing all of the work when we needed to reef, that was when I realized that we need to improve the reefing process on Eximius.

Just to recap, here's the process of adding a reef to the Mainsail.

• Head up to close hauled
• Haul in on the Topping lift to prevent the boom dropping when...
• Lower the main halyard to bring the head of the sail down just below the next reefing point
• Haul in the next reefing point downhaul to tighten the luff
• Haul in on the Main halyard to tension the luff, now the main is currently raised to that reef.
• Haul in on the next reefing point outhaul to set the Clew of the sail
• Ease the Topping lift to set the leach of the mainsail
• Reef the Jib/Genoa as needed to balance the boat.
• Head back onto course

That's how we should add a reef to the mainsail.

The problem arises when having to check the position of the main halyard and the two sets of reefing lines. Glancing up from the cockpit in nasty weather is awkward. Hence the need to mark the lines for each reefing point.

My plan is to mark the Main Halyard, the #1 Reef downhaul & the #1 Outhaul as well as the #2 Reef Downhaul & the #2 Reef Outhaul

I want the markings to be easily seen from the cockpit and obvious.

Here's my plan. I'll mark the 5 lines in each position "Full Main", "1st Reef", "2nd Reef" using Red whipping line.

Each marking will comprise of 2 or 3 bands.

For the Full main, the bands will be 1" wide whippings

For the 1st Reef, the bands will be one narrow band and the second band will be 1" wide whippings

For the 2nd Reef, the bands will be two narrow bands and the second band will be 1" wide whippings

With these markings in place, it should be easy to tell when the lines are in the correct position both when adding a reef or taking a reef out.

We'll see how that works out.

Any comments? Do you mark your reefing lines and if so, what method do you use?

See you on the water, reefed or not.

Paul

Installing New Winches on Catalina 34 Pt.2

Had an idea. Would fender washers cover up the underside of the old bolt hole on the underside of the cabin roof when I drill the new holes for the new winches?

The existing bolts are secured with 1" washers, spring washers, hex nut and hex acorn nuts. If I replace the 1" washer with a 1 1/2" washers they will probably cover up the old holes adjacent to the new holes.

That simplifies things as matching the finish on the underside of the cabin roof is nearly impossible.

Found washers on Amazon, $24 for 10, found them at the local Broward Bolt for just $4.50+tax. $4.82 such a deal.

They didn't have the new bolts in 316 Stainless, looking elsewhere for those, probably available at ACE Hardware.

Also needs some Epoxy Resin and Hardner.

The old bolts were bent, I'm guessing that was due to poorly drilled holes (not straight / vertical) and I don't have a portable drill guide, so I purchased one of these on Amazon. $8. 

Purchased 10 Stainless Steel 1/4 #20 Bolts from Broward Bolt.

Each bolt will have to be cut to length as all 5 are different lengths.

The original bolts were all bent, not sure why, but it could be that the underside of the cabin roof is not parallel to the winch base plinth.

When I drill the new holes they will be 5/16" to give a bit of wiggle room.

Now, the underside of the cabin roof where the bolt holes exit is not horizontal, but not wildly out of alignment. The new washers have 5/16" holes which should allow enough slack for them to align with the surface.

Purchased 3" x 1/4 #20 Flat Head Bolts to replace all of the winch mounting boxes and a Tube of 2 part Epoxy.

The hole drilling process will be:

• Mark the new holes
• Drill through using the guide
• Route out the plywood core around all of the holes, new and old.
• Mask off the underside of all holes
• Mix Resin and fill the holes, let it cure
• Re-drill the new holes
• Countersink the top edge of the new holes and apply butyl tape around the holes
• Apply Butyl tape around the screw heads and the base of the new winch.
• Push the bolts through, secure with the washers, spring washers, hex nuts and tighten all down.
• Cut the bolts down to length with my Dremel and secure the hex nuts with the Acorn nuts.

Ok, that's the plan.

I'll take pics and update this post. Should get this done this next week.

Saturday August 7th. 2021

Finished!

It took a few extra trips to the boat. That's because I screwed up (pun intended) when I purchased the new Screws - I should have purchased 3 1/2" Long Screws Grrrr. Worse because the 3" fit the short holes and I mistakenly thought I had cut the remaining screws too short. I hadn't. 

Other than that screw up, I followed the process with only a slight change.  I drilled out the existing holes and the new ones with a 1/2" drill bit. Filled them with Resin, let it set for 24 hours and then redrilled 1/4". Finally I drilled 9/32" to allow the bolts to align a little when the nuts are installed. That worked well.

I figured the the original bolts bent during tightening (over tightening?) as the underside of the cabin top is not parallel to the Winch bases. 

The good news is that the new Fender Washers cover the old holes on the underside of the cabin top very neatly.

Here's some pics of the process.

Old Port Side Winch removed. Base ready to be cleaned up.

The goop looks like old grease from maintainence.

Oh, the Filter holders in the background are just drying in the Sun, it's part of our keep the fresh water system clean. We remove the Fresh Water filters whenever the boat is not going to be used for a few weeks, it's not likely that we'll take it out until around August 16th. A few projects remain before then.

Using a Drill guide to make sure the new holes being drilled into the cured resin are vertical to the Winch Base.

Holes were drilled with 1/8" pilot holes, then 1/4" thru to the cabin and finally 1/2" to just above the cabin liner.

Those holes were then filled with Resin and left to cure for 24 hours. I did use a Single sided razor to clean off the excess resin.

New holes drilled ready to be countersunk.

Starboard Winch fully installed. 

The Lewmar winches are really easy to service, no tools required, but a very small screwdriver to help ease out the brass position lock segments. 

Next service is due in January 2022.

Really this is an easy project. Important points are that the bolts need to be 3 1/2" #20 1/4" Flat Head Phillips head screws. The washers were 1 1/2" 316 Stainless steel.  

I used a 4 1/2" Cut off wheel in a shore powered grinding tool to cut the excess lengths of the through bolts. Trick - wind a nut onto the screws before cutting, it's easy to use the nut to clean up the end of the screw from the grinding/cut off operation.

Any question about this upgrade? Just make a comment.

See you on the water.

Installing New Winches on Catalina 34 Pt.1

 Replacing the Cabin Top Winches on our Catalina 34

We have two winches mounted on the cabin top beneath the dodger. The port side winch is used to adjust the Jib Halyard, Topping Lift and if required, the 1st and 2nd Reef Downhaul lines. The starboard side winch is used for the Main halyard, Mainsheet and if required, the 1st and 2nd Reef Outhaul lines.

Both are Lewmar 30 winches but only the Stbd winch is self tailing, so the port winch has to be changed out. West Marine had a BOGO offer a few months ago so I purchased two new Lewmar 30 Winches.

I'll be posting the old winches on Craigs List, someone will get a bargain.

Inspecting the mounting of both winches indicated that the Port Winch should be an easy change out as the bolt pattern on the inside of the cabin roof, inside of the Head compartment, match those of the new winch. However, the Stbd winch bolt pattern show that the bolts are not perpendicular and so the bolts do not form a regular pattern where they protrude through the cabin roof in the Aft Berth.

The change out of the port side winch should be really easy. Just dismantle the old winch and remove the nuts from beneath the cabin roof, then lever up the winch. Clean the area, apply Butyl tape to waterproof the holes. The new winch will need to be dismantled, easily done, no tools required, then mount the new winch, tighten up the nuts and rebuild the dismantled winch - all done.

The starboard winch is a little more complex. Initially the same process. Dismantle the winch, remove the nuts from the underside of the cabin roof, lever up the winch and clean up the area. 

Now the tricky bit. This winch takes the load of the Main Halyard! No weakness tolerated, so I have to fix the holes in the cabin roof rather than just use the old, misaligned holes.

The process is to clear out the area where the holes are misaligned, fill them with epoxy and filler, let it cure, then redrill the correct size holes. I asked the guys on the C34 forum and they suggested that the process described is good, but when I remove the old starboard winch I may find that all is well. 

Update July 3rd 2021

Well, that didn't go as planned! 

It turns out that the bolt hole pattern in the new winches are not the same as the old. At best only 3 of the 5 holes can be aligned. So that means I have to fill the existing holes, drill new ones before fitting the new winches.

The pic shows the underside of the old port side winch, it looks cruddy, but it's actually in pretty good shape.

Not only do the new winch bolt holes not align with the old but the old holes were badly drilled as can be recognized by the 5 bent bolts that held the winch down to the cabin top.

A secondary problem is that the existing bolt ends are visible i the Head on the underside of the cabin top.

I really don't want to have the old and new holes visible, it will be ugly. So my plan it to place a plate (Stainless Steel, Wood or Starboard) such that it covers the holes. That way the new bolt holes will extend through the Winch, cabin Top and the plate, which should result in a nice clean finish.

Of course, I don't have any epoxy resin to fill the holes, back to the store!

Fixing Mainsail Crease

Fixing our Mainsail Crease

You have to look carefully, but there is a diagonal Crease in our mainsail extending from just above the 2nd Reef Cringle down to the Clew of the mainsail.

This photo was taken as we crossed the start line of the Palm Beach Regatta Coastal Race in June 2021.

We're not racers! But a great opportunity to sail with a bunch of other boats is tough to turn down. We did well, beating our nearest competitor by 14 minutes over a 30 nm race. However, that crease really spoilt our sail shape. From all of the sail trim studies we have made over the past year (thanks Covid) we know that the sail should be smooth in order to allow laminar flow of the wind over both sides of the sail. The diagonal creases caused about a 2" ruffle in the surface of the sail.

I discussed the issue with a good friend with a lot of sailing experience. He suggested that I slack off every line on every sail trim system. That includes: Main Halyard, Lazy Jacks, Vang, Main Sheet, Reefing lines (4 lines - Reef #1 Downhaul & Outhaul, Reef #2 Downhaul and Outhaul) and the Clew Outhaul and finally the topping lift.

So that's what I did and the diagonal crease remained! I was getting worried that we had stretched the sail sometime over the past 5 years since they were new, that's a $3,000 error! Grrrr!

With everything slackened off, I shook the boom to see if there was anything still causing the creases.

Found it!!!

Our Mainsail was designed as a Loose Footed Main. The only point of restraint at the boom is at the Tack (front lower corner of the sail) and the Clew (aft lower corner of the sail). However, if the clew outhaul ever broke, the main would slap itself to death or at the least a very expensive repair. In order to protect the sail, the sailmaker installed a strap that went around the boom and through the outhaul (clew) cringle. The problem was that that strap was preventing the clew from moving when the outhaul was released !!! 

The strap is a piece of 1" webbing about 3' long with velcro sewn on both sides of the strap, so when it's wrapped around the boom, the velcro adheres the surfaces together. But the strap prevented the clew moving!

What's the purpose of moving the clew?

Good question.

The outhaul pulls the clew (aft lower corner of the sail) towards the end of the boom (the end furthest from the mast). As the clew is tensioned with the outhaul, the bottom of the sail is flattened. This reduces the depth of the sail and improves higher wind performance while reducing heeling. In light air, the outhaul is eased to increase the power in light winds or in choppy seas (that power is more consistent as the boat rises and falls and so helps push the boat through the waves.)

And, the whole reason for this. By allowing the clew to actually move for and aft, it eliminated the crease in the sail. This should result in smoother, laminar flow of the wind over the sail and that means better sailing! 

So, Thanks Ira! Your advice helped solve the problem.

See you out on the water.

Oh! what do I do about the safety strap? I'm making a new one that will have more slack and thus will allow the clew to move.

Old style 'spindle' sheaves
broken and worn.

And! While doing this I found the the Sheaves on each end of the boom that allow the outhaul to be trimmed or eased were failing. They were also simple spindle sheaves. I replaced them with Ball Bearing Sheaves. Now the outhaul is easy to adjust and the clew actually moves. Here's looking forward to seeing you on the water, and hopefully it will be as we head off towards the horizon.

Paul

Snubber for the Anchor

New Snubber for the Anchor

We bounced around at anchor last weekend in Lake Boca during the night of the Chili Cookooff, so much that our anchor got dislocated and we drifted towards the other boats in the fleet. Time to look at how to reduce the risk of anchor dragging - again!

Quick overview: We typically let out about 75' of anchor scope which in Lake Boca is about 7:1.

The boat's anchor roller is about 4' off the water and mostly it's about 7' deep when we anchor at low tide. We try to find 7' depths as we have a keel that sticks down 5' 7" from the flat water surface and Lake Boca has a typical tidal change of about 2', so we look for 7' at low tide and 9' at high tide.

A couple of years ago, I made an Anchor Snubber that was 30' long and it uses about 3' of rope for the knot that attaches to the anchor chain (I use a rolling hitch)

After researching online, it seems the 30' is too short! When attached to the anchor, it's 15' legs are only 12' long due to the knot on the anchor chain. Online research showed that our boat, 34' long, should have a snubber of about 28' in length.

Ideally it would be shaped like the letter Y with the upper two legs of the Y being 25' and the lower leg being 3' and a pendant to connect the snubber to the anchor chain of about 2' long.

I ordered Nylon 3 Strand Anchor/Rigging Line 5/8" x 100' White line from Amazon by Maple Leaf Ropes - $60, it came with a single stainless steel thimble pre-spliced into one end.

Another purchased that benefited from Amazon Prime. Ordered Wednesday evening and arrived Saturday.

Eye Splices in the two long ends

Step 1 was to cut a length of 28' plus the extra required for a cleat sized loop on the other end from the existing thimble. I spliced a loop on that end to fit around a 10" cleat on the deck.

Step 2. I cut a 25' length plus the extra required for a 10" loop at one end and a 6" inline splice at the other. I spliced the 10" loop in one end.

Inline Splice joining the short side to the long side

Step 3. I spliced the two lines together to form the Y shape, about 3' from the lower eye thimble.

The Completed Snubber
and Pendant + Spare

Today, I made up the Pendant from 1/4" 12 strand Dyneema line. That should have a breaking strain of about 17,000 lbs. It's about 4' long with loops in each end to fit over the bolt in a shackle to connect it to the Thimble in the Snubber

I made a second pendant, just in case. 

Next I'll make a mesh bag to hold it all so that it doesn't get snagged up on the Anchor Locker aboard Eximius

Didn't take long - another thanks to my Navy training.

That's me at 15 in St. Vincent's Rope training classroom - 5th from the left back row.

That was 56 years ago! Wow!

Wonder how many of my class mates are still around ?

See you on the Water - hopefully securely anchored! 

My Splicing Kit

My DIY Splicing Kit

Needing to splice different types of line for everything from Fender Lines to Soft Shackles, I've watched dozens of YouTube videos on the subject. This is despite the Navy training I had at age 15 on how to make various splices in ropes, typically Coir Rope (Coconut Husk material).

1964 That's me in the Back Row 5th from the left.

HMS St. Vincent's Rope Work Class - Jnr Seaman

Over the past 4 years, I have made Fender lines, Dock Lines, Main Halyard Loops and the list goes on. I've built up a simple Splicing Kit and find it's pretty much all I need to complete any splice on the lines sized to suit Eximius. A larger boat might need thicker lines and a couple of extra, larger splicing tools.

My DIY Splicing Kit comprises of a Small & Medium sized FID, a line puller, Marker Pen, Ruler, Line Cutting Board and Sharp Knife

Fids: Used to open the rope strands or push a line end though the parts of the line. I purchased a pack of hollow, aluminum, knitting needles from the local fabric store. Cut the blunt ends off and then ground down that end with my rotary sander (could have used my Dremel)

Line Puller: Used to pull a line or part of a line inside of the rest of the line, I know, that's not very descriptive, I'll show it in pics.

Here are the parts of my kit:

My original Line Puller, Version II, Long Fid, Short Fid

Single Sided Razorblade, Sharpie Marking Pen

I spent a few minutes making a holder for everything except the Razor and Ruler

Note: The holder is marked at 6" 8" and 12" 

so that I don't have to have a 3' rule at hand.

Still thinking about how to include the Razor in the holder

Solution for the Razor, I've started to using a box cutter to hold the blade.

I purchased these (available on Amazon)
The cutter fits easily into the Splicing Kit holder. I didn't need 12 cutters, but what's the chance I'll loose one (or more 😉







Now I can sit and watch TV while I'm making a Soft Shackle or putting an Eye Splice in a piece of Dyneema.

See you on the water!

Multi-Purpose Block and Tackle

Should have made one of these years ago.

In preparation for Hurricane Dorian's visit (didn't happen here), I realized that Peggy was having trouble hoisting our Outboard engine from the Rail Mounting so that I could remove the outboard from the boat and get it safely in our Garage. The block was small and only had a 2:1 advantage. My solution was to replace the block with a 4:1 Block and tackle.

While on my buddy's, Peder, boat, he setup a Preventer to keep the Main sail steady during a downhill run, Wow! I never realized what a difference a Preventer would make. I'll have to get one.

This week we took our 69lb Inflatable dinghy back to the boat, it's been at home for cleaning and safe from the Hurricane (didn't happen here) and that reminded me that hauling the dink from the water onto the foredeck with a spare halyard (1:1) was a real pain. I need to have a better system.

So that's 3 reasons for having a block and tackle at hand on the boat, there's a 4th! Hauling someone from the water after a MOB event is no easy task, and a block and tackle would make that doable.

So, at least 4 reasons for a Multi-Purpose Block and Tackle.

I figure the max load would be about 250lbs (heavier than that and you're not coming on my boat, sorry, it's not a big boat!). So the SWL should be about 2.5 times that load, that's around 625lbs or 1.4Kgm and the attachment point would need to be able take a load of 500lbs or 1.1Kgm

NEW ENGLAND ROPES Solid Color Sta-Set Polyester Yacht Braid


50' of 5/16" Diameter

The Top Block

Lewmar 60mm Synchro Double Block with Becket

The Bottom Block

Lewmar 60mm Synchro Single Block

We need to give this a name, we'll call it 'The Blue Block and Tackle' 

Yesterday, we hoisted the deflated dinghy from the Dock to the Foredeck using The Blue Block and Tackle, literally - NO SWEAT!

Now I need to make a dinghy hoisting harness. It'll be a simple 4 point harness with snap shackles on the 5 ends. Easy job using my Sailrite LSZ-1 sewing machine.

See you on the water.

Paul

Upgrading the Mainsheet Block System

Yes, we're still making improvements to Eximius and this one is a long time coming.

The Mainsheet (the line that controls the position of the Boom) runs through a total of 9 Sheaves (the pulleys inside a block) and 7 of those are original to the boat, so they are going on 31 years old. I have cleaned and lubricated those blocks many times, but it really does not make much difference.
Normally, the crew will 'play' with the Mainsheet and the Traveler to keep the sail shaped appropriately with changes in the wind.

To explain how bad the blocks work: In order to ease the boom from the centerline, even when the sail is full of wind pressure, we have to ease the Mainsheet by pulling on one of the lines in the Mainsheet block system and then letting it go so that the boom moves and takes up the slack. In order to move the boom back towards the centerline we have to use a winch! Consequently, we often position the Mainsheet and let it be, even if we need to move the sheet unless it's a significant sailing status change like from Close Hauled to a Beam Reach..

This means that we don't get the best speed from the boat! We updated the Traveler a while ago and that does give us a decent amount of change but it does not encourage correcting mainsail twist, and hence boat speed.

Scouring the Internet for replacement blocks, with a preference for Garhauer equipment, matching the new Traveler and new Deck Organizers, I was dismayed at the pricing, it looked like we would have to pay around $650 for the set of blocks, Dang! and we're watching the pennies as we had to buy a new truck earlier this month.

Peggy asked what kind of blocks were sold by Catalina Direct for the C34, hadn't thought of that! A quick review of the CD site and I found they had a C34 Mk1 Mainsheet Block Kit for $266.

Image from Catalina Direct

The kit comprises

• 3 Single Blocks with Shackles
• 1 Single Block with Shackle & Becket
• 1 Fiddle Block with attached Single Block with a shackle on the Fiddle Block

When I called Catalina Direct, they confirmed the blocks were Garhauer Blocks - awesome!

I didn't need the 3rd Single Block as I had replaced the block at the base of the mast already.

The cost bottom line was $246.70 for the kit and shipping after the discount for not needing the 3rd Single Block. The new block kit is on it's way and should arrive by late next week.

Peggy is pleased because we have been discussing sail trim a lot recently and it would make a huge difference if she could adjust the Mainsheet, and this kit should enable that.

I'm hoping that the end of the sheet, which attaches to the becket in the middle block on the Boom, will easily transfer to the new becket, else I'll have to re-splice that eye. The rest of the Mainsheet should just thread through the new blocks.

Here's a pic of the completed installation. 

I didn't need to make a new eye on the end of the Mainsheet, it fit the becket on the upper middle block just fine.

The astute will notice that there is a twist in the sheet (black & white rope) at the additional block on top of the Mainsheet fiddle (click on the image to zoom in) That's because that extra block is from the old setup and is too big! The kit was sent without the extra block because they were out of stock for that item, it's slightly smaller than the old block and it will not be on a swivel.
A nice feature of the new blocks: The shackle pins are threaded into the shackle and have a securing ring though a hole drilled through the threaded portion of the pin. I much prefer this setup to one where the pin is secured only by the ring. Nice job Garhauer!

The difference in friction between the old setup and the new, with the passing through 9 blocks and 1 rope clutch, is staggering! I can now ease the Mainsheet by opening the clutch and then applying a few ounces of pressure on the boom (which would be done by the wind on the sail).

We have a working Mainsheet! WoooHoo! Of course, we're not sailing for at least another week!

But we'll see you on the water!

Paul

Update: Tuesday 11/20/2018

Great news! The additional block for the Fiddle arrives today, so we should be able to install it prior to our sail up to Lake Worth on Friday.

Purdy!

Not only handsome, but it looks really well made and the sheave almost floats on it's bearings.
This, non-swiveling, block should also eliminate the twist in the last part of the mainsheet, an added benefit.

Not sure if we're going to make it to Lake Worth this weekend, bummer! But we'll go down to the boat and install the new block, that will finish off the new Mainsheet Block System.

I find Whips Sexy

Boat Whips that is!

In the ongoing campaign to keep Iguanas from pooping on Eximius at the dock, we were suggested installing Boat Whips. As it happens, a friend of ours is selling their boat and the whips were not included - She offered them to us for Free! Would not accept payment so I promised some of my home / boat baked bread when we are nearby.

Taking the whips home with about 12' hanging out of the back of our F150 was a little nerve racking, but I tied two bright flags to the end of the whips so that any following vehicle could see them, that worked! Each time a vehicle approached from behind, they stayed well back!

At home I sanded down the aged fiberglass splintered whips and applied a half dozen coats of Krylon Spray Paint  - Mahogany Red! Wire brushed the flaking paint from the base plates and sprayed them Black. For aged whips, they now look pretty good.

The bases are secured to the decking with 4" 1/2" Bolts and Nylock Nuts & Fender washers underneath the deck. I cut a piece of 1/2" thick rubber floor tile so that the bases would not cut into the deck planking.

Getting the washers & nuts onto the bolts below the deck was a challenge, but a decent amount of sweat and puffing got them done.

The line that came with the whips is in pretty good shape, but was too short for this setup, so I extended the line with some spare from the boat - all boat owners tend to have 'extra' line onboard!

The Whip line is secured to a cleat on the whip at the dock side and onto a cleat nearest the dock on the boat.

We normally have the boat facing East, but it's facing West right now as we didn't want to turn the boat upon our last return to the dock, simply because we wanted a quick unload and get home for a nice shower!

The Whips hold the boat nearly 2' from the dock unless the wind is from the North, which does happen, but mostly it's from the East. When wind is from the North, the boat moves towards the dock and then eases off again, we'll have to practice adjustment of the whip lines in order to find the optimum position.

Thanks Eileen!

See you on the water!

DIY Outboard Lifting Harness

Making a DIY Outboard Lifting Harness

Our new Mercury 4 Stroke 4hp Short Shaft Outboard weighs about 60lbs and we keep the engine on the boat secured to an Outboard Mount on the Port Side Aft Cockpit Rail. Moving the engine from the Mount to the Dink requires a decent amount of control. We had purchased an Outboard Engine Lifting Harness for our previous boat and outboard, but I was never happy with it. It always felt as though it was trying to release.

So... Time for a DIY solution.

The KISS principle is nearly always the best.

Initially I thought I would need the horizontal strap to prevent the harness slipping off the ends of the engine, but when I did a trial fitting without them, the harness was just right. There are engine parts that stick out from the main body of the engine head that prevent the harness slipping off.

The harness fits with the cover on or the cover off. I'll attach the carabiner to the moving block on the hoist tackle..

It took longer to come up with the simple concept than to make it. It feels really secure when lifting the engine.

Next is to take the Outboard down to the boat and set it on it's mount.

If the persistent gray clouds and soaking rain eventually decide to move off elsewhere, then we can load the boat and head off for our trip down to the Keys. I'm ready!

See you on the water.

I received a comment asking the the D Rings passed through each other. No they do not, I simply connect the hoisting line to them using a carabiner. Hope that helps.