Sunday, July 17, 2011

Back on Point



 One of the three salt water wash down stations is flush mounted on the deck just starboard of the bowsprit. A chain hawse pipe for the secondary anchor is located on the port side. The Muir Atlantic 1000 anchor windlass with capstan serves primary ground tackle handling duty.










The Harken mains'l traveller track is bent to conform with the shape of the taffrail. This allows the track to be mounted on the aft trailing edge of the taffrail leaving room for the center single swivel ratchet block with cam cleat to be fix mounted still on the taffrail but in front of the track.   The car is on a four part purchase to port and to starboard.   A fiddle block on the boom bail and a single with becket on the traveller car completes the system.   It's not very tradtional looking but in this particular case performance issues trump tradition. Mains'l control is more challenging on the gaff rig than the Bermudean.... the mains'l itself is 50 square feet larger and she will sail better if the sail twist is easily controlled.



I thought the bottom mast band would be fabricated with integral spreader band brackets but it's not, so I need to buy or build these.  The spar plan calls for a pivoting spreader bar with 5 degree up and 3 degree aft tilt.  This so the leeward spreader will be pushed forward out of the way of the mains'l when off the wind. Do you thru bolt the spreader bar or just wood screw and 4200 it to the mast? The spreader on Precipice, a wooden gaff rigged BCC, is the one drawn  by Lyle Hess. I'm sure Jaun can build them but I need to contact the owner of Precipice to ask how his are installed. from the photo it looks like it is just sitting on top of the mast band.    His are cetainly tried and true....if the Northwest passage is not a test I don't know what is. 

The two peak halyard mast bands were to have had horizontal bails so the blocks would not bind when the gaff twists off the wind. Not to worry; I can modify plans for block attachment hardware. . 



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