Dry Stepping the Mast

When we take her to the river I want to step the mast, paint the boot stripe and leave, pronto.  Stay too long at Hillman's and the shrimpers will steal the hubcaps off her. To make sure that operation goes smoothly I have decided to step the mast and rig up right were we sit.  That means doing it twice but I think the dress rehearsal approach will pay dividends in the long run.  With this in mind we pulled Rose out of the shed yesterday.

The small round piece of stained glass I bought from the hobby lady in Spring Branch was supposed to fit inside the port light over the chart table. I was short one bug screen anyway so seemed a good idea. It did not fit (measure once and buy it twice), so we made it a part of the forward cabin door instead. The idea unabashedly stolen from fellow BCCer, Stewart.  Turned out to be a better use for this bauble of colored glass anyway.

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The companionway doors turned out nice and the galley is shaping up.  I can't believe I lost one of the brass hinges for the refrigerator door.  As soon as I buy a new pair the lost one will turn up.  Engine room wiring needs serious organizational (and labeling) attention.

 

 

  

Standing and Running Rigging

This entry is an update that replaces an older one on the subject of rigging.  Last year I blogged about the virtues of keeping a small amount of stretch in the standing rigging by incorporating stainless wire in the rig, specifically for the shrouds and forestay. At the end of the day I opted for the weight savings of an all Dyneema system.  The lighter Dyneema stays won't offset the weight gain I picked up from the bronze mast bands and the wooden mast but it certainly helps.  The mast with wiring and radar antenna weighed in at 270 lbs, the boom 70, the gaff with saddle 30 and the mast furniture including the Dyneema stays, 90. I think the total 480 lb rig weight is about 160 lbs over the standard aluminum mast and bermudean rig.  

The mast will be supported fore and aft by a headstay from the cranze iron at the end of the bowsprit, a forestay from the gammon iron ( same as the bermudean plan) and two running backstays.

Here is a photo of the two chain plates.Two pair of shrouds will stay the mast athwartship…… the uppers from a single chain plate 2 inches aft of the mast CL and a pair of lowers set on a double eyed chain plate 26 inches aft of the mast CL. The lower topping lift blocks will set on the second eye.

The head stay, fore stay, backstays and shrouds will be 9 mm Dyneema Dux from Colligo Marine.  Lashings for the deadeyes and line terminators will be 6 mm Dyneema. A Colligo luff line furler with stainless steel upper swivel will serve all of the free flying jibs'ls and set on a 2 to 1 halyard that falls to a Lewmar 30ST two speed self tailing winch mounted on the port side of the mast.

All the running rigging will be 7/16 inch single braid white with navy tracer Yale "PHD Racer". The "racer version" of this line is a spectra/polyester weave with virtually no stretch, ideal for my long multi-purchase halyards  This line is smooth running through blocks and winch grippy with  a soft hand making it well suited for the sheets as well.  The only downside is it does not come in all white and as one might expect, it is a bit pricey. 

 

A small bronze band with two lugs and  a grove cut to serve as a hound for a loop sits on the shoulder of the mast truck. The leader line is looped over this band and falls to the starboard stern quarter of the mast base.  The tops'l halyard block hangs from the aft lug and a gantline/ spinnaker block hangs from the other lug. 

The top half of the tops'l is hanked to the leader line with dyneema soft shakles.  The lower half of the tops'l is cut back to keep it away from the peak halyard blocks.  Rigged properly with a port and starboard downhaul the lower part of the tops'l can be triced over the peak halyard tackle and thus set fair on either tack.
 
The Dyneema headstay attaches to the mast below the truck with a loup over a hound.  The lower end is lashed to the cranse iron with 6 mm dyneema.

The split mast band below the hounds has lugs on the aft side and eye nuts port and starboard.  The jib halyard is set on a two part purchase with the upper block on the port aft eye nut and the dead end lashed to the mast band below this one, separating the two parts to keep them from twisting.  On the aft side the upper peak halyard block attaches to the 1/2 inch eye with a twisted shackle to orient the block correctly.  The port and starboard upper shrouds will pin to the 1/2 inch toggles.  

The next split mast band a few feet further down the mast has a lug  aft and eye nuts port and starboard. On the aft side the lower peak halyard block will pin to the mast band like the upper, on a twisted shackle so that the block will be properly oriented fore and aft and still be free to move horizontally as the gaff twists off.


The backstays will be 9 mm Dyneema with line terminators on toggles pined to the band bolts. The lower end of the backstays will attach to a 2:1 whip reeved through a single on top and a single with becket at the deck mounted chain plate. The fall will lead from the lower single direct to the windward jib sheet winch so the runners should not lack for power. The whip will double as one of the two dinghy hoists. 



The third split mast band has two lugs one forward and one aft. The aft lug eye is for the double throat halyard block.This upper throat halyard double block ( a single is shown in the photo) is oriented athwartship with the lead off the forward sheave falling to stbd/aft side of mast.   The lower throat halyard block is a single with a becket connected direct to the gaff saddle axle that runs athwartship.  

The forward lug has two eyes, one for the forestay and one for a single stays'l halyard block.  The forestay will have to be measured precisely so I can eliminate the turnbuckle at the gammon iron and therefore allow the stays'l to drop all the way to the deck when doused. There will only be a toggle and thimble at the main deck.  Forestay tension will come from the aft lowers and running backstays.     

The last split band is positioned just below the spreaders. Port and starboard toggles connect the aft lower shrouds to the Colligo line terminators and to deadeyes lashed to the chain plates.  

The port and starboard topping lifts are 7/16 inch Yale reeved from the boom to static single blocks(not in photo) lashed to the eye nuts on this band and then to a 3 part tackle consisting of a fiddle block and a single and becket and finally pined to the spare eye on the aft chain plate.   

That brings us back down to deck level.  The fixed gooseneck has an integral pin rail for belaying halyards. In addition the port and starboard bulwarks each have three belaying pins midship. 


All the halyards and downhauls will terminate at the base of the mast or the pin rails at the gunwales. Only the hauling ends of the backstay tackles will be in reach of the cockpit.

The main sheet will be Harken blocks rove to a four part purchase with a fiddle block on the boom bail, a single with Becket on the traveller car and a single with cam cleat fixed to the center of the taffrail in front of the track. The mainsail outhaul car will run on a Harken track bent to conform to the taffrail curve and capped on each end with a 4 to 1 purchase system to make easy work of hauling the car uphill . 

The bowsprit traveler will be on a two part purchase with a bronze cage block at the sprit end.  Shrouds will be fastened to chain plates with 5mm Dyneema lashings through Colligo line distributors and terminators.

The mains'l outhaul is on a 2: 1 purchase with a car on a track attached to the bottom of the boom.  This 2:1 purchase will be compounded to 8:1 with a 4:1 tackle positioned under the boom close to the mast.  

Rod Bobstay On

 

Blocks and Mast Hoops

Dryade  is a French company that provides custom built bronze and wood components to the classic boat building community.  The blocks are bronze and Ash.  The beautiful leathered mast hoops were also hand crafted by Dryade

 

Standing Rigging, NOT Going with Sta-Lok

This entry is an update of an update of a previous one describing the standing rigging.  Yes, I changed my mind again.  All the stays will be Dyneema.  The Dyneema synthetic rope offers more strength than the stainless steel,  the lashings between the chain plate distributors and the line terminators will allow the system to load share and to give a bit should the forces on one or two components become excessive.   The Dyneema line and the Colligo fittings offer a significant weight savings up high.  The UV effect on the synthetic line is proven to be minimal out to 5 years. The line likely has full life beyond that mark.  The system is easy to tune in the field and the "deadeye" look and feel goes well with the boat.

Dimensions
The mast is Sitka Spruce and measures 45 ft from the top of the ballast or 39 feet from the main deck. The diameter at the base is 6 3/4 inches. At the 32 foot mark the diameter tapers down to 3 inches. The stays and runners will be 9mm synthetic Dyneema from Coligo.  The gooseneck will be 9 ft 4 inch above the keel step or 40 inches above the main deck or 22 inches above the house top.

Topsail Leader Line

A 9mm Dyneema leader line will attach to the top mast band to support the the bottom half of the topsail luff. A line terminator will connect to the lower eye on the aft side of the mast through a pair of 5/8 inch toggles. The terminator will fit the jaws of a 5/8 inch toggle but not the 1/2 inch toggle.  With two toggles the leader line can align itself on deck transversely and longitudinally.  After the boom is rigged up I will find a good deck location and attachment point that doen't  interfere with the swing of the boom. 

According to Brion Toss this leader line will make it much easier to strike the topsail regardless of wind direction. Brion adds that, “It will keep the sail inboard and bundled up whether it is going up or down. In addition, of course, the jackstay, properly tensioned, allows for a better to-weather shape, without an absurdly tensioned halyard.  In addition to supporting the luff of the topsail the jackstay will be used to set a trysail on hanks.

Headstay

Just below the spinnaker halyard block the 9 mm Dyneema Dux headstay will be attached to the mast on a spliced soft eye against a bronze hound on the aft side of the mast 6 feet below the top of the mast at the 39 foot mark.. On deck  a 1/2 inch distributor will pin to the middle eye of the cranse iron through a 1/2 inch toggle.  The distribtor will be lashed to the line terminator.
  

Upper Shrouds
The upper mast band is positioned 2.5 feet further down at 36.6 feet on the mast. The upper line terminator will pin to the toggle not directly to the mast band so the shroud can line up longitudinally and transversely.   On deck the 1/2 inch chain plate distributor will pin directly to the chain plate.  The distributor and the terminator should be about 18 inches apart, connected by a  4 part 1/4 inch lashing.   The jib halyard block and the upper peak halyard block will be attached to this same mast band.

Backstays
Next at 35 feet another split mast band will support the two 9 mm Dyneema Dux backstays and the lower peak halyard block.  At the top the backstay line terminators will shakle or lash to the aft eyes of the split mast band.  The lower terminator will pin to a whip consisting of  two single blocks one with a becket. The falls will lead to the jib sheet winches.
Forestay
A third split mast band will be positioned four feet three inches further down at the 31 foot level to support the Dyneema Dux forestay on the forward face and the throat halyard block on an aft facing crane. The tang that faces down in the photo below has one 1/2 inch eye for the staysail halyard block.  I will drill a second one above it for the forestay itself.  I will also need a 1/2 inch jaw by jaw toggle to connect the line terminator to the tang.  A single block for the staysail halyard will attach direct to the lower eye.



The shroud will attach directly to the gammon iron with a 1/2 inch line terminator on a jaw to jaw toggle. The toggle lets me  use 1/2 inch fittings instead of 3/4 inch, allows more movement and turns the line terminator so it faces fore and aft.  An exact length forestay eliminates the stack of fittings and lashings that would otherwise prevent the stays'l from falling all the way to deck level when struck. The other option is to put a turnbuckle up at the mast band.  It would be a pain to get at but I am assuming you would only have to adjust one time.  Once the rig is tuned the length of this stay will not change. Any fine tuning of this stay can be done on deck by adjusting the aft lowers and/or the runners.

Lower Shrouds

The lowest band is positioned just under the spreader at the 28.5 foot level on the mast.  The lowers attach to the toggles on a 1/2 inch line terminator.  The port and starboard topping lift lines will fall from two Coligo static blocks lashed to the eye bolts on this same mast band.  On deck the 1/2 inch chain plate distributor will pin to the forward eye of  the chain plate.  The topping lift block will attach to the aft eye on the same chain plate.  And like the cap shrouds the distributor and the terminator for the lowers will be about 18 inches apart and connect with a 4 part 1/4 inch lashing.     

Dressing the Mast

Between varnish coats we dry fitted all the mast bands and the new bronze spreaders.   The upper shrouds attach to the toggles on the port and starboard sides of the top mast band. The jib halyard block will hang on the forward face and the upper peak halyard block on the aft side of this same band. Right now we have 7 coats of varnish on and 5 more to go. The first photo shows the sanded mast at the top band.  The next shot was taken after the fog burned off (and it did, just like WD said it would) and we (Jorge) got coat number 7 down.  Above the top mast band the mast is painted white.

The bronze spreaders are attached to the mast just above the bottom band. They sweep aft 3 and up 5 degrees and will direct the 1/4 inch 1 x 19 stainless steel wire upper shrouds to the top mast band.





After Christmas we should be ready to pull wire through the mast and install electrical components.  I still have not figured out how to mount the spreader lights.  Above the spreaders the steaming light will mount to the forward face of the mast.  The steaming light indicates that the vessel is making way under the engine's power.   The Koden radar antenna will be mounted on the mast above the steaming light.  The wire bundle for these three components will exit the mast just below the spreaders.  

Three more wires will have to continue on to the masthead, one for the tricolor/anchor light, one for the wind indicator sensor and another for the VHF radio antenna. The AIS antenna is going to have to live at deck level on the boomkin. 

After the mast is fully dressed we will knock down the tent and step the mast,    Once the standing and running rigging is installed the mast will be unstepped and boat and spars transported to the shipyard. Hope to launch by April but not on the first and not on a Friday.







Road Trip

 As I dicussed in an earlier entry the spars were built in Port Townsend, Washington.   At one point I considered hauling the boat to PT to marry it with the spars there, but in the end I decided to finish the project here in on the Gulf Coast. So with the help of a close friend we organized a road trip and hauled the sticks back home.  The return leg took 73 hours, 49 of which were on the road.

In retrospect I should have built the spars here in Texas even if it meant importing the talent. I was too far out of position to supervise construction. 

As a result it took twice as long as originally quoted and because of a misinterpretaion of the drawing or a breakdown in communication the mast is 13 inches shorter than the designed length.  May not seem like much, but trust me, it's huge. 

Some thought was given to re-drawing the sail plan to fit the shorter mast.  That was certainly an option but not a very good one. The sail plan as drawn  is the best one for the vessel.  So having essentially started from scratch and come this far without any major design compromises, why accept less than optimum. The plan
now is to add the 13 inches of length needed to get to
the  45 foot designed length using a  clothespin
 scarf ( Page 214 of "How to Build a Wooden Boat").  I found two 6 foot long 7 x 4 inch Sitka Spruce boards in Maryland and a local shipwright with mast building experience. So we are back  in business.

Getting closer.  I'm now predicting a January splash.     

Mainsheet Traveler Track Modified

The Harken mains'l traveller track is bent horizontally to conform to 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 on the taffrail centerline in front of the track.  But the taffrail is also concave which makes the ends of the track lower than the center.  In fact the track ends should be bent upwards so that the mains'l leech does not tighten when the traveler car is released to run downhill. In the photos below you can see the long radius wedges that have been bolted and glued to the taffrail to give the track the proper vertical shape.
  

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. . 

Spars

Constructed by Bruce Tipton of Port Townsend WA the mast, boom and gaff are Sitka Spruce with bronze bands and fittings by Port Townsend Foundry.  The mast is 45 ft long end to end which seems long for a 28 foot boat, but six feet of this length is inside the boat from the mast step to the main deck.  The spreader band is only 22.5 feet above main deck level and the headstay is secured to the top mast band at 33 feet above the deck. The boom is 16 feet long and tthe gaff 14.  

Getting the spars from Port Townsend to San Leon, Texas at a reasonable cost turned out to be a challenge.   Bob Marsh came up with a plan that meant stealing the trailer out from under Whisper, my 18 day sailer and modifying  it to accept the spars. My daughter-in-law's brother will drive my Expedition and the empty trailer to PT.  I will fly up after the spars are loaded and make the return trip with cargo.  Piece of cake!

Chain Plates and Anchor Rollers

The cap shrouds will attach to the single eye chain plate now firmly fastened to the hull.  The double wide chain plate will serve double duty to the lower shroud and the topping lift.

Should have installed chain plates before shelves.

The stainless steel backing plate is glassed to the underside of the deck.  Sampson posts sprit heel is fastened with 3/4 inch hex cap srews 4 inches long.

Gammon iron fastened

Need to find 6 inch long 1/2 inch carriage bolts to fasten thru rub rail and hull.

Boomkin stays

Port side chain plates 

Stem mounted rollers

Starboard side chain plates

Need to bellmouth anchor line bails so not to chafe rode



Seen from astern

Deck Chain plates for running backstays  

Again but closer



Wide one aft for topping lift and lower 5/16 inch shrouds and forward  for 1/4 inch cap shrouds