Storm Preparations

Thursday was spent fitting some equipment that I hope that we never have to use.  We have already had a storm jib and trysail made and Thursday's work was modifying the mast so that these sails could be hoisted if we every get caught in a severe storm or hurricane.

Firstly, I cut a hole in the mast to fit a sheeve for a dedicated halyard for hoisting the storm jib.  The picture on the left shows the sheeve ready to be fitted.  It was slow work but needed to be accurate.  Cutting the hole  went well but running the halyard was not so successful.  The picture on the right shows a view up the inside of the mast.  I had to get a rope from the bottom of the mast up to the small pool of light from the new hole I'd cut.  In what felt like doing keyhole surgery at 40 foot range, I managed to fit the halyard three times but each time the rope had gone under one of the other ropes in the mast; not good as the ropes would wear against each other.  Time for a cup of tea and a bit more thinking!

I moved on to fitting a dedicated track on the back of the mast for the storm trysail.  I was really pleased that I had had the foresight to fit the lower section of the track before the mast had been taken down because I would never have been able to have fitted that section accurately with all of the ropes at the foot of the mast out of position.  The main issue I had was where the track runs past the lower spreader bracket.  Had the track been flush-mounted to the mast, at this point there would not have been enough clearance between the track and the spreader and the the cars running up the track would have hit the spreader bracket.  I therefore had to fashion two small ramps from aluminium so that the track could have a little 'hump back bridge' for the cars to get past the spreader bracket.  All was carefully drilled and riveted in position but the rain came before I could fit the top section of the track.  It didn't seem like a good idea to be using an electric drill in the rain!

I therefore sheltered as best I could under the hull and spent a few hours polishing the propeller and fitting new zinc anodes to it.  I also made some brackets to fit the speaker under the radome and, in between showers, sanded the epoxy 'measels' smooth.