Don't look down...

By the end of February, the warmer and drier weather meant that we could start on the outside jobs. Most of these jobs were linked to the rigging and generally involved attaching new fittings to various parts of the boat, including the mast.

When we were away, we spent some time sailing downwind (with the wind directly behind us). This meant that the main sail needed to be let right out, almost at 90 degrees to the boat, enabling the sail to catch more wind. However, this can be a very unstable sail plan. If the wind changes direction, it can cause the boom to suddenly swing across to the other side of the boat. Not only is this potentially dangerous to the crew, it can also cause damage to the boom and its fittings. In order to stop this, it is good practice to rig up a ‘preventer’ – a line which holds the boom out. While away, we set up temporary preventers when needed, but when we sail around the world, we will hopefully be doing a lot of downwind sailing, so something more permanent will be required. After taking advice from the rigging team at Fox’s Boatyard, we came up with a system and set to to install it. This required additional fittings on the boom. As with anything on a boat, this was not a simple job and as it needed us to remove the boom from the mast!

Removing the boom

New padeye

Running a new mouse line

Other jobs were linked to the mast at various heights.

We geared up with climbing harness and headphones and started to pull in the climbing line. Unfortunately, the loop attaching the mouse line to the climbing line chafed through and both lines fell out. Luckily, we had a plan B, a second mouse line running a different route. We used this to feed in the climbing line, but my first job was to head up to the top of the mast and re-thread the original line. It was a slow process using long bits of string weighted with several nuts which needed to be threaded over two pulleys and down the centre of the mast. I was up there a while!

Once the climbing line was in its proper routing, we could start ticking off the other jobs.

Firstly, there were a couple of repairs to do – a replacement deck light needed to be fitted and we had to replace the tie wraps holding the spreader lights cables to the spreaders.

Next there were some new jobs at the very top – fitting two mast steps at the top of the mast to make working up there easier. Then a second bolt for the second climbing line climbing line.

These were more technical jobs, so it was over to Martin.