19 th August

Hoisted mainsail without battens to check halyard routing and length.

Had a few wind gusts (from the stern) so quickly dropped the sail. 

Tried again in the early afternoon when it seemed a bit calmer. 

Fitted battens to check the shape.  Looks good to me.  Very happy.  Got some more gusts from the stbd quarter and boom was sheeted in so had a bit of a panic to drop the sail before Nuts sailed up the hill or capsized!

Was a good exercise as worked out what sheeting positions Im going to use and halyard routing.   

 18th August

Did a bit of work on the rig over the weekend. Lowered the mast and removed the dyneema shrouds and ss forestay.  Fitted the roller furling to the forestay (trial fit and cut the foil to length.) Also made up ss shrouds for testing.

Hoisted mast again with stainless rigging.  Bow chainplate not finalized yet.  Got 2 small eyebolts temporally fitted for the tack of gennaker or jib.  Still got to decide if I should use shackles or the eyes on the chainplate to connect a soft shackle to.   The orange strap on the shroud turnbuckle is just a tie down to the cradle in case we get some strong gusts of wind.

Gave the deck its first wash with a hose.

I had to spray the VHF antennae matt black as it got brightly lit up by the red port tricolor light even though it is a thin stainless rod.

Still waiting for the halyards to arrive and got some crappy rope for test hoisting sails at the moment.

Going to fit the boom and hoist the main tomorrow.  Got to plan the sheeting system.

The mast is a lot stiffer with stainless rigging as apposed to dyneema and can get much more forestay tension.  

 15 th August

No pics today.  Been working on rigging. Got (ss) forestay cut to length and "toggle" cut and drilled and fitted.  Length seems good. (no turnbuckle on forestay).  Hoisted roller furling jib (loose luff)  to get lenghts  for cutting roller furling drum fixing straps.  All cut and polished.  Hope I got it correct.  Also hoisted hanked on jib to check all is good.  It is all good!! (I hope) 

At the moment mast is held up with 6mm 7x19  forestay and 6mm dyneema shrouds.  Dyneema is pretty good and even though I pre stretched after splicing with my tractor on a big tree with lots of force it is pretty stretchy. Can wobble the mast around even after doing lots of stretching and tightening.  Got everything measured and next job is to finish off  ss shrouds (7x19) 316 that is available here and using my hydraulic crimper.  Cheap and cheerful.

Hope it gets me to Lisbon to Clube Naval de Lisboa.  There is a rigging shop next door and will order the correct 5mm 1x19 wire for the challenge as specified.

Also fiddled with electricity.  Connected 1 x 25w solar panel (have a second) through a Victron MPPT controller onto the battery.  Very tempory - just with wires running through the  hatch and panel loose on the deck.  Got up to 1.9 amps charge which was pretty good.

Did a test this evening with everything running.  Mast head tricolor, 1 inside light on, compass light, VHF on recieve  and AIS also on recieve.  0.95amp draw.  That will go up a bit with the AIS on transmit.  Pretty good. I shut everything down but left the tricolor light on for the night and will check everything in the morning.   Very happy with the masthead lights.  Using a bit more current  than on the specs but going through about 11 meters of 1.5 mm2 cable.  Very bright!  My previous yachts had 25watt bulbs in the masthead tricolor lights and ate up the battery.

Will try to take some photos for tomorrow.

Cheers

.

 14th August

Dragged Nuts out of the workshop on its trolley and jacked it up to make it level.  Had to use a water filled transparent tube to get the level as my laser level doesnt work too well in bright sunshine.

With the help of Mrs Nuts swiveled the mast up using dyneema shrouds and a temporary block and tackle  on rope as a forestay.  The stainless steel forestay was connected at the top and could be measured for accurate cutting and crimping once I got the mast positioned in what I hope is the correct position.  Cut and crimped - just got to make 2 stainless straps as a toggle to finish off.  

Now the fun starts but still waiting for some of the running rigging to arrive.

10th August

Still ticking along in slow motion.  Nice summer weather so lots of other things to do.

Did a trial fit of the mainsail on the mast and boom (on the ground) to work out the reefing system and halyard block on the masthead.  Worked out what I had to order and playing the waiting game for running rigging and fittings to arrive in the postal system.

Hand rails bolted and epoxied into position and teak plugs glued in. Marked the deck where the handrails contacted the deck and removed the paint with a Dremel Tool and taped it all up before gluing.  Gave all surfaces a good clean with acetone before gluing.  Can chisel the plugs off tomorrow and give them a sand.  Going to bolt and  seal the mast step bracket on tomorrow.  All the wires are through the deck and will be connected under the mast step (with removable connectors).  They will be waterproof (I hope).  

Thinking about wheeling Nuts out the workshop in a couple of days and stepping the mast.  After mast step is sealed the boat is waterproof and can be left out in the rain.