9th September

Hallelujah!! After more than 1 month my goodie box arrived.

A spaghetti of 6mm dyneema hallyards and an 8mm gennaker hallyard (not dyneema) 8mm easier to handle, and a bunch of blocks etc. D H something shipping company took longer to deliver a small box from Germany than it took for my mast and boom to arrive from Poland. 8mm sheets for main, jibs and gennaker arrived ages ago from Spain.

Been covered in cement and tile adhesive the last couple of weeks so slow progress on Nuts.

Have done a few bits and pieces over the last days.  Got my single line reefing planned and tested and did the final welding on the gooseneck.  Heath Robertson but works just fine in the garden.

Cut up some stainless steel chain to make fairleads for the reefing line and welded cut halves onto boom end fitting.  I removed the gooseneck fitting from the boom (also gave it a bit more welding inside to make it a bit stronger) and refitted it with a plastic barrier between the stainless steel and aluminum as well as Duralac on the rivets.  (hope to minimize electrolysis)  Also shortened the boom by 80mm.  The boom length was exactly what I ordered but I didnt take the gooseneck fitting into account.  It was a bit long and decided to chop off a bit.  Checked it out with the main hoisted and the foot tensioned as much as I could.  Still got space if the foot stretches a bit.

I now have 2 options.  Reef hooks for the tack of the mainsail or a single line system.  More stainless steel chain links welded onto the gooseneck fitting.  I have blocks on the reefing points on the mainsail and practiced reefing 1st -2nd and taking them out many times before final welding of  chain link fairleads.  It is not a typical system as the reefing lines exit at the bottom of the boom and have to go around a block at the base of the mast and up through the link on the boom then through the block on the sail then down through a chain link guide on the gooseneck to another block at the base of the mast and finally to the cockpit.  

Now that the mast and sail hoisting jobs are done I can drop the mast and put Nuts back in the workshop and finish the deck fittings and put on the nonslip.

Going fishing tomorrow.  Freezer getting low.