Re-rigging halyard and maintenance

A couple weeks ago I moved the PT Puffin into the garage. Last weekend, I did some maintenance, including epoxying the skegs and re-attaching the UHMW skeg protectors.

This weekend, I decided I wanted to re-rig the halyard. I've long used the method proscribed in the plans -- run the halyard through the block at the pick point of the top yard and the tie a bowline just around the mast. The bowline loop travels up the mast with only a little resistance. This works fairly well.

I wanted it a little bit easier to rig, so I thought about parrel beads on a traveler.
I couldn't find any good size beads laying around the house. I have a 3d printer at my house, so I printed up some ABS beads sized just right.
My printer jammed up and didn't print a few of the beads, but most turned out well.
I have some dyneema that I used for my soft shackles.

3d printed parrel beads

 The beads needed a bit of sanding and cleanup.

Here you can see a couple unfinished beads.

 I had a bronze ring that was just perfect.

I used hot knife to trim one side.

Finished product

Now it slides up and down very well and is rigged just about exactly the same.

I'm itching to go for the first sail of the year, but it won't be next weekend. Maybe soon though.

Details: non skid floors, yoga mat seat covers, neoprene mouse pad mast pad

A couple small items and things we've done.

First is the non-skid sticky tape that I put down on the floor. It works very well. Left a lot of sand to clean up in the first few days, but highly recommended.

non skid tape

non skid tape in the foot well (very dirty after first sailing)

I still don't have a good drainage strategy. I'm considering putting andersen mini bailers down there in the footwell, but I have to get up the courage to put a hole in the bottom of the hull.

stainless eye for trailering

cleats for uphaul and downhaul

red scamp lantern (not happy with this and I will repaint it)

My wife complained about the hard seating on the first day she sat in the final boat. So we had the idea of a yoga pad cut in half. Here it is rolled up.

Yoga mat

And this last picture shows the yoga pads in place. You can also see an automotive 12v battery analyzer in the circuit breaker panel. It displays the battery health.

yoga pads and 12v battery meter.

I didn't get any pictures, but I got worried about the mast hitting the bottom of the mast box floor and eventually wearing through the fiberglass so I cut an old neoprene mouse pad and put that in the bottom of the mast box just inside the mast hole. Seems to work fine.

Rigging a Gig Harbor Boatworks mast

Friday, I picked up my mast from Gig Harbor Boatworks. I'm very happy so far. It's very light and easy to put in place. See my other post on building mast blocks.

I bought the mast bag, and it all fits nicely in the boat when collapsed. Should be easy to trailer her with everything bagged together.

I'd like some help from the Scamp community. I have a few questions about the way I rigged it. I think it's correct, or at least not completely unsafe. If I've done something wrong, please let me know.

Lacing the yard

First of all, the cord on the yard was too short to marlin lace through each eye. So I just laced every other eye.  Is it ok to lace through every other eye, or should I do this differently?

Lace through every other eye, fore end

Lace through the middle.

Last lace on the aft end.

The build manual also seems to imply that you can adjust the sail a bit on the yard. I can't figure out how to do that.

Halyard

I didn't get any pictures, but the halyard has a simple stopper knot, then goes around the mast and ties off on the yard. It's pretty easy, although I wonder if a snap swivel at the top of the halyard would make rigging slightly faster.

Lazy Jack

The lazy jack confused me for an hour or so, I just could not figure it out. I could see the rings on the  lazy jack, but couldn't figure out why the ends were so long if they were going to just clip onto the eyelets at the bottom the boom.

Finally after drawing it out on paper a couple times, I realized that the eyes at the bottom of the boom were not for the clips, they were to hold the loops until the lazy jack corded back up and clipped to the rings near the center of the sail. Once I figured that out, then it fell into place and I was able to raise the halyard with sail fully rigged. I would note that the lazy jack line back down to the cleat is doubled.  That makes it a bit harder to cleat off, but not too bad.

Lazy jacks are doing their job.

A bit closer shot of the lazy jacks.

And the other side.

I have to thank Falk at GHBoats. He kept telling that the lazy jacks needed to cross over. I didn't understand until I had it rigged. Thanks, Falk!

Reefing

I haven't tried to set these up yet, I'm more interested in making sure that I can deploy the sail reliably. Looking at the pictures just now, I think it's going to be easy, it appears as if there is a fore and aft reef. I'll just run the lines and pull the two lines down to reef the sail (after dropping the halyard, of course.)

Downhaul

I forgot to get any closeup pictures, but you can kind of see the downhaul in the below picture. I'm using a Racelite block/cleat combination. The line ties to the becket on the block, goes down to the block attached to the cabin top, then goes up and over the block and stays in the v cleat.

See the downhaul at the bottom?

I'm a bit worried that this will not be effective and will slip. I may have to change it, but I'd like some advice on what is effective. I've heard that the general consensus is that it may be enough to have a single line going through the cabin top block and into a cam cleat near the edge of the cabin.

Mainsheet

I didn't run this. It's easy to run. I did realize that an adjustable traveler will be nice. The plans don't specify but the kit I bought from the Chandlery uses a 3/8" traveler. Seems thick to me, is it really necessary to be that big?

What did I do wrong?

If you have experience with the GHBoats.com mast, please take a look. Did I do something wrong or unsafe? I'd like to know about it now before I splash.

I'll try to rig it and break it back down a few times this week so that I can get some practice.

Splash is scheduled for next weekend!

I think everything is ready to go. My parents will be coming out next weekend. Since Dad started this journey with me, it's only fitting that he be there for the first launch. If you are in the Seattle area and would like to see a new Scamp splash, PM ElHeffe on the Scamp Message Board or contact me privately and I'll let you know where we're going to be.

Sail numbers and mast installation

We got the sail numbers affixed. We followed WoodnMetalGuy's instructions.

sticking down the 4

Done!

The next step is to attach the sail to the mast.

But before I do that, the mast needs support blocks.

Mast supports

I did set the drill press table to 2 1/2 degrees.

The mast from Gig Harbor Boatworks is 2 3/4". I had to pick up a hole saw. It still needed a bit of sanding to make it fit around the mast well.

Sanding the hole a bit to open it up.

 The holes needed to be 1.35" inches apart to match the 2 1/2 degree rake. In the below shot, the right is the base and the left is the upper. I used a rat tail file to file a small water channel in the base. I may have to put down some new fiberglass in the base for protection.

base on the left, upper on the right.

I epoxied them last twice last night and this morning sanded them a bit. They are still a bit rough, but I can use them for dry fit purposes.

The Gig Harbor mast has a #8 screw at just the right spot for the top of the mast box. I used a forstner bit to drill out a recess and put in the screw.

Screw in the forstner hole

Screw protruding

 Then I attached it to the mast.

Mast with block

When you do this, make sure you orient the mast in the correct direction. The black nylon lazy jack cleat should be on the starboard side.

Both blocks fit down in the mast box very well. There is a little bit of forward backward play, but not much side to side. I'll fix it with a layer or two of epoxy.

The end result:

A stable mast

Then I set to work trying to get it all rigged. That'll be another post.