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New halyard winch for the main mast
One thing we really wanted to do for a while is to replace the winch for the main halyard. Before it was a wire halyard fixed onto the old winch, which meant that the winch only could be used for the main halyard. That has been an issue for us when we have tried hoisting the staysail, as we have had to do that by hand and therefore not been able to get it up properly. It has also been a bit slow hoisting the main sail, as you have to use the winch all the way. We also chose to make a hole in the mast to let the…
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Mast track gate improvements
Last weekend we didn’t only work with the fresh water system (see previous post). We also worked a with fixing a mast track gate on the main mast, continued with the electrical system and other small jobs. One thing we wanted to fix was an opening we had in the track on the main mast. The opening used when removing/inserting the slides. We haven’t found a piece on the boat that fits here so we decided to make one our own, by bending a sheet of aluminum. Some of the screws for the windows on the boat have some pretty sharp edges which we wanted fixed. They can easily damage…
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Hoisting the sails and first sailing
While working with the cockpit we also decided it was time for hoisting the sails for the first time. First one was the furling head sail. We hoisted the furling head sail a calm evening. We noticed that the sail was to short, so we needed a extensing on the halyard. The following day we decided to hoist the main sail and try sailing our boat for the first time. We sailed around in central Stockholm for a while. It was Petras first sail ever and Thomas first sail in a couple of years. The wind wasn’t very strong which was perfect for our first sail. Our sailboat isn’t exactly…
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The mast stepping
The time had finally come to do the mast stepping! 🙂 If you want to read more about our rig, see our blog posts about the rig HERE. Before starting the mast stepping we had to do some final preparations before getting started. We had to mount the windex, change to LED-bulbs in the lanterns, mount the new electrical horn we bought and do a final check of the masts to make sure everything looked good. When we felt satisfied with the masts it was time for the mast stepping. We had some friends with us to help during the process, since we never done this before and since we…
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Rig for ketch rigged sailboat
It was time for us to start an overhaul on the rig for our ketch rigged sailboat. As it is ketch-rigged we have two masts; one bigger main mast and a smaller one, called a mizzen mast. The mizzen mast is positioned in the cockpit and is much smaller than the main mast. The main mast is keel-stepped, which it means it goes through the deck. Main Mast We started with the main mast, which is made out of aluminum and has one pair of spreaders. First up was to loosen all straps that held the stays and shrouds together. We went over the shrouds and stays, took a close…
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