Maintenance Log for Syzygy Sailing

Category: Running rigging

  • Running Rigging Maintenance

    I (Jon) finished these jobs variously on Nov.29th and Mar. 14 and Mar. 15th.

    I replaced the port spinnaker halyard with the old main halyard. I cut off fifteen feet or so from the ends as there was easily enough and this was this most abused section.

    To replace it, I taped the ends together and pulled the old line through until the new line came through. When the new line was five feet from my hand, the tape came apart and the entire line went back up to the top of the mast and fell down inside the mast. That sucked. It turned a 5 minute job into a 5 hour one.  I then had to painstakingly work a line back down the mast. This was made less easy because I was at Dockside Marina in Brisbane on the river, where ferries throw up large wakes that rock the boat back and forth every 20 minutes. I believe though I was able to feed the line down the mast without getting it twisted around any other line.

    I replaced the main halyard with line from the Melbourne Rope Company. The specs are stronger than say New England Ropes and it was local. But the inside is an odd weave that makes it harder to splice.

    I flopped the jib sheets end to end to even out the wear on those.

    I replaced all the monitor lines as the old ones had completely shredded the sheath of the rope in various places.

    I also whipped the ends of the lazy jack lines which had never been done.

  • Serviced furnace, reinsulated/replaced ducting

    I had already remounted the furnace outboard and forward of its old spot a few extra inches to gain us additional space in the engine room (this happened while it already was removed to access the jib car track and stanchions to rebed them).  While I was at it, I partially dismantled the furnace, satisfying myself that it was in pristine condition (how rare!) and needed no immediate attention from me.

    Some short lengths of ductwork were missing: the piece through the wet locker and the piece underneath the nav seat.  I replaced the one in the wet locker with the common, expanding type available at home depot.  I wasn’t excited about the durability of it, but I wrapped it with a ton of foam insulation and then taped it all over with the metal duct tape to strengthen it.  The section underneath the seat had to be stronger (tools get dumped on it) so I found a double wall scrap piece from Urban Ore down the street from us (a great source for obtaining other people’s garbage). The fitting that joined the duct to the vent was missing, so I fabricated one out of a section of single wall metal duct that was flexible enough to bend into the shape I wanted with pliers (and extensive shaping with the cutoff blade).

    The section through the wet locker still gets too hot to touch and scares me, but I don’t think it’s dangerous.  I wrapped the entire exhaust section with fiberglass tape designed for the purpose (previously just the last two feet were wrapped with it) and secured it with stainless seizing wire so it wouldn’t work loose.

    The last thing I have to do is install a tiny little fuel filter in the fuel line–I found one that is meant for this purpose in the spares bin and I think it’s a good idea.  Not to mention I’d rather store it in usage in the fuel line than in a bucket in our locker.

  • Replaced jib turning blocks

    The old ones were corroded and friction-filled.  When we went to remove them, most of the machine screws holding them in place sheered off (and the resultant bits were a bitch to remove).  The new blocks are high-load and expensive.

  • Redid mainsheet rigging

    The old mainsheet setup wasn’t good enough for me.  There wasn’t enough puchase power to sheet and ease the main by hand, without the use of a winch.  I want to be able to do it much more quickly than the winch setup will allow.  Also, the old blocks were worn out (high friction).

    We spent a small fortune on seven new high-tech blocks to fix the system, and it works like a dream.  It can be sheeted in and out by hand even in heavy wind, and it makes the job of trimming the main quick and pleasant–which incidentally means that it gets adjusted and fine-tuned much more frequently.

  • Replaced jib, staysail sheets

    With 9/16″ samson xls.  The old stuff was ready to part, and friction filled.  Why 9/16″?  1/2″ is plenty strong enough; the deciding factor in sheets is the size that you want to pull by hand around the winches, for comfort and efficiency.  We like the heft of the 9/16″.

  • Replaced reef hook

    First time we went out sailing we broke it off when we practiced reefing.  Metal fatigue–failed at a bend.  We through-bolted two hooks to the gooseneck (one each side).  Eventually we may add a system for securing the luff from the cockpit (the leech reef lines are led to the cockpit now) but that is not high-priority.

  • Replaced Main, Staysail Halyards, Main sheet

    There is way too much friction everywhere in our system.  We can’t do anything by hand, and even winching in the jib is a tedious process that requires multiple rests.  Replacing the lines will help a great deal.

    We used 7/16″ Samson XLS for this application. We got a great deal on a spool of 500′, so many of our lines will be identical. I’m unconcerned.