some of you may not find this post overly exciting, but for us, this installation was a big milestone on our to-do list!
during the winter, aaron snagged a used roller furling rig from craigslist. with his diligent and detailed researching skills, he managed to find all the bits and parts we needed to install the whole unit. he was then able to take specific measurements needed to order a sail to fit - what a brain.
as previously mentioned, we had a custom headsail made up for us by sailmakers down in Sidney, BC, and today (april 28).... we installed it!
the first step was to remove one of our forestays. Rafiki was set up with two forestays, which has always been handy for having multiple sail options - as in using one stay for one sail and the other for another. with that setup, we could switch sails by simply lowering one and raising the other. but we decided to forego that luxury and replace it with another - the roller furler. since the rolled up sail wouldn't fit with a second stay there, one had to go.
in order to do this, aaron had to take a trip up the mast. fortunately the water was calm and the wind mild. he rigged up the bosun's chair and strapped on a harness, then up he went. using the main sail halyard, he would pull himself up the mast one hoist at a time while i took up the slack on the winch down below. one-two-three-pull, one-two-three-pull, and up the old fella went with a tool bag tied on tight.
never seen a button this cute, or this high up!
unfortunately, both stays were attached at the top by the same piece of hardware, so we had to attach another halyard to the bowsprit to stabilize the mast while we loosened both of them off. only a little harrowing watching aaron work away up there knowing the mast wasn't properly supported! fortunately the cortes ferry only came by once during the process to wash its lumpy wake across the harbour.
i did my best to look/not look, but i also had to loosen the forestays at the bottom. aaron had to tie off the one stay with the roller rig (previously installed), then remove the other stay and tie it to his person so as not to let it smash down to the deck below. when he removed them both, the mast must have leaned back to the side his weight was on; when he went to reattach the remaining stay, it seemed not long enough! i tightened the support halyard as much as i could and propped the stay up with a pike pole, and it seemed to do the trick.
looking not looking!
once the stay with the furling gear was securely re-fastened, aaron was safely lowered back down (though i admit, i was tempted to leave him dangling at my mercy, hehe).
and then for the fun part: feeding the new sail into the roller furling rig!
we were lucky that Rafiki came with a full set of sails; most were well-used, one was very lightly used, but none were brand new. unwrapping our new sail was like opening a gift, seeing it all crisp and fresh out of its bright red bag. the sail cloth was so new it almost felt brittle - i was caught between eager-to-install and afraid-to-wreck-it! but install we must, and so we did.
a handy diagram to explain general sail anatomy - mainsail on the left, head sail on the right
the first check point for the sail and the furler to match was making sure the cord the sailmakers used on the luff was the same gauge as the furling tube track - and it was! check one. we fed the luff tape into the track of the furler and hoisted the sail. though we did have to add a short length of line and a shackle, the sail fit!!! point two: check.
(a brief aside for anyone who doesn't know what i'm talking about: the furling system is a series of tubes that run up the forestay. they have continuous a track on one side, into which one edge of the sail is fed. the tubes are connected to a drum at the base of the stay with a line wrapped around it. when the line is pulled, the drum turns the whole system and wraps the sail around the stay until the whole thing is neatly wrapped over itself. the sail is finished with UV-proof fabric to protect it from the sun.)
and now to see if the whole durn thing worked. aaron had previously run the furling line, so that was all prepared (you pre-roll the furling line, since you pull it to "close" the sail). now that the raised sail was "open", we pulled the line to see if it would indeed furl. and it did! the very first try wasn't 100% smooth, but after a brief technical review we rolled 'er up, and boom: there she was. check three.
wow! so there we have it! a brand-spankin' new, purple-edged roller furling head sail. this will make putting the head sail up and down nice and simple (technical malfunctions excluded, knockonwood), and gives us options to reef (reduce) the sail as needed.
this was a major check mark for us! good job team :D
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