In a previous post I already told that “tinkering” is at least as important as sailing. Probably the sailing is instrumental to the tinkering. How else would I know what to tinker 😇.
First of all I would like to get rid of the boom gallows. It is a lot of structure used in a small spot of the boat. In the Netherlands a kind of removable support (called mik or schaar) is more common and in a aluminum boat that is easy to make. In addition I had to install an extra line to keep the boom up during rigging (couldn’t find the right English word).
So, nice light weather, time for a test and I wished that I didn’t invite Elsa because it didn’t go very well. The main sheet got tangled in the aft clamps and the jib sheet ditto around the air scoops. Now the the tangling jib sheets bothered me every trip so that had to be “cured”. The main sheet problem was solved quite easy. And again aluminum is a bless: an angle grinder and a welding machine dit the job in no time.
Cut from the rim of the cockpit and placed in inside! A even more “clean” lay out. I guess my boat becomes a real prototype?
Now another issue was the foot rail on the roof of the cabin. That was a bit to low to be really functional. At the broadest beam it would have been nice to be able to tie a fender to it as well. So that was my next project.
Oh I forgot to mention that up until now I was able to re-use parts and use scrap aluminum to make these changes.
I also realise that with all these (and previous) changes I definitely need a major paint job. But as aluminum is “gentile” on corrosion that can wait till next winter.
Now for the major changes…
That jib… During my sailing training weeks (in the pre-history) I always hated the jib the most. Rigging it on a small fore deck on restless Frisian lakes always flapping aggressively and now tangling its sheets around my air scoops. Would be nice to get rid of that sail as well. And so I began to study an old love again: the lug rig! Could it be possible to make a lug rig on my Pocketship?
Of course it is possible. Even on the CLC website there is information to be found for a lug rig on the Pocketship. But how to make that from the existing rig? With a bit of (real scissor) cut and paste I got the idea to make it simply of my mail sail including boom and gaff. I also saw that it would be possible to trim it forward and aft depending on the attachment points of the halyard and the downhaul.
Probably it will enable implementation a mizzen as well. First of all I want to have it trimmed as a single sail. Later on I can shift this sail more forward to have it balanced with a mizzen.
And of course there needs to be some Arjen-invention-input as well. So I figured out how to make this setup so that I can rig it easily and can lower the mast instantly (for the many bridges in Friesland) But I will post later on that topic.
