Rigging

Rigging Check

Part of our rationale in coming to Almerimar was to reacquaint ourselves with Andy Parkinson, the expert rigger we had used two years before on Scarlet Lady, and soon after we arrived we made contact to book in a full rig check. As our sailing is evolving from relatively short hops around the Med to an Atlantic and onward Pacific crossing, we wanted to be doubly sure the rig was up to the job. As it turned out for the most part everything was fine, but the amount of movement fore and aft in the mast was a cause for concern. Whilst it would probably have been perfectly OK, and after all Aztec already has one Atlantic crossing under her belt with her previous custodians, Andy felt we could improve the integrity, and therefore safety still further by making some modifications.

Our mast is well supported at the top and sides as you would expect, but would clearly benefit from extra support slightly lower down.

Andy carrying out a rig check

Aztec Dream, like Scarlet Lady before her, is a fractional sloop rigged yacht as is common with many production yachts that you can buy today. Very different to the square rigged ships of old that could only sail downwind. Those ships came into their own running downwind on the 'Trades' transporting all sorts of commodities like tea in the case of the Cutty Sark, that could manage 17 knots downwind, but the upwind performance was not good at all.

Modern sailing boats have good allround performance thanks to the Bermuda Sloop rig, with its low drag and high lift to drag ratio. In addition, instead of needing large crews, most yachts these days can be easily handled by just two people and it is not uncommon to see yachts of 50 to 60 feet with just two aboard.

Types of rig

Andy recommended the fitting of a 'Stay' at the height of the second spreaders, running down to a strong point on the deck. This would be complemented by additional adjustable 'Backstays', which combined would give the support for our intended use. One of the options we discussed and ended up going for, was rather than just have a bare wire which is what the stay would be, we could fit a furling jib. This would be a sail much smaller in area to the genoa. It would turn Aztec Dream from a sloop into a cutter, and the pros more than outweighed the cons.
Not only would it provide a greater sail area and therefore more speed, it could also be used very effectively when conditions turn nasty. In very strong winds we could furl away our genoa and just use the jib, which would give us better stability. Hopefully with this new sail and all the others at our disposal on board, we should have something for just about every kind of condition we are likely to encounter.

The only downside is that when both sails are deployed, the genoa has to be furled before tacking, as it will not fit in the newly created slot. Not really a big issue as we are not racing, and most passages tend to be on one tack anyway.

We have specified a furling system made by Selden called Furlex, which is very high quality and has a good reputation. We could have gone cheaper, and then again could have spent a lot more, but this one seemed to be a good choice.

The first thing we did was to change the padeye fitting that the new stay would attach to, with a heavy duty one that was custom fabricated for us in the local stainless steel workshop. To take the extra loads, the deck was reinforced below this with a thick sheet of stainless, again custom made to fit Aztec.

We turned Aztec around to make it easier for Andy to fit the new Furlex system. This involved another trip up the mast to secure the fittings in place, and to measure the wire forestay. The Furlex option we went for came with an adjustable section which allows for fine tuning, and after cutting the wire to length and swayging on the fixing terminal, all was done.  Only issue was the new deck fitting for the staysail has meant we have lost a place to tie down the rib at the front. It appears that we should be able to fit a new pad eye just to the side, and use this to secure it. We will also have to move the bowsprit chocks to the starboard side so the tack line does not interfere with the new staysail furling line. The bowsprit itself could really do with being about a foot longer, but that would mean buying a new one which probably won't happen. Being a little longer would give us extra clearance for the anchor when flying, and bring in the chute and spinnaker. Nothing is ever straightforward!

New Furlex 200S inner forestay

Talking of the new sail, Andy did a great job of taking all the measurements and on his advice we chose to go with Hyde Sails in the UK. We have specified a cruising weight Dacron, and now that it has been fitted we are delighted.

Hyde's have been making sails for more than 50 years

New cutter configuration

Staysail deployed

New coachroof track

Ceiling panels had to come down

Holes in roof under mast track, where the deck is 40mm thick.
These holes are in the inner moudling behind the ceiling panels

Andy also took down the forestay for the genoa, as on the last sail around the bay it became stiff to furl the genoa. As much as possible was stripped back and lubricated, and it is a little better now. We are going to monitor it from when we leave here, but have an option to replace the furling drum on the way back past should we need to. 

We had to stop traffic to get this off!

This part connects to the top of the mast.
The large plastic ring is a rope deflector

The furling drum was taken away and soaked in diesel for 2 days!

Removing the old Helicoil

In the meantime we have removed the old damaged helicoil unit from the mast, and the new one does not fit! The manufacturer has changed the material in the spiral to a newer one that is more UV resistant, but in the process the unit has ended up 3mm longer. As far as we are concerned it may as well be 6 feet longer as nothing lines up, and it is impossible to get it back in the mast. Having sent many emails back and forth to the UK supplier, we began going round in ever decreasing circles until the final email from the MD who suggested we force it in!
We then contacted the manufacturers in La Rochelle, France, who could not believe the poor advice and have promised to make us one that fits. To this end we have sent back the complete unit and the old part, and are now awaiting their findings. Hopefully it will not be too long as we can't fit the mainsail until we get it back, which is taking up valuable storage room in the aft port cabin.

One of the last jobs will be to upgrade the fitting that holds the boom to the mast. The design is poor, and relies on just one clevis pin to stop the boom falling off. Our intention is to enlist the skills of the local metalworker, and the design idea from Andy, to come up with a better solution. We have also spoken to the manufacturer, who admitted they had changed the specification since Aztec was built.

At the time of writing the we have just taken delivery of a spare fitting which has gone off to me modified. All being well we should have that back in a few days time.

As this is the first post for a while, it would be fair to assume we have had our feet up and spent most days relaxing in the sun, with a nice hike in the mountains at the weekends. Well, apart from the hiking that could not be further from the truth, in fact we have spent just about every day doing something boat related, but more of that in the next instalment.

We are looking forward to using the new sail, and it will be interesting to see what differences there are on the various points of sail. No doubt we will convey that in future posts.