Rigging Part 1

It's been over a month since my last post, sorry about that!  Today was a simply beautiful day and I had BELLE out for a sail. This was the first time I "soloed" in the boat--including launch/retrieval at a local launch ramp--and I have to say it was a joy to be out on the water and zooming around the harbor.   So here's a few pictures of some rigging details.  I've have more soon.

Here's BELLE in the backyard for some rigging work.  I'm working out the lengths of all the parts of the rigging which even on a small boat adds up to a fair amount:  main sheet, two jib sheets, two main halyard (gaff rig has two), jib halyard, topping lift, reefing lines (which I haven't put on yet), lacing lines for both the gaff and the mast, and misc. smaller lines for lashings and such.

Whenever possible I've used simple lashings instead of expensive hardware.  This block will be lashed to the boom for the mainsheet.  These Tufnol blocks work well (I got them from R&W Rope), although some day I'd like to make my own from scratch.  Some day!

OK it's a bit of a mess, but here's what we've got at the base of the mast.   I promise I'll neaten things up for the next batch of photos!  Basically, the idea is I wanted all halyards to attach to the mast itself rather than lead to cleats on deck or on the bulkhead.  Why?  So that they would stay with the mast when raising/lowering the mast which I'll be doing every time the boat is launched.  So here we see the peak and throat halyards for the mainsail and, on the forward side of the mast, the cleat for the jib halyard.  Note the turning blocks on either side of the mast;  the two main halyards run through these blocks before cleating off.  The blocks allow the mainsail to be raised/lowered from pretty much anywhere in the cockpit rather than right at the base of the mast.  Note absolutely necessary, but it's been pretty handy so far.  (You can see that I haven't leathered the mast step quite yet, I've been using little mast shims in the meantime.)

Sorry for the blurry photo!  It shows a little thumb cleat on the forward side of the mast.  (I've seen these on traditional daysailers, so I stole the idea among others.)  The thumb cleat gathers up the lacing lines that attach the mains'l to the mast when the sail is lowered--as shown here--and also provides a place for a "support line" for the boom jaws.   I'm sure that's not the right word, but that's the line going through the thumb cleat which holds up the mast end of the boom (not shown) when the sail is lowered.  In other words, when the sail is down the boom is supported by the topping lift and this support line.    Seems to work well.  I'll try to have a better photo next time!

Incidentally, the rope is Hempex, a synthetic hemp-like roap that I got from R&W Rope.  I used 5/16" for the sheets and 1/4" for the halyards.  It is soft on the hands and seems to work well.

That's it for this time.  I'll have more rigging info. soon, plus I hope some more shots of BELLE under sail now that it's warm enough to sail without wool hats!

Launch Day Part 2

Here's a few more photos from Launch Day, many thanks to Doug Hylan for this batch.  (I also got photos from Ellery Brown which were shown in my previous post.)

Sarah does the honors, pouring Champagne on the bow to mark the occasion.

A bow-on view of BELLE under sail.  The boat in the background is a Hylan Point Comfort Skiff 18, looking very nice.

The wind picked up as the day went on, here she is moving along at a pretty good clip.   Of course,  I'll be tweaking the rig over the next few weeks, but I must say I was very happy with how BELLE sailed right out of the box.

It started getting colder--the wool hats aren't just for show--but Doug caught this nice silhouette before Nick (red hat) and myself  called it a day.

If you're on Facebook, you can see my page for a few more pictures. 

The end of a perfect day?  Just about. There are a few details to work on, but overall the boat has worked terrifically so far.  I'll report back on the tweaks as we go along.  Plus there's lots to learn about her performance in higher winds etc.  

Fair warning, there will be longer gaps between blog posts than in the past:  I may well be out sailing during times I should be blogging!  That said, I will be doing a post in the near future covering rigging issues.