Almost there

the old 5.2's do scrub up well don't they
from this

to this

Looks good!

Two excellent restorations! Looking Very Good!

Now how does she sail?

Great to see these boats get a new life.

Wow eric. Good to see another transformation. I may ask you some rigging questions concerning the down haul at the base of the mast etc. Do you have pics of this area of your boat?

Have not sailed her yet. A few things left on the list to do.

the downhaul on the straight spreader cats is very simple and very low powered. don't get carried away by people talking about 10 to 1 or even 20 to 1 downhaul controllable from both sides of the boat as far away as the trapeze!

those are swept spreader boats where the diamonds are cranked up so much they have pre-bent the mast aft. 20 to 1 downhaul working through a strengthened sail and stronger halyard lock will then control the mast bend

i think the downhaul on my straight spreader cat is only 3 to 1 which only has enough power to pull the wrinkles out of the leech, and without the pre-bend hauling on that would only bend the mast sideways and do the opposite of a more modern mast. a pic of my mast lower and airbourne's?

the downhaul sheet starts at the downhaul hook
goes down to a harken cheek block on the mast
up to 1 of the 2 rollers in the hook
and back down to a jam cleat on the mast

retrofitting a 10 to 1 downhaul and wailing on it might even pull the grommet out of the sail!

to make use of that 2nd roller on the hook i will soon fit a 2nd cheek block to the other side of the mast to get 5 to 1. this should give me 5 to 1 and be a little easier to?operate solo when i'm on the opposite side of the mast from the jam cleat

edited by: erice, May 25, 2010 - 08:31 AM

Here's a stupid follow up question. Do you not cleat the main haylard? Or is the haylard "nut" at the top coupled with the downhaul enough to hold the main in place? And where do you stow the main haylard? Same question for the jib haylard is it cleated? and where to stow?

The halyard "nut" or bullet holds the main sail up. The manual says remove the rope part of the halyard and store it in the tramp bag. I just attach it to the head plat of the main so it is one big loop, and lash it to an eye on the mast. The halyard for the jib is cleated at the bottom of the mast (if you aren't roller furling)and acts as the downhaul (uphaul?) putting tension on the jib luff.

D.

Thanks Dave. That helps.

as wolfie says unlike a hobie after hoisting the main you hook the slug on the wire halyard under the fork at the TOP of the mast

to stop the loose wire halyard then clanging against the mast i have a bit of bungee tied to the saddle on the front of the mast with an alloy clip that hooks onto the lower end of it and keeps it under a little tension

the 9meters of rope halyard i used to coil up and stuff into the mid-tramp bar sleeve. but now i've hand sewn on a couple of $1 shop zippered mesh bags onto the front of the tramp. the sewing wasn't difficult, just a few loops through the meshes at the back corners of the bags

1 holds the main halyard and a pair of sunglasses and the other holds the jib halyard and a hat