Synthia Petroka who works for UK Halsey in San Francisco put together a great document for the layman on the difference between the materials used for making sails. Enjoy

After our experience on Yeoman on the Fastnet one of the crew had a good idea about how to set a trysail effectively. After reading one of the books about the Sydney Hobart race a few years ago I took away the thought that tying the boom down on deck caused damage and some safety issues and if possible it was better not to have to do this. A few boats had problems when the booms were lashed to weather and the helm as a result couldn’t see the waves coming from the weather side. Waves hit the boom and broke it loose taking out stanchions, helm stations and people.

 So when we went to hoist the trysail we sheeted it to the end of the boom using the outhaul which we had pre set while at the dock. What I didn’t think about was that the outhaul didn’t have enough slack in it to allow the trysail to be ‘flogged’ while luff tension was taken up so instead you had to use the mainsheet to let the boom out but the boom was really low and therefore was a bit dangerous. We did get it effectively hoisted but it then pulled out of the track due to an over size luff rope – a different issue all together.

 So the idea that was put forward and makes sense is to put grommets in the luff and wool the trysail passing the wool through these grommets and around the rolled up sail. You would then store the trysail as a banded snake. Using a reef line you have unreaved from reef 1 you tie that to the clew before hoisting the sausage up the main track. After getting the luff tensioned how you want it you then pull the reef line to unband and ‘sheet’ the trysail. When I next have the undesirable chance to try it out I will tell you if it works in reality.

I was rebedding a pulpit the other day and the pins in the lifelines were put in the opposite of the above picture. I explained to the owner that I like to put them in as above as if the ring ding for some reason backs out and the boat is heeled the pin will either fall into the boat and you have a possibility of saving it from going overboard or it stays in place due to gravity. I really prefer lashing them on with spectra with the line going around the 1″ round. You are therefore not relying on the spot welds on the loops, there are no pins to go missing and if you have a man overboard you can knife the top lifeline to make it easier to get the MOB back onboard.

 I also had another pulpit that sheared so I to relead the bow light electrical as it was damaged and I couldn’t fish the end back out. I used fishing line and a pencil sinker pushing this into the hole in the pulpit and then jiggling it back and forth to get it around the twists and turns. Sounds easy but time consuming and frustrating.

I have been building a new boom for my brother’s moore 24 and also finishing off the mast which we bought from Buzz Ballenger. One of the important things to think about when making the holes in the mast for fittings is to make sure you use a file to round of the corners of any rectangular cuts made for sheaves. This is important whether it is a carbon mast or an aluminum mast. Last year we had the unfortunate situation of falling victim to a hole that was cut in the mast, the corners were not rounded off and the hole was oversized (at the time we were winning our class) we ended up retiring from the regatta due to the subsequent mast failure (see picture). N.B. The hole was not cut by the mast manufacturer but by someone after the rig had been delivered.

I use cardboard to create a template for the fitting that I am installing on the mast. I then trace the template onto the rig at the correct point, drill a large hole and then use a jigsaw to cut the section out. Next I take a file and make the hole the correct size for the fitting taking off a little at a time. Lastly I take a rat tail file and round of the corners. I take some electrical tape and use it as an insulator between the stainless and the aluminum by taping the plate and then using a razor to remove the excess tape. I use tefgel on the screws or rivets that hold the fitting in place to stop the electrolysis between the two different metals.

After spending way too much time untangling messenger line I decided what was needed was a cassette that would house the line and allow me to go up the mast and drop a tag line down inside the rig easily. The result was a search for industrial chalk lines that took me to Amazon.com where I buy Keson G150 Giant Chalk boxes. The cassettes will hold up to 150 feet of tagline. What I do is remove the chalk line and replace it with dacron tagline from Svends. I then go to the local bike shop and get some used bike chain. I cut sections about 8 inches long and I can tie this to the tagline. To stop the bike chain from wrapping around spreader bars in the rig take some electrical shrink wrap and shrink wrap the bike chain. The result is a long thin weight that will allow you to swiftly drop a new tagline into the rig from the masthead. The chain is flexible enough to bend into the rig over the halyard sheaves. When you want to coil it up you just open up the handle and with 3 to 1 ratio it is cleanly housed in the box with no tangles.