Spring Start-up

Hi John Lee,
Jobs that start out tough can end up being the most rewarding.
The first time I dropped down into the cabin of a 19 foot wooden boat I just bought, I got very depressed. So I started from the bow aft fixing one problem at a time and five years later I got to the stern, It was for the best because my research and tooling up took a long time too.
I got 17 years of sweet sailing and cruising out of that little darlin'.
I'm glad you got your Contessa. You did a lot of research. It's such an interesting design. If you love a boat, you will spend the time to get her right - and have no guilt about lazy days spent aboard her. You will have paid your dues.

John - haven't used lazy jacks, but when I take down the main, I release the clutch and do it from the mast.  I have 2 ties handy (in my teeth...) and tie one around the portion closest  to the mast, then a second around the mid-section.  Then jump back into the cockpit to make sure all is still in order around the boat, before going back to get the main in better order and put 2 mores ties on.  Never had it go in the water - is your's lose footed, or not on a track on the mast?

My batteries are below the sole at the foot of the steps with a hatch over them keeping them secure.  Both a full sixe batteries - I'll have to get a pic of the arrangement though....

Well, finally the day came was lifted  off its trailer and touched water. We got the mast up, checked the propeller shaft area that was redone just 2 weeks ago, then turned the key. Okay, 2 out of 3 was a good start. Key initiation to engine failed, so we basically hot-wired it with a screw driver and motored over to my slip where I put the mail sail on and other odds and ends. Thus next weekend, I (and marina worker - Bill - if he is still there as, everyone is quitting lately and Bill is a good worker) have a wiring project before I can finally go sailing this summer. Hey, at least the question have ended, "When you getting your boat in the water." cheers, jklee

Hi John

I have two pulleys for the two reefing lines and I have a plastic slide foot on the main itself holding it down as well

jose

Seedler,
Nice photo....
How do you like your Monitor? Do you know anything about Cape Horn's or any of the other selfsteer gears?
I'm planning on buying one this year for my refit.

John - When I first started, I had the reefing lines start near the aft end of the boom, up to the reefing clew point, down to a block on the boom, forward along the boom, through a block, up to the reefing tack point, down to the goose neck, through a ring, down to the deck, through a pulley and back to the cockpit. This created a lot of friction. Later I met Derrick Hatfield in the Azores and he showed me his setup on his Open 40. Thats what I use now. There are 3 short lengths of rope (one for each reef) attached to the mast below the goose neck. The problem with the tack hooks is that only one reef can fit on them at a time and they fall off the hook before you can get the halyard tight. The tack line is hand feed through the reefing tack point and tied to a cleat on the mast below the goose neck. The clew reefing line now starts near the aft end of the boom, up to the reefing clew point, down to a block on the boom, forward along the boom, through a block at the goose neck, down to the deck, through a pulley and back to the cockpit. To reef, you pull up the topping lift, let the halyard down the correct amount, go forward and attach the short reefing line at the tack, back to the cockpit, pull in the clew reefing line and tighten the halyard, release the topping lift. I do not use any of those foot long ties in the sail between the tack and clew. When putting in a second reef, do the same without touching the first one. So when you take out the second reef, the first one is still in place. Since the reefs add on top of each other, it also means that even with 3 reefs all the loose sail is held in by the earlier reefing lines and does not flop around. I noticed that Derrick's new open 60 has the tack reefing lines always through the tack reefing point and the lines lead aft. This is even better since you do not need to go forward at all. My lines are quarter inch which is just enough, but I have ripped the blocks off the boom on several occasions. They are on with 2 one-eighth rivets.

Unfortunately I have been working and only sailing locally. I am still looking forward to a trip to Australia, but it is a few years off. I bought the latest edition of "World Cruising Routes" to help keep the plan alive.

rbporter - I love the monitor. I have 11,000nm on it without any real problems. The cape horn looks a bit flimsy. The main problem I had with the other brands is that they could not be mounted on the center line due to the outboard rudder. I when to the San Fran boat show and talked with all the manufacturers. Some said "No problem, we just put a longer blade on it". Others said, " no you can not use ours. it must be on the center so it is set up the same on each tack."  I did like one that was manufactured here in Ontario, but it was just coming out as I was buying and it had no track record. I knew that the monitor worked on the Contessa.

John - You are correct about my tack reef lines. Since my halyards go aft to the cockpit, the two original cleats on the mast are not used. One end of all three lines are permanently tied to one of the cleats. The line goes up and through the reefing point cringle in the sail and down to the cleat on the other side of the mast. Each reef line just gets tied on top of the previous one.