New Boom Topping Lift

Cup holder hooked on the life line.

This weekend, we were planning to sail, but spent the weekend working on the boat instead. We found a new favorite local supply store: Fisheries Supply. For sail boats, they have a better selection of parts than other local stores. Prices seem reasonable, and we do not have to wait for online orders. Harken products were on sale this weekend. We loaded up on the blocks and things we need for our topping lift and spinnaker and gennaker rigging.

We found some nice cup holders that fasten to the lifelines. We have been looking for something like them for a while.

Boom topping lift.

Sandi installed the rest of the new topping lift for the boom. We had installed the Catalina Direct D2180 wire topping lift before we put the mast up, but the line holding the boom was jury rigged. We now finished the job. Sandi screwed an eye strap on the aft port side of the boom. A Harken 224 micro-block was attached to the thimble on the end of the cable of the topping lift. Then a Harken 233 micro-cheek block was screwed on the starboard side of the aft portion of the boom. A Ronstan RF5101 V-cleat was screwed a little further forward on the starboard side of the boom. A 1/4" line is tied to the eye bolt on the port side, runs up through the block on the cable, then back to the cheek block on the starboard side and then forward to the cleat where it is tied off.

We actually don't like the Ronstan RF5101 V-cleat for this purpose as it does not seem to hold well, and will likely replace it with something else.

Last season we cheated by using the jib halyard as the topping lift. Since we have a furler, we are not using the the job halyard for its intended purpose. However, this season we expect to use it with the spinnaker, so we decided to do the topping lift the right way.

First Sail of the Season

Conner modeling his new personal
floatation device

New flares.

We took Fantasia out for the first sail of the season. Everything went smoothly, pulling out, tacking and coming back in. The crew is working pretty well together. The boat is good. The bald eagles were out fishing.

Distress flag.

Before this sail, we had acquired new safety gear. We have new flares for the flare gun. We have two more of the light self-inflating personal floatation devices. These were on sale at West Marine. We also got an emergency flag.

Put Fantasia in for the Season

We put Fantasia in for the season. Our hosts offered their dock again on Lake Washington. Putting her in was unusually undramatic. We connected up, trailered her to the boat launch, raised the mast in the parking lot (using our mast-raising system), backed it up and launched. It is almost like we knew what we were doing. The only mistake in the whole process was forgetting to release the tie down straps holding the boat to the trailer until the trailer was in the water. It does not float very well when those are still on. Greg had to wade out to release them. He learned from past mistakes, though, and removed the cell phone from his pocket before doing so!

We just motored to the dock and tied up. No sailing today.

New trim on the transom, just below the tiller and behind the rudder.

During the off-season, we fixed some things. There was an original trim piece on the transom that had completely disintegrated. We ordered a new one from Catalina Direct and put it on. The new one, however, did not fit around the existing hardware on the transom. Sandi used a Dremel tool to reshape it and drilled new holes in the plastic to fit the existing holes on the transom. It looks much better than the one that was there.

Before raising the mast, we attached a new cable topping lift for the boom to the mast. We removed the cotter pin to put it in place, but had to go get a replacement cotter pin. We promptly dropped it in grass and spent the next 20 minutes looking for it. We later got a bunch of cotter pins so that would be less annoying. Connecting the cable to the boom is just jury rigged for the moment, but we will fix that later.

The Boom Vang.

We have a new boom vang. The hardware already was in place for one on the mast and boom, but no blocks. We got a nice one from Catalina Direct, but you can just buy the Harken blocks and get some line. This will not save any money unless you can get the blocks on sale, though.

Our goal for this season is to get the gennaker and spinnaker flying. We have had them in the sail bags since we got the boat. It is unlikely they have ever flown over our boat, as our boat is missing the necessary rigging. The spinnaker was obviously bought used, as it has sail number for a different boat on it.

We are still figuring out the rigging necessary for the nylon sails. We bought a nice Forespar spinnaker pole, but currently there is no way to connect it to the mast. We also bought an ATF spinnaker sock. We will talk more about our spinnaker and gennaker rigging in later posts as we get them in place.

We are looking forward to another season of sailing.