The existing standing rigging on
Enfys was more than 10-years old, possibly even older. Although it looked in good condition the surveyor had 'recommended' its replacement.
At the end of the bad winter weather we chose a time to get the lay-up cover off and with the boat on hard-standing I arranged a small team of helpers and we lowered her mast. A ladder lashed to the pushpit was the landing place and it came down without incident.
The six shrouds, backstay and forestay were removed together with their bottlescrews - all marked to show their original in-service lengths. There was a bit of head-scratching as to how the headsail furler came apart but eventually I worked it out and dismantled the inner liner allowing the wire to drop out. The complete set was sent away to the riggers and a couple of weeks later a nice new set arrived by courier.
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| Forestay inside lower end of furling tube |
Whilst I was waiting for the new rigging to arrive I took the furler top swivel and furling drum apart to service their bearings since they both felt stiff and a bit 'gritty'. I like their design; being able to completely strip them down to clean and re-grease the ball bearings before re-assembling them.
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| Furler top-swivel in bits |
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| Furling drum bearing assembly removed for overhaul |
Another job that was done with the mast down was to remove the wind speed and direction unit - the anemometer had lost its cups shortly after we bought
Enfys and I decided not to spend £120 on a new one! I pulled a new cable in for the masthead light and as I did so an electrical cable tie was wrapped around every yard or so and left full length in an attempt to wedge the loose wires in place inside the mast to stop the annoying cable slap we had been enduring whilst afloat.
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| Nice shiny new rigging. The bottlescrews are chrome-plated bronze |
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| Cap shrouds re-fitted to cross-trees |
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| Re-fitting forestay. The liner is an open figure '8' of plastic that had to be slid in 1m sections into the tube |
With all the rigging re-mounted and a new staysail halyard and block shackled to the fore side of the mast a party was assembled and the mast was re-stepped. To my relief all the lengths were spot on - thanks to the care taken by the riggers. They had informed me that although both cap shrouds were identical in length, all four of the lowers were different! They re-created the differences and one can only assume it is to do with variations in the heights of the boat's chain plates.
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| Preparing to raise her mast.. |
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| She's up. |
