Raising the Mast
Is that the right phrasing? It seems like there should be a more dramatic term for getting the mast vertical, although I can't think of what. Hoist the... something!
Anyway.
We went down to the boat on April 1, the first day that you could put the boat in the water, and what was forecast to be a cool sunny day was really just cold and wet. There were maybe 3-4 other boaters out the messing around. We enlisted my dad and a local pro named Randy to help get the rigging up, because none of us had any idea how to do this.
Luckily for us, there is a gin pole at the marina that we parked under, then cranked the mast up slowly as they untangled the wires.
Meanwhile, I made friends with one of the marina's many friendly strays. Lookit this little smushyface.
Right. The boat.
First, you jack up the mast a bit and untangle all your stuff. This is especially fun if "your stuff" consists of whatever the craigslist people gave you, and you have no idea what it all is.
Then they inserted the bottom of the mast into the hardware piece that holds it on.
Third, attach the front and back cables. There was some weirdness going on with the side stays, so we had about a half hour of experimenting with tension to get everything right.
At this point we were about 3 hours into the "one to two hour" estimate I was given, and I wasn't feeling anything in my toes, so I hid in the bathroom with a space heater while they attached the boom and whatever else one has to do. And then ta-da! A boat!
While my dad and I were messing around below deck at some point, he found that the keel winch had a pretty nasty board holding it together, more on that saga in the next post.
Anyway.
We went down to the boat on April 1, the first day that you could put the boat in the water, and what was forecast to be a cool sunny day was really just cold and wet. There were maybe 3-4 other boaters out the messing around. We enlisted my dad and a local pro named Randy to help get the rigging up, because none of us had any idea how to do this.
Luckily for us, there is a gin pole at the marina that we parked under, then cranked the mast up slowly as they untangled the wires.
Meanwhile, I made friends with one of the marina's many friendly strays. Lookit this little smushyface.
Right. The boat.
First, you jack up the mast a bit and untangle all your stuff. This is especially fun if "your stuff" consists of whatever the craigslist people gave you, and you have no idea what it all is.
Then they inserted the bottom of the mast into the hardware piece that holds it on.
Third, attach the front and back cables. There was some weirdness going on with the side stays, so we had about a half hour of experimenting with tension to get everything right.
At this point we were about 3 hours into the "one to two hour" estimate I was given, and I wasn't feeling anything in my toes, so I hid in the bathroom with a space heater while they attached the boom and whatever else one has to do. And then ta-da! A boat!
While my dad and I were messing around below deck at some point, he found that the keel winch had a pretty nasty board holding it together, more on that saga in the next post.
Notice my feet are up because at this point I am just useless.
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