Tuesday-Thurs 19-21 Oct, re-launch 2021, HHN day 20-22: The mast and boom are moved next to Cloudy Bay. Cleaning and polishing completed with a “new” technique. Spreaders and new standing rigging installed. Spreader lights fitted. Halyards all run. Ready to raise on Friday.
Somehow, I managed to get pressurized to have the rig finished and ready to raise back up by the end of this week. Stephen as ECMR (East Cost Marine Rigging) says he has had this whole week set on hold for us and made it clear it would be a problem if the raising gets delayed any further. Clearly, he just wants to get-this-done. I don’t blame him, it’s been a year-long project for them too. But this objective turned me into a frenzied beast, intensely working 15 hours a day for 3 straight days. Hence no time for anything other than the rig, no time to write the blog. Barely even time to eat! And poor Oana gets totally ignored.
So now you get all three days squashed into just one blog!
To rig the mast, I could easily have met the deadline, but I’m getting rather exasperated with the amount of time and effort it is taking me to clean all the oxidation off the anodized surface and make it look shiny again. I feel that part alone will take me several more days. I will be really peeved if I’m rushed and my totally refurbished rig goes back up with the mast anodizing still looking like sh#t!
Tuesday: At 9:30 Stephen and his team of 2 riggers have prepared the mast for its move from the mast lay-down area to be next to Cloudy Bay, where I will install the spreaders and standing rigging. Usually, the yard crane lifts the masts onto ECMR’s mast dolly, which is then towed behind Stephen’s pickup to be next to the mother-ship ready for raising. But Cloudy’s mast is too heavy for the dolly so it has to be done with a very substantial pole truck. Even then, we have to keep it as light as possible for the move. Hence it is moved with no spreaders or standing rigging attached.
First, they move the boom, which is very easy. Then the mast. Even without any of the spreaders or heavy rigging on the mast, it had a horrible looking bend in it as they lift it from a central point. Even Stephen seems a little nervous about it. Well, it is probably the biggest mast they have ever moved in this yard.
After an hour of almost slow-mo movement (slow is good in this case) the mast is at its new resting place right next to Cloudy Bay. Now it’s up to me to get it rigged ready to lift. The spreaders all go on very easily. Just 2 pins for each one. Then I spend the rest of the afternoon re-fitting the lower spreader lights (downward facing) and adding new upward facing lights too. These will let us see the full rig/sails at night and help us with operations like reefing, trimming spinnaker etc. I am also changing all the lights from their original high wattage halogen bulbs to the equivalent in LEDs. It turns out that these powerful LEDs are aircraft landing lights. Those should do the trick! When finished, I’m very pleased with how they look. And even move pleased when I test them in the evening with a 12v battery. VERY bright!
Wednesday: With the lights installed, next task is to install the standing rigging. But I have a cunning plan to just leave that at ECMR’s workshop, while I bide my merry time finishing the cleaning and polishing. With no rigging delivered, I cannot fit it. Meaning there will be no hope to raise the rig this week and I’ll get my delay.
Last evening, I decided on a rather drastic method to clean the anodized surface. Enough of this aluminium polish and scotchbrite, which takes soooo long. I will instead try an extremely fine grade wet-and-dry sandpaper. This will hopefully remove the staining, but it will also certainly damage the clear coat that protects the anodized surface. But my plan is to replace that clearcoat by a layer of ceramic polish.
I start with the very top section of the mast, so that if it all goes horribly wrong, it won’t be so visible. The grade 2000 paper really gets the aluminium oxide off very efficiently. And I soon learn that while the sanding residue is a cream colour, it is taking off the oxides, and as soon as it turns a black colour it is starting to eat into the clear coat. Once I’ve done a couple of feet, I clean off the area and let it dry. OMG, it may be clean of the aluminium oxides, but all the anodized shine is now completely gone.
Oh-no, just what have I done?! But keeping calm and with the plan, I move on and apply the 9H ceramic coat. This is the same stuff that detailers use on cars to get a very high shine and a protection that significantly outlasts normal car polish. As the 9H ceramic coat goes on, it looks amazing. But I’m sure once it dries, I’ll be back to disappointment. Though I’m pleasantly surprised …. even dry the anodized surface looks like brand new. I’m on cloud-9. Eureka! I have found the solution to my problems at long last!
Just then, Stephen arrives, and he doesn’t seem as happy as me when he finds me STILL cleaning and polishing the mast. I show him my discovery, but he is clearly not interested. He wants this rig up this week. Whereas what I want is the weekend to get the mast shining like new and raise it next week. A clash of wills! 10 minutes later, Stephen returns with his pickup full of all the new standing rigging, making it clear it’s time for me to stop polishing and get the mast rigged! Pffff! I don’t like being under time pressure.
Short story, I stubbornly finish my polishing, and in the fading light I succumb and start unrolling the big coils of heavy duty rigging. 10mm diameter the smallest, 16mm the largest. By midnight I have worked out where each cable length goes (V1s, D1s, V2s, D2s, V3s, D3s, back-stay etc) and I have it all installed and attached to the mast. I just need to do the rather tricky spreader-end connections. I have all the pieces for this laid out but discover 2 of the bolts we had made at a local machine shop were made too short. Great, it looks like I have found another excuse to delay the raising until after the weekend!
Thursday: 7:30am, there is a knock on the hull. It’s Noel from EMCR. Seems like she has been sent over to see where I’m at with installing the standing rigging – as if they could possibly expect me to have it all done in just one afternoon. I explain about the problem bolts and 20 minutes later Stephen arrives to investigate my new excuse. “No problem” he says, they are only for the D2s. We can rig it with normal bolts and change later when new ones are made. And with that, another of my delay tactics is blown-out-the-window.
With help from Danny (EMCR) we get each of the spreader ends done. With these monster-sized cables it takes all our combined strength to wrestle with the cable torque and insert a complicated set of pins and spacers. And all the time I’m thinking: “the crane will arrive any moment”, when Stephen arrives and tells me he has decided to give me a break. We will raise the mast tomorrow, not this afternoon. I’m relieved by this news, but I still have a lot to do. A bunch of small things. Like clamp the AIS cables, prepare the boom, prepare the cutter stay and install its hydraulic motor. Not to mention removing the shrink wrap that is still covering the boat. I joked with the EMCR team, asking them how big they would like the hole in the shrink wrap, to get the mast through, but they didn’t see the funny side!
At midnight again, I finally finish. The mast and boom are totally ready for lifting in the morning. I’ve cut away all the tricky bits of the boat shrink wrap but not yet removed the main covering, just in case there is a delay due to wind or something, then the tent will still be in place.
It’s been a grueling few days. I would never have imagined that getting the rig back together and all things checked would have taken me so long. Along with all the hydraulic furling, electrics, antenna and cabling, it really is a complicated piece of machinery. Now that it’s done and ready to raise back up, I’m kind of happy that Stephen pushed me. I got everything done in the end, including making the mast surface gleam again like new. I’ll just have to stroke the Admiral over the coming days to make up for my neglect!
Tomorrow is the big day. Boat cover comes off, rig back up and Cloudy Bay starting again to look like the wonderful sailing yacht that she is.
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