Saturday 16 Oct, re-launch 2021, HHN day 17: All day at the mast and sealing bathroom mirrors in the evening.
Today, I am determined to finish the mast top installations and get the furling system back into place. Forecast is for rain this afternoon and a dramatic drop in temperature. The latter of which I’m quite looking forward to. It’s been too hot and humid these last days, out in the sun.
I had managed to get the mast top on, albeit roughly, on Thursday before mosquito o’clock. So first job in the morning is to tighten up the bolts and make sure everything is solidly in place. Next is to swap around the main halyard and topping lift which I had mistakenly threaded the wrong way around in the mast head. Well, I had threaded it the logical way, but it seems the original rigger may not have been so logical. Doing that, with mouse lines, took over an hour. But I was determined not to remove the mast head again now that it was on. No backward steps will be allowed today!
Then it’s time to get the Pacific Delta-22 antenna out of its resting place in the boat and mount it back on the mast top. This antenna has 2 x coaxial connectors and to get the first one secured I have to dismantle the antenna housing. Having had this antenna completely apart before, it’s all pretty easy and we soon have it back on its mount with the 2 coax connectors nicely encased in heat shrink tubing.
Now for the big moment. At the boat show we have purchased an extra-large Windex wind indicator. But last evening I had this bad thought that it would hit the antenna with its pointer-arm being much bigger than our current Windex. Thankfully it misses the nearest aerial by a couple centimeters. Phew!
We now stand back and admire the mast head and all my endeavors. The new plate on the mast top, the refurbished antenna, the cleaned and re-riveted fittings, the rewired LOPO light, the new Windex … it all looks pretty spiffy! Even if I say so myself 😊. But no time to hang around patting myself on the back – there is work to do at the other end of the mast.
At the business end of the mast, it’s time to re-rivet all the various fittings that hold the hydraulic furling motor in place. That takes a while. I had mistakenly thought replacing all this serviced equipment was somehow going to be easier than removing it, last fall. But not to be. With the fittings back in place, I try to slide the motor in. No-go! The new wiper-seal that I had placed on the top of the motor shaft is stopping the motor going into the exact sized hole ☹. So that has to be removed and be put back on once the motor is in place. Trouble is, with the motor now in place, I have to put that wiper seal back on from inside the mast, out of reach from my fingers. This is one of those moments when you wish you were mouse sized. Eventually, using various unorthodox tools, the seal is back in place where I want it to be.
Reconnecting the motor to the universal joint then to the shaft that connects it to the luff extrusion all goes pretty easily. And finally, I put the manual handle in the motor, turn it, and the luff extrusion turns nice and smooth. Another one of those satisfying moments! I have not yet tensioned the luff tube to its correct tension. That will need to be done when the mast is vertical.
And for a moment here, I sit and ponder. All these things I’m doing and all the things I’ve done on the mast and boom – they all have to be perfect for everything to work correctly. And I have a little worry to myself on what mistakes I might have made. Once the mast is back up, it’s a big job to get it back down again to fix something that I forgot or didn’t do right. Then I conclude, it will be what it will be – I’ve done my best.
The cold front, wind and rain, all arrive bang on forecast at 3pm. The sky was blue at 2pm and dark and angry at 2:45. As usual with the arrival for cold-fronts in this part of USA, the wind gusts and sky are both dramatic. And before the rain starts I just have time to cart all the tools back to the boat again, in my trusty trolly that tows behind the bike. Really no sure how I would have managed without my little bike and tailer set up.
Once inside, I decide to make a concerted effort to finish sealing up all the bathroom cupboard mirrors. The original mirrors had deteriorated all around the edges, allowing moisture to destroy the bond between the back of the glass and the silver reflector material – leaving them with ugly pink edges all around. Hallberg-Rassy obviously reailsed this flaw and on later boats they now recess the mirrors into the corian doors and seal around the edges with bathroom sealant. Which stop any moisture ingress.
Getting our new mirrors cut would normally be easy. But the cupboard doors need perfectly sized round holes in the perfect place to take the door latches. Which makes it quite complicated and expensive to replace them. So we left the task to Ray! He managed to find a supplier who took all the pieces, removed the old mirrors, cut new ones (including the holes) and stuck them back onto the doors. Now they are back with me, there are a few Glenify (extras) to do to them.
Firstly, the supplier had stuck them on with blobs of glue. This has left a 1-2mm gap all around the edges of the mirror-to-door, and we have already managed to break one of the mirrors due to that gap. So the gap has to be filled. Secondly, I want to seal the outer edges of the glass to make sure no more moisture gets in to ruin them again.
I decide to experiment with 2 methods. One is to seal the gap with simple bathroom sealant that is sandable and paintable, then epoxy paint all the edges. The other is to apply 3M 5200 into the gap and overlap it onto the glass. Both methods use a lot of masking tape. It takes me all evening to do all 10 pieces, which we then leave on the deck to dry over-night. Busy day again.