Forestay is up… the rig is complete!

Thursday 28 Oct, re-launch 2021, HHN day 29: Forestay and genoa Furlex raised and installed. Spin pole put back on the mast, liferaft back on deck, bent pushpit railing re-straightened.

After several days of wind and unsettled weather, today is finally calm enough to attempt getting the forestay and genoa Furlex assembly back up the mast and secured in place. Have to say that despite having taken it down with just Ray and I this time last year, I am a tad nervous to put it back up again. Mainly because the rigging on the mast is not correctly tensioned yet. In fact, fore-and-aft it is only held by the cutter stay and the runners. To re-attach the forestay I have to venture quite a bit higher those.
Having discussed how we plan to do it, we first lift the assembly until it is vertical and hanging beside the boat. We lift on the spinnaker halyard (because it is the highest) with Ray and I helping it off the ground and Oana on the electric winch. We communicate, as usual, via our Sena headsets. That part all goes smoothly, although it’s always alarming to see the extent to which the luff extrusion bends when we lift it from horizontal to vertical.

Next, I go up the mast on the pair of genoa halyards, hand winched the first few metres by Ray, until the halyard is long enough to get it on the main electric genoa winch. Once secure on that, it’s plain sailing up the mast. Oana always does it very smoothly.
I’m not normally nervous up the mast even in the slightest, but today for some reason I am. Oana takes me up as high as I can possibly go, allowing my face to be adjacent to the point where the forestay attaches. Ray then winches up the forestay the last few feet.

But we have a problem. The way I have attached the spin halyard to the luff extrusion does not allow me to get it high enough to engage – it’s about 3cm short ☹ So we have to also bring up the topping lift and tie a sheep-shank lower down the luff extrusion to enable us to raise it the last few centimeters. Surprisingly, I manage to guide the forestay swage eye into its shackle and get the pin in place relatively easily. Once done, a weight immediately lifts off my shoulders. Thanks goodness, the forestay is securely back on the mast. Now to get it attached to the bow at its lower end.
Once I’m back down on the deck, it’s a relatively easy task for Ray and I to get the lower pin in place. Pfff what was all the fuss about. Now that it’s done, it all seemed so easy!

I spend the next few hours trimming in the genoa and back stay bottle screws to get the right tension. Then lowering the hydraulic motor over the turnbuckle, I get the hoses attached. This time, by luck, I get the connections correct the first time. But as usual, I get hydraulic oil on me while doing so. I hate the stuff!
Now that the rig is complete, I feel much happier. And it turns out we did it just in time. Stephen from ECMR comes on board late afternoon, and after congratulating us on getting the forestay up by ourselves, he tells us there is a big storm coming tonight. So he takes a look around the rig to ensure everything is ready for the forecasted 50kt gusts.

The final piece to go back on the mast is the spinnaker pole which we had stowed on deck while the mast was down. Because I can usually handle it myself when at sea, I try to maneuver it myself. But this time I need to call for Oana’s help. I must be out of practice. And it dawns on me that I will probably be quite nervous the first time we sail away from here, after this 20-month break from sailing operations.

With the rig back up and halyards to spare we can now easily lift our 6-men Avon life raft back up onto deck. Getting it up the ladder would have been impossible … or at least back-breaking. Once it is sitting back in its nicely polished cradle, another job is ticked off the list. And a job that is a classic example of how boats jobs usually go.
Job = “service life raft”. Actual job = big struggle to get life raft down from the deck into Ray’s pickup (due to shrink wrap and no mast); life raft passes test but casement does not (they refuse to repack it into a damaged case); massive worldwide search for a new case, finally finding one; endless calls to the service center on progress and trying to pay their bill; finally getting it back to the boat, but having to wait until the shrink-warp is removed and mast is back up before it can be put back in place. It sometimes seems each job on our today list could have a book writing about it!

In the late afternoon I get to the task of straightening our port-side pushpit tubing that got bent when the mainsheet caught around the solar panel during an accidental gybe last year. Ray has offered his brother’s services to straighten it, but that means removing this large piece of pushpit to take to his workshop. Normally, removing this stainless-steel railing would be easy, but for the pivoting solar panel which needs to be removed, and even more challenging the need to extract the solar power leads that weave their way secretly from below decks through all the pushpit tubing, exiting right at the panel. It was a nightmare getting it on there, so we anticipate getting it out and then back in again will be a double nightmare!

I get the solar panel off OK, but before I extract the cable I look at the bent tubes and decide I will have a go to straighten them myself.
To summarize: with a butane torch, my weight, a block and tackle and dynema lines, I actually manage to straighten the tubing pretty much back to how it was. And I have to say, I’m pretty pleased with myself for doing so!
Just as it is getting dark, the wind starts to increase. Pretty quickly in fact. And I decide it’s not a good idea to have the solar panel resting on deck. It has extremely sharp corners (I can attest to that, with a scar on my shoulder to prove it!) and if the wind catches it, goodness knows what damage it could do. So my evening is putting the panel back in place and securing everything on deck ready for the storm.

As we go to bed the gusts are already howling in the rigging. We are so thankful to have got the forestay back up. But even so, we can feel the boat moving in each gust. I even get up at one point to check the stands are still all tight and secure – which they are. It’s probably not going to be a very restful night on Cloudy Bay.