Mast Work
First things first. Mast was stripped and cleaned. Lights removed, halyards, wiring and other items removed. Mast had steps on it and 6 holes per step. After removing them, I had 120 holes to fill. Mast was stripped and sanded, Painted with aluminum primer and 3 coats of Imron white epoxy paint. New wiring, lights and halyards installed. Rigging was inspected and new clevis pins purchased. Rear shrouds are attached to two vangs to be re positioned as needed. Gerhour vangs were installed on those two units.
Spreaders tabs were removed.Re installed with new screws after the paint job. Pulled the track cover and removed all the wiring and cables. Wiring was hard and brittle.
Mast is going back to my shop. The welding shop is just a block away and I was able to sling the mast to one of my forklifts and move it that way. My son Chris is holding the front of the mast and keeping an eye on traffic since we had to cross an intersection.
Mast was secured to two working tables and lined up with a laser. All the holes were filled, one at the time and at different locations so not to heat up the aluminum too much. All the welds were ground flush and cleaned with a D.A sander. The last picture shows how well they filled and cleaned up.
One coat of aluminum primer and 2 coats of Emron gives the mast the wet look. It turned out great. No runs, no errors. Jeff my helper has more patience than me. I would have runs every were. He took his time and did it right.
New mast head with all new instruments. New windex, New VHF radio antenna and new wind instrument. Anchor light is also replaced.
All the holes were cleaned and re taped. Pictures of all the mast head fasteners were taken and saved so in the future I can see what is up there without having to guess at it or grab the wrong tools.
Ran new triple wire to the mast head for the anchor light and a future use. Along went a power wire for the deck light. Also a coax with power for the wind instrument and also a new VHF antenna wire to the new antenna. Had to zip tie them to the mast along the way as all these wires weigh a lot and they may break from stretching.
Installed a new Hella deck light. I have used them before and they give good light. Compared to the one that came off, it is huge. After installing it, I noticed that the plastic sides were poking out after tightening the screws so I made two stainless plates to squeeze the sides and give me a clean appearance.
I used a 100 ft fish tape to run the new halyard inside the mast. However I had trouble with it so I ended up using two 20ft sections of 1/2 PEX water pipe crimped together. It was stiff enough to be pushed properly. My son Pat is fishing the stay sail halyard. Installed new halyard exit plates on the mast.
Original halyard exit plates has rollers missing. I
replaced all 4 of them with new plates
April 13, 2013
Since it was such a pretty day, I decided to tackle the winches. The deck wich was stiff and the halyard winches made funny noises. I took apart the deck winch and found old grease, dirt and assorted trash. A quick bath in solvents and liberous amounts of winch grease got the pawls working again and the bearings packed and moving freely. Now it sounds like a roulette when you spin it. I moved on to the mast since the halyard winches were the same model Same thing. Pawls were stuck in old dried up grease. a quick soaking and repacking too care of both of the winches.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Today, I decided to tackle the other two winches. These are Lewmars 42 and they sound fine. You can hear the pawls click fine but after all this, might as well take a peek. The are not hard to strip. Just 4 allen screws on top and the rest does not need a tool. I found a lot of packed hard, dried up grease. No corrosion at all. just old grease solidified. The teeth of all the gears are fairly deep and greese packs up in between the teeth. Has to use a small pick to really get all the old greese out. Soaked everything in mineral spirits, dried well and re packed with new waterproof winch grease. Lots of it since that's what keeps the weather from eating at it.
May 17 - 23 2013
Running Rigging:
Got all the lines ordered for the running rigging. I already had purchased new halyards last year when I painted the mast, so it was time to replace the outhauls and main sheets.
Main halyard 110 ft 1/2 line white/red fleck
Main jib halyard
110 ft 1/2 line white/green fleck
110 ft 1/2 line white/green fleckStay sail halyard 90 ft 1/2 line white/ blue fleck
Main Sheet 80 lf 1/2 line white/ blue fleck
80 lf 1/2 line white/ blue fleckStay sail sheet 60 ft 3/8 line Solid green
60 ft 3/8 line Solid greenFurler 70 ft 3/8 line white/green fleck
70 ft 3/8 line white/green fleckMain outhaul 25 ft 5/16 line solid green
Stay sail outhaul 25 ft 5/16 line solid green
1st reef 20 ft 3/8 line white/green fleck
20 ft 3/8 line white/green fleck2nd reef30 ft 3/8 linewhite/green fleck
30 ft 3/8 linewhite/green fleckCajun ropes has great lines at fair prices. I got them to make eyes on all the outhaul lines and main sheet so they would hook up to the block beckets nicely and whithout knots.
Stayed after work a couple of nights to build the boom sail outhaul units. I had taken pictures when I took them apart and saved them in a secure place. I just dont know were that place is now. But members of the Cherubini club send me drawings and pictures of their set up and I was able to rebuild the whole thing. It took a while to get them back into the booms as I had to use a 15 ft stick to slide the blocks into the boom and secure them with the bail bolts. No fear. A couple of Oatmeal stouts later and voila! all together with new lines.
THE near DEATH AND RE BIRTH
OF A
1979 HUNTER 37 CHERUBINI CUTTER
HUNTER 37 CUTTER
I decided to start looking at all the deck hardware. I had ordered several new blocks to replace the sun damaged ones. I just received the new 706-45 fiddle block for the stay sail vang. Boy at $137.00 , I am glad I dont have many more to replace.
The main sail vang needs a new fiddle block with cam and becket and at $265.00 just for the block (704-75). I am going to change to another brand.
My music of the week.
CALEXICO. A very diverse musical group that can do from Jazz to Tex-Mex to Mariachi to Folk music.
From their new album, ALGIERS. Song is named: Para
May 10 , 2013
All my work crews are working out of town so I have some free time this week. I have pulled out the sails and taken a look at all the lines. Also worked on the furler.
Cant find the battens for the main. They are somewhere in here. I made sure I put them in a safe place. I just cant remember where that place is.
Receive two new 50 ft 1/2 lines for the jib. The original lines were red and the covers were faded and very rough to the touch. I hate to handle old lines when they are wet. I just need to get the main sail line and the stay sail lines ordered this week.
Installed the Main sail on the boom and mast. Replaced all the metal shackles and plastic protectors on the luff of the main sail. It had a number of diferent shackles and the plastic protectors were hard and brittle. Thanks Sailrite for a fast order shipping. The slugs are all in good shape.
I ran into a problem raising the main. The place where the two pieces of track meet was not smooth and the slugs did not like it and would hang up on the joint.. I guess when I re installed the track, after painting and wiring the mast, and drove it home with a block of wood and a hammer, the base of the track got slightly deformed and the joint was no longer smooth enough.
I had to take my dremmel tools and smooth out the joint between the two pieces of track. After that, I spot painted the track and it looks like new again. Now the slugs slide past the joint without any problems. Glat to try it now on the ground than later on a bossum chair, 20 feet of the deck, trying to free up the bunched up sail that would not go up.
Started to install the outhauls for the stay sail and the main sail. The line is 3/8 and very ugly. I think it may be original to the boat since all these blocks and lines are inside the booms. I am sure no one has ever taken the whole system apart. The blocks are in excellent shape. I guess they were protected inside the boom. The lines are done for. I got enough new line to replace both outhauls and also the reefing lines with new 3/8 sta set line.
