Someone asked about the power vang on the boat refit. It's not hydraulic
but I think gas operated with a block and tackle alongside. Made by Selden.
The new boom is Selden and they made a good package offer to the rigging
shop.

One change I made was in the size of some of the shrouds and stays. The new
stays'l stay will be one size large and the lower shrouds the same. Couple
of reasons for this. The stays'l stay also doubles as a storm jib stay and
is used to balance the second deep reef. The four lower shrouds likewise
can handle more but also provide a way to climb up the mast. I looked at
at the floating home of one of our former members earlier this month and he
had eschewed the use of steps, folding or otherwise on the mast in favor of
ratlines, or rather wood rungs, on the lower shrouds on one side only. On
the other side he had placed an OB mount. Excellent setup. Since I don't
like a lot of steps on the mast this should help. I'll see as time goes on.
To mount the rungs and keep them from slipping you get the non-ferrous
cable/wire clamps (kinda like U Bolts but nothing sticks out) used by IBEW
Electricians for their wire

Aft stay is getting a set of insulators so it's ready for the radio system.

I had them put one set of steps four feet from the tip of the mast. Sounds
like an ad doesn't it? This makes it easy to stand if you are changing out
anything up top, relieving pressure of the bos'n chair on your butt!

The space between the lower shrouds up to the top of the mast is the real of
the bo's'n chair, a tackle system, and the main sail halyard. I'm not
going to use the ones that stick out permanently though as I did before.
Learned to really dislike them.

Four new chainplates are going in to accomodate the two new lower shrouds,
beef up the original two shrouds, and make space for an extended jib sheet
track.

Another chain plate forward for the new stays'l stay.

The boat has so much space it's easy to decide where to stow everything.
Dinghy, Scuba Gear, why even the sculling oar has a home now!

I'll keep at it on .asa until the last chance next week. Meantime, in the
short time that's left, it's back to sailing topics for me.

M.