...Getting to know you
May 16, 2020
...getting to know all about you...
We spent part of Wednesday opening every hatch we could find and digging around in every locker but can't remember much else about that day. On Thursday though we decided it was time to get on with working out what the sails looked like (we hadn't even looked at them up until this point, relying on the fact that the SALTs person that sold it to us advised he had sailed it down from Salt Spring Island.
First up was the mainsail. Once the sail cover was off the sail went up very easily. There was just one slide out that was a two minute fix and we looked up at our resplendent mainsail!
We then started to try and work out how the in mast reefing worked. The mainsail didn't have this set up and the sheets looked like they had been living outside unused for a good amount of time. Luckily the manual for the boom was with the boat so after a few false starts, we eventually got both reefing points working, although we identified that we should also get the other reefing points rigged with rope to hold the sail together better when reefed. We also remembered why we were so keen on lazyjacks as we took down the sail and lost control - perhaps we need to practice flaking the mainsail a bit more!
Next we moved onto the Genoa. This wasn't even on the roller furler and John had already said that he couldn't help us put up the sail as he had never seen a roller furler like it before. This gave us pause for thought.. "If he had no idea how to raise the Genoa then how did he claim it had been sailed down from Salts Spring Island???" Anyway, the sail when we unrolled it was in mint condition, as were the jib sheets, which led us to wonder if it had ever been used. Then it was onto working out how to put the darn thing up. There was no manual for this so it was all just trial and error. We finally figured out how it should go up and started to hoist away. As the the Genoas Leech (the front of the sail?) was going up a fairly tight grove though the further it went up the more friction there was. OF course, we also hauling the weight of a fairly big sail too. Getting it up the last 18 inches proved a herculean challenges. We still probably have 4 inches to pull up but as we managed to get the foot of the sail secured we figured we had had enough of this hoisting malarkey and so called it a day on that. Maybe it will ease up the last bit once it has had time to relax a bit! Then we realized that we had set up the furling drum all wrong and so had to do some fancy pirouetting with the sail on to get it to a point that we could furl the sail properly. All this as the wind gradually increased making hanging onto the sail and not getting it twisted quite a feat. Once done however we were happy with the results. We have managed to successfully raise and furl the sail as it should be!
So all in all a very successful day. We now know we have a good hull, good engine, good sails and workable running rigging (I think there is some TLC needed in this department though, especially on a couple of the halyards to make me feel totally comfortable.
As a last swing at the day we worked out how to use the somewhat redundant jib halyard as a hoist to bring the dinghy onboard. Not a bad day all in!
Friday was spent with a bit of tinkering around but nothing too strenuous as we put off the moment when we had to actually take her out for the first time, which we planned to do on Saturday