So long, not so cold winter, with sole and cabin top repairs. Stepped the mast this past weekend.
I built a 2X4 8-foot a-frame topped with a Harbor Freight, worm gear windlass. Lashed the feet to the toe rails port and starboard of the mast step. Connected the cable to the bow fitting with a schakle and ran a bridle of rope around the mast at the spreaders which fed forward to the A-frame. A-frame was 90 degrees to deck at start. Raised that mast lickety split. So easy that I cannot see the advantage of ever climbing that sucker in a bosun's chair except for the odd emergency or bulb changing while on a cruise.
All new pins in all stays and shrouds. Couple of lower toggles replaced for ones that were bent by PO's previous mast stepping exercise.
Drilled a hole in a perfectly good newly repaired cabin top for mast wiring. Topped it with an electrical fitting from Lowes (repurposing experiment), epoxied to a length of thick wall PVC conduit which is in turn epoxied into the Capin top hole, painted the above deck part with silver epoxy paint:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_72307-223-E...__s?Ntt=carlon+pvc+service+entrance&facetInfo=
Next step is placement of a junction box for wiring below decks near compression post, and replacement of cabin top interior trim pieces.
Almost ready to go sailing!!!!
I built a 2X4 8-foot a-frame topped with a Harbor Freight, worm gear windlass. Lashed the feet to the toe rails port and starboard of the mast step. Connected the cable to the bow fitting with a schakle and ran a bridle of rope around the mast at the spreaders which fed forward to the A-frame. A-frame was 90 degrees to deck at start. Raised that mast lickety split. So easy that I cannot see the advantage of ever climbing that sucker in a bosun's chair except for the odd emergency or bulb changing while on a cruise.
All new pins in all stays and shrouds. Couple of lower toggles replaced for ones that were bent by PO's previous mast stepping exercise.
Drilled a hole in a perfectly good newly repaired cabin top for mast wiring. Topped it with an electrical fitting from Lowes (repurposing experiment), epoxied to a length of thick wall PVC conduit which is in turn epoxied into the Capin top hole, painted the above deck part with silver epoxy paint:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_72307-223-E...__s?Ntt=carlon+pvc+service+entrance&facetInfo=
Next step is placement of a junction box for wiring below decks near compression post, and replacement of cabin top interior trim pieces.
Almost ready to go sailing!!!!
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Beauty is as beauty does I guess. It has worked out very well for me. I considered those salty 30 dollar gland nut things but I have never had good luck with them, finding them to leak after a year or so. No way will I use those four prong plugs in the elements, not after some midnight failures of such gear in a confrontational line of work back in the 90's. Then I looked at a gooseneck stainless "marine" fixture. It would work, quite salty, but at 100 bucks and with the potential to snage every stray line I said nope. The PVC thing you dislike is heavy duty, UV resistent as the one on the side of my house is going on 10 years unpainted (though I painted it anyway after sanding off the spec numbers), the cover is replaceable BTW, and after some good rains has proved water tight with the little holes sealed around the wiring with a dollop of clear silicone. And it doesn't catch any stray lines. In heavy seas, not that I will face any on the Bay in my little 26 foot vessel, a rubber stopper from inside would be further proof against any ingress of H20.