While we wait to get our survey and inspections completed on the Nordic Tug. We still have a lot to do to get our current sail boat ready for the season. This weekend we joined our cruising club at Middle Bass Island for the annual Commodores Tea. Luckly there was no wind so no one was really disappointed that we still did not have sails on our boat yet. Worse yet our boat has been sitting unloved and unused in its slip for the last month and was in desperate need of some cleaning. I drove up on Friday night, got some of the canvas up, did an oil change, got the AC going, filled a couple of the water tanks, and spent 3.5hrs scrubbing the outside of it the next morning before Amy and the kids got there. After a long wait on the cause way to get into Cedar Point Amy finally made it and we took off in trawler mode. We had a good time with the club and it was nice to catch up with everyone. Sunday we managed to get the main sail on and then headed back. Unfortunately last year when it was time to take the sails down for winter we found that the car that pulls the head sail up our roller furling was stuck at the top. I had gone up the mast and beat on it a bit with a big wrench and sprayed it with WD-40 and still no luck. It appeared that maybe one of the set screws that holds the foils together had backed out inside the car allowing it to only move about an inch up or down. I decided to pull the pin to drop the sail and would deal with it in the spring.
Unfortunately ignoring it all winter and spring so far did not seem to help matters as the car was still stuck at the top of the mast. I even called a rigger which came out climbed the mast to confirm what I suspected.. He declared the set screw had backed out inside the car and then told me I would need to drop the mast to fix it but had no suggestions other then a really large hammer to fix it. After a little drinking one night with one of my fellow sailors we decided that maybe if I went up the mast I could put the pin back in but run the line directly downward to a block to pull the car down. So Monday as I was getting ready to take on this project Max asked if he could be the one that went up the mast. I was amazed as this kid is really afraid of heights but sure kid if you want to get hauled up there no problem I'm happy to let you go! I'm happy to report he did a great job and did not appear to scared at all!
I'm also really happy to report that the idea worked. With a lot of wenching I was able to get the car pulled half way down at which point I then changed the angle to the back side of the car and was able to continue pulling the car down much easier. Once the car was down I could indeed see that the screw was stuck in there and that my pulling had destroyed the rubber seal in the top of the car. Now time to figure out how to order a new car and install it on there. I sure hope I don't have to pull it off the top of the rig. I have this fear if I take my mast down I won't get any sailing in this season! So my goal is to get this working without pulling the mast down. Hopefully I can disconnect the roller furling and slide the car off the bottom somehow and put the new one on. For now everyone was hot, tired and ready to head home after a long weekend on the boat. I'll have to do some googling when I get home to figure out my next step but I'm thinking if I pull the seal out it should work fine for now then I can drop the mast at the end of the season and replace the car then. Hopefully without the seal it won't rattle to much?
More to come on this project in the coming weeks :)
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