Hi everyone,
She floats! On Tuesday morning Zen Again returned to her natural element. Since then Precision has just about completed all refit work items. A new forestay base fitting was made and fitted, a boom sheaves pin modified to allow fitting of new (dual) mainsheet blocks, and the new mainsheet arch fitted. The only items still to be fitted are two pushpit-mounted gas bottle holders.
Prior to launch the propellor and shaft were painted with
PropGold. 'Twill be interesting to see how it performs. We also fitted
Kleenhull anodes which are very small and should last many years. Kleenhull is a Western Australian product and it will be very interesting to see how they perform. These anodes are intended to work well with
Coppercoat antifoul.
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| Propellor and shaft painted with PropGold |
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| New Kleenhull anode - tiny isn't it! |
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| Ready to go! |
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| Launching |
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| Floating! |
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| Forestay fitted |
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| Anchor roller is a big improvement and the stemhead much simpler |
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| Fully rigged, but with messengers replacing second main & jib halyards |
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| Double-decker organisers to handle added reef tack lines and mainsheets |
Below decks we have a new cabin sole. The oiled teak with sikaflex stripes is much better non-slip than varnished teak and holly, and the new boards latch, rather than screw, down.
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| New cabin sole - nice but highlights the poor varnish! |
Today the new mainsheet arch was fitted. It has a large base plate with dual backing plates port & starboard, and feels very strong. It needs to be! We now have dual mainsheets which lead forward along the boom, down to the deck and aft to clutches. Exactly what we had on Degrees of Freedom and the system worked very well for us. Best of all there's no traveller or mainsheet in the cockpit which is a big safety improvement.
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| Mainsheet arch - note large base plate on coaming |
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| Mainsheet arch - note one sheet each side |
Zen Again is now at home in a pen in Boat Lagoon Marina, where she'll stay for at least a month. We hope to return in late July for sea trials and perhaps to move to Krabi or Rebak.
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| Zen Again at rest |
The refit carried out by
Precision Shipwright Services has exceeded our expectations. We recommend Scott and his team without reservation. We had expected to need to stay in Phuket to oversee the work but the first couple of weeks showed that simply wasn't necessary. The work has been carried out to a very high standard. We're now confident our yacht is better than ever structurally, and looks good as new!
Blogs will be less frequent now our refit is complete, until we go sailing of course!
Hello, I am interested in your mainsheet arch, as I am thinking of doing the same on my boat. What diameter and wall thickness is your stainless steel tubing? How high off the coaming does the arch rise? Have you had any issues with flexing under load? Would you do anything different?
ReplyDeleteThanks, David
Hi David,
DeleteThe two main arches are 50mm OD tube but I'm unsure of their wall thickness. They're not thin! The mounting plates are large and through-bolted. The arch height was set so as to allow us to see over it when standing in the cockpit well.
We now have a new canvass dodger which is secured around the forward 50mm tube, leaving the aft tube as a handhold. The arch completely changes the feel of working in the cockpit - you're in it instead of on it.
We've had no problems under load. The arch has survived several crash gybes unharmed, and "copped several greenies" (green water). IMHO the key thing is to ensure there is some "give" in the system, which means using racing braid and not low-stretch line in the mainsheets.
By the way, Harken has a load calculator on their web site which I found useful.
And lastly I wouldn't change the design at all. Wish we'd done it years earlier!
Cheers,
Mike.
Thanks Mike. Great information. I think I'll do something similar on my Serendipity 43.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
David