Once again, I have been busy and have neglected the web site, which is a shame because David and I have been busting our butts. Our goal is to get the boat in water before Governor's Cup Regatta. So, the big news is I broke down and wrote the big check. A new main and 150 Genoa from Bartlett Sails are being constructed as I type! Bartlett has been doing some interesting things with Catalina 22 sails and I can't wait to see these! Upgrades include a window high on the main to be able to see the spreaders from the high side for cross sheeting, kevlar front panels on the jib and a few other things I won't go into detail on. Once I made the decision to spend the money, it was easy.

Sunday the 20th was Fabrication Day. American Chopper has nothing on us. We had to fabricate the stem fitting for inside the hull to connect to the turnbuckles to keep the deck from peeling up. I had access to some scrap aluminum from the office and was able to cut a plate and a tab to fit. The guys at work were good enough to weld the tab to the plate for me. After drilling 4 holes, we were ready to go.

The original deck stem fitting on top of the new underside fitting before drilling the holes.

The next job was to fabricate the aluminum pads to hold the Harken Ratchematics for the cross sheeting system. The sheets of aluminum I had were 1/4 inch thick, which we didn't feel was thick enough, so we decided to use 2 layers, glued and bolted together. We played around with placement and shape and then had to start to work with the metal. The first job was to clean up the aluminum, it has been sitting around and was scrap from another project, so there was errant welding material and some pitting. The best way we found to do this was with a wire wheel brush on a drill.

Cleaning up the aluminum plates.

Once we drew the shapes we wanted out, we used a jigsaw to cut out the rough shapes, then did final shaping with a belt sander. It took a couple of hours to get all the sanding done on 4 pieces of aluminum. We used this incredible double sided tape to hold two pieces together and sand and shape them at the same time.

Final shaping of the cross sheeting decks

David had some extra Very High Molecular Weight (VHMW) plastic left over from the South Cove Rigging Dock project, which we used to build and shape risers for the Ratchematic Cheek blocks. Boy, there were plastic shavings everywhere. But, when we were done, we had two very excellent extension decks with risers for the Cheek blocks. That was pretty much it for this day, we were wiped and we headed to Aphaia for a swim and a cocktail.

Cross sheeting decks with the Cheek block in place

The next Sunday, the 27th was a big day, but it started late as both David and I had to help respective family members with plumbing problems. We were looking forward to this day, as my new mast base, mast base organizer, mast head crane and traveler had come in from Catalina Direct and we were eager to start bolting things on and running all the new line through the mast! Alas, we immediately ran into problems. The mast head crane would not line up with the holes in the mast head. This was not good, as we were not equipped to deal with removing the bottom of the stainless steel mast head crane. Without the mast head, we had a lot less to do this day. Just as the frustration started to mount, an certain engineer (who shall remain nameless) passes by. After we flagged him down and explained our problem, his interest was piqued and he offered us the service of his fully equipped shop.

Mast head and mast head crane before shaving the bottom of the crane to make it fit.

It is amazing what a qualified engineer with a hand held band saw can do! What a great tool! You can see the results below! Many thanks to our unnamed engineer.

Mast head with modified crane.

After a quick trip and fruitless trip to West Marine to search for 4 inch #8 bolts to use on the cheek blocks, and a quick stop at Thundercloud Subs for lunch (veggie for David), we were back at the club and moving forward at breakneck speed. To run internal halyards, we had to replace the sheaves in the mast head and drill holes through the mast head to allow for the line. The sheaves I chose were Harken #6 sheaves, as found in Bullet Blocks. These sheaves have bearings, hopefully making it a bit easier to raise and lower sails. The problem here is that the sheave is not as wide as the opening in the mast head. David had taken some of the very dense plastic we used the last week to make the cheek block risers, and cut several slices around the thickness we had measured. After selecting the right thickness (after a little sanding it was the right thickness), David began to shape the spacers.

David shaping the mast head spacers.

While David was working away, I installed the new traveler that had arrived from Catalina Direct!

The new traveler

Once David had finished the spacers, we had to fit it all together.

Mast head sheaves and custom spacers

The mast head assembled.

With the foresight born of experience, we had run feed lines for all the internally run halyards a couple of weeks ago. This made running all the pretty new halyards and topping lift a breeze. For the main and jib halyard, I got Vectron low stretch line in white. For the Spin halyard, topping lift and down haul, I went with the standard Stay-Set Yacht Braid, as the stretch was not that big of a deal. I didn't get pictures of the mast with the new line run as we were starting to run out of time. I will shoot a couple pics this weekend.

New topping lift, spin halyard and down haul

Internal Topping Lift exit fitting.

After running the lines, the last two jobs of the day were to install the stem fitting and the backing plate and install the new mast base and mast base organizer. We had put this off until later in the afternoon, hopefully when it was a bit cooler, as it involved climbing into the boat, always a fun thing to do on a hot August afternoon in Texas. It also involved lots and lots of 3M 4200 sealant! Easy but messy work. The new mast base included a molded attachment plate for the vang. The older version had a welded ring on the back for the vang and on the front for the down haul. Not having an attach point for the down haul, we fastened a pad eye and a turning block to the bottom of the front of the mast.

New Mast Base and Organizer

By this time, we were shot, it was time for a short swim, a drink, a shower and some sleep! Next week attaching the cross sheeting blocks and (hopefully) pictures of the new sails!