And here we are in 2014 – time is flying and we don’t mind it on the East Coast as we already had enough winter. LUCIE is nicely resting, her bottom wrapped in foil to keep the moisture in the planking (it makes the launch in the spring so much less dramatic…) and it is time to take a look at her spars.
When LUCIE was sailing in Flensburg last summer we had to skip one day of the preparatory Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup Regatta – during our regular morning check of the boat we had detected some movement of the cap-shroud fitting which is fastened thru the mast. At that time we decided to be safe, took out the rig for one day and performed a repair with what we had on hand in Flensburg. That repair worked fine for the rest of last season but it now is time to do a proper repair.
Essentially the running backstays attach to the same point as the cap shrouds but apply their load in a different direction. And even though the cap shroud is attached with the help of a G10 tube the combined load resulted in movement of the tube and outside mounted hardware. So we set out to remove all hardware from the mast – but as we had used some epoxy during our repair in Flensburg this required the help of a small blow torch – eventually everything came off. Now we are looking at a big hole in our mast – doesn’t look too pretty right now, but we have a plan in place to re-built this section – stronger than before.
We are now discussing the design of new hardware – Jacob Vargish, the naval architect involved with LUCIE from the beginning, is again supporting us. It will take some time to fabricate new hardware, so expect an update by the end of March…
Oh yes – and we broke a piece of the main sail track – not a big deal as we know why it broke. This piece will be replaced after all the varnish work is done – and with an improved fastening schedule this problem should then be solved going forward.
Jens
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