The Not-an-Upgrade

Well, since I got my cheapo new sail it's been blowing a gale. Go me, commander of the weather!

Anyway, the wind finally abated at the end of last week and on Saturday I could go and do a test fit.

The results were not good. Even though the sail is laminate one from a Fireball dinghy and the measurements were close, the sail is actually too big to fit on the mast. The leech is way to full and interferes with the backstays. Not just in a small way: the top batten jams in the backstays as the sail tries to tack.

I've taken a few pictures. The first pic shows the sail a bit short of the top of the mast and still overlapping the backstays:

At the bottom end the news isn't much better. The boom is at the bottom of the mast and still loads of bag in it.

 

Not much scope to tighten the outhaul either, the sail foot was as long as the boom:

 

 

 

 

 

So, being a £20 sail, do I mess about with it and have a go at trimming bits off, or forget about it?  Can you even mess about with a laminate sail like that?

 

Not sure yet. I'd have to take a significant chunk out of the foot of the sail to lose some height and even then the sail may catch the backstays.

 

Back to the drawing board for now. I do need a flatter sail though.

 

In the meantime, the original went back on:

 

 

Looks better at the bottom as well:

 

 

 At the end of the boom the original sail has more scope to tighten the outhaul. Still some space left at the end of the boom:

 

 

 

One thing I did notice is that the last 12 inches of lift started to get very stiff and I had to sweat the halyard in order to pull it up that last 12 inches.. Looks like the pulleys in the mast are getting a bit stiff. Possibly some lubrication needed or a duff bearing.  So now add that job to the mast beam replacement when the mast has to come down.

 

Ho Hum... The hunt for a decent sail continues....

 

Did I mention that the boat is completely rewired now? Got to feel positive about something... right?

 

In the meantime, more watching on eBay for a sail about 5m luff and 2-ish metres on the foot.

 





Upgrade?

I got a bit of an eBay bargain this week, which I picked up today.

I got a new main sail. Well, not new, I am the skint sailor after all! But it was cheap!

But If it fits (and I hope it does) it should provide a welcome performance upgrade compared to the baggy main that is fitted at the moment.

I'll see what transpires next weekend when I've fitted it.

No photos as the garden isn't big enough to unfurl it. They'll have to wait until I raise it up the mast.

But I have had just enough time today to unstick the sail numbers and the insignia from the sail. 

Six Years.

As of today I've owned Sprite 2 for six years. Saturday the 3rd of August 2013 I picked her up from the previous owner, Pam.

Funds haven't allowed a quick restoration, but things like today's new fuse box fill me with a sense of progress and accomplishment. I can see things are progressing.

Let's hope I'll be done before the next 6 years are up.

Fusebox Finished.

Finally the fuse box is finished. The battery cut off switch has been fitted to the side of the box and easily identifiable and accessible. Not like the previous switch which was a white household switch with a fuse fitted round the back of the bulkhead.

This one looks the  part:

It makes a nice compact unit now.

The on/off positions are easy to see:

The switch's party trick us it has a third position where the switch knob can be removed. It allows you to isolate the battery and keep it isolated as log as you have the switch knob in your pocket.

I've tried to tidy the negative posts too by having two posts and splitting the negative connections between them. The negative wiring looks a lot less chaotic.

Overall I'm pleased with the result.

Not that expensive either. The box was a tenner on eBay and the switch 14 quid on Amazon. The fuse panel was the original with thicker wire tails soldered to it. The only other cost were the terminal blocks. They were less than a fiver for the pair.
The thick red wire I've had for at least 14 years, from when I did some caravan wiring.

Now I can carry on and finish wiring in the horn that started the whole fuse box saga.... And the LED stern light.