Flipping the dinghy over and dragging it down the beach was fine, no back strains there.
I went out and changed the starboard turnbuckle on the main stay. It was a bit windy so it took a while to devise a knot to tie on the stay to hold it down and prevent anything happening to the mast.
Anyway a few loops wrapped round the stainless wire were tied just above the eye and then the rope led down to the deck fitting. before I undid everything I fitted the new turnbuckle to the deck fitting so I only had one end to deal with reducing the time the stay and the mast were loose.
Anyway everything worked out, got the turnbuckle on working from the dinghy lashed to the side of Sprite. That way I could work sitting or standing up, keeping my back straight. After doing the starboard side I decided the port one could wait. I drank my coffee and decided to head back to shore while the tide was relatively high and there was less beach to drag the dinghy up.
Just pulling the dinghy up after getting out made my back twinge, so I emptied the dinghy and chucked the stuff in the car.
Then I returned to the dinghy with my back-saving not-so-secret weapon: a rachet winch:
With a double pull through a block it can pull up tree stumps (allegedly) but I rigged it for single pull, which sped up the pulling process. The bad news was it was still painfully slow, lots slower than dragging up the beach by hand. Especially having to do the pull in stages. I felt such a fraud, but at least when I got in the car to go home I wasn't in agony!
So, only a couple of hours on board today but I feel so much better for it.
No visit to Sprite tomorrow, I'm off to Littlehampton for lunch.
By the way there's a really nice looking Invader 22 on eBay at the moment. £750 with only 2 hours to go. No bids on it... Very strange, but I guess the bad weather this Spring has depressed the market a bit.
My come along has been used to pull out a couple of stumps. It also slides the PY23 forward when it sits too far aft on the trailer. It loaded the Petrel on a trailer too. Handy device.
ReplyDeleteTo attach a line to a stay, I have used a rolling hitch.
Obviously the winch doesn't have that much cable, so it won't pull the dinghy up the beach in one go, so I made a rope ladder with loops at roughly the same distance, so I went from loop to loop pulling the dinghy up the beach. But I admit it's a useful device. It certainly saves my back!
ReplyDeleteA trucker's hitch can be used for hauling things too, when you don't have a mechanical device handy. The multi-loop idea is a good one.
ReplyDelete