To A Mouse
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men
Gang aft agley,
An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
That line - "the best-laid schemes" gets me every time. It is probably the wisest thing ever written, the best plans often go wrong, and when it involves yachts doubly so.
So on a cool and crisp morning I head down to the boat yard with dreams of fitting the running rigging to my old boat. I knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the park but I was hopeful that I would be able to surmount any issues that I came across. So with joy in my heart I loaded the back of my car with every-single-tool-I-could-think-of. I mean everything, spanners, adjustable spanners, two socket sets, pliers, impact driver, valve spring compression tool and even an axe. I reasoned that had I not done this I would be spending the rest of the day driving up and down to my house picking up bits of kit.
I arrived nice and early and began preparing to take my mast down. This can be eventful but in the case of my wee boat not really a problem. It took about ten minutes and there by the side of my boat was a random collection of very expensive unpaid-for wires, and irreplaceable mast and a handful of horrid looking shackles.
I set to and ran the first lines from the top of the mast. The red line for the topping lift and a black line for the spinnaker halyard. Easy-peasy and a deliberate measure on my part to ensure that whatever happened next I could honestly say that I managed to achieve something.
I then moved to the foot of the mast. This has seen a little bit of reconstruction and I had to move the sheave boxes up quite a bit. No, I didn't know what a sheave box was either until I had to buy two of the expensive little bastards. Basically a pulley that sits in a slot, but £25 each. Which leads me nicely to the joys of buying stuff from the US of A.....things are much cheaper in the US so those same boxes will be about $25 each, but by the time I have added on shipping, had my goods confiscated, delayed, customs charged and finally grudgingly delivered, they will cost me more. It is the same for just about everything - a pound for dollar comparison. It really pisses me off.
Anyway, I fitted the sheave boxes into the slots and unwrapped my new rivet gun. I fitted the overly expensive, stainless steel, packet of eight, marine grade, carefully measured, rivet to my gun, lined up the holes and pumped the handle. The rivet gun popped, and the rivet looked good. So I tried the other end of the sheave box but discovered that it had risen up, so I pushed it flat to the mast and popped the first rivet right out. Bastard!! I tried a second time but g-clamped the sheave box flush this time - but to no avail. The rivets were simply too short.
"OK", thinks I, I'll run the ropes from the top of the mast down the inside while I think on how to get rivets on a Saturday. I'm not even going to go into much detail on that, needless to say that many people enjoyed the sight of a large man handling a mast, trying to raise it and manage a set of nuts tied to the end of a stretch of mono-filament. I started to get pissed off with myself and decided to have a beer to clear my mind. This was a success, and I texted my mate to see if he could help me with my mast. I discovered that he was on his boat having a lovely time with his wife, trying out the new heater he had fitted. I wandered over from the pub, to spoil any fun he might be having.
Instead of being greeted by him swiftly pulling up his trousers, I was met with a man who had a look of grave concern on his face. It turned out that the roller reefing mechanism on the front of the boat was holding the mast up. The front shroud had at some point pulled itself up inside the roller and the only thing holding the mast up was the eye being jammed inside.
"Uh, I don't remember ever seeing that end of the cable before", I observed
"Yup, I don't think we have had this boat rigged right for three years!", he replied looking shifty
"...including the time we sailed through those 60 knot winds for eleven hours?", I asked nervously
"Yah..."
"We could have..."
"Died".
Really we were incredibly lucky the mast did not simply fall back and cut us in half. Really lucky.
The next hour was spend disassembling the roller reefing mechanism, showering me in small white plastic ball bearings, hammering out the cable and figuring out how it was actually meant to be fitted. We culminated the process lying on the front of the boat wedged belly to belly, nose to nose, carefully holding, bolting and meticulously assembling the reefing mechanism. We were so engrossed in our labours that we had forgotten about his wife who then appeared from inside the yacht, saw us intertwined on the foredeck, and said "I'll leave you lovers to it!". She drove off in a bad temper, which was utterly wasted on us as we were were reaching that joyful end of job phase where the tools can start being put away.
It did distract from my mast work but it was very much in my self interest to get that mast correct as we had big plans for the boat this summer.
As the day was now dragging on and the light was going I headed out to ScrewFix and happily found they sold stainless steel assorted rivet boxes. One purchase later and I was ready for the next day.
The next morning I finally found the correct rivet (a helluva lot longer than I imagined, a lesson for us all there). As I was admiring my handywork I hear a cheerful "Hello!". It was the chap that had made my shrouds. He was cheerful and full of good advice, especially as I paid him there and then using the bank app on my phone.
I did another couple of bits of twiddling but decided I needed to think about how I was going to run the ropes down my mast. A solution that came to me over a quiet lunchtime pint. A solution that I will show you next time!
Happy sailing!
