November 21, 2017
Jasmine 2
Tuesday
With some time on hand, I thought I’d use it to good advantage and start some of early dismantling work aboard. With a rigging contractor scheduled to arrive later in the week to look over the masts and rigging, and begin the process of dealing with several mast- and rigging-related items on the work list, I decided to begin by removing the existing lifelines, which I’d have to do before almost anything else regardless.
The existing lifelines were an interesting mess of mismatched hardware, unusual wire ends, and generally atrocious condition overall, clearly long past their suitable lifespan and on the replacement list for good reason.
To begin, I thoroughly documented all the existing connections, wire ends, and general adjustment positions of the hardware and wire eye ends for posterity. The photos below are representative, but I had many more detail photos of each connection area for future reference if needed. Each wire seemed to have different hardware at each end, with old or nonexistent adjusters and, at the starboard aft end, two wires that were secured to the pulpit with Nicropress fittings, clearly a quick and desperate fix made with no thought to ever conveniently removing the wires. All the wires themselves were old and worn as well.
Over the course of an afternoon work session, I removed all the lifelines, a rather laborious process given the age and condition of the fittings that required removal in order to unstring the wires and store them away for now. At the starboard stern pulpit, I had no choice but to cut the wire loops with a hacksaw to remove the wires, and ended up cutting wires in one or two other places as well since I was unable to otherwise remove the wire ends for one reason or another. I labeled all the existing lifelines appropriately, but they were in too poor condition and with random and less-than-ideal adjustment positions for the lines to be replicated using the old ones as a guide. Instead, I’d have the riggers measure for the new lifelines later in the project, once I’d properly and finally reinstalled the stanchions and pulpits, to ensure accuracy and quality new product.
Total time billed on this job today: 2 hours
0600 Weather Observation: 22°. partly clear. Forecast for the day: Sun, 50, windy.