110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
Snow Lily | Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Earlier in the week, I picked up a pallet containing the battery banks for Snow Lily, and with the heavy boxes in the back of my truck my first task was to unload them. My tractor just managed to lift them without tipping forward (at least not too much), but the load was right at the weight limit, so I was glad to get the full pallet off the truck and closer to the ground; I'd been prepared to break open the package and unload by hand, but this way was better. I put the crates in the shop for later attention.
After measuring the distance from the mast partners to the mast step, I noted the position on the spar for future reference. Then, I removed an erroneous fitting from the aft side of the mast, allowing me to install the lower fitting for the rigid boom vang. As with the similar boom gooseneck, I installed this fitting with cheese head machine screws, treating each fastener with Tef-Gel.
I assembled the Rodkicker vang and internal piston, which for some reason came separately. Because the shop was off limits with paint fumes from another project, I assembled the vang in my office, needing a reasonable workspace for the task. After installing the boom to its gooseneck, I test-fitted the vang. Final positioning of the boom fitting (which slid within a track on the bottom of the boom) would occur later, when the boat was rigged.
Next, I worked on a retractable lazy jack system, which took the remainder of the afternoon. After some thought and measurements, I decided to go with a three-leg system, which seemed ample to contain the sail on the boom and would save some complication over a four-leg version. On the boom itself, I installed eye straps two feet from each end, with a third spaced evenly between them; these would accept the snap hooks at the ends of the jacks.
The system featured a continuous top line consisting of the main leg on each side, run through the cheek blocks on the mast and through a small movable bullet block on the front of the mast; a control line led from this block down to a cleat that I installed on the forward mast track. This was the heart of the retractable/removable/adjustable system.
After determining the correct main leg length and securing the ends to bullet blocks, I made up the three auxiliary legs to each side of the boom, using small blocks to create the legs as needed.
Retracting the jacks was a matter of loosening the control line and hooking the lines beneath the tack hooks, or wherever.
The legs could also be removed easily from the boom, clipped together, and stored wherever. Here, I removed them and clipped them to the tack hooks on the gooseneck for storage. Afterwards, I removed the boom (the tack hooks remained with the gooseneck fitting) and wrapped up for the day.
Total Time on This Job Today: 3.75 hours
