110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
Snow Lily | Tuesday, May 14, 2013
A few final details remained with the mast. With pieces and parts now in stock, I wrapped up the masthead light (OK, it's an anchor light, or more specifically an all-around light, but we all know everyone calls it a masthead light, technical definitions notwithstanding) installation. The LED fixture selected was constructed inside a regular PVC pipe cap, so to complete the installation I glued the light to a short length of pipe, which I then attached to a stainless steel riser with another PVC adapter. After making up the wiring connections, I secured the base to the top of the mast.
To allow one of the halyard winches to do double duty for jib and spinnaker halyards as needed, I installed a cam cleat on the mast above the winch, which would allow tension from whatever halyard was eventually led through it (probably the roller furling jib halyard) to be released from the winch, freeing the winch for other use. To support the cleat on the curved spar, I made a simple wooden base that I shaped to match the spar profile.
The inboard ends of the spreaders required one additional hole be drilled to pin them in place to the brackets. So after pinning the one existing hole on each side, I marked the location of the second, drilled them out, and test-fit both spreaders before removing them for storage.
Other than standing and running rigging, the mast work was complete for now; the rigging would happen a little later. Next, I turned to the batteries. To begin, I made reference marks on each battery cell and on the aluminum battery containment devices to ensure that I reassembled things in teh same way once things were on the boat. Then, I disassembled the threaded rods and removed the batteries from their holders.
Up in the boat, I dry-fit the two battery box bases in their space beneath the cockpit to get a sense of how they would fit in the space. Once I'd determined the relative position of each of the two boxes, I marked the bolting locations according to the open spaces on the fiberglass foundation beneath. Back down on the bench, I drilled holes in the battery box bases for the 3/8" bolts that would secure them to the boat, before bringing the bases back to the boat and drilling the bolt holes in the foundation itself.
Removing the bases again, I cleaned up the drill spoils as needed, then bolted the two bases in place with four bolts each. To make access easier for now, I temporarily removed the scupper hoses from above, though I put them back at the end of the day.
Access to the far side of the forward base would be tough once the batteries were in place, so I pre-installed the two threaded rods on that side, along with the angle irons and aft plate.
Then, I brought the individual cells up and placed them in their proper positions in the box, before finally securing them all together with the threaded rods, aft plate, and angle irons on each end.
I'd soon do the same thing with the after bank, but for now I was out of time.
Total Time on This Job Today: 5.75 hours
