So something I noticed yesterday is that the foresail wasn’t fully raised, causing a problem with it catching on things and having a bag in it, and just generally being a shitty shape. You can see this in the below pic, I’ve circled it in red.

IMG_20150228_152010

So today there wasn’t much wind so I went for it.

Well tried to. It turns out the thing you use to tighten the halyard is a propitiatory piece of hardware that attaches, and that SOMEONE had chucked it out a few months ago, taking it for a broken piece of whatever.

Oops.

Anyway, this lead to tightening it involving tying another rope to the halyard, looping it over the pushpit and then to a winch, and then winching it tight, while the rope was held over the rope brake (but not IN IT because it was a DUEL WAY BRAKE UGHHH) with a fork handle, held by my friend

IMG_20150301_103210

One the sail had been freed from the track and winched up in the right spot, we slowly popped out the fork and the rope jumped straight into the brake. This took a couple of attempts but worked eventually!

IMG_20150301_100811

Moral of this 90 minute cursing session is don’t throw away irreplaceable bits of hardware you fucking moron that you can overcome anything with a bit of ingenuity. And a winch.

Liked it? Take a second to support Matt on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!