Hurricane Florence

The Far Reach about 24 hours before Florence made landfall.

I am very happy to report that the Far Reach survived the trial of her life during Hurricane Florence, which pounded eastern North Carolina from 13-14 Sept 2019.

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Dyneema Soft Shackles and an Improved Deck Bucket

I selectively and carefully incorporated dyneema and it’s heat treated cousin Dynex Dux into the rebuilt Far Reach. I used Dux for the forestay and later modified it with a quick release pendant. The link to how we made the forestay releaseable can be found here. https://farreachvoyages.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/a-new-forestay-release-device/

We used a 5/16” doubled soft shackle to attach the large low friction ring to the tack fitting on the gammon iron  as part of our releasable forestay system.

We also use dyneema for our lifelines and various shackles with and without toggles. The dyneema has performed very well. We continue to find ways to use dyneema in a manner that suits our philosophy of reliability, simplicity, and self sufficiency.

Hand Splice Standing Rigging—The Liverpool Splice

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Hand spliced wire rigging

 

All of the standing rigging on the Far Reach is spliced to include the 3/8” bob-stay and the 5/16” sprit-shroud stays.

Readers of our rebuild website may remember I hand-spliced the standing rigging for the new mast we built for the Far Reach. It was one of the many projects associated with the six year rebuild. I used a splice called the Liverpool Splice. I learned it by reading Brion Toss’ book The Rigger’s Apprentice.

Cape Lookout Summer Cruise

We had hoped to sail to Bermuda this summer but it was just not in the cards. We had too many balls in the air especially with the kids graduating from home high school and the seminar I teach at Camp Lejeune graduating at the end of May. So, we decided to enjoy a more simple to execute, week long cruise out to the Cape Lookout National Seashore. This trip was just for Gayle and me. Because the kids are usually with us, it was the first time Gayle and I have been alone on the Far Reach for more than a night. So we left the newly graduated high school seniors at home with a credit card and the car keys.

The Far Reach all provisioned and ready to go.

Upgrading Primary Winches—Phase II. And a new winch base design.

Before: The primary winches were on a 2” riser pad and were, by design,  very tall winches.  They also suffered from aluminum/bronze corrosion—IMO a fundamentally bad design.

After: The new primaries are a little shorter in height plus I removed the riser pad.  They are the same model as the smaller stays’l winches we installed last fall. Note the new winch base with bronze plate.

After completing a number of small projects this year, it was time to tackle the last big project for the foreseeable future—installing the new primary winches. The new winches are bronze Lewmar Ocean Series ST 46 two speed winches. The 46s replace the original 1982 era bronze two speed Lewmar 44s.  Though they performed satisfactorily, the 44s were a flawed design from the beginning, mixing aluminum with bronze. The aluminum jaws were ate up with galvanic corrosion.  For more information on the original installation click here.

Stepping It Up

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Traditional Boats

The removable dinghy step is about 24” long x 9” wide.  The sub frame is iroko and the treads are teak.

We have found getting from the dinghy up to the Far Reach is not always so easy. It’s a little over 40” from the waterline to the top of  the bulwarks.  It’s not just us.  I think many cruisers find climbing from the dinghy to the mothership a challenge, especially as we get older.  And, the traditional stern on the Far Reach means the best way to embark or debark is along-side vice over the stern.  Many modern sailboat designs include the now ubiquitous “sugar-scoop” transom, which greatly simplifies the task of getting from the dinghy to the sailboat.  The disadvantage of a sugar-transom is that it makes the boat less secure.   It’s easy for an  unwanted visitor to get aboard the boat by clandestinely swimming up to the stern and crawling up and over the sugar-scoop.  And sugar scoops, generally, detract from the aesthetics of the boat. But I digress.

NEW BLOG SITE ADDRESS

We changed the web address of this site. If you made it here then you know the new address is:  http://www.farreachvoyages.wordpress.com

We plan to keep our other website on-line as well.  It is the original site and is the one that documents the six year rebuild of the Far Reach.  You can visit it at www.farreachvoyages.com.

 

A New Forestay Release Device

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Dyneema Forestay Release, Low Friction Rings

The Far Reach has a headstay and a forestay.  Until recently, the forestay was dyneema with a spliced bronze eye connected to a bronze turnbuckle.  It was difficult to disconnect the forestay and pull it back out of the way to make short tacking easier.

Cutter rigged boats like the Far Reach have a headstay and a forestay. The forestay is sometimes referred to as the inner-stay but it is correctly called the forestay as it supports the fore stays’l.

A challenge for cutter rigged boats is tacking with both stays rigged. If the slot between the two stays is narrow, and sometimes even if it is not particularly narrow, the jib can get “hung up” on the forestay as it passes through the slot from one tack to the other.  When short-tacking (tacking a number of times in rapid succession) up a narrow channel you can get into trouble if your jib fails to pass through the slot between the stays.  Occasional tacks should not  be a concern and every sailor should be able to tack their cutter reliably with only the occasional hiccup.

Working on a New Blog Web Address

I am in the process of developing a new web address for this BLOG site.  It may be a few days before activated. If you are a subscriber and your link no longer works, do a google search or check our website http://www.farreachvoyages.com.  On the menu tab there is a link to the blog. I’ll put the new address there when we determine what will be the new address.

Halyard Diverter Installed

18 May 2016–The Far Reach, Anchored, in the Lagoon, St Maarten.

A couple days ago I completed the installation of the halyard diverter.

The halyard diverted is installed.  It should keep the halyard lined up with the sheave and eliminate the chafe.

The day before the installation, I pulled both jib halyards out of the mast replacing them with messenger lines on. I did not want the halyards to get covered with metal shaving from the drilling at the top of the mast.

The next morning I got an early start and went up the mast to install the part and the headstay was in the way of the drill–couldn’t fit the drill between mast and headstay. I should have seen that earlier but I just looked right past it. Anyway, I hauled up a spectra line and tied it to the spinnaker bail then went down the mast and slacked the headstay and back stay and bob stay. Tied the block and tackle on the the spectra line and hauled it tight. Went back up the mast and removed the headstay at the tang and lowered it a couple feet on a line and tied it off to the top of the cap shroud. Then installed the part. I used some double sided carpet tape to hold the part in place, drilled and tapped five holes which did not take long–maybe 20-25 minutes, ran the fasters home with tef-gel, and “Bob’s your uncle.” The part lined up perfectly.