well i must say i am getting a bit more concerned about the systematic fatigue that dave mentioned. this afternoon while pulling the main out i observed the bolt holding the bottom of the boom vang to the boom vang goose neck had sheared off. i am not sure if this was the result or the cause of the sail being hard to unfurl but the conditions where very light, less than 10 kts of wind, and as always i only had two wraps on the winch so i should not be breaking anything regardless!

the good news is i had several spare bolts and i was able to make the fix in less than 15 minutes including locating the parts. the other good news is the bolt that sheared was under sized. i replaced it in the south pacific when the whole asm ripped out of the mast and i am thinking i replaced it with a smaller titanium bolt before i got the correct size spare or because i could not find titanium in the corrrect size. the bigger one i had was stainless. it looks like i will need to send an email off to the spar guys again.

in the photo you can see the sheared bolt in my and and don and right from that you see the head of the replacement bolt already installed.

i should probably ask for a photo of the whole setup rather than one part at a time. the replacement goose neck they are sending me is massive compared to mine. perhaps this part has been upgraded as well.

at least i am not bored and stuff is breaking before leaving to cross the atlantic and before larry comes out! and the batteries are working great and i have plenty of ice!

cheers, roger