While others are winding down, Christy Lee is ramping up!
16 October 2011
Last week, finally, the mast went up. The mast and boom are original; that's it. All the rigging has been completely redone from the turnbuckles up. Old, semi-functional reel winches were replaced with new-to-me winches. Wire rope halyards have been replaced with modern lines. The sheaves had to be removed and replaced with something from this century. In the process I had the rigger sent it up so my lines now run inside the mast :-) . She's beginning to look like a sailboat again!
The last three weekends have been VERY productive electrically, as well. I fabricated a temporary electrical panel which you saw earlier. I had power to the panel last weekend after much twisting, pulling, and swearing at 4 gauge battery cable. I had to run the cables 20' from the batteries to the panel, necessitating running the big cable all the way there to compensate for copper loss. 4 gauge cable is a PAIN IN THE ____! However, I had power to the engine, panel and breakers when I wrapped up on Sunday. A good friend of mine came over to the boat and helped me this weekend with wiring the house loads. He brought a really cool piece of test equipment I've actually never used (I thought I'd used them all!) . With his help I was able to completely wire in the mast and cabin lights. Woo Hoo! Good friends are good to have. Thanks, Buddy.
I'll be heading back out to the boat within an hour. I have to head back up to NJ this afternoon, but would like to get the NAV lights wired in before I leave. Next up; sailmaker will be coming out to take measurements for the new main!