Rigging, and more rigging...

Kim Weir, our local rigger, has helped make a lot of welcome upgrades to Spray's rigging. While at the boatyard, he repaired the loose plate at the top of the mast, installed a new Windex wind vane, replaced the spinnaker halyard, installed new spreader covers, and replaced the woefully undersized original Barient 10 main sheet winch with a Lewmar 40 Self Tailing winch on the cabin top. Kim tuned the rigging once Spray was back in her slip.

In March 2010, Kim returned to replace the original Hyde StreamStay roller furling unit with a nice new Harken MK1V Unit 2. This required installing a new forestay since the Hyde StreamStay was the old forestay! Although the original roller furling unit worked, it was a bit undersized and difficult to furl with anything more than 10 knots of wind. Since we were getting new sails, we didn't want to risk flogging the new Genoa in heavy winds while trying to furl it. Also, it was hard to determine how much structural integrity was left in the 30 year old forestay fittings! The new furler is much easier to use and we're a lot more comfortable with it. While we were at it, we had Kim install a set of Lazy Jacks to simplify the process of lowering our new fully battened main. He did a great job with all of the upgrades and it was a real pleasure to watch him.