Jib & Jigger

SHIP'S LOG:

There is a unique way to sail a ketch. It is called sailing on "jib & jigger." Basically you sail using the jib and the mizzen, leaving the main furled . . . a good thing in my case as the main hasn't been repaired yet. It is a little slower, obviously, for the simple reason you don't have as much sail area up but not all that much. On of the reasons for the ketch design is to split the sail area among the three sail (jib, main & mizzen) to make it easier to handle and it does. It also means that the sails are rather close in size, not as much as say a schooner, but still close. It was a different experience!

One of the things that had to be constantly thought about was the running backstays on the mizzen. Usually, a mast is held in place by a minimum of four shrouds - fore, stern, port & starboard. ABISHAG's mainmast actually has 8 shrouds. The Mizzen mast has four, two shrouds both to port and starboard. However, when pushing it, it is also advisable to engage the "running back stays", two movable shrouds that are attached to the very top of mizzen mast. You are supposed to tighten the "windward" shroud and loosen the "leeward" shroud to keep that mast straight. The harder the wind, the hard you tighten. You can't just keep them tight all the time as the boom swings to leeward and would be restricted by the leeward shroud if it were tight. This means then that after each tack, one of the first things you do is to tighten the weather(windward) running backstay and loosen the leeward back stay. It can keep you busy, at least momentarily.

Strangely, the previous owner hard made the process more complicated than it need to be.There is a cam cleat in the cockpit for each running back stay control line which allows you to engage and disengage the appropriate backstay as the situation warrants. For some reason, the previous owner had installed new running backstay blocks at the stern of the boat that included integral cam cleats meaning that to disengage a control line, I had to not only disengage it in the cockpit but go also to the stern of the boat and disengage it there as well. It didn't make a lot of sense, especially for someone whose sails by themselves, so I removed the stern cam cleats from the blocks. It made the sailing process a whole lot easier and will encourage more use of the mizzen when I finish repairing the main. More sail combinations means better sailing and I am all for that.

Back at the mooring, I made contact with Ombudsman Cliff fisher. Pretty much anything that needs fixing on a boat he can do. He is going to help me switch out the old inverter/charger. It should not be a difficult task it is just that I still view electricity and all things connecting with it as something akin to magic. It is nice to have someone helping who actually knows what they are doing.

I also filed of the spurs in the track of the aluminum extrusion that holds the mainsail and which is part of the furling system. These developed when someone tried to open up the extrusion to allow easier inserting the mainsail luff into it. Unfortunately, they tend to damage the luff of the sail ( the side that goes up the mast) and this would eventually cause the sail to fail. Since "reducing the hallow" involved removing the old luff and creating a new one, avoiding damage to it can only be a good thing.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

We must be due for snow or something! Three, no four days of sailing in a row . . .it must be a fluk of somekind. But I will take it. The weather doen't look good for today but such is life. ABISHAG is getting more and more to be home and that's the best thing.