"FOREVER"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before purchasing "Forever", we contacted Graeme Harris, of Harris Rigging in Totnes Devon to arrange a rig inspection. Within a few days, when the weather permitted in early November, he came up to Exmouth, climbed the mast and gave us an honest appraisal of the condition of the spars and rigging and what would be needed to renew them.

 

RIG INSPECTION (Graeme's Report) 

     

Mast Maker    Selden    

 

Boom Maker    Selden

 

 

COMMENTS     

       

1.  The Furlex is one of the first of it's type, B Mk1, the tack socket for the foils is worn and needs renewing. The bearings need a good service. No spare parts available so the system is obsolete and will need to be replaced. The halyard swivel is more modern but will require a service.

 

2.  The starboard top guardwire bottlescrew is bent, presumably in collision, renew. The guardrails look like they are originals, renew very soon, as they are safety equipment.

   

3.  The rig tune is poor, the wires may have been renewed, but the rigging screws are original. Renew when next rerigging. What is the age/mileage of the wires? The cap shrouds have incorrect T terminals at the topwhich are Navtec, in Hasselfors T backing plates, They have been ground down to fit, not good practise. Renew the caps before sailing. The ""inters"" are talurit spliced to the caps, not a good practise, and the t-bottlescrew on the starboard side has been welded, not good practise. Renew.  

     

4.  Alloy sheaves at the heel, should be renewed for modern plastic ones. 

   

5.  The mainsheet bottom block needs service/renewal. The cleats don't spring shut.    

6.  The rod kicker hoop under the boom is not correct, it should be a different fitting, so I would advise changing.    

7.  The outhaul car bearings are not clean and smooth, renew to give better function?    

8.  The kicker toggle is worn, fit washers or renew     

   

9.  The storm stay stowage is allowing the wire to hit the front of the spreader, causing wear. Stow tighter

10.  The pole lift is poor, renew      

     

11.  The second genoa is nearing the end of it's life, renew soon. 

       

12.  The Tri-white light is poor with extensive uv damage. The windex is gone with a bent bracket, the VHF is missing its antenna but the wire is coiled on the deck. Is the antenna on board?        

13.  The VPS block is the old black rubber type, they cause corrosion issues, change for modern type.

14.  The furlex and mainsail reefing system were not checked for function, I assume this has been done by the surveyor? It should be possible to strip the mainsail system, and use a slab reefing mainsail, it may need a track fitted to the luff groove if there is damage to this from the fastenings that hold the casing to the mast. We cannot say 

until the job starts.            

15.  The mainsheet bale at the boom end is sloppy in the groove, rerivet or fit support plates to stop movement.

16. All the running rigging will need replacement.

 

 

The mast was taken down in early December and the mainsail furling system was examined. The furling mechanism was seized and irreparable. Thus, the whole furling mechanism was removed from the mast. This mechanism was attached to the main luff groove with brackets every 2 feet. These brackets had caused such localised damage to the luff groove that the slides would not move freely up an down the mast. Thus a track and slide system was ordered and fitted.

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other recommendations in Graeme's report were followed and the work was done over the months of January and February 2014. Also added to the masthead was a new Trilight and Steaming light, the Garmin GWS wind sensor and two VHF aerials. The deck light was repaired on the front of the mast just below the spreaders and finally the Garmin GMR 18 4KW Radome was attached to the mast using a Scanstrut SC20 18 inch mount. In all there was 1 cable from the GWS (NMEA 2000), two cables (power and ETHERNET) from the radome, 3 power cables from the lights and two RG8X Coaxial VHF cables, in total 8 cables.

 

Previously, there was innumerous deck glands beside the mast that were poorly sealed and most covered with mastic. These were all removed, their deck ingress points dried and filled with epoxy resin with the holes in the teak decking caulked. A single ingress hole, 28mm in diameter was then drilled in the deck and a Cableport, supplied by Salty John, purveyor of "uncommon cruising kit", installed.