It is only fitting that my wife and I spent Talk Like a Pirate Day working on our Sirius 21 sailboat. I bought all new clevis pins for the standing rigging since the old ones were worn and scored in a rather scary way. In fact, getting the standing rigging up to snuff has not been easy. The previous owner had used incorrectly sized clevis pins to secure a number of the shrouds. Also, and this is the scary bit, the forestay quick-adjust was being held together by a 3/16ths diameter machine screw wedged lengthwise where the clevis pin should go! When I first discovered this, my testicles immediately retreated to somewhere just below my ribcage. A machine screw!
For those of you not in the know, the forestay quick-adjust is that is that bit at the front of the boat where the wire coming from the very top of the mast attaches to the prow. It is only the most freakin’ important fitting on the entire boat! When underway this little fitting takes all the strain generated by both the main and jib sails. If the forestay breaks, your mast immediately comes crashing down, plain and simple, because on a bermuda rigged boat of this size there is only one forestay holding the mast up. (Bigger boats have multiple forestays, and cutters of just about any size usually have two or three of them). Except for the forestay and backstay just about anything else on your boat can break and you’ll at least have a minute or two to try and fix it before you’re screwed. Not true with these babies, and someone had stuck a plain old mild steel machine screw in there – shear strength unknown.
So I took it out and replaced it with a proper sized clevis pin for the hole (1/4″) only to discover the the swage fitting on the forestay only has a 3/16ths hole. Probably why the machine screw was in there in the first place. Thus ensued a long search for a thinner clevis pin of the appropriate length to fit inside the quick-adjust. I finally ended up cutting a longer one down to length with a hacksaw. Which highlights another problem – that swage fitting should be 1/4″. The fitting at the masthead is 1/4″, so it would be stupid to use something smaller at the other end. Two other problems with the forestay are 1) it’s too long, and 2) the original owner’s manual for the boat does not mention a quick-adjust.
Here’s what I think happened: Sometime in the past, either the old forestay broke (eep!) or someone decided they wanted to PRHC race this boat (which is what the quick-adjust is for), so they removed the old forestay turnbuckle and swaged on a fitting for the quick-adjust. They either didn’t know better or didn’t have the right parts to hand, and attached a 3/16ths fitting where they should have used a 1/4″ one. Also, they didn’t shorten the forestay enough to compensate for the extra length added by the quick-adjust. The owner’s manual says that for optimum handling the mast should be raked about 6″ to the rear. Even with the quick-adjust cranked all the way forward my mast is still raked 18″ to the rear. Yikes! Unless I’m mistaken, she’s gonna show some killer weather helm in any kind of breeze.
We’ll be taking her out for a test sail tomorrow, now that the machine screw has been replaced by a proper piece of 316 stainless, and we’ll see how she goes. I could be brewing a tempest in a teapot. Or maybe I’m right. Time will tell.
On a lighter note, and in keeping with the nautical theme, I thought the pirate keyboard (below) was rather funny.
R Mateys!
To wrap up, a picture of my money pit beautiful baby finally ready to go, mast raised and sails bent on. Yarrhhh, mateys!
Ain't she beautiful?