A Few Changes

After NOOD it became clear that a few changes needed to be made to help make the Tbird easier to sail. June was spent drilling holes in the cabin top, routing out balsa core, filling with epoxy, re-drilling.

Ebay came through with two lightly used Lewmar 8 winches and I rebuilt and rearranged the cam cleats on the cabin top. Much better arrangement for control lines and the spinnaker is now much easier to control.

Inboard genoa tracks.

2010 NOOD Regatta

Yep. Over 21.

The sailing was awesome. The rum was pretty good too.

New Rope Clutches

The wind conditions for the first evening of the Spring Series was as good as anyone could wish for. A nice, steady blow that challenged the new crew for the first time, as well as aging hardware.

The vang came undone, the traveller is causing grief, an issue I hope to deal with in the near future, and the old Spinlock XA clutches were having trouble holding the halyards in place.

The rope clutches had been suspect for some time and I had previously picked up two new Spinlock XAS clutches off of Ebay for a reasonable price. The great thing about the XA to XAS swap, beyond the new functionality, is that you get to use the same holes.

The old Spinlock XA clutches had an unidentified black sealant visible around one of the bases and I was a bit leery about how well bonded the clutches might be to the cabin top. After removing the through bolts I was pleasantly surpirsed when, after a firm sideways knock, each clutch popped right off.

Most of the sealant was a sticky white substance that gave up without much of a fight and, as the opportunity arises to update or repair items on the Bird, is turning out to be the goop of choice by the previous owner for installing deck hardware. I did notice that no precautions were taken to protect the balsa core of the cabin top. The PO just drilled the holes and installed the clutches with the sealant. Luckily, there was not water damage to the core that I could see or feel. I suspect I will be re-bedding all of the deck hardware over the summer as a precaution.

I put a 1/4 inch router bit on a Dremel and cut out the Balsa core around the previously drilled holes, filled with thickened epoxy and re-drilled the holes. I counter sunk the holes and bed the new rope clutches with 3M 4200.