And speaking of lines
Speaking of line, we took advantage of the first calm-wind day in weeks to re-run our 2nd reefing line. Why wait for calm winds? Because the process for completing this involved raising our main sail while at anchor and the 15-20 knots that it has been consistently blowing around here would have made the exercise a bit more exciting than it would need to be.
Why were we doing this in the first place? For whatever reason, when we acquired ZTC, the 2nd reefing line was about 6 feet too short. For those unfamiliar with sailing jargon, reefing is the act of making your sails smaller, typically done when the winds get too strong and the reefing line is what allows us to do this. It’s a pretty important thing actually!
As it turns out, it was still quite a process, even without the wind blowing. The first step was to sew the end of the new, longer reefing line to the old one so that we could use the original one as a messenger to pull it through the boom. Losing one of these lines in the middle of the boom would have been a very bad thing, guaranteed to result in an immense amount of profanity. Fortunately, my sewing job held and we were able to successfully pull the new one through. The main sail then had to be raised and the new line passed through the grommet at the leech (rear) of the sail and then tied to the boom. Step one done.
What a beautiful sewing job. If someone gets cut, I think I may be ready to give him/her stitches.
That was the easy part though! When we reef our sails there are actually two lines that come into play: the one we just switched and a 2nd one which runs from the tack (front) of the sail into a “car” which slides somewhere inside the boom. As I suspected that it was actually this 2nd line which was too short, we set about replacing it with a longer one too. I received this message from James, a former PDQ employee:
Hey Mike and Rebecca,
The forward reefing line is secured to the car that travels inside the length of the boom. The easiest way to access the car is to remove the aft boom cap, and pull the car back with the aft reef line. The cap will be secured with torx head bolts or rivets. If removing the car completely from the boom, watch that the car or the boom cap are not spun, as this will tangle the reef lines. Also keep an eye out for the 4 car wheels that will fall off as the car is removed.
We once again, sewed the new line (in truth it wasn’t new, just longer, which would shortly come to cause us grief) to the shorter, old line. Removing the end of the boom was easy enough as I was fortunate to have the proper Torx® head bits to remove the screws. We, and I suspect many other PDQ owners, have never seen the guts inside the boom. Not knowing what this car was going to look like, we carefully slid it out. As I feared, once we got the car to where we could hold onto it, we saw that the original line, the one we were replacing, had an eye spliced onto it. This meant that to swap in the longer line, I would need to splice an eye on it! Splicing a new line is a bit of a challenge for me. Splicing OLD line is a PITA!
I’m glad I brought this tool kit with us!
The “guts” of the boom.
With minimal swearing, but plenty of sweating, Rebecca and I got the splice done. We carefully reassembled the boom, taking care not to twist any of the lines as James had warned us. The final step in the process was to once again, raise the main sail to determine where to tie the stopper knot in the new line.
Is it done? We think so. We really need to raise the sail again and test it out but after going through all that, I was nearing sun-stroke and had nothing on my mind other than jumping in the clear water for a nice swim. We’ll test it out another day.
Note: Hours after completing this job, and looking at the photos, I was reminded that James had said there were supposed to be wheels on the car. Look at this pic…. no wheels. Hmmmm.
Where did the 4 wheels go?
First of all, James and his wife Jackie are the best kind of humans out there. I love those two. And second of all, I love technical posts. But I’m a little geeky that way.
🙂
I like those posts too, and yes, I am also geeky that way.
greetings mike –
your blog is great, to say the least, and your writing style and topics are top notch. its quite an accomplishment to be both entertaining and informative. as a fellow pdq 32 owner, i’ve always especially appreciated your posts that apply to our boats.
this post in particular is something i have yet to tackle on my boat, but need to immediately. the reefing lines on my boat were disconnected when i got it and given the 20 knot plus winds in my area, its at the top of my list.
i know it may be a bit of a hassle, but you would be doing a great favor to all current and future owners if you would post on the pdq site some sort of drawing or photo diagram of how all the reefing lines run through the mast and sails and attach to the boom. you would also be providing a historical reference for posterity that we need on the site and i have been unable to find.
best of luck to both you and rebecca. i look forward to the day when our cruising paths will cross.
mike
Hi Mike
Thanks for the comments. I do try to be entertaining but also like to provide something useful from time to time. I think your idea is a good one so I will try to put something together for the forum. I have learned a lot there so I like to contribute when I can.
Mike, Did you get your Garmin Chart/Card sorted out? JC
Not yet. 🙁
It would appear that someone, sometime in the history of ZTC has taken the car out without the timely warning you recieved! Perhaps you can find out where to get replacement wheels, or maybe they are lost someplace inside the boom. If someone put the boom upside down at some point, the wheels could have fallen off inside it. Try looking with a flashlight. Good luck!
Or they have never been on there since we’ve had the boat. That is a possibility too. The car does slide without them. I will likely take the end off again and check though.
Considering you have only been sailing 208 days you are certainly getting to know all about what to do or how to get things done 🙂 we also love the hands on way of learing myself more than sonja she is a watches first while i make the mistakes & then she fixes them lol. Gr8t info thanks again. & Our camper is sold so now looking for boat hope to follow your way in summer 🙂
Congratulations! Happy boat hunting.
Mike, If there is any way i can help on the Garmin problem, just let me know. JC
Thanks JC. The chips are apparently in Nassau and are due here in GT on Monday(ish). We shall see.