This post is very much to do with my little boat Heron an Alacrity 19. Hopefully it may be useful to other Alacrity or small boat sailors.
Two years ago I tore the furling foresail on Heron. I had only bought the secondhand system and sail that year and so decided to go back to hank-on sails.
During this winter I spent some time sewing up the sail. I didn't have much else to do after the roof blew off and the television blew up.
Today the rain stopped so I decided to drop the mast and fit the furler. First thing to do was put the kettle on and have a coffee. Then motor off from my mooring to tie up along side the quay. I borrowed Stuart's dinghy.
I tied up in the corner of the harbour where I could lift the rigging on to the hard to work on it. Stuart came down to help.
As usual "help" meant having a beer whilst we planned the job.
Basically, for any Alacrity owners reading this, I removed the boom and mainsail then slackened the shrouds. I tied a line to the forestay and ran this through the stem fitting and back to a cleat in the cockpit. I then released the forestay and the bottom tabernacle bolt and lowered the mast to my shoulder, controlling the descent with the line to the forestay. I didn't have a crutch aft so used Stuart to support the mast whilst I undid the last bolt and lifted the mast forward. Much easier to do than describe.
Mast and rigging safely on deck. I then removed the forestay at the clevis pin at the mast head and took it ashore to assemble the furler- a Plastimo 406.
A mermaid came alongside to tempt us but swam away as soon as I tried to take a photo.
I'll get the sail fitted this week, attach a line and give it a test. I'll need to re tune the rigging too. Oh yeah and get some s/s m4 nylock nuts and loads of other things.
Forecast was 17 degrees but felt a lot warmer in the sun. Intermittent cloud, light westerly.
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