The Deck of Forethought
Sail cover is a breathable polyester (something like the outer shell of
a windcheater jacket) with heavy nylon fabric lining (to take the wear
from the pointy bits on the boom) designed and constructed by Shirley
and myself. It has lasted several years , the webbing tape on the ends
is giving up before the fabric.
Black tape on spinnaker pole is covering epoxy glass/aluminium repair.
Done as a temporary repair shortly after the collision which broke it ,
has stood up to the years as even when the pole is bending under load
it doesnt break. There are 3mm aluminium straps inside the break which
were Monel riveted to the pole and then 4 layers of epoxy glass using
tape laid up on top. Overall covering of tape for UV protection.
Forehatch is Lewmar Coastal from Sea Teach replacing old Passport
hatch. In retrospect, replacing the acrylic in the Passport hatch would
have been easier.
Opens forwards for use in harbour. Generally stays closed at
sea. This has now got a UV protective cover as it is starting to craze
after 6 years,
White sail protector on shrouds showed its value when it finally wore
out and the main sail was chafed through on the run from the Forts to
Cowes with someone on the boom.
Note the low coachroof. It is possible to get water right to hatch if
you bury the bow in a wave.
Acrylic washboards and hatch are replacements for wood and crazed
acrylic a few years back.
Here is also the murky compass. It is readable but worse at night. It
was replaced in 2006 after it was hit, cracked and leaked all the
alcohol. It also now has a teak shelf below it to try and stop the
washboards from hitting it when they are taken out and put on the
cockpit seat next to the bulkhead.
Lines are
Red kicker
Controls an 8:1 rope kicker
Reef 1
Led to
outboard end of boom
Reef 2
Main Halyard
Spectra
Spinnaker Halyard
Topping lift
Genoa car position
The winches are Lewmar 8 for halyards and Lewmar 16AST for genoa sheets
On genoa tracks : one towed car and one conventional locking pin car as
a spare, and to confuse new crew members who create interesting
sheeting options for the genoa ignoring the turning blocks on the
cockpit coaming.
Outboard by stanchion base is spinnaker tweaker. The spinnaker has 10mm, 8mm and 3mm sheets as options.
The 8mm sheets are a bit stretchy, The 3mm sheets are for drifting
races when the wind strength is minute, somewhere off the Isle of Wight
in June usually.
3:1 endless traveller line with cleats vertical on coamings. The
traveller has since been rerouted to allow for less friction, with the
various blocks actually in line with the things they are pulling on.
Despite that the mainsheet car has a tendency to lock up under load as
it is so simple (4 nylon wheels on the track)
At bottom is main genoa halyard (thin blue spectra) and spare genoa
halyard (green trace).
Pole uphaul and downhaul are red trace and yellow trace respectively.
From ST winch genoa sheets go outboard to turning blocks on coamings
then forward to cars .
Winches and cleats further aft are for spinnaker . The spinnaker sheets
and are rigged inside the stanchions because of the wide beam. The
turning blocks have just been replaced with some ball bearing cheek
blocks mounted on the coaming as the guy was gradually sawing through
the coaming on the way to the winch.
Solar cell is 5 watt panel now fed to diode splitter to trickle charge
both batteries automatically. Even at max charge (250mA) the gel
batteries can cope with the gassing internally Their chemistry
recombines the hydrogen and oxygen produced under pressure. Solar
regulator died
when battery inadvertently disconnected from alternator while regulator
in circuit. Wiring error to blame.
This solar cell has now been replaced with a 20 watt roving panel which can be hung or tied on various parts of the rigging.
Four screws near stern on the cockpit coaming on Starboard side are the
fixings for the Webasto heater.
Below them on the seat is the base for the autopilot, with its power
socket central on the transom.
It is possible to sit with spinnaker winch between legs on the coaming
with only moderate discomfort traded against falling a long way if you
get a wave wrong.
Less so as the turning blocks for the spinnaker are now right under
your bottom. I prefer sometimes to do a kind of body jamb with feet on
the lower side of the cockpit and my lower back wedged against the
coamings. My bottom does not touch the seat. I ended up with a lot of
bruises after the RTI 2004 with doing this for a while.
Cockpit floor about 10 cm above normal waterline. Quite deep as only
propshaft and exhaust below floor. No access via cockpit floor. Just as
well when stern squats at 6 knots and water runs back up drains. Some
GK24s have fuel tank below cockpit floor with a filler down there,
The fuel tank filler leads to a 37 litre steel tank for diesel. A
wooden dipstick can be pushed in to gauge the depth.
