Alajuela 38
I have been searching for information on the massive windlass on the boat for some months, but until now have not had any luck. However, I finally found a photograph of a the windlass on the web. it is a Monica Marine Model 1000 windlass. Unfortunately, parts are unavailable.
I have installed Starling RV on the boat. The Mexican version was purchased, which is much cheaper than in the US ($410). Service is also cheaper ($65/month). I am getting 200 Mbs in Marina San Carlos.
The sand-in-PVC worked so well for the butterfly hatch, I used the same trick today to sew a cover for the forward hatch.
I sewed a cover for the butterfly hatch today. An unique aspect is the one-inch PVC filled with sand that weighs down the edges, making it unnecessary to cinch down the cover.
On a roll today. After sewing covers for the teak handrails this morning, I sewed covers for the teak dorado boxes for the for the ventilation cowls. They were harder than they look as the deck is sloped in two directions.
We completed new covers for the teak handrails today. Snaps were used to attach them.
There was no reefing system installed. The mainsail has two reef points with grommets to tie, but no mechanism to backhaul or shape the reefed sail. The problem was addressed by adding two cheek blocks, and to cleats to the starboard side of the boom and two pad eyes to the port. Reefing lines were the run from pad yes, under the sail pack, through the reef clew, back down under the sail pack, through the block and to the cleat. The blocks and cleats were offset to avoid interfering with one another. The cleats were placed near the main halyard so they can be operated from the same position.
We took the Aegir-Ran out for a shake-down sail today. The wind was blowing about 10 knots when we began and about 25 knots when we brought her back to the dock about two hours later. We raised the three sails and achieved almost 8 knots. Docking after the wind picked up proved challenging. Using the “stern upwind rule”, we had to back the boat into the slip.
The halyards are cable spliced onto rope. The cables of the staysail and mainsail halyards were too long to allow the sails to be raised completely because the winches were not designed for wire. Today I shorted each by a couple of feet (as I did previously for the jib halyard), so all the sails are operational.
