Hi all,
Finally ended up going up the mast today just before sundown with both the spinnaker and main fractionally up when climbing…to be honest I was at the limit of my strengths as there was a lot of swell but I still managed to get up to the first reef to note that the piece of plastic in the mainsail car had basically become unstuck and that the car itself was not damaged and no screws were missing, which is what I had imagined…simply the piece that I had already changed in the Canaries was faulty.
The piece of plastic that goes into the car and which provides the friction when going up the track was missing when I lowered the main yesterday…so they were touching. You had the aluminium from the car against the aluminium on the track. What happens is that the piece of plastic in the car that I had in was not working well with the piece that was in the car I changed in the Canaries…I had to make a kind of invention and change the parts in the car to that which I had changed…anyway I had to cut a pin with a radial and make an invention that I hope will hold as I have no more parts…
Now funnily I have raised the car that I changed in the Canaries with the titanium fixtures of the one I had previously… Well anyway, as long as it all holds we are at 100%. The piece is held in better in this car.
Just like it happened in the Canaries, this repair has not only made me loose repair time but also completely left my out of sync with the racing…I would have intended on being a lot further south but had to go up to find better weather, which I found, but now am stuck in Little wind and everyone is racing flat out ahead and behind in 17 and 18 knots… This situation is quite frustrating in the end, but at least I am heading in the right direction and will start racing fast again…
Bye,
Bubi.
