Technical

Mainsail rigging

rick.jones's picture

These are photos of my mainsail rigging on my Mac 19. It includes the following features:

* A mast gate for inserting the sail slugs.
* Turning blocks with cam cleats at the mast base.
* A continuous loop halyard, enabling the sail to be hauled down.

I made the mast gate by first cutting and drilling the aluminium plate, then drilling and tapping the mast to match. After that I cut the piece out of the mast with a Dremel cutting disc (with a piece of cord tied through the hole so as not to loose it!). This piece was then screwed permanently to the plate.

MOB+ Wireless Kill Switch

rick.jones's picture

I've recently invested in a wireless kill switch, it's a Scandinavian-made device called MOB+.

The receiver unit is wired into the kill switch, and you keep a wireless fob on your person. If you fall in, the receiver kills the engine. This gives the protection of a kill cord without needing to be physically attached. You can also manually stop the engine by pressing a button on the fob, which is handy when mooring up.

Low cost trailer brake flushing

rick.jones's picture

It's really worthwhile installing a brake flushing system on your trailer, so the brake drums can be flushed with fresh water after being dunked in the briny. Kits are readily available but somewhat pricey. The most widely used is supplied by Al-Ko, who are not noted for budget prices. Their single axle kit is over £40, and the tandem one about £50 (more from some retailers).

Rudder Alignment Mod

mike.floutier's picture

The rudder alignment on my 2009M was quite severely toe-out. I needed to shorten the effective length of the long rudder tracking tie-bar. I did this by drilling out extra 10mm holes in the tie-bar. Because of the geometry involved a 1" change in tie-bar length only make a slight change to rudder position. Sorry about the focus, it was dark:)

I'll now try the same with the OBM link and post pics when done

Adding fixed solar panels to a Mac

rick.jones's picture

Here are some photos documenting my project to fit solar panels to my Mac 19

In the past I've used a small portable solar panel to keep the batteries from self-discharging when the boat wasn't in use, but it was always a pain to remember to fix it on deck somewhere and plug the cable in etc. I liked the idea of a larger fixed panel, but the problem on a small boat is where to fit one.

Centre jackline for 26X

rick.jones's picture

These photos show a centre-mounted jackline that I rigged on my previous 26X.

It depended on being able to lock the hatch in the closed position while sailing, so I installed two eye bolts at the side. These were fixed together with a clip shackle when sailing, and also secured with a padlock when leaving the boat.

The eye at the base of the console was backed with a steel angle bracket bolted through the cockpit floor inside the console. I don't think the console itself is strong enough for the potential loads.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Technical