Oct. 11, 2005 - planning tweaks

Been thinking about a few tweaks to make Maggie a bit easier to sail shorthanded, and with an inexperenced crew....

Firstly, going to modify the current traditional slab reefing by making it two line reefing, eg a line to the tack and a line to the clew, and then run both lines together through a clutch to enable the equivalent of single line reefing without having to resort to additional pulleys etc.... a second pair of lines will complete the 2nd reef, and then manual swap over for reef 3

Secondly, I am going to add a couple of seats into the cockpit, nothing flash, just a shaped piece of timber with supports fitted to the existing cockpit sides, and removable.... given her background as a racer, there aren't cockpit seats in the traditional sense, rather very wide decks that extend all the way back.... so a couple of seats are easily added.... there is room.....

Thirdly, I am going to bolt a shaped piece of timber onto the end of the coachroof to deflect waves that run back along the side decks and make the cockpit a bit drier.

Last but not least, I am going to re-locate two of the winches, so that there is more seating room generally.....

I still haven't quite finished the forepeak, having trim to fit still in order to hide a couple of rough edges, and cushions to make for them. At the same time, I will re-cover all the cushions...

Good list of winter tasks me thinks! Some will happen while Maggie is still in the water, as we are only planning 4 weeks ashore to get a few jobs like renewing anodes, antifouling and having a good poke around the shaft seal....