Engine shenanigans

Anyone for boat yoga? Motor maintenance inevitably means some contortionism...

- Marsali Taylor

Early summer was a bit of a non-event for Karima and I. We'd got the mast up in late April, but between one thing and another, it took a fortnight to get everything set up.

The forestay caused bother, because I realised that in the stress of crane/boat interaction, I'd set it up wrong, with both prongs of the forestay wire on one side of the foot attachment. I sat for a few moments looking at it in dismay. The only way I could see of fixing it was to loosen the backstay right off, attach both jib and spinnaker halyard to the pulpit, winched as tight as I could manage, and take it off to reattach properly.

It was a teeth-gritting moment. The forestay was still pretty tight. Once I'd got it off, I couldn't haul it enough to get the bolt back through the same hole; it had to go in the top hole, giving an extra two inches of backward lean to the mast. However, when I did the halyard test, the rake seemed to be the usual 6in for Karima's 9m mast-height. After that, I got going with sails and electrics, and at last, on 16 May, I managed a sail, to the end of the voe and back with one reef in. It felt wonderful to be out forging through the waves but it wasn't exactly the restful shakedown I'd hoped for.