It has been a long time since I’d been up the mast. Australia was the last place. Needless to say, I was a wee bit anxious. So I strapped on a Riggers Harness and the boson’s chair. The harness didn’t seem quite right. W/ and I have forgotten the exact procedure. But; in the end, we were sure I couldn’t fall out of it. Just in case the worst happened.
Long time readers will know that a few years back we bought a Milwaukee Angle drill and a Winch bit. We purchased a powered one – not a battery one. Previous cruisers that had the battery drill reported that they always needed to charge it whenever they needed it. With the cord and our inverter, we would have plenty of power; always. With W/ at the base she could send me up the mast like in an elevator. She needed to be aware of not overheating the drill and not squishing me in any of the rigging.
She would raise me 5 m or so and I would check rigging. Let the drill cool off a bit. Next floor on the elevator and repeat. The first task was to remove the bail for the Drifter / Reacher / Spinnaker. I had the impact driver with me and a few different sizes of Phillips bits. There were 4 bolts screwed into the mast head. Remove that with the block and line, and return everything safely to land. We were looking for a soft landing; for me and the hardware.
With the fitting in hand I began to contemplate the attachment of the wind instrument. The bail at the masthead had 4 holes and the instrument had 3. None of the holes meshed. I didn’t relish the idea trying to drilling and tapping more holes in the masthead. Truly I would need to be hanging in space above the masthead to drill them properly. The bosons chair supports me to the mast head, not above it! Thus drilling more holes in the mast head was a non starter.
I came up with the idea of adding a starboard piece to the fitting. A reverse shim. I could mount it on top of the bail and then I would have a place to attach the new wind instrument. Bolts through the shim would hold the bail in place and I would then attach the anemometer to the starboard. I just hope it works.
We had purchased the anemometer almost a year ago anticipating an easy add on. LOL. I know: projects do not happen fast on Elysium. But; eventually they do happen.
This is a wireless instrument for the Raymarine MicroNet system. One of the best systems in my experience for a sailboat. The original info is here. Wireless. No holes in the boat, minimal wire runs; none to the anemometer and none to the display. The display being moveable; we can ensure no matter where we sit we can easily see the results.
We checked the anemometer before I even pulled the bail from the masthead. Connected it to the Micronet base unit. Whew, I was worried about that connection. The system setup design while functional is not user friendly. But; somehow we did get it connected. Next I mounted the unit on a block of wood and set it out in the Sun to continue to charge. It is solar. All was working good. Finally, I cut a piece of starboard the right size and fitted it to the bracket. There I discovered that if I attached the bracket I could NOT screw the starboard and fitting back on the masthead. I countersunk three of the holes and recut some of the bolts so they wouldn’t extend into the masthead and foul or chafe a halyard. Nothing is easy with any boat project.
I needed to do a couple of things, counter sink the screws in the starboard and attach the wind mount lightly so I could rotate it and reinstall the bail.
With the halyard tied to the bosuns chair, screw drivers, bracket, starboard shim, base, anemometer, and arm to the anemometer, W/ again sent me up in the elevator.
The bosuns chair has pockets but I didn’t want to break the cups that spin with the wind so I gingerly held on to it while ascending. I used my feet and free arm to avoid getting stuck in the shrouds and halyards that were attached to the mast. At the top I carefully laid out the cups on the anemometer with the wind cups so it couldn’t fall. I needed two hands to secure the bracket and shim. Carefully I put the bracket with shim on the masthead and installed one screw. Whew! All good now, it cannot fall. And W/ was as usual expected to stay away from being directly under me. Dropping any tool from that height could be deadly. A screw driver traveling at 50 km/ hour would make a mark. Bruce and Brig on Wanda loaned us a two way head set to communicate. I would have preferred to yell but W/ liked the idea of talking normal back and forth.
With one screw in I set about adding the others. All fit; Whoopee! After I snugged those four down I rotated the base of the anemometer. I had already predrilled the holes so I needed now to add the last two screws. Once they were in and set I added the extension and the anemometer. Bingo. Only a year and some later, after purchase we now have windspeed on the boat. Really, we’ve been without this for close to twenty years now anyway. But with the Indian ocean ahead and variable weather all around we felt it would be a good addition.
Wendy belayed me down the mast and we cleaned up. There is always cleanup to do. Putting tools and gear way.
The final check awaited, turn on the wind / depth base; turn on the Micronet display.
OMG… everything works. Oh happy day.
Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long