I’m spending a lot of time on the rig making sure everything is snag free and positioned properly.  For a singlehander, making sure the rig is near perfect is a top priority.  Anything that goes wrong up top becomes a huge problem when you’re out there alone, and it costs many many miles against your competitors.  So I took a long time making the parts today for the rigging terminals. 

They are not perfectly machined by any means, but they are hand made from G-10 and for the most part are smooth where they need to be so the lashings do not chafe.  I’ve got a couple to touch up tomorrow. Each one was roughly sculpted with a dremel tool, then sanded with 100 grit, 220 grit, 320 grit, and finally 400 grit.  I then polished them with a common oil based product known as spf 50 sunscreen.  It’s what I had laying around.  The two right most ones are for the headstay and the baby stay.

The same sanding process took place with the mast.  These holes line up with the lashing plates above, which will be mounted inside the mast tomorrow.

I didn’t use sunscreen on the mast though   That will be clear coated after it’s finished being rigged.

-Ryan Finn