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In other news, Tropical Cyclone Pam is on her way. This should be fun...

Let's Go Sailing! Starboard Tack Only...

We dropped the spreader down this weekend (not quite as easy as it sounds) and had a look at the fracture. Lucky for me noted New Zealand boat builder Alan Young is on our pier, and he came and checked it out for me and gave his advice.

Fracture at base end of spreader.

Underside. Fracture did not pass all the way through except at the base.

I bored down the length of the fracture and checked the wood removed, which was all dry and sound, so no issues with rot. The fracture is fresh - I think I know when it happened, more on that later. I then pumped the bore line full of an expanding polyurethane adhesive and then pressed a dowel into it. The adhesive then expanded and spread right through the length of the fracture until it was oozing outside.

Boring down through the length of the fracture.

Adhesive expanding out through the fracture. The bore line was pressed with a hardwood dowel.

 Once the adhesive had set hard I then drilled at right-angles to the fracture and inserted some heavy bronze screws to lock everything tight and provide a strong resistance to any future shearing loads.

Positioning of fasteners.

Fasteners fitted.

Dowelled, glued, screwed, and an epoxy sealer coat applied over the top of the fracture lines.

I've now sanded everything up and will be applying some paint this week, and hopefully have everything back together next weekend,

I'm pretty sure the fracture happened when we were sailing down the Coromandel from Great Barrier Island over the new year period. We were hard on the wind in 25 knots, and let's say I was rather "aggresive" on the backstay tension. We were pointing really well though...

I've gone right over everything else and there does not seem to been any other issues with the rig. Should be all good from here, and yes, I have eased off on the backstay...