by Malcolm Sadler » Thu Sep 13, 2018 12:52 am
Very sorry to hear of the burglary Jack. I hope Merlin was not damaged in the course of it.
I looked at Simon’s system and liked the principle but could not start to get all the SS parts and have them welded. So I have made a new mast bolt with an eye nut on each end and made a wooden version of Simon’s system with bits of broomstick / dowel at the required spacing screwed to a piece of 40mmx40mm decking rail. The other end has an eye bolt on the faces of the pole which face up, and down, the mast. The genoa hallyard is tied off at the gooseneck and the other end goes to one of the eyes on the pole. There is a thin dyneema line in a five fold loop permanantly threaded through the forestay deck anchoring point
I have a very long 8mm rope and a 6:1 block system which fits between the dyneema loop and the lower eye on the pole. So long as the pole is at 90 degrees to the mast, it is kept in place in the eye nuts on the mast bolt by the tension on the rope and genoa hallyard. Paul Turner adds extra security by bolting his pole to the tabernacle with the mast bolt with steel pieces which go down the sides of the tabernacle so stopping the pole falling over “sideways”.
Sorry for all the words but I don’t have a picture. Someone - please come forward - took photos when we were derigging after the 2016 Rally at Chichester Marina.
An improvement would be guy ropes - a sort of rope A frame - such as Dennis uses with his system. This would prevent sideways collapse of the pole in, say, a strong sidewind.
The system I describe can of course be used afloat as it does not involve the trailer winch. This is important on, for instance, the Norfolk Broads with many bridges.
I say again, the concept is Simon’s, and I am grateful to him for his description. My adaptation was probabaly cheaper - about £30 plus the cost of about 25m of basic rope
Cheers
Malcolm