Handling Warps of a Different Sort....

.....or, what to do if the boatyard 'forget' to install the main halyard before stepping the mast. Do as the Beau did:-




1. Buy a safety harness
2. Ascertain that girlfriend (=me), henceforth known as First Mate (FM) is available as winch woman
3. Hire some ladders (mast has no steps) Wait for tide to ebb so bilge keels settle in mud and boat will be still.
4. Manoeuvre ladders onto deck with FM; lash to anchor post and shrouds
5. Make and drink tea
6. Don harness, attach safety line (the Genoa halyard), climb up ladder while FM winches you up
7. FM ties off safety line, Cap'n lashes ladder to mast
8. FM releases safety line and pays out while Cap'n climbs down ladder
9. Cap'n ties new main halyard to harness
10. Climb ladder while FM winches you up
11. FM ties off safety line; Cap'n hauls up new halyard and feeds it through the thingy at the top of the mast**
12. Repeat step 8
13. Secure new halyard to piece of chain and stow in the lazy jacks
14. Repeat step 10; undo lashing at top of ladder
15. Repeat step 8
16. Make and drink tea and eat teacake
17. Remove lashing at bottom ladder, Cap'n and FM carry ladders onto pontoon then back to hire place.
18. FM moves car which is in 2hr only spot.
19. Make and drink tea.
20. FM makes whipped, thimbled eye splice in the new halyard (her first eye splice in nylon rope, and first with a thimble, and all after a year's gap since last one)
21. Congratulations all round.

Now for the rest of my Studio Day!

**technical term temporarily escapes me

Location:Emsworth