Today was about the finer points in life. The RG650 got the finishing touches of the major overhaul last night and today. Wires internally were finally all together and put in their final positions, I overhauled my climbing harness and self ascending gear, and put some stickers on the boat.
The rig was tuned and I climbed the mast to check all the fittings and ensure there was no wear on the spreaders once they were tightened up and in place. In solo racing there is nobody onboard to sweat you up the rig, so it was a good chance to test out my self ascending gear and ensure that the modifications I made the night before were correct. Some modifications have been made to the tune of the rig for the Transat as the conditions will be much different than the coastal qualification races. It will be interesting to test these modifications and compare my speed with previous data.
Tactical data was entered into my instruments last night and I will head out tomorrow morning for a quick sea trial and to do some calibration before sailing to Dz. I will also need to calibrate my new raymarine auto pilot as the gyro compass is currently about 160 degrees off true!
One quick check before conducting my NKE initialisation today found a major problem. The pilot pin in the tiller that I built only a few days ago was 1mm out. This may not seem much, but it was enough to stop the pin from entering the tiller connecting it to the pilot. I was expecting this to be a hard fix, and since I have already sent my old tiller to Dz, I had no option but to press out the pin attachment, file and re-epoxy it in. Thankfully it all went to plan, and I will make the finishing touches to the pin tomorrow before seatirals.
We are in Transat mode now, so at the end of every day the boat is thoroughly cleaned inside and out, to try to remove every speck of dust and dirt before the transat, after all not only is the boat more hygienic, but dirt and dust = weight, and racing is all about weight in the right spots!
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Thankyou to: http://www.profurl.com, http://www.harken.com, http://www.yachtmoving.es, http://www.equipyacht.com, http://www.zhik.com, http://www.rg650europe.com, http://www.boatbooks-aust.com.au All donations and sponsorship greeatly appreciated.