Rigging the mast

August 20, 2011
I've been putting off attaching the hardware to the mast; partly because I've been having fun with the dory and partly because I've been worried about screwing it up.  I've read through the manual several times, but here is where having some knowledge of sailing would have been really helpful.  The manual has detailed images, it doesn't really give the whole picture of rigging a sailboat for a rookie like me. 

The boom needed a 1/4 inch hole at its far end.  This was an easy one but I wasn't sure how close to the end I should be.  Since I haven't rigged a sailboat, I don't even know what the hole will be used for, but I just winged it and drilled the whole and then used a countersinking bit to relieve the edges.  The trickier hole was drilling in the mast end of the boom for the gooseneck pin.  The manual said to drill a 3/8" hole but the pin was 1/2" thick.  So I drilled a half inch hole.  It's the first time I found an error in the manual.   Fortunately, my old drill had a bubble level built into it to help me keep the hole straight.

Attaching the gooseneck pin to the mast was easy, and the manual was quite specific: center it 21-1/2" from the bottom of the mast.

Attaching an eyestrap centered 119" from the bottom of the mast seems like it should be simple, but since I didn't know the nautical terms, it took me awhile to figure it out.  Three shrouds and the "jib halyard block" needed to go through the eyestrap. The shrouds were wires that were pre-made by CLC.  Two of them had to go around the mast awhile the third one just went through the eyestrap.  I had a vague understanding that the shrouds would keep the mast in place and would need to go in different directions.  Hopefully, I've installed them in the right place.  When I first attempted in install it, I wasn't sure what the block was and didn't realize that it needed to be in place before putting the nuts on the bolts.  After looking at the parts I had left and looking closely at the picture in the manual again, I realized that the "block" was a pulley that had to be in place before bolting the eyestrap down. 

The mast eyestrap is in place with the three shrouds and the jib halyard block.

Attaching the cleats was an easy one except that the cleats came with the kit but the screws didn't. After a trip to town to get screws, I was all set.  They get screwed down with #8 x 1-1/4"  screws about 10" from the bottom of the mast.

One cleat is on the front face of the mast and the other is on the port side.

Eyestraps for the shrouds needed to be bolted to the forward bulkhead.

To anchor the shrouds to the dory, I needed to attach eyestraps to  the #1 bulkhead.  They are bolted through the bulkhead.  To protect the plywood, I dipped the bolts in silicon caulk before putting them through the holes.

Since I was working on eyestraps, I put in the ones for the "bridle" into the rail 28 inches from the stern of the boat.  The bridle is a line that spans the stern of the dory to hold a block for the main sail, or the "mainsheet" as sailors evidently say.  I put silicon caulking on the screws before putting them in.

Here is the finished installation of the stern eyestraps on the rail.