Page 341 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

Problem: The 45-foot triple-spreader racing sloop Switch rigging pieces?
Pendragon was en route to San Francisco, nine days On a more moderate rig, it would be conceivable
out of Honolulu, when the starboard D-2 shroud in moderate weather to take a shroud from the port
broke at its upper terminal. The vessel was close- side and install it temporarily on the starboard side.
hauled on the starboard tack in 10 knots of wind, But this rig was so fragile that the crew couldn’t even
and the suddenly unsupported section of mast bent lower the mainsail lest the boat’s rolling break the
sharply, obviously close to breaking, until the crew mast; they had to stay on port tack, and so couldn’t
got over onto port tack. The situation wasn’t dan- remove a rigging piece from the port side.
gerous, at least not immediately, but California was It was as though circumstances had conspired
too far to go under engine alone, and part of the with rig design to produce the least repairable prob-
course would have to be sailed with the injured star- lem possible. An innovative solution was called for.
board side to windward. The crew had to come up Figure 9-2 shows the fix that the crew came up
with some form of jury rig. with: a spinnaker pole as spreader, quadrupled hal-
yard above and winched-tight fore and afterguys
Response: One can imagine them going through a below, with a spare halyard, assorted blocks, lash-
checklist of possible remedies: ings, eyes, and no fewer than five winches called
Repair the shroud? into play before it seemed safe to put the starboard
No, it was rod rigging, which is extraordinarily side back to work. The makeshift rig had some
difficult to jury-rig. Replace it with a spare? elasticity and its components were heavily strained,
No spares aboard. Because rod terminals can- but everything held together. Pendragon was able
not be fabricated aboard ship, the usual practice of to make San Francisco in good time (2,600 miles in
carrying a spare length at least as long as the lon- 16 days, with seven days under jury rig, and three
gest piece in the rig would have been no use; rod of those days in fresh winds on starboard tack).
failure insurance means carrying a complete side of Upon first reading an account of this repair in
shrouds plus spare stays. This would mean a heavy, the February 1983 issue of Sail magazine, I was
6-foot-diameter coil of vulnerable, expensive metal impressed with the use of diverse materials in
that would have to find a safe home somewhere unlikely combination to mimic a shroud. The con-
aboard a relatively small boat. Carrying a spare figuration was of a different order entirely than,
piece of Spectra, or 7 x 7, or 1 x 19 wire and some say, simply using a halyard to mimic a broken
compatible terminals might be a good idea for some jibstay. I later realized that this configuration was
boats, but this is not usually done because not just not a repair but a piece of extemporaneous design
ends but also spreader fittings are highly specialized superimposed on an unrepairable rig. I do not
with some forms of rod rigging; improvising a reli- know who else was in the crew, but the skipper
able spreader connection could be a major task. Add was Warwick Tompkins, Jr., who races as well as
to this the exaggerated “failsafe” claims of some rig- delivers boats. Tompkins supervised the operation
ging salespeople, and it’s easy to see why this deliv- of Jabba the Hut’s sailing barge during the filming
ery crew found themselves with no spares aboard. of the movie Return of the Jedi, taught millions of
people the mechanical principles of sailing as one
Emergency Bar Clamp of the hosts of Public Broadcasting’s “Under Sail”
series, and, at the age of nine, rounded Cape Horn
Join two C-clamps together with rope or seizing aboard his father’s 95-foot pilot schooner Wander
wire. Attach to the static ends of the clamp. Adjust Bird. He personifies the benefits of wildly diverse
the length to fit the span of the project. The static
pads will not be in contact with the work. Instead experience. A deep, intuitive understanding of rigs
the threaded ends will be facing each other. and rigging is the most valuable component of any
emergency procedure.

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