Posted by GregSeaHawk on
URL: https://forum.seahawk17.org.uk/Examples-of-rigging-tp4024032p4024033.html

Hi Perry,

Perry wrote

Can anyone help me with either diagrams or example pictures of rigging? I have a late reedcraft/early moores seahawk, and the rigging that was on the boat when I got it didn't look quite right.

My best guess is that Piccolo is an early Reedcraft boat. Although she is fitted with Moore's style jib winches, they would seem to be a retro-fit to go with the furling genoa now has. Apart from Reedcraft-type cockpit lockers, admitted now known to have been fitted to the first few Moore's boats, she has the original Reedcraft jamb cleats on the cabin and the lower style cockpit guard rails. These two factors suggest she would have been a Reedcraft boat with a sail number below around #240, but to your question...

I am replacing bottlescrews with dyneema for the shrouds

First, have you checked out the rigging page at:

https://www.seahawk17.org.uk/boat-description-rigging.php

Reading through it I realise that it is short on photos and information on forestay arrangements, but does show accurately how Reedcraft shrouds would have been fitted. Indeed the photograph of the shrouds shows the Dyneema cord tied by the very Jeckells employee who claims to have rigged almost every SeaHawk ever produced! My own view would be stick to the original sail plan, use stainless shrouds and forestay, and only use landyard to secure them to the chain plates.

my forestay is all wrong. It's a halyard going to a fixing at the top of the pulpit, and a roller reefing drum going down to the forestay anchor point, and a bit of a mess of what looks like meccano holding it together

That is a home-brewed arrangement. I'm not familiar with the detail of the standard arrangement for the furling genoa, and the best photo I have of one is not ideal for this purpose as it shows a Moore's boat with a much smaller genoa than the one most commonly seen...


In this case it appears that the forestay is secured to the furling drum and both, together with the strop that is fastened to the sail, are all rotated together.

I believe that that the larger genoa that is the norm is it attached direct to the furling drum and also suspect that the forestay is dispensed with altogether. It would be good to have confirmation of this from someone with a Moore's built boat with genoa.

Unfortunately, neither do I have a good photo of the standard Reedcraft arrangement for a simple hanked on jib.


In the photo above the boat has a forestay that is shorter than standard, by some nine inches, and the boat is half way through a conversion to a block and tackle arrangement to ease lowering of the mast. In the standard configuration, a lanyard would secure the forestay to the shackle seen here, while the strop from the tack is shackled to the the empty hole seen further aft.

Any suggestions or pictures would be reall useful. I am also wondering if I could replace all the shrouds and stays with dyneema and get rid of the steel wires altogether.

As mentioned above, I'd stick with stainless steel, but then I replaced the ill-fitting bottlescrews found on my boat when purchased, and deliberately "restored" it, to use the original rigging techniques.

Oh yes, and I need to re-rivet the spreaders etc, cos they are all loose.

I'm assuming that you have the standard mast for your vintage of boat. In that case... Don't! Unless you refer only to the fittings that attach them to the mast. The spreaders are deliberately left loose and fitted to the brackets on the mast only with split pins.

When I had the standing rigging replaced by that Jeckells rigger, he was entirely happy with the way the arms moved about in the brackets fitted to the mast. However, when I pointed out that the end caps on the spreader arms were "welded" to the arms themselves, because of corrosion between the two metals used, he advised me not to bother try to "unweld" them. He even suggested that I snap off and file away the now redundant split pins that we supposed to keep them in place, as there was a risk of their sharp ends fraying the sail fabric.