I’m quickly learning nothing on a boat is as simple as it seems and nothing goes exactly as planned. The most recent lesson came in the form of tensioning the rig after the compression post was rebuilt. All was going well until I attempted to tighten the backstay…
I like taking the hands-on approach when learning, but maybe not so much when it comes to galling. The Navtec turnbuckle threads had galled and the body and bottom stud was completely unusable, so I pulled it off the boat and headed off to Fishery Supplies with the intent of replacing them. I know boat stuff is expensive, but the near $300 quote I got was insane (what’s so special with these Navtec turnbuckles anyway?) and that was just the turnbuckle! I’ve been listening to Andy Snell’s 59 degrees North podcasts recently and he discusses the advantages of textile rigging, so I asked the sales staff at Fishery Supplies what my options were if I replaced the backstay adjuster with Amsteel. To my surprise, I was able to piece together a system for under $250 that was stronger, simpler, replaced everything, and gave me more purchase.
The plan was to terminate the existing backstay with a Hayne Hi-Mod fitting where I could attach a high load block. Then I would have a piece of Amsteel spliced that would terminate on one of the two backstay chain plates, pass through the block and terminate on a 4:1 fiddle block and tackle that would attach to the other chain plate. This would replace the old backstay bridle, the frozen turnbuckle, and the adjuster plus give me an 8:1 purchase. Everything was looking up, so I gave them the green light, paid, and waited a week for them to give me a call when the splicing was done.
When I picked up the piece of Amsteel, I was a little disappointed in what I saw. I looked good, but it also looked extremely simple and I was kicking myself for paying $30 and waiting a week for it. I also noticed how much thicker the burry was from the rest of the piece. After installing the Hi-Mod fitting and block to the end of the back stay, I started wondering if it was going to fit together. Sure enough, when I ran the piece of Amsteel through the block, the burry wouldn’t fit. The original plan was to have the eye of the Amsteel extend past the block by 8”, however the burry on ¼ Amsteel is much longer than 8” and you lose some length with a buried splice. Back to the drawing board.
I wasn’t excited about the prospect of driving back down to Seattle twice, paying another $30 + the cost of the Amsteel, and waiting another week so I walked over to West Marine bought a set of fids, some whipping twine, a low friction ring, and some more Amsteel. 1 hour later I had a 16:1 system with a cool looking cascade and a new found love for splicing!
I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, but there’s always room for improvement. I quickly realized running the other end of the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] cascade to the opposite chain plate put the backstay off center, but running it to the same chain plate caused chafe with the fiddle block. That was easily remedied with a backstay triangle plate to separate the fiddle block from the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] cascade. I would also like to add a preventer between the fiddle blocks to ensure there’s always tension on the back stay and if I had to do if over, I would probably splice thimbles into the loops to protect against chafe.