Sailing Adventures of s/v Talos IV: Mastless in Seattle

The long awaited re-rig is now complete and Talos IV is a sailboat once again. All that remains of the work is to fine tune the rigging. This should be completed in the next few days or so.

The process was quite interesting. In brief, we motored down to the yard the night before, as we were scheduled to have the mast pulled first thing in the morning. We needed to raft up next to a large aluminum fishing trawler, as there was no space on the wall at the yard, but the captain on board was very accommodating.

The following morning we pulled into the slip, loosened the rigging, attached the lines from the crane and with a flip of the switch Talos IV became a motor vessel as the mast was gently lifted up and off. In keeping with sailing lore, we found a dollar coin nestled underneath the mast. So as not to break with tradition and the good fortune bestowed on Talos IV and her crew to date, we will leave the coin where it is when the mast is re-stepped. The crane operator maneuvered the mast off to the side and laid it down on stands ready for the work to be completed. The plan was to have it re-stepped in about 5 days.

As I motored back to our slip, it was a very strange feeling to be out on the boat without the mast. In fact, as I approached the Fremont Bridge I was frantically searching for the air horn so that I could have the bridge tender lift the span for my passage, when it hit me that I didn't have to worry about that. What a powerful feeling that was.

A quick survey of the mast revealed no surprises, but we would have a busy week getting all the work done. The first few days were spent sanding and repainting a few spots where some minor corrosion was found, followed by a complete wash and wax of the entire mast. That work completed, we moved on to mounting new cam cleats for all of the halyards and drilling holes in the mast so that we could run all of the halyards internal. Fishing the lines down through the mast without twisting them all up and ensuring that they didn't make weird wraps around various things inside the mast proved to be a real challenge, but in the end all worked out. What a difference this will make in the ease of sailing the boat. We also added two new halyards, one running aft for our storm try sail and an extra spinnaker halyard running forward. And finally, the new standing rigging was attached and the mast was ready to be re-stepped.

The re-stepping went well in spite of a brisk breeze that sprung up at the precise moment that the crane operator was lifting the mast. Once back on the boat, we attached the rigging and Talos IV was once again a sail boat. I made sure I had the air horn close by, as I was definitely going to have to lift the bridge span to get Talos IV back to her slip.