Southern Spars Rigging Refit

The Southern Spars carbon triple spreader mast stands around 21m high. Originally supported by PBO fibre continuous rigging (Smart Rigging) I replaced with Rod rigging. I still maintain some fibre rigging and you can see the lashings that are used in the attached pics. Getting to do a few Brummel splices!

Rod rigging required custom spreader tips for the first 1/2 spreaders. Running backstays/checkstays are set about a metre apart close to centreline so there is a lot going on in the cockpit during manoeuvres!

A Lopo LED Light sits atop the mast with a Raymarine wind transducer and standard wind indicator. There use to be a carbon NKE wind atop the mast but apparently this was the victim of a bridge strike! The Metz Manta 6 VHF radio antenna keeps me connected.

One unique feature I had not seen before was the radar mounting that is adjustable to match the boats heel. Very simply in design; two lines are cleated to lock the radar antenna platform and when the boat heels its pull one line, release the other and cleat home. One improvement will be a couple of 'limit' leashes. This is in case the lines fail or uncleat themselves during sailing so as to not damage the cables if the platform tilts uncontrolled.

Another first for me is the the requirement to use a mast jack to tune the rigging. Having Niels around sure helped as we worked methodically to tune the rig. After adjusting the turnbuckles, pressure is applied using an Enerpac Hydraulic jack with two 38mm diameter jacking rams placed under a large steel rod placed through a hole near the mast heel. When at pressure, an alloy shim slides in between the heel and mast base and is located using two bolts. The jack is slowly released and the mast settles onto the shim. The rig tension is set.