Today we went over to T/A Sails to continue our work with Erik. When we arrived around eleven (we were especially slow to rise this morning), we immediately went to work on our sails. The first thing we decided to do was remove the hasps from our two genoas. The hasps had become so corroded from nautical life that many of them refused to open entirely. So, we plucked those off and threw them in a bucket of white vinegar to let the acetic acid do its work. As soon as we threw them in, little bubblies started forming across each verdigris hasp, proving the acid's worth. Now that the hasps had been removed, we could get to work on the grommets.
Grommets are the metal inserts into the sails that provide chafe protection from the hasps. Without these, the sail would readily rip itself to shreds when put under load. The problem with our grommets was their thick coating of copper chloride. We wouldn't be able to simply soak these in vinegar and hope they'd retain their structural value. They would have to be replaced. It wasn't too tough a procedure though. With our no. 3 genoa, it was only a matter of cutting the washer side, peeling off the metal edge and then prying out the rest of the grommet from the other side. But with our no. 2, a different path was necessary. Corrosion had diminished these grommets so much that any attempt to cut them resulted in a dispersal of brass dust. My expert hand was called upon this new task: render these grommets into dust and sweep up the resulting mess. After much of the useless hardware had been removed from these foresails, we began the mending process.
One of our genoas had been blown out at a grommet near the clew and had a truly wimpy repair job done with a thin piece of line. Erik quickly mended this area with an eighth of an inch piece of webbing carefully sewn into place. He also showed us how to put new grommets in and made this my task. It involves the used of a mallet, which is my specialty. We are learning so much about sail repair from Erik that will surely prove itself useful in our voyage. But there is still much work to be done on both our sails and his. We will continue our work sails Monday, but this time bright and early I suspect.
Grommets are the metal inserts into the sails that provide chafe protection from the hasps. Without these, the sail would readily rip itself to shreds when put under load. The problem with our grommets was their thick coating of copper chloride. We wouldn't be able to simply soak these in vinegar and hope they'd retain their structural value. They would have to be replaced. It wasn't too tough a procedure though. With our no. 3 genoa, it was only a matter of cutting the washer side, peeling off the metal edge and then prying out the rest of the grommet from the other side. But with our no. 2, a different path was necessary. Corrosion had diminished these grommets so much that any attempt to cut them resulted in a dispersal of brass dust. My expert hand was called upon this new task: render these grommets into dust and sweep up the resulting mess. After much of the useless hardware had been removed from these foresails, we began the mending process.
One of our genoas had been blown out at a grommet near the clew and had a truly wimpy repair job done with a thin piece of line. Erik quickly mended this area with an eighth of an inch piece of webbing carefully sewn into place. He also showed us how to put new grommets in and made this my task. It involves the used of a mallet, which is my specialty. We are learning so much about sail repair from Erik that will surely prove itself useful in our voyage. But there is still much work to be done on both our sails and his. We will continue our work sails Monday, but this time bright and early I suspect.
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