Winch and Rigging

This morning, armed with spares ordered from Australia, Arnold and I assembled the port jib winch which had been giving us so much trouble. I told Arnold that the job would take one hour. The job took closer to four hours. Pachuca's six Maxwell winches, with the new regime of frequent regular maintenance and the ample spares on hand, should see us through the end of the circumnavigation and beyond.

Yesterday Ron Uryga made the repairs to the Profurl furler. The two screws holding up the extrusions were replaced with four new ones, which involved drilling and tapping. He explained why the original screws kept falling out, bending, and stripping their threads and says that he has corrected the problem.

Ron also went over the entire Raymarine ST60 wind direction problem with us. He went up the mast and attempted to calibrate the unit then moved the wind vane to various positions while we called out the readings below. He validated all of the work that Arnold and I had done and concluded that the unit was faulty and should be replaced. Ron, by the way, has had extensive experience with Raymarine equipment. He commissions all of the Beneteaus that arrive in Honolulu, and they are equipped with Raymarine instruments. On the basis of these findings I have sent an email to Raymarine diplomatically asking them to resolve the problem, like SOON. I may publish that message later.

Arnold and I plan to take a day off and board the No. 42 bus to visit Pearl Harbor tomorrow.