LED lights and Cockpit project imminent!

[Eddie Offermann]

Got the rest of my supplies for the color-changing LED strips. I built a few 12v regulators for them last weekend - while the LEDs themselves can handle some variation in voltage, but I'm concerned that spikes could damage the electronic controller/IR receiver. I repackaged the controllers inside of larger project boxes and added a 12v regulator chip (L78S12CV) which does a nice job of stabilizing the voltage.

Hoping to do the interior before the weekend so I can focus on the cockpit. "Cleaning up" some epoxy patches I've done and getting it ready for the new hatches. Time permitting, might start the new seat boxes, but mostly intending to prep the cockpit and start painting areas not affected by the remodel.

Also planning to climb the mizzen this weekend. I have an "extra" steel rope with a turnbuckle and shackles on it that I suspect is the running backstay. According to Muff, I should have an eye at the top of that mast for it to attach to - and if I do, it's going on!

[Eddie Offermann]

Thanks, Clyde! That's good to know. I had been perplexed as to why someone would use a single backstay that would be complicated to pass over when tacking - so that means I'm fairly sure that what I have isn't the original design if it's meant to be a backstay at all. 35ft seems about right though - either way, I like your description better.

I'm planning to take a camera aloft to document whatever is currently up there. I'd expect the situation up top is probably pretty "traditional" - it doesn't look like prior owners have done away with anything and from what I can tell, this boat had maxed-out options when built. I'd like to get the mizzen backstay situation straightened out this weekend, so I'll get help taking some measurements and probably have a new one made. Will let you know if I run into any snags!

Thanks for all your help, Clyde - the drawings on your site are an incredibly valuable resource for us all.

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Eddie,

The running back stays as I made them are a two in one situation: one wire with a rope thimble nicopressed at the center, making two backstays.  This is hung in the after fork on the mast head fitting, doubled up with and below the mizzen boom lift.  Click here for a drawing for the whole setup.  If this doesn't help let me know what you have and maybe I can help. 

Note that just because that's the way I made them doesn't mean that some one else couldn't make a single backstay setup.  But a single mizzen back stay wouldn't work well because it would have to be passed to the other side of the sail on each tack.  Each leg of the backstay is about 35 feet.  If your suspected backstay is much different I would question its use as a mizzen backstay.