Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. We literally just watched the Winter Olympics bobsled competition the other night, and cheered on the Jamaican bobseld team, because really, who doesn’t absolutely love the movie Cool Runnings?
For us though, it feels like we just won gold in the bob-“STAY” competition, having recently removed our bobstay to send it over to Miami for a little fixing/replacing.
^^so pretty, she should win something!^^
On our boat, there are eight stainless steel wires (stays and shrouds) that hold up the mast, and the bobstay is a portion of the one wire at the bow of the boat. Ours is a Navtec stainless steel rod bobstay. During our marine survey back in April, we had our mast and rigging inspected by SSMR, a Tampa Bay area yacht rigging company. It was recommended that we replace the cracked lower jaw fitting on the bobstay. The “crack” was literally the smallest, finest, hairline looking feature on the jaw fitting. Only someone who knows what these cracks look like would have noticed it. It took Jereme a good several minutes to even locate the crack when we began working on this project. But now that we know what to look for, we will be able to find any in the future.
Regardless of its size, we certainly understand the need to address even the smallest of issues like this, so this item made the project list early on since we knew we would need to get it fixed before setting sail for the long-term.
About two weeks ago, Jereme and I (mostly Jer) removed the bobstay. We lowered down our trusty dinghy, and sent Jer in to do the dirty work of fanagling that thing apart. I was present for primarily moral support and photo taking, while running below deck only a few times for a few extra tools.
The next day, I shipped our bobstay over to Sailing Services in Miami, who was able to order a replacement jaw fitting and switch out the old part for the new one. (FYI, it took Jereme about 10 calls/referrals to even find a place that could do this work.)
After we received the spruced up new bobstay back late last week, Jereme reattached it all by himself (while I was at work). How awesome is he? 🙂
^^that super shiny piece at the bottom is the new jaw fitting.^^
You know the drill, let’s cross another one off the project list! Ahhhhhhh SO super close. 🙂
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