The Jib Halyard I made of 2.5mm 7×19 wire, is 5450mm long and it has a 585mm loop at the end that is closed with a talurit swage crimp. The 8m Halyard Tail is made of 3mm Dyneema. On the opposite end of the Jib Halyard is a T-Ball Terminal for 2.5mm wire.
The two (2) Cap Shrouds are made of 2.5mm 1×19 wire, are 480mm long with a Swage T-Terminal on one end and a Fork-Terminal on the other end. The two (2) Lowers are made of 3mm 7×19 wire with a Swage T-Terminal on one end and a Talurit Hard Eye on the other end. To connect the Uppers to the One String control lines, I made two (2) small sections of 4mm 7×19 wire with Talurit Hard Eyes on both ends to connect the Uppers’ Fork End Terminal to the Single & Becket 25mm Ball Race High Load Block through the Harken 306 thru deck sheave box.
Since this was my first time rigging a sailboat, I relied on West Marine’s retail store tools to help me cut wires properly…
…and crimp the different terminals to the wire lines correctly.
Making the Toe Straps for my Merlin Rocket is where boat building took me to a completely new experience. SEWING! How many of you have a sewing machine as part of your tools? I do have a Singer Sewing Machine now! And it was relatively easy to learn watching YouTube videos online. For the Toe Straps, I used 2-Inch Black Heavy Nylon Webbing and Extra Strong Upholstery Thread for the stitching, paired with Singer’s Heavy Duty Machine Needles, Size 110/18
To attach and secure the Toe Straps to the Sub-Frames I used Stainless Steel Web Plates and through bolts and nuts. I pre-cut or pre-drilled the Toe Straps at the designated web plate locations using the proper size Hollow Core Punch Bit to cut the holes through the straps without twisting the fabric.
Here’s is a photo of the finished Toe Straps after and installation. At this point I am confident I can make other types of straps and webbings for my Merlin Rocket.
The Buoyancy Bags are a pair of Crew Saver Buoyancy Bags, 36″ x 12″ in size, and are cross-strapped to the hull by 2″ wide Nylon Webbing Straps routed under 2″ Allen Webbing Bridges and terminated on Stainless Steel Webbing Plates screwed on the aft space frame. I also stitched 1-1/2 inch Hook & Loop strips at the end to keep the straps tight around the bags before securing the ends to the aft frame.
Here’s another view of the Crew Saver Buoyancy Bags. The bags were fully inflated before I strapped them to the hull.
I also made 3 (three) straps with 2 (two) Stainless Steel D-Rings stitched to each strap as shown in the photo to the left. Two straps are for the main sheet blocks, the other strap is for the Vang block.
Here’s an image of the Harken Swivel Base with H150 Cam-Atic, the hoop blocks, and the main sheet strapped blocks.
The “One String” system is designed to apply optimum tension with “one string” to the shrouds, lowers, mast puller and Jib halyard at different sailing configurations. The intent of this section is to simply describe the “One String” hardware and rigging installed in my Merlin Rocket. Designer Keith Callaghan is behind this brilliant system and should be consulted directly with any inquiries.
This is a view of what the “One String” control system looks like when done. Easy, right? Well, it actually looks a lot worse than what it is. With patience, attention to Keith’s drawings detail, a series of blocks, hardware and a few feet of good quality control lines, you can certainly do it.
A lot of preparation went on to get my Merlin Rocker ready for the “One String” system. This image shows a threaded stainless steel stud drilled through the centerboard case, below the King Posts, with stainless steel end eyes threaded to the stud to hold blocks for the uppers and lowers control lines.
On top of the center board case, another stainless steel eye screwed into the top of the centerboard case.
All hardware wood holes (screwed in or though hole) were filled with a mix of West Marine Epoxy Resin and West System Colloidal Silica.
A series of composite blocks were build to hold and/or guide the control lines. The “One String” block on the right is made of 3 x RWO R2880 stainless steel webbing plates, 2 sheaves and 2 stainless steel thimbles. This block helps control tension to the Jib halyard, the mast puller system, shrouds, lowers, rig forward and aft controls.
The puller system tensions the puller control line connected through a forward deck block to a T plate at 140mm from the mast’s forward upper edge of the lower band. The other end of the puller system is connected to a block at the bottom of the King Posts. The 2 – Quad Sheave blocks provide fast and proper puller tension with a short pull of the control line.
I fitted 6-block wooden plates on the forward port and starboard sides of the main frame close to the centerboard case to run the control lines around and to the thwarts’ cam cleat platforms.
The thwarts’ cam cleat platforms on the port and starboard sides hold the control lines tightly. The control lines’ ends are routed through a stainless steel loop under the deck and routed towards the rear where these are tied together to a shock cord that is tied to a stainless steel eye mounted on the transom.
This arrangement takes away the slack off the control lines and keeps the ends of the control lines tucked away.
Once all the control lines were set, I stepped the mast and tightened the lowers and uppers control lines to hold the mast in place. I also tightened and tested the puller system.
Next, I used shackles on the clew and the head of the jib to help speed the rigging process and proceeded to raise the jib.
Photo of Pícara after raising the jib.
Then, I proceeded to mount the boom and raise the main sail.
Once the main sail was up, I tied the main sail clew to the boom.
Here’s a photo taken outside my garage/boat shop while I was testing and tuning the control lines under very light winds, fortunately!
Below is a photo of Pícara ready to go in during one my recent sails.
Thank you all for visiting my blog throughout the years! I plan to make new foils for Pícara and adding a dual pole spinnaker launching system, among other improvements so stay tuned as I update my boat building blog.
Warm weather and fair winds!