Below are the color-coded depth markers for the anchor chain.  I got this scheme from the Yandina website.  At first it seemed a little difficult to use, but after studying it for a bit I recognized that it could be very effective.
The basis of the coding are the three colors plus bare chain, each of which represents a number as shown below

Bare Chain =0
Red = 1
Yellow = 2 (Yandina used white)
Blue = 3

White in the diagram represents bare chain.  Each of the colors then is a multiplier of either 25' or 100' depending on whether the color is in the center of the marker or on the outside.  The center colors are multipliers of 25' and the outer markers are multipliers of 100'.  I think the strength of the scheme is that it is symmetrical, you can read it easily from either direction, and it should be readable even if the marker is under several feet of water.  The big issue will be how well the paint holds after several times through the windlass chain wheel and after dragging through sand.

I used Rust-Oleum paint and primer on the chain.

To correct the problem I replaced the cleats on the starboard side of the boom with a double Lewmar D1 clutch.  This is the same clutch I use on the main sail boom for the reefing lines.  The mizzen clutch is close to the goose neck, over the forward edge of the Bimini so it is easily reached.  This clutch takes care of the outhaul and the reef line, the two lines that need a little leverage.

On the port side of the boom I left the topping lift on a cleat.  This cleat is on the aft portion of the boom and can be reached (by someone as tall as I - >6') with only minor difficulty.  I could not get my hands on a single D1 clutch at the time I was making these modifications so I left it alone.  I planned to replace that cleat over the winter (2004).  It is now 2008 and the cleat is still there.

For details on this conversion see the 2003 Rigging Overhaul page.

I had the rig surveyed before we left Florida on the Atlantic Circle, and I also went over the rigging myself before we left Portugal and the return passage.  The surveyor recommended I replace the rigging based on the age, but found nothing the required immediate attention.  So I departed and made two trans-Atlantic passages on this rigging.

I assume this break started while we were sailing back from Portugal.  I'm actually glad I didn't notice this until Sarah was safely back in the Chesapeake Bay.  If I had discovered it while at sea there wasn't much I could have done about it, but I sure would have worried about it.

I used the same rail mount bracket for the bow running light as as I used for the stern light.  The only drawback to this mount is that the light is vulnerable to being struck by the shaft of the anchor when it is being deployed or brought back on board.  As long as I'm careful this shouldn't be a problem.  I may see if I can get a short piece of tubing bent around the light and attached to the rail.  That would provide some protection for the light if I lost control of the anchor.  I considered mounting the light above the rail, but decided that would have made it very vulnerable to being caught by the Genoa or the Genoa sheets and ripped of the mount.

Time will tell if this was a good decision.

Looking at the rail more closely I noticed that each of the stanchion bases were severely deformed.  It appeared that the rail came into contact with some other object with sufficient force to nearly rip the stanchions off the through-bolts.  Shades of my crushing the stern rail on departure from Ft. Pierce, FL 1 1/2 years ago.

In the spring of 2006 I noticed that the vinyl lining in one of the lockers in the forward cabin was moist.  I had looked for the source of the leak, but I couldn't pin point any one source.  This fall about the time I was preparing to install the new running light I was also doing a complete cleaning of all of the lockers and cabin wood work on Sarah.  Then I noticed that that lining in this locker was severely mildewed.  So much so that I decided not to try to clean it, but removed the vinyl lining.  Over the next several weeks we had almost daily rain showers in Lagos, PT where Sarah was berthed.  Now I could see how much water was leaking into this locker and it was a lot.  Without the foam in the lining to absorb the water it collected in small puddles in the locker.  These puddles were less than a table spoon of water, but that is a lot of water to come through the deck.  Now I could also see where the water was entering the locker - through the self-tapping screws used to clamp the hull-deck flanges.  These screws are covered by the teak cap rail and I did not believe that much water could come through the cap rail.  The cap rail was worn from 28 years of sanding and scrapping the teak and heads of some of the screws hold the rail to the deck are now exposed, but I just couldn't see how that much water could seep through those screws into the deck and then into the locker. 

However, now that I was looking closely at the bow rail I could see that the stanchion bases were so badly bent that there was natural path for water to flow under the base.  If the machine screws securing the stanchion to the deck were not properly bedded water could easily seep into the hull-deck flange joint and flow between the flanges until it hit a flange screw that provided a path into the interior of the boat.

Up to this point I had debated with myself whether to run the wire for the new running light on the outside of the rail (as I did for the stern light) or run it inside the rail.  That later option is a much better choice, but it would require removing the bow rail from the deck to drill a hole for the wire.  Until I realized the rail might be the source of my leak I was strongly inclined to just run the wire outside the rail.  Since I now intended to re-bed the rail stanchions running the wire inside the rail was the only choice.

When I removed the Port stanchions from the deck I could not detect the presence of any bedding compound on the deck.  The P.O. may have removed the rail after it was bent and attempted to put it back into shape in a machine shop or home workshop.  When the rail was re-attached the P.O. may have thought it a temporary installation or just figured any water leaking under the stanchion would just go into the anchor locker and overboard.

The picture on the left is of the starboard aft stanchion

Re-bedding the stanchions was relatively easy.  It is easier to fasten the through bolts than it was to get them off.  I initially just hand tightened the nuts, and then 24 hours later tightened them fully.  After that I re-installed the hatch over the anchor well, which I had removed to allow me access to both the bolt heads on the cap rail and the nuts under the deck in the anchor well.  Finally I re-attached the lifelines to the bow pulpit and tensioned them.

This job took a lot longer than I thought.  However it does appear to have solved my deck leak.  One year later (March, 2008) and no water has appeared in that locker.

This arrangement is initially awkward for most North American sailors who are used to tying off to pilings and finger piers.  It does allow the marina to pack the greatest number of boats into a given dock space, which I assume is the reason for its popularity.  Once I had secured Sarah in this manner a couple of times I have found it is actually quite easy.  The only problem it presents is how to get on and off the boat with no pier or pontoon along side.  Initially I just pulled Sarah's bow in close to the dock so I could use the crown of the Chinese CQR anchor as a step to climb on and off.  This worked OK, except at very high tide, when it was difficult to get my foot onto the anchor crown while standing on the dock.  A person shorter than I would have found it very difficult.

The common practice is to use a Passerelle or gang plank for this purpose.  When I was in Gibraltar I purchased a folding aluminum Passerelle from Sheppard's Chandlery.  Then I discovered there was no effective way to secure the Passerelle to Sarah's bow.  In order to use the new Passerelle I either had to moor Sarah stern in or fabricate a way to mount the Passerelle on the bow.

When I finally got to Almerimar, Spain I found just such a shop, Inox Almerimar.  This is a custom stainless steel metal frabricator who offer a fairly standard Passerelle mount for bow rollers.  I ordered one from Inox Almerimar and the next day they installed it.  The mount is bolted to side of my starboard anchor roller as shown in the picture on the left.  This mount cantilevers the socket into which the Passerelle fits outboard of the bow.  As is common practice I used elastic cord as lift for the shore end of the Passerelle and more elastic cord to secure from the sides to each of the mooring bollards on the dock. 

The normal arrangement is hold the end of the Passerelle a couple of feet off the dock as shown in the picture above.  When a person's weight is brough onto the Passerelle the elastic cord stretches and that end drops onto the dock.  Keeping the Passerelle off the dock will hopefully prevent small critters from getting onboard without an invitation.  It doesn't not keep the feral cats that roam the dock from coming on board to check things out,  but rats and other vermin would find it a difficult if not impossible jump.

Bristol Bronze is a company I can fully recommend as one that produces quality products and meets their commitments.  The two times I tried to use the email address on that web page returned errors.  You'll probably have to call, in which case it may be difficult to get off the phone because the owner does like to talk.

The fine line in the fiberglass around the hinge in the close up picture is how the previous owner was able to fit the Northern Lights Generator into the lazarette locker.  He had about 2" of the aft edge of the locker cut out to make room for the installation, and then re-glassed with the installation was complete.  Obviously if I need to remove the generator it will either come out in pieces or I will have to repeat that procedure.

The access ports shown above the lazarette hatch in the bottom picture were installed in 2004, primarily to facilitate the removal of the old davits, which were sold on eBay, and to facilitate the installation of the Monitor Wind Vane (see, above)

The purpose of the Solent Stay is to set a staysail for off-shore sailing.  The smaller area staysail, with its tack located well inboard from the stem of the boat is a much more easily controlled and managed sail when the wind is above Force 5 or 6.  In those winds a Genoa must be partially furled, which still puts a lot of sail area at the end of the boat and puts a lot of stress on what is really a light air sail. 

In preparation for the start of Sarah's Atlantic Circle, I had a Solent Stay rigged on Sarah by Mack Sails & Rigging of Stuart, FL.  Details of the Solent Stay and the sources I used to come up with Sarah's rig are documented on the Solent Stay page. 

It is a little difficult to see in the picture on the right, but this shows the newly installed Solent Stay.  If you double click on the picture it will open the full resolution picture in a separate window.

When I finally berthed Sarah in Cascais, Portugal Jack & Patricia Tyler were berthed on Whoosh at the Doca de Alcantarra in Lisbon.  Since I stole most of the Solent Stay design from Jack, when I visited them I checked out how they took care of the halyard lead problem.

The solution was simple - a cheek block on the forward lower part of the mast to lead the halyard down the front of the mast, away from the spreader,  and turns the halyard to the winch.  My implementation of this design on Sarah is shown on the right.  I added a Spinlock rope clutch to free the single halyard cleat on that side of the mast.

When I took possession of the boat the furling line was lead through two small blocks attached to two of the port stanchion bases back to a small cleat on the cockpit coaming.  The fixed shackles that attached the blocks to the stanchion bases did not allow the blocks to articulate into a fair lead for the line.  The line lead from the drum caused it to rub on the drum housing and the blocks themselves did not align well and did not provide for a low friction lead back to the cockpit.  Further the lead into the cockpit, when the line was under load, caused it to rub against the lower mizzen shroud turnbuckle.

Initially I tried to address the problem of leading the line out of the drum and down the deck.  I replaced the two blocks with purpose-built blocks that attached to the stanchions and provided a fair lead.  The problem with these blocks is that they lead inside of the stanchions and were a great ankle-banger when working that side of the deck.  To fix the drum lead problem I added a Harken ratchet block at the base of the aft stanchion on the bow pulpit.  This provided a fair lead out of the drum and to the first of the stanchion blocks described above.

This change greatly improved the operation of the furling line and removed all of the chafe and friction issues that I inherited.  However, the operation of the furling line was still awkward in the cockpit as the mizzen shroud turnbuckle was still in the way.This was a livable situation while I was sailing Sarah on the Chesapeake on weekends.  When Mike Repass and I took her off-shore for the start of the Atlantic Circle, the limitations of the system were apparent and bothersome.

We lived with the issues for that voyage, but I decided to find a better solution before I resumed sailing Sarah in Europe in 2006.  The first thing I did was to replace the stanchion blocks with a new design from Schaefer that puts the sheave completely around the stanchion (see picture on right) and leads the line outboard of the stanchions.  This was not a major improvement, but it did address the ankle-banger problem.

I made these changes in January, 2006 while berthed in Cascais, Portugal.  While I expect them to be a great improvement, that will not be validated until I head out from Cascais in April. 

Yeah, I know I've let Sarah's bright work get way out of control.  Hey I'm cruising, here!

Well as you can see by the big red X in the picture on the right this arrangement didn't work as well underway as it seemed to work dockside.  The problem is primarily the small rope clutch I used.  I had several of these in my parts bin.  I had intended to use them for the traveler control lines.  They would probably work well in that application, but not in this arrangement.   This rope clutch was intended for dinghy sailing and are engineered so that they can be closed and released without actually touching the clutch itself.  If you pull back and down on the rope it will release the clutch.  If you pull back and up it will close the clutch.  This was not apparent to me when I tested it dock side and there was no wind, so there was very little pressure on the furling line.

When Chris, Martin and I took Sarah out for a test sail before we departed for Gibraltar the wind was blowing over 15 knots.  When Chris tried to let out the furling line under control the clutch kept closing.  This is because of the curvature on the coaming where I mounted the clutch and the cheek block the line leads upward relative to the base of the clutch.  This effective created the type of pull on the line that is used to close the clutch.  So I had to hold down the clutch mechanism to keep it open, while Chris fed out the furling line and Martin sheeted in the Genoa.  Not exactly ideal for my planned single-handed sailing in the Med.

So I removed the furling line from the clutch and the cheek block and went back to the old feed from a block on the stanchion base.  I still think this type of arrangement can be made to work, but not with this type of rope clutch.

Since that time I've made little use of the Spinnaker.  One of the prime reasons the Spinnaker has stayed in the bag for the last 4 years is the time it takes to set it up and get it flying.  It is much easier to just keep the Genoa flying or furl everything and turn on the engine. 

The process of setting the Spinnaker (assuming it is already on deck) involves several steps.

1. Furl the Genoa and secure the sheets to foot of the forestay.  This is necessary because I fly the Spinnaker with an ATN Tacker, which fits around the furled Genoa and the sheets must be out of the way.
2. Attached snatch blocks to the aft stanchion bases and run the sheets.
3. Hoist the spinnaker on the halyard in its sock and attach the tack to the ATN Tacker, which must be secured around the furled Genoa.
4. Run the Spinnaker downhaul from the tack, through a snatch block at the stem, then down the deck to the cockpit.
5. Hoist the sock and trim the Spinnaker sheets.

After sailing across the Atlantic to Europe without once setting the Spinnaker, I decided it was time to try to simplify and expedite the setting of this sail.  This summer (2006) I will be cruising the Mediterranean Sea, and I expect a lot of light winds.  Having the Spinnaker back in my sail inventory will likely go a long way to make this sailing a lot more pleasant and productive.

As part of this re-working of the Spinnaker set-up, my goal will be to allow the Spinnaker to be set and doused by myself from the cockpit.

My solution is shown on the right.  I installed a series of fairleads down the starboard side of the trunk cabin just below the teak eyebrows.  Then I installed a small Spinlock rope clutch on the forward end of the cockpit coaming.  The rope clutch is far enough forward on the coaming and close enough the side of the trunk cabin to not interfere with anyone going between the cockpit and the deck.  It also close enough to the cockpit for it to be an easy reach to open or close the clutch. 

With this arrangement all that is needed to hook up the downhaul is to release the rope clutch and flake the line in the cockpit.  Then go forward are pull the line to the bow and clip it to the Spinnaker tack cringle.

In the picture on the left I have attached a light duty, plastic snap shackle to the end of the down haul.  This shackle was designed as a light air sheet/guy connection to a Spinnaker.  I believe it is strong enough for the down haul application.  If not I will replace it with a SS snap shackle.  Right now it is the the only snap shackle  left in my inventory that is either not overkill for the application or clearly not up to the task.  So for now, this is my solution.

The problem is running the sock halyard back to the cockpit is that it is a continuous line.  Both ends of the line are secured to the  bottom of the sock.  One end goes directly from the sock to the deck and is used to pull the sock down and douse the Spinnaker.  The line from the other end runs up inside the sock then down the outside in a sleeve.  This end of the line is used to raise the sock and set the spinnaker.  You pull the line in one direction to raise the sock and in the other direction to lower the sock.  My current plans are to use a double block or two blocks at the base of the mast, one for the line lead to raise the sock and the other for the line lead to lower the sock.  Then I will need a cleat somewhere in or near the cockpit to secure this line.

It is possible this arrangement will cause me to abandon the ATN-designed single continuous line to raise and lower the sock and go with a separate line for each function.

1. Furl the Genoa
2. Release the downhaul rope clutch and flake the tail of the line in the cockpit.
3. Secure the Genoa sheets then attach the spinnaker halyard and raise the sail in its sock.
4. Attached the spinnaker tack to the ATN Tacker and attach the downhaul
5. Return to the cockpit, prepare the windward sheet, raise the sock and trim the sail.

Although that is pretty much the same number of steps as before, they can be accomplished much more quickly and I believe I can do them easily when single-handing.

1. Turn the boat to either blanket the spinnaker behind the mainsail or ease the sheets to depower the spinnaker.
2. Pull down the ATN sleeve and douse the Spinnaker.
3. Go forward and lower the Spinnaker into its bag.
4. Release the ATN Tacker put in the bag.
5. Release the downhaul
6. Return to the cockpit and secure the downhaul and spinnaker sheets.
7. Unfurl the Genoa and resume sailing.