We've had a busy Spring season managing a variety of upgrades to Pas de Deux in preparation for offshore voyaging. Annapolis, MD served as the center for this work largely because it was there that Chesapeake Rigging, through its neighbor Bert Jabins Yacht Yard, could temporarily "unstep" (remove) the mast to make way for the replacement of our standing rigging. As the reasonable lifetime of this rigging could be 10–12 years, the rigging replacement was executed as a preventive measure, with some impetus from wear that was already evident in certain important areas.  

Pas de Deux was commissioned in September 2001 . After considering that our planned upgrades to the electronic navigation equipment would also be best accomplished (e.g. less time consuming) with the mast unstepped, we decided that we didn’t want to have to repeat this significantly complex and expensive process (taking into account the dockage charges we were incurring as well) in what could be just a few more years down the waterway.

The rigging and most of the electronics work was contracted out to professionals having both the skills and equipment necessary to perform the work (not the least of which was a hydraulic crane capable of handling a 65 foot mast). However, we were pleased to be able to accomplish an extraordinary amount of improvements and upgrades as do-it-yourselfers. It was certainly a lot of work--but much more satisfying (and less costly) than hiring others to do it. Sometimes we were fortunate enough to be able to enlist the help of some friends. So let’s bring you up to date!....

Electronics Upgrades

Dave relocated the starboard helm auto pilot control head to the front of the helm pedestal, and relocated the B&G performance data selector button to the lower portion of the pedestal . This permitted removal of the existing fiberglass "tower" piece (with the aid of a wire saw) to make room for our newly purchased helm chart plotter. He was able to repair the small amount of fiberglass damage caused during the tower removal with conventional fiberglass repair methods. He also installed a charging base on the starboard helm pedestal for our Uniden VHF remote mic.

Since the new radome would not fit on the old bracket, Dave designed a new radome spreader mounting bracket to replace the mast mount. Locating the new radome on the port spreader bracket would be less costly than a new mast mount bracket, would also avoid requiring a jib guard, and would keep the new and larger radome away from the jib. The downside of this new location will be some minor shadowing from the mast toward the starboard side, which we could evaluate during a sea trial.

Electronic Marine Inc. installed the following new components and integrated them with the existing Raymarine Autopilot and B&G data instruments:

Furuno 24” 4kw radar .

Furuno 8” Multifunction Display (MFD) at starboard helm.

Furuno 12” Multifunction Display at the nav desk.

Furuno GPS receiver.

Furuno FA-50 AIS-B with independent GPS receiver.

They also installed a toggle circuit to enable the use of the old GPS instrument in case the new instruments were to ever fail.

Additional electronics work by EMI included the installation of our new Uniden DSC VHF Base Station; the relocation of our Mini-M satellite phone; and the installation of an antenna lead for WiFi from the port davit to inside the rear cross beam, where we could then fish it to the interior of the vessel.

This work significantly improved our navigation hardware and radar capabilities over the original hardware . The AIS-B addition is a new capability that augments radar by sending and receiving ship’s ID, position, course and speed data via VHF with other vessels. Upgrading the VHF radio to DSC (digital selective calling) adds the capability of automatically transmitting our GPS position over VHF when making a distress call.

A sea trial was conducted with EMI to orient the radar and swing the electronic compass associated with the AIS.

Rigging/Sails Upgrades and Enhancements

Having fallen entirely in love with our symmetrical spinnaker, we eagerly obtained another spare 471 spinnaker from a Catana 431 owner. We’d hate to ever be without a spinnaker to fly!

We obtained and installed a Code 0 spinnaker and accompanying furling hardware from Ullman Sails. This sail is deployed on the bow sprit Dave had installed in April 2008.

Chesapeake Rigging coordinated the following work:

Unstepped the mast (through Bert Jabins Yacht Yard).

Replaced side shrouds, mast diamond rods, and pelican striker wire.

Strung new main halyard and replaced spare halyard with old main halyard for use with the Code 0.

Fabricated and installed radome spreader bracket.

Re-stepped mast (through Bert Jabins Yacht yard).

While the mast was down, we replaced our mast head tricolor and anchor light with an LED version.

Quantum Sails installed a new mainsail, after which a sea trial was conducted to verify sail fit and adjust as necessary.

We're ready to head south now to Norfolk to continue preparation for our first significant offshore passage in November to the Bahamas. Thus far, we feel we have done our part to stimulate the depressed U.S. economy.