Sifting Through the Rubble

Took the sails down to check out the repair possibilities. Contacted the local sail maker, but he doesn't deal with sails this large and thinks his machine won't handle the heavier material, and he does not have the replacement hardware that we need. There are seven mast slides that broke and the top one is larger than the rest. I called a couple of sail makers in San Francisco, but the big names are involved in the "Big Boat Series" regatta. I called Kame Richards at Pineapple sails and he said come on down and he would handle it. It appears that the sponsors of the series do so to generate business from the participants and I am lucky to find someone I trust that is not involved. Pineapple has a good reputation locally and has been in business since before I lived here 25 years ago.

Found replacement bolts for the autopilot, and have decided that the bolts suffered excess fatigue from the flat bracket being bolted to a round tube, allowing it to rock back and forth under high loads. I intend to adapt the pipe to provide a flat mounting surface on the pipe next time.

I opened the inspection plates on the amas and found quite a bit of water in both, but most of all in the starboard one. using a 3 gal bucket, I scooped seven buckets full from the port ama and 20 from the starboard. A great deal of weight to have in a flotation area. I think the vent on the back of the amas should have been covered in following seas, but instead of venting, it acted as a scoop each time waves crashed over from behind. We didn't think to use the bilge pumps in the amas at sea, but it wouldn't have mattered as they don't work. One more for the list.
The foresail is torn, but repairable, but since we are going to buy a new one shortly and I have a smaller jib, I think we will just toss it. To put the other sail on, you must have someone in the cockpit to winch it up and someone to feed it into the slot on the roller furling foil. I get Joan on the button for the winch and start feeding it, but in the process of giving hand signals to her, I let it get fouled in the track and cannot hoist it, or get it out. I will probably just cut off the bad section of the sail and drive it out of the foil with a hammer and screw driver. It should still be good for the trip to San Francisco and hopefully for a bit of sailing there.
I rented a car on Thurs. evening to drive down to the bay area on Friday. Headed down early in the morning, a 5 hour drive and 3 hours at the loft and it is fixed. I am advised that the hardware which broke has no place on a boat this size and we talk about new sails. As usual, they are more expensive than I had expected, but the last time I bought any was in 1991 and they were smaller than these. The new one will have much heavier hardware designed for this type of rig and sails and will solve several problems with hoisting and lowering the sails along with adding another reef point, so that it can be made smaller than the current one. The best part is that it is the end of the season and they can make them in 3 weeks as opposed to the 2 month delay in the spring. As soon as I get the boat down there, we will have them over to measure the boat rig and start on them.
Spent the night at Leonard's, had nice dinner and visit. Popped up early to look at a couple of marina options and headed back up to Eureka. Of course no one is open on the holiday weekend, so I cannot make any firm arrangements. One place in San Raphael will remove a finger  between two slips and rent them both to me, but I hope to find an end tie and only pay for 44 feet of dock instead of two 46'slips.
Steven and Emily flew into Seattle on Friday and picked up the car from Port Townsend on Saturday. They are driving down this  way and may join us on the boat tonight. We were thinking of  heading out today as they have forecast calm to light winds and seas for the next few days, but it will be good to take our time re-installing the sails and getting organized. They will be driving down to the bay area, as it would eat up a lot of time to have to drive back up and get the car after sailing down with us. Perhaps we will get situated there in time to take them sailing on the bay before they leave.