Launching and rigging

Step 1: Get the darn thing off the trailer. Wooden ramps, tilting the trailer, wheeled GRP cradles and some help is all that is needed. Click here for a stop motion video showing how the trailer is loaded.

Step 2a: Assemble close to the water.

Step 2b: Bending on the trampolines is the toughest part.

Step 3: Push her into the water. Note the small wheels under the hulls. They belong to custom built GRP cradles in which the hulls also rest when the boat sits on its trailer.

Step 4: Tie her up to the very edge of the water and prepare her for receiving the rig.

The rigging procedure has been basically the same since we rigged Scarlattikvarten the first time back in 1986.

The design of the mast step is crucial for this process. The mast step allows the mast to rotate in sailing mode. In mast stepping mode the mast is bolted to the mast step in such a way that it pivots in a plane parallel to the hulls:

Here is how it works. The mast is raised by using the boom as a lever. Part of the main sheet is used as a 4:1 tackle. Both boom and mast have temporary 'shrouds'. Right now, the mast raising is paused and the fore stay is attached to the seagull striker. Click here for a short mast lowering video.

Once the mast is in its correct position one attaches the real shrouds and move the mast step into its sailing position. Then comes assembly of main sheet, jib sheets… Most of this is done while motoring to the marina.

It is possible to use a crane as well. We did it like this for about a decade -- until he who helped us retired and the company got new owners.

This video shows how we use a wide concrete ramp. This ramp was built very timely and became available as our crane alternatives phased themselves out.

Floating, mast just stepped but not ready to go sailing yet.