Kenny

unless your cut down sail has a headboard that is attached to the sail say by the luff rope being left as the old length the answer is no you can’t use the existing wire halyard and hook rack.

if you want cut the sail down I presume you will take out a middle panel and maybe shortened the foot along the boom.  The head of the sail will then be about 1 m or so below the top of the mast.  I would replace the wire halyard with a 5mm spectra rope halyard and a camcleat, then you can adjust the main to suit your cut down or full sail with no problem

Steve

Hi,

I would back up the warnings from Chris – be very warry when buying a FRP boat that shows any signs of cracking.  I had a very bad experience with a Speed FRP boat No 13954 – the plywood reinforcements rotted and left me with some big bills to sort the boat out.  Areas where you need to check – under the thwarts front and back, under the decks for the plywood supports to the genoa cleats (if through deck sheeting), inside the transom the rudder pintle reinforcement rots, under the mast there is a block which supports the mast, on the sides of the boat are two pads each side one for the shroud plates and one for the genoa sheet turning block.  All the plywood in my boat was either rotten or well on the way to failing.

Superficial gelcoat dings are par for the course and are easily repaired – also open up the forward hatch and look around the front buoyancy tank, if possible have a friend shine a light around the outside of the hull – you may see some thin areas in the lay up particularly along the keel, another stay away sign.

Over a period of 12 months I had all these parts renewed by Steve Parker at a cost of about £2,000 before I decided to call it a day and bought a new boat from SP Boats.  I wrote an article about these problems which was published in the Spring 2018 Mainsail – some FRP boats seem to be OK but there are a number of boats with all or some of these problems.  Check carefully before buying.

Robine

you mention that you need floorboards, these are essential in the Mk1 grp boats as the hull is not particularly thick being just a single layup of grp, to finish the floor boards you can use varnish with a sprinkle of fine sand while the varnish is still wet to give a non slip finish or you can use a nonslip deck paint from the International range to give some colour to the finish.

Ig is a long time since I sailed a Mk1 grp boat numbers 7039 and 7044 were boats I campaigned when they were in their prime, both had problems with leaks into the side  tanks where the tubular ribs pass through the tanks.  Also check that all of the screws holding the keel band are in place as these pass through the hull and will allow a significant amount of water into the boat if missing

Steve Corbet

Peter,

While I would agree with most of Oliver’s advice to get a good starting point rather than trial and error even with an older boat it is worth following the tuning advice given on he various sailmakers tuning sheets.  If you have a series 1 square footed mast, the mast must be set hard against frame 2 and chocked centrally in the mast step, attached the shrouds with the mast about 1/3 out of the deck slot, hoist your foresail and tension as normal.  Now hoist a long tape up the mast using the main halyard until you read 18’0″ at the top of the lower black band, lock off the halyard, now swing the tape to the top of the transom (not the horse if fitted – old boats) ideally the reading should be about 21’10” plus or minus 1″.  Adjust the position of the shrouds until you get in this range.  Your should then find the boat is well balanced when sailing with a neutral of tiny weather helm up wind.  When finished note the shroud positions for future reference.

Steve Corbet

I would agree with comments made by others and would reinforce the warning made by Oliver that corrosion around the jib halyard sheave box is a strong likely risk with an old IYE mast.  While I haven’t had an IYE mast for many years ( at least 25 years ago) the IYE masts I did have in GP 10444 both broke due to corrosion at this point.  Also if I remember correctly the jib halyard in the IYE masts was lead through a tube to come down the sail track at the back of the mast rather than running down the middle of the mast as in modern alloy masts so fitting a new style sheave will as Oliver says involve some difficult metal work and care not to weaken the mast at this critical point.

If possible replacing the IYE mast with a newer mast would be a good move.

First a question does your genoa halyard run don the middle of the mast? or does it run in the sail track  with the bolt rope for the mainsail.  Some of the IYE (Gold) masts had the halyard in the mast and some had it in the groove.  Which ever position your halyard runs in I would suggest that you set up your tension system to pull down not up.  To do this if your halyard is in the middle of the mast you will need to cut an exit hole about 25mm below your gooseneck in the web of the mast, do this by drilling a top hole with a 10 or 12mm dia drill and second hole about 50mm below the first, then join up the holes with a small metal saw and file all the rough edges smooth.  Using a small hook, a bent coat hanger, fish out the genoa halyard from the centre of the mast.  The fix your tensioning HI field below the opening but with the lever above the mast gate. you can then hoist your genoa and work out how long it needs to be.  Normal is to have a hard eye and shackle to attach to the sail and as Oliver says a soft eye to attach to the HI field or other tensioning system.

I have a large number of pictures and sketches showing how to go about setting this and other controls up, they are mainly on various series 1 wooden boats i have owned but the basics can still be applied to you Mk11 glass boat. If you would like me to send you copies email me at scorbet@btinternet.com as they are too big for the Forum.

Just looked in my box of old bits and have found an old but serviceable muscle box, yours for the postage, just needs new forged hook – available from most chandlers.

One final word of warning – have a very good look at the condition of your mast around the genoa halyard top sheave box – the IYE masts were very prone to corroding and cracking and then failing at this point – I had two IYE masts fail in this way – now more than 20 years ago but on masts much newer than yours may be!!

Steve

Hi,

When changing to a new tensioning system you will also need to change to a wire halyard for the genoa.

Although Oliver expressed concerns about the use of a cascade system or a muscle box for tensioning the genoa they do avoid the risks of serious damage to fingers and are easier to use than a hifield lever especially when single handed.  To avoid overloading the rig just don’t pull on to the maximum.  Borrow a rig tension gauge and apply a load of about 250lbs rather than the 400lbs used on modern rigs, once set up mark the position of the hook to which the halyard is attached so that you can repeat the setting.

To repair you sail a trip to any local sailmaker for a patch won’t cost you much, have a look on eBay there are often old sails offered for a reasonable prices.  I have sold several sails that way.  Any other GPs at your club? Most racers have old sails in the garage or shed that they want to clear out as they are past their racing best but which have loads of life for cruising.

Steve

All good advice – use white cellulose fibres to thicken the epoxy (SP106) not the brown colloidal silica.  Make sure the wood is perfectly dry before you start applying the epoxy and wipe off any residue with acetone before varnishing or painting.  Another way forward would be to keep an eye out for a second hand centre board from a boat that has been scrapped – Ebay or the Assn Classifieds – you could put a wanted on the Assn Classifieds – there will be a number of old bits in members sheds!!