Spar Modifications

The sailing club has very generously donated a set of spars and a 'pocket sail' to me.
The sail is a bit on the small side (probably designed to teach young children to sail, so very un-demanding, and not really powerful enough to power the punt with my lumpen weight in it).
I've purchased a new club sail, but that means I've got to modify the spars so the new sail fits. I managed to locate a PDF file of an original Optimist instruction set which clearly shows how to to rig it. Amazing how I got so much so wrong on my original lash-up rig!

This cleat is for the 'Vang', and was fitted-upside down according to my instruction set. There was also an open hole below it (not good in a capsize as you need the mast to float until you right the punt). So rivets drilled out, spare hole 'filled' with a rivet, and cleat re-riveted on the right way up.

Next, a new cleat was fitted for the sprit halyard

A micro-pulley was fitted to the sprit halyard lacing eye with a small (4mm) plate shackle. (I'm amazed how small everything is in 'Optimist Land'). All the blogs I've viewed of duck punts have hunking great bits of rope used for the rigging. This will probably be replaced, as it stops the sail from being removed easily from the mast. A hook-in pulley has already been ordered...

Two holes were drilled in the top of the mast. The spacing was simply measured from the top two eyes on the new sail.
Not needed at all with pocket sails, but if you're lacing your sails on, this starts to get REALLY IMPORTANT. Lacing eyes fitted to the mast work OK, but force you to untie all of the ties on the mast at the end of your sailing day. Not good if you have something approaching a life.

The holes work in conjunction with the wind indicator (called a burgee in my day) to hold and tension the top sail ties in place. Remove the burgee, and there are no obstructions to stop the mast sliding through the ties. MASSIVE time saver! But, fiddly as hell to re-install. So I've ordered some top pins - hoping these will reduce the hassle that this elegant but extremely awkward 'solution' produces.

A new boom end was fitted. Notice the two holes needed to fit the 'Boom Preventer'. The original fitting did not have these, and there wasn't enough 'meat' on the molding to drill them. Slight differences in spar diameters (probably imperial/metric discrepancies over the years) meant that this had to be riveted in place to stop it from turning/falling out.

The other end of the boom got a new molding too - the old one had a built-in cleat which was knackered. Strangely, this fitted tightly enough not to need riveting, so maybe component tolerancing is the issue. No cleat though, so that came next...

A cheap-and-nasty nylon cleat fitted for the 'boom outhaul'. May have to replace it with something better, but will wait and see.

The sprit end fittings were a little odd, and past their best, so these were replaced too. There are three diameters of sprit tube specified on the Optiparts website, none of which coincided with what I had. The ones I ordered were a very loose fit, so I used my fave mouldable glue (Sugru), to try and pack them out. Sugru appears not to like either aluminium or nylon, so I ended up riveting these on too. I've wrapped some hockey-stick tape around the lower end of the sprit as a sacrificial wear pad.