In 16 December 2008, I had arranged to haul out the boat in Sousaki and do the necessary work for the long voyage from Greece to Gibraltar, then to Gran Canarias and then the Atlantic crossing for the ARC 2009The day to take the boat to Sousaki was a nice winter calm day. Arrived in the afternoon (Athena yard) and hauled out.

The plans are to make special housing/base to install the generator and the watermaker. After finding the correct position these cases were made from marine plywood, fibreglass and painted and installed the generator in the port lazaretto and the watermaker on the starboard 15cms away from the mast base where there was enough space under a bunk. The electrical wiring and the hose installation was well planned and took sometime to finalise their positioning taking in consideration high heeling for both machines and to prohibit water running back in the exhaust system of the generator. After a year sailing it has been proved that the whole installation was correct with no problem whatsoever, what a relief!!!

Modification for the rigging meant that the mast had to be dismantled for checking all the fittings and prepare the new design. I had decided to change the rigging from Bermudan sloop with two forestays (one fore , the other aft) to a Bermudan sloop with a cutter rig so the second forestay had to be removed and fit a new one, parallel to the first forestay. As a consequence I had to fit running stays for the cutter support.

This way I could use sails (a furling genoa) in the first forestay and a working jib and  the storm jib in the cutter rig. To do this I installed a new ''Furlex'' by Selden and I had to change the working jib (cut parts of the sail and resew it) to make it work properly on the cutter rig.

Preparation for the sails meant that a new set of a full batten main and a new tri-radial genoa were to be made and a spinnaker pole to be purchased since the boat didn’t have one. 

All work done here in Sousaki, Isthmia and we will set sail on the 1st of July 2009. This was the dead line which was reached on time with the exception that we didn’t leave any time for testing. I recommend to the readers to leave 10 days for testing everything, especially the electronics and sails.

Photos from restepping the mast in May 2009

Note: The writings in red mean that it has been added after the Atlantic crossing, as an addition or as a review.