The Resourceful Sailor Mends a Shroud
If my sailboat’s rigging used swage terminals, was I locked into using a professional rigger with specialized equipment for a repair? What if I planned to re-rig the boat soon, but wasn’t yet ready for that full commitment? What if a swage terminal was on one end of a wire and a mechanical terminal on the other end? I will tell you of a 2017 rigging repair aboard my Pacific Seacraft Flicka 20 Sampaguita, in which these questions arose. But first, I’ll tell the story of how I got there.
One sunny June day, Sampaguita and I had sailed from the False Creek anchorage in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. My original plan and destination was to anchor deep in Centre Bay at Gambier Island, to the north in Howe Sound. I beat out of English Bay into the developing wave trains descending from the northwest and the Strait of Georgia. I sailed around the east side of Bowen Island, only to then face a difficult afternoon of thermal headwinds and choppy seas as they rushed up Howe Sound. I eventually arrived at the mouth of Centre Bay. I looked deep into it, over the top of the marching whitecaps at the lee shore, and thought to myself, “That looks like a bad idea.”
I retreated on a run back to Bowen Island’s Snug Cove, where I knew it was sheltered and there was a public dock to tie up to. BC Ferries’ Queen of Capilano served Bowen Island from the mainland via the small cove, and it had just recently departed as I arrived. Upon entering, it was easy to recognize the dramatically swirling current that the ferry’s powerful propellers had left behind in the cove. I circled a couple of times and abandoned my first docking attempt because Sampaguita was not going where I was steering her. Exhausted from the thermal wind beatings we had taken earlier, I circled again. Sussing that the current had settled down, I made my second attempt. I was wrong.
