Questions for John Stone

[Vincent]

John, several questions.
I saw your YouTube videos, I hope you keep that going. I am waiting for the Patreon page to start up.

You switched out your staysail hanks for rings. I like the idea but my question is how do you get the sail off the stay? I can see leaving the sail bagged on deck, connected for a quick hoist under way, but do the rings slip over the bottom end of your stay fitting?

And you AIS antenna is mounted on deck aft. Did you consider mounting it at the masthead? Do you have an idea of how far out you are able to pick up contacts, and do you think you lose some distance by mounting it lower? How doe you like that unit after having used it on your sail back from the islands?

Thanks,
Vince FitzGerald

[John Stone]

Hi Vince.

How are you doing? How’s your boat coming along?

1. My forestay is 9mm dynex dux (heat treated dyneema). On the lower end it has a modified Brummell eye splice with an Antal Low Friction Ring. A lanyard is connected to the stemhead and then runs through that low friction ring on the end of the forestay, back through another low friction ring secured to the stemhead and on to the windlass where I thighten it up. To take the luff rings off I detach the lanyard and work the friction ring out of the eyesplice. Then the luff rings just slide off the end of the halyard. There is no turnbuckle as the whole thing is tightened on the windlass or slacked off as need be. Plus, it is super simple to detach the bottom end of the forestay and with the bagged stays’l still attached drag the whole thing aft to the base of the mast for short tacking with the big jib. The luff rings can’t accidentally slip off as the low friction ring on the lower end of the forestay prevent it. I have not had a chance to use the setup much but I have high hopes. It’s kind of neat I think because it merges the New with the old.

2. I have no wiring in/on the mast. I didn’t want any so my only option was to mount the AIS antenna on the aft most stanchion. It has worked perfectly. I have had contacts via AIS over 25 miles away. As long as one of the antennas on the two boats making contact is elevated you are good to go. Think about it, most ships have the AIS antenna probably 75’ or higher in the air. Most sailboats put them on top of the mast. In other words, if the other contact has a deck mounted AIS antenna then the range will be shorter. But who needs to know if another ship is 25 miles away? Who cares? I set the filter for the alarm not to go off unless the contact is six miles away AND has a CPA of 2 miles or less. I don’t want to be dragged out of the rack for a contact 25 miles away that is going to pass 15 miles away. I think the AIS has been a wonderful addition to the Far Reach. No question I slept better with the AIS. I like the Vesper Watchmate because unlike the ones integrated into a VHF radio it can receive and transmit. It also has a switch so you can elect not to transmit when it is prudent not to announce your position or when you want to minimize amp usage.

We should go out to breakfast again. It was very enjoyable. Come on down any time if you are so inclined.

[Tod Mills]

I just found your web site, John. I'm embarking on a rebuild that sounds pretty similar, philosophically, to yours, but with a smaller boat. Were you holding down a full time job at the time you were rebuilding Far Reach?

Thanks,

Tod

[John Stone]

Tod
I hope the website is helpful to you. There is of course more than one way to crack a nut. My website just tells the way I chose to do it.

I had just retired from the Marines when I started the rebuild. But...we had a lot of other balls in the air. We were designing and installing built in cabinets in the house, adding decks, building furniture and homeschooling the kids—we finish the 12th grade in 2.5 months...hooray! We were traveling a lot too. So it was not all about the boat all the time. But no question the boat was the focus of my efforts. I have thought a lot about it and I am not sure it would have taken any longer if I had a reasonable full time job. My job was not reasonable. I usually did not start till noon and I was done by 1700 most days.

I think if a person gives up TV and is efficient with his or her time and is reasonably organized and can stay focused and make decisions—and has the boat at their house and under cover—then I don’t think having a job has a huge impact. I have met all kinds of people doing all kinds of incredible things in their spare time.

Good luck and feel free to PM if you got a specific question or you can put it on the forum and others can jump in to the conversation. If you alert me to it I’ll be sure not to miss it.

Good luck.

[Tod Mills]

Wow, busy, busy! Thanks, John....Far Reach looks beautiful! I'm sure I'll be visiting your web page frequently!