E26 Rigging

Finally got my 88 E26 home! What a beautiful boat! She came with a cruising spinnaker. I am trying to figure out the rigging for the halyard. Based on the lables the PO placed, the genoa halyard exits just above the headstay as expected, the main exits rear at the masthead, and the spinnaker exits rear at the masthead. That one does not make since to me. There are four exit blocks at the base of the mast, three halyards in play. And a spin haly exiting rear???? Looks to be a make shift deal to me, so I am thinking about adding an exit block above the headstay for the spinnaker. Ideas/comments on rigging this boat? The PO is no longer in the picture to ask...

It exits Where?

RKCRWLR said:

Finally got my 88 E26 home! What a beautiful boat! She came with a cruising spinnaker. I am trying to figure out the rigging for the halyard. Based on the lables the PO placed, the genoa halyard exits just above the headstay as expected, the main exits rear at the masthead, and the spinnaker exits rear at the masthead. That one does not make since to me. There are four exit blocks at the base of the mast, three halyards in play. And a spin haly exiting rear???? Looks to be a make shift deal to me, so I am thinking about adding an exit block above the headstay for the spinnaker. Ideas/comments on rigging this boat? The PO is no longer in the picture to ask...

Click to expand...

My mental imaging of this description may need some fine turning...
Firstly, in the 80's Ericson was commonly using Kenyon spars for their boats (at least the larger ones). Secondly, all of the Kenyon spars I have had a look at had the same top weldment. This consisted of four halyards, total possible (although not all might in use or ordered up on any given boat.

At the rear, of course, would be the sheave for the main halyard. Directly Under the forestay attachment tang is the headsail/genoa jib halyard sheave. Beside that tang, on either side, are sheave openings for port and starboard spinnaker halyards (often called "wing" halyards). There is an external Kenyon polished SS "cage" that acts to guide the halyards into the front-side sheaves.

It was also common for the spar to have all the exits cut in place, in a calculated 'staggered' alignment, above the gooseneck on either side, whether that particular boat was ordered with all the halyard possibilities or not.

When you say that the genoa halyard exits above the headstay, to me this makes no sense at all. Also, there is no way that the spinnaker halyard sheaves face to the rear.

As the overused movie line has it: "Houston, we have a problem."

Please give us some more info. Some closeup photos of the masthead would be very helpful.
Perhaps some of the former EY employees can check in and clarify this. And, I may be confused, too.

Best,
Loren

Congratulations! We have E26 '87 and are thrilled at her sailing performance. We do not have downwind sails (spin or A-sail); nor is our yacht rigged for such. Like you, we did not have any input from the previous owner regarding the yacht's systems and rigging. Despite all that, I think I can answer some of your questions:
1. "the genoa halyard exits just above the headstay as expected" ~ this must be the spinnaker halyard; the genoa halyard must exit below the headstay fitting.
2. "the spinnaker exits rear at the masthead" ~ the second aft-facing masthead sheeve is for the topping lift.

Our yacht is rigged with a roller-furler genoa, and we added a second headsail halyard, with a halyard restrainer, to use with a ATN gale sail or as a whisker pole lift when running downwind.
Our mast is an Isomat, and we obtained necessary rigging components from Rig-Rite in RI.

Most of what I've written is irrelevant since Loren has already answered your post.........

Hope this helps,
Saoirse, E26 '87 K'port, ME

Saoirse said:

Congratulations! We have E26 '87 and are thrilled at her sailing performance. We do not have downwind sails (spin or A-sail); nor is our yacht rigged for such. Like you, we did not have any input from the previous owner regarding the yacht's systems and rigging. Despite all that, I think I can answer some of your questions:
1. "the genoa halyard exits just above the headstay as expected" ~ this must be the spinnaker halyard; the genoa halyard must exit below the headstay fitting.
2. "the spinnaker exits rear at the masthead" ~ the second aft-facing masthead sheeve is for the topping lift.
Hope this helps,
Saoirse, E26 '87 K'port, ME

Click to expand...

Having never (yet) seen another make of spar on an E boat, my ignorance is all the more apparent. Also, the thought did occur to me about a topping lift for the boom... but by the 80's they were installing solid/rod vangs as a common option and somehow I just could not imagine them putting in the complexity of an older-fashioned topping lift assembly.
Nowadays I would replace it with a solid vang in a heartbeat. Truly. If I had know how much easier it would make things I would have installed one for sure on our prior 26 foot Niagara. I spent a decade muttering about the topping lift line catching on batten pockets.... Sheesh.

Thanks to Saoirse for promptly showing up with first-hand information.

Loren

Problem Solved!

Thanks for the replys! On further inspection, the mast (Isomat) has a jib box at the headstay. There are two sheaves immediately below the headstay I missed for wire halyards and a rope sheave immediately above to the spinnaker. I missed the two wire sheaves originally! The two halyards exiting rear are the main and lazyjacks. Topping lift is wire and controlled at the boom. Now I am getting the picture.

My E26 has a Charleston mast & boom and as I recall was one hull number off yours. I'm a little surprised at the differences in our boats.

The mast was prerigged for a main halyard, genoa halyard and spinnaker spinnaker halyard as well as the boom topping lift.The spinnaker halyard is located above the forestay on a single sheave and the genoa halyard below it also on a single sheave. The Main halyard and boom topping lift exit the top of the mast aft on separate sheaves. The main halyard was lead aft while the boom topping lift was secured on the mast.

I have recently fitted the boat for a spinnaker. All I had to add was a spinnaker pole topping lift.

Pat

Steep Learning Curve

I seriously doubt mine is different from yours, Pat. You remember correctly, we are on number different... I have 369. While the inside of the boat is in great shape (looks new), and the gel coat is darn near perfect, the rigging is a mess. The marina which I paid to prep it for transport simply tied a mess of rotton rope around everything. I am still unraveling it all with the mast down. Spent all day scraping 22 years of ablative off. Found it had a barrier coat from early on, which explains the lack of blisters. I am applying Interlux E2000 and VC17M. Three weeks until crane day, so I am working to the point of exhaustion to get her ready to launch. I did find a broken thru-hull... another project before launch. All the lines are bad. They were left sitting in weather for atleast 4 years, and likely more. The PO bought her in 06, but never raised the mast. She sat on her cradle. The PO before that was meticulous, keeping every manual and receipt. I'll have to see about scanning some of the info for this site if they want to add it to the E26 docs.

I was refering to the difference in mast...Isomat vs Charleston....although I think Isomat became Charleston Spars/Sparcraft?

Sounds like you are doing a lot of work to her. I'll be interested in all that you find needs to be done after 22 years and then the sitting time. Two other boats of our era (Mexico built 26's, hulls 358 and 363) that I know of had blisters.

One area I had problems with (and I think others) was cracking of the two marlon scupper though hulls. Apparently they degrade over time with exposure to sunlight. They are easy to get to from the back of the quarterberth, but it is a bit cramped.

Good time to do the electrical wiring upgrade to the starter solenoid as well. I had starting problems until I made the fix and the engine has started reliably ever since.

You were very lucky to have a PO who kept all the documentation...my friend who bought 358 got nothing and is having to recreate all the documents/instructions.

Pat

What's in a name, anyway...

SurabyaKid said:

One area I had problems with (and I think others) was cracking of the two marlon scupper though hulls. Apparently they degrade over time with exposure to sunlight. They are easy to get to from the back of the quarterberth, but it is a bit cramped.

Pat

Click to expand...

On this one little point, I would like to reiterate that when I replaced all the factory-installed "plastic" thru hulls on the back of our boat, only one of the larger fittings was actually Marlon (a patented reinforced composite material) and it had previously replaced one of the originals that was accidently broken off by a yard worker about a decade before.
Sad truth is that the others were all some sort of lessor (and likely a lot cheaper) unreinforced plastic compound that was easily attacked by UV. Oh yeah, the original small engine coolant outlet was, AFAIK, the only original factory transom Marlon fitting and it was still solid.

Matter of fact, our two 1 1/2" cockpit drains actually are Marlon (r), and both are in great shape. I have given them a semi-calibrated "whack test" while under there this winter for some upgrades and maintenance.

After a couple of decades it would be best to replace with real Marlon, anyway. Nowadays they will be branded from Forespar.

Loren