Leading lines to the cockpit

  Let's face it: Having a boat that was designed for one design racing for a crew of eight, is no fun to be sailed shorthanded.. Exhausting is the right word!

 So I decided to make her more shorthanded friendly, and the first thing to do is move lines aft to the cockpit. Mast collar blocks, deck organizers, cabin top winches and clutches needed to be added. The traveller's old and leaky teak riser blocks  were on their way, and needed to replace them because it was hard to seal a serious leak into the balsa core, and ended up with a lot of rotten wood on port side. Also got shocked when I saw that the bolts attaching them to the deck were welded in the middle. so, I made a Cad  design for  new risers, bought some 1/2" aluminum plates,  cut them, shaped them and took them to a shop for the parts to be welded togheter.. They ended up really nice, so I just sanded the weld, the edges,  painted and installed them.. Now I was able to lead my lines through them and   I don't have to remove the track in order to remove the teak rails,  and the companionway hood and hatch.. 

I chose a spinlock clutch and a lewmar 30 winch. The deck organizer was bought from Garhauer. The also made the mast collar plates for attaching the blocks. They custom made the holes for them to be attached to  the mast collar..  The  C/C distance for Estancia is 5-1/4", and uses 1/4" bolts. If I have to do it again, I'll install a third bolt rigt in the middle. The bolt hole were drilled through the deck. Nuts and washers were installed in the other side. Also, a turnbuckle had to be installed inside the cabin with a U bolt and a pad eye  between the mast and the deck, so the last one wont rise while halyards are under load.