We might as well start with a look at the sort of scenery I’d like to be viewing along about now–Mildred Island, ah, it was so peaceful and pretty last fall.

Now lets show a what I am seeing right now–yep, that’s a Dyneema core-with polyester braid splice underway (New England Rope Endura Classic) and Brion Toss’s Riggers’ Apprentice laying on my feet. I’m splicing lines for the running backstays.

Oh, yes, that’s right–forgot to mention, it’s raining outside and David is puttering around all over the place inside so my rigging station is our bed–safely out of the way. The upper running backstays are Amsteel Blue and very easy to splice but the lower portion uses the funky braid-over-high-tech line which is a little harder to splice. And to think–it’s all so the lower portion will look very “traditional” and classic rather than high tech!

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The running backstays are interesting. We did some “quick-it-will-work-for-a-while” runners when we rigged Mahdee in 2009. It’s time to return them to more like what they were in the 1939 rig design. Originally Mahdee had running backstays with her 1931 gunter mainsail and the design was modified in 1939 when her mainmast was spliced to support a Bermuda sail rather than the gunter. She had no fixed backstay back then. The runners were removed by her owner in 1953. At that time, her owner installed a boomkin, shortened the boom and used a fixed backstay.

Her running backstays were not placed back in service until the 1960’s when she was raced for a while. Presently, she has a single upper runner and an “A” lower part that comes down to two chainplates on the deck. She is supposed to have an upside down “A” as the upper portion of the stay–attached to the top of the mast and lower near the triatic stay. We are installing that upper loop “A” with my new 3/8″ Amsteel Blue line and the lower loop “A” with the Dyneema/Endura Classic in 1/2″ (12mm).

No one seems to make a block exactly like that which Mahdee originally had (see the drawing below) to connect the two loops. Modern running backstay cascades use similar loops but most now rely on low friction rings. We could use that sort of system, but the polyester braid cover on the Dyneema really should have a sheave not just a low friction ring.

I discovered that you can connect two blocks head-to-head with something called an “upset shackle” so we may be doing that rather than fabricating specialized blocks. Initially David was going to just make a suitable wood cheeked stacking block to match our other wood blocks but we quickly realized that we’d not be certain of the load capacity of such a block set and they do need to be very strong.

The blocks will be leathered because they can touch the sails so they will happen to look pretty traditional. With the leather, it really doesn’t matter if the blocks are traditional wood or another more modern design and material. There are two makers of really lovely (and strong) wood blocks I’ve been in touch with as well as one sheave maker (in case David really wants to make blocks). It could go either way but I’m leaning towards just buying off-the-shelf blocks and upset shackles at this point.

Progress? I completed the splices installing the four 3/8″ thimbles in the upper backstay loops, did one of the lower backstays but stopped short of finishing the other one because I was getting sloppy. Tomorrow–finishing the other lower, and adding a couple Turks Heads to decorate the whipping required on the braid-over-Dyneema eye splices.

What does Beryl think about life aboard these days? She’s just happy when the laundry basket is empty and she can stake a claim to it. Unfortunately for Beryl, this is an older picture and our laundry basket is full-to-overflowing today.