]Hi Good People. Great Forum. I acquired Super Seal TEAM SPIRIT (Baker built) earlier this year and despite the covid crisis have had an excellent first season with her cruising the East Coast.. The boat has exceeded my expectations. I knew the light weather performance was exceptional but had some concerns about coping short handed in stronger winds. However the performance and handling upwind with just a partially reefed genoa in apparent wind speeds in the mid to high 20s has been a pleasant suprise and instilled confidence in the boat.

I have enjoyed reading the various forum articles.

Team Spirit has 10 "stacked" Gibb turning blocks ..5 on each side which take various lines back to 10 ratchet jammers. I suspect ,but am not sure that these may have been original standard equipment but probably initially only 3 per side.. One is broken and a lot of effort by me to get a replacement Gibb turning block or an alternative than fits has been unsucessful . It seems Gibb no longer have a representative in the UK. Various well meaning chandlers have come up with nothing that can actually be plausibly fitted in the coach top space available There is a company Rig Rite in the USA which may have them in stock but it seems they they mainly only deal with companies and are not really interested in dealing with an individual overseas customer..especially one that does not have a credit card with a US billing address. .

Has anybody had similar problems or have suggestions. I of course am regularly checking the second hand market.

Regards

Ellen

Hi Ellen,

I assume that you have 5 sheaves in a row,giving the space issue, rather than 2 mounted on 3.We have 2 on 2 each side on our MK2 as shown-this might suggest options.One might think that the sideways force on the bolt/machine screw would be undesirable but ours work and have clearly worked for some time.

You don't say whether it is the frame that is broken or whether the sheaves or axles are damaged.It may well be possible to have the frame repaired or to replace sheaves.'Rivet' axles can often be replaced by bolts. Barton (and others like Allen) have a range of spare sheaves - and it may be possible to stack their 'organisers' which come in two different centres/diams.

A photo would be useful.

Peter

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your response. The Gibb blocks are quite chunky and are designed to be stacked. I actually have 3 in line with 2 stacked but on the starboard side there is only one stacked as I have removed the broken bit. There was actually only a part of the bottom left . I tried to post a pic which shows the deck layout but could not work out how to do it. There seemed to be no add pic option and cut and paste produced no result. Can someone tell me what I am missing?

Am aware that some blocks can be repaired if it is just a question of replacing pins with bolts but that is not the case here. I have been contemplating having 2 stainless plates plates made with a similar profile to the Gibbs and buying a 2 inch sheave and cobbling together a DIY replacement. The sheave will not be taking that heavy a load...the spinnaker pole up haul. Would not look that smart or ship shape however .Would be nice if I could actually find a proper replacement somewhere.

Have no idea how the cheek bock was broken. Suspect it was somehow damaged in a non sailing incident. Theye are pretty much indestructable in normal use. I actualy did break a tufnel one once on a previous boat . I was up the mast in a bosuns chair when the turning block (also tufnel) at the foot of the mast which gave the lead to the cheek block let go .The angle the halyard then came out of the mast was virtually vertical to the cheek block. I dropped a bit and the shock ripped the top right off of the cheek block. No evidence of that in this case.

I may just live with the uphaul being cleated at the mast for a while and hope something turns up on ebay. Sailing short handed, I have only cautiously used the kite a couple of times in light winds, I tend to mainly use the pole for booming out the Genny downwind so fine adjustment is not that critical.

I was kinda hoping somebody here might have something suitable in their bits and pieces that might fit which they were prepared to sell. Bit of a long shot but worth a try.

Thanks again for responding

Ok I think I have worked it out. You need to zoom in

Ah ,I see the model, referred to as a 'GIBB foot block' on the Rig Rite site,and can see why you want to match the pattern.They look very strong and durable and would nest neatly.I can see from the Seal manual that ,yes,they were original - they appear on the Detail Rigging sketch page.

That being the case,and if the model reference makes sense, maybe someone in the States will buy and forward to you.There is at leat one member there with a 26/27.

My son lives in Manila and with the same problem uses an intermediary agency in California to buy stuff and ship to him,but they only deal with the Phillipines.

Do Rig Rite not have any suppliers in the States who would do this ? Surely they supply other chandlers/shipwrights.

One could be made ,although the finish would not match.But ,assuming its neighbours are still black,you might ,for a lower load,do something with black delrin/acetal,which would be easy to work and provide a convenient thickness.

As you say you could operate from the mast ,being s/h I prefer to operate the pole uphaul from there,whilst forward.

But I sense that you want the rig to be entirely ship-shape.

Peter L

PS If you can provide a close up photo or use the specific Rig Rite reference in a post on the Practical Boat Owner forum (much more traffic) someone might put their hands on one.

Hi again Peter,

Apologies for the delay in thanking you for your response. I had actually already been thinking about the getting help from a US resident as a way of dealing direct with Rig Rite and was already making various enquires. Thanks to a relative I have now located somebody in New Hampshire who is prepared to place order and take delivery and then post on to me in the UK. Am currently waiting a response from Rig Rite so I can organise the practical side of the ordering stages.

Thanks also for the tip re the PBO forum. This was most useful.

Hope everybody is keeping well and staying safe in these very difficult times

Don't know if anybody is interested but I have just made an easily removable varnished plywood panel that fits in and neatly covers the trotter box opening for the port settee berth. In my view this greatly improves the port berth's useability as a second lounging /reading area in the main cabin for guest/crew when at anchor and when the cockpit becomes a bit chilly. Previously a cushion placed behind your back used to have the habit of finding its way into the hole and reducing the important after sailing comfort factor.

Of course once everything is settled down the forecabin bed ( with infil) is hard to beat as a cozy reading area.

Ellen

Hi Ellen,

sounds as if you have it sorted ,and with a matching item.

We have an 'upholstered' back and removeable end to that berth but I'm the only one who tolerates having feet stuck through without complaint.The bottom of the aperture is cut a bit high ( it is afterall a bulkhead ) so touches the back of your legs.

I expect you'll be moving on to the next improvement.

Happy fettling.

Peter