Crossing the Atlantic with Mr. Malingri – Second installment

Enrico Malingri, brother of Vittorio and Francesco, a member of the most famous dynasty/family in Italian sailing, prepared an X 562 (Magix) for the Atlantic crossingandsailed just these days from Gran Canaria to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.A great sailor, with tens and tens of thousands of miles behind him, Enrico will tell us, episode after episode, about sailing on the one hand, and on the other, how to set up a cruiser so that it can take on the ocean smoothly.

OFF THE COAST OF MAURITANIA
Latitude 20.34.25 N; Longitude 20.53.05 W
We are off Cap Blanc in Mauritania and are sailing to Mindelo , in the Cape Verde archipelago, and it’s day 3 of sailing. The wind turned to the northeast and we mounted the tangon, a day in wheel fil with 10/14 knots of wind.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TANGON…
We verified the goodness of the choice of having a tangon on board, with the little wind we had the possibility of making a 160-degree true angle. To be perfect we would also need a spi for these occasions and to have a respect in case the gennaker breaks. Having the tangon means preparing the boat for handcuff, tangon, downhaul, boom. If it is not provided, the appropriate attachments must be mounted on deck and suitable pulleys for the purpose must be obtained.

… AND RIGGING
Now we come to mast, shrouds and halyards today’s topic. To cross the ocean you need a boat that is right, and it starts with the fundamentals, mast, keel, rudder. With these three things in place a boat is able to reach its destination. Shrouds are often neglected by many boat owners, changing them does not add anything of improvement to the boat and is costly so we often pretend nothing is happening and put it off from year to year. The spiroidal cable is from a rigging is guaranteed by the manufacturer for 12 years, so if we are expiring it should be changed. The rod rigging has an expiration of 8 years, let’s say that with normal Mediterranean use at most 10 it should be changed, otherwise you risk a dismasting. Magix had a 2002 rebar rigging, so I replaced it by unbolting and reclaiming the tip cups (the rigging attachments to the spreaders). Doing the work, I found that the tip cup seats on the tip of the spreaders were corroded, so I entrusted them to my friend Ciccio Manzoli of Velscaf, who sawed them off and made them new, repainting the spreaders as well. Carrying out the work by trying to open a nailed tip cup, with a blow of the hammer that the same, now corroded and unnerved tip cup opened in two.
If it had happened at sea we would have disembarked. Replacing the rigging, we dismasted and then checked all shroud attachments, halyard pulleys, winterized points, way lights, anchor, spreaders, bridge, antennas, masthead spi pulley attachments. Everything must be in perfect working order.

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HALYARDS AND CARABINERS
In the mast context, we checked all the halyards and replaced the two oldest ones and rotated the others. The two new halyards were allocated to mainsail halyard and gennaker halyard, the two most stressed during the crossing. Very much attention should be paid to gibb carabiners and pulleys and related shackles of spi/gennaker halyards. In the Atlantic they will work 24 hours a day for 15 days, compared to 10 years in the Mediterranean of one sailing, so don’t underestimate the subject.

THE FORESTAY OF FORESAIL
On Magix, as on so many of the boats I prepare for sailing, we took the opportunity of the mast down to fit a forestay stay at the third spreader and two nice dsk 75 dyneema steering wheels. The stays for a few years now I have been making them with Gottifredi & Maffioli’s ultrawire dsk 75, they weigh a couple of kilograms and are very well adapted to be movable and when not needed to be put to rest with ease without slamming. In modern boats with furling jibs, the ability to have an efficient jib to reef the wind and not a rolled up rag on the forestay becomes essential when the wind increases above 20/25 knots. Same thing when the going gets tough and the wind blows between 30 and 40 knots the foresail becomes indispensable. In fact, if you notice, you can recognize a boat that sails in earnest by the presence of the forestay. The cutter rig also adds a lot of safety in case the genoa forestay or backstay breaks. In oceanic sailing or long Mediterranean voyages we always have the steering wheel pointed and the forestay cocked.

WINCH
In the preparation program we also overhauled all the winches by disassembling and greasing them, and reviewed the deck equipment, adding a couple of pulleys for the booms and tangon loader. The foresail halyard is also used as a spinnaker halyard.

LIFE ON BOARD
I paused in the writing of these notes to jibe, we have the stocking so we closed it, lowered the gennaker, there is wave patch to leave the stocking hoisted which bangs on the mast and is likely to end up behind the spreaders. We passed the tangon over the other walls by scaling strallet and forestay and then armed. Passed the mainsail, hoisted gennaker and off like that. After a few minutes, rrrr rrrr the rod reel started and we caught the first Atlantic dolphinfish, which will end up baked for dinner. Life in the middle of the sea becomes simple again, steering the boat, providing food, time to look as if in a time over to everyday life. Now I will leave you for the evening aperitif. Hugs to all.

Enrico Malingri

HERE THE FIRST EPISODE

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