Before arriving in Tallinn, we contacted a young sailmaker, Oleg, who was happy to repair the torn stack pack.
It’s not that difficult to remove it once the mainsail is well tied up with a pile of sail ties, but the key thing is to hold on tight to the lazy-jack lines that hold it in place and guide the sail into the bag while it descends. And why am I mentioning this? Yep, one slip of one line for one second, and the whole heap flew through the block at the top of the mast and fell in a heap into the harbour.
Now it needed to be rethreaded through the block. So Karen got to try out the bosun’s chair, and William got to try out winching a nervous body up the mast. And Wolfgang was on hand to control the safety line.
All that remained now was to get the stack pack to Oleg, somewhere in the port area outside Tallinn.
Google gave us an interesting route ….
But eventually we found the place, met Oleg, and he agreed to repair the tear and modify the stack pack so that the whole thing could be stored away on the boom when the mainsail is in use. And it works well!
This is Oleg with our stack pack laid out ready for repair.
We spent a last evening having sundowners with our good friends Wolfgang and Jeannette, though the sun never really set.
Looks a long way up that mast! Rather you than me! And rather not at all! But glad all ended well. Rx
Well done Karen. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I know it is a good view up there, but a bit scary.