Help Identify this mast fitting

This fitting is for the fixed intermediate backstay tang on our mast. It's for a swaged wire end (of some sort - maybe a T, maybe a stem ball?). It's not rod rigging. It sort of looks like Navtec's K200 external stemball tang?

Anyway I want to change the mast fitting to something like a Navtec rope eye below for proper Spectra running backstays. Something with more articulation than this fitting, so I can take the runners aft. Right now this will bind if it's more than a few degrees past mast centerline.

Travis 1996-2008

Mexico, Christmas 1996-

In April we added a furry orange creature called Travis to our crew. We got him from a local corner store with way too many cats, dogs, and pet chickens. He managed his first trip to the nearby cruising islands pretty good but I think he was feeling seasick the second day. He is growing big and strong after recovering from malnutrition and other ailments, reaching a startling 15 lbs at 9 months. In response to his varied escapades we dubbed him "Adventure Cat!". As in "Adventure Cat! swims shark infested waters while chasing killer moths!", "Adventure Cat! ripped my flesh!", "Adventure Cat! boldly attacks huge intruders!", "Adventure Cat! defies gravity and climbs aloft on Ceilydh!", "Adventure Cat! traverses hot burning flames while exploring the stove!", "Adventure Cat! laughs (ha ha) at storms while frolicking in the wind and rain and dodging lightning bolts!". Some cats would live peacefully, but Adventure Cat! accepts the challenge and blows through his nine lives with indifference. He is a sailor after all.

Sleep well Adventure Cat.

Not just paint, but Names

Today was a super-productive day on the boat with the help of my pal Leighton. He volunteered to go up the mast, rather than winching my overweight butt up there to re-lead some lines.





Here's a few photos of the lettering on the boat, during late afternoon sun on the river.




It's so pretty down here in the late sun shining on the mountains and the river.

DONE PAINTING!

It feels pretty good to be able to say that. The cabin is now painted (though I will admit a bit of black paint is going onto the windows to hide the caulking but that can come later...

It looks very nice up close. All shiny and white and glossy.

I've also started interior painting. This chart table has just a coat of primer but it's better than all black carbon fiter.

So, in the future, if we say we plan to paint the boat, slap us. Seriously, you have our permission. Painting a 40' catamaran is not easy. We started off with the goal of glossy beauty and have reduced our expectations to a work-boat finish.

I can hear you snorting. I know, you've painted your living room, maybe a bathroom. "How hard can a boat be?" You ask. Well - boats are all curvy, and they have crap all over them, and you can only paint them when the weather is good, and if its not to windy. And even then bugs have a tendency to hurl themselves at the wet paint, and big boats go by just as you hit the tricky bits.
It's hard I say with a long whinge - really hard.

Stripes stripes STRIPES....

We're getting our groove on baby!

You want to stop boat owners in their tracks as they walk past your boat? Just get some tape and some paint and get started.



We've chosen some tasteful yet subtle colours for the graphics:



Evan's question to Diane: "Di did you get a shot of the whole boat with the painted stripes?" "I think so" Evan: "You sure?" We get home and check the camera - no #%^#*& shot of the whole boat. We'll have them up in a day or so, weather permitting (so we can get a second coat of paint on the stripes).

The bows are all better, the new crossbeam will be installed soon and the primer and first coat of paint are on the hull.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Well, the boat is back on the hard. I (Diane) am finding what time I can to join Ev in the fun - for some weird reason I really like boat yards. The goal this weekend had been to prep the hull for painting. There really is an awful lot of more pressing things that the boat needs before it gets a trick paint job - but with the storm damage needing repair it seemed like as good a time as any to spruce the old girl up.

For those of you who are playing along at home - you'll know that we are not afraid of a little colour. So, despite Ev's hope that it would never have to actually happen, I'm going to be beautifying the boat, colouring in Ceilydh, giving the yacht a little yowza... You get the drift... He overruled the leaping dolphins with flames shooting out their mouths - but we will be going with a variation of the paint job we came up with a while back.

This weekend we removed all the illiterate vinyl signage from the boat. We are Dos Cerveza no more... After using copious amounts of chemical and deft technique to remove the tenacious snot like residue (who knew my parenting skills would be called into practice during hull prep?) we started to sand. And sand. And sand. 40 feet x 2 hulls is big. It's sort of like 80 feet.

Once we finished sanding we went and picked blueberries. Evan whinged a bit and said it wasn't quite the right activity to follow-up sanding with. But hey, it's blueberry season.