Yacht ‘Enterprise’ Van Dam 34

Built at Van Dam at Aalsmeer, Netherlands 1974

 MMSI 244130118 ; Call Sign PH 5626

Having lost our mast, sails and rigging in a storm in the North Sea in 2009 we decided to have particularly heavy gauge mast, spars and rigging. At that time the boat had the original brass turn-buckles and it was one of those that broke. We also went for two sets of cross trees and in-mast roller reefing so that we could completely sail the boat from the cockpit.

The main sheet was also moved from a track at the back of the cockpit to in front of the hood, returning over the coach roof. This was a compromise based on experience. Although the leverage is not so good we can use the self-tailing winch to adjust it and we do not have metres of main sheet cluttering up the cockpit. It has greatly improved access to the after deck.