A few hours here and there is slow going on this part of the project. Seems like I've been here forever.

The fitting is slow. And then there are the broken parts - a fastening hole in a turning block is broken. I ran(on my feet-nice to be close to a boat builder), down the hill this am. and caught Joel before coffee. He dropped what he was doing and grabbed a grinder and a torch. I get a lesson in metallurgy as he explains the quality of the casting(not the best). I tell him thanks, I'll do the filing and drilling. It's still warm when I get back to the shop. Pretty old tech, no bearings but I figure it's good for another 50 years.

Underneath is where I've been working the last few hours. This system had a huge flaw which I've witnessed. The cables take nearly a 180 degree turn through the turning blocks. By the time I got the boat, I could see the blocks had creeped inward under the strain(pretty massive at times). Despite through bolts in the sole (note the 3/4" plug holes in pic #1) and large lags through and into the edge of the cockpit well, the blocks had moved inward so far the cable ends needed washers (dozens), to take up the slack. One of those blocks pulled off in Nantucket Sound more than 10 years ago, and I got to use my emergency tiller(what a joke!). This was one reason I increased the sole from 1/2" to 3/4" plywood.

For an added measure, I cut a gain in the new canted block(that was toast as well) and let in an angle iron. The outer lags go through a tight hole in the angle iron - that should add lot of strength to resist the block creeping inward. It's all dry fit now (proper sized fasteners, construction adhesive on final fit).