N 20 Mizzen Cover

N20 Mizzen Cover (Gene Halpern)

The stock mizzen cover is like a sock which is pulled over the mizzen... after you pull the whole mizzenmast out of it's socket---unless you happen to have VERY long legs. Since my legs are of just average length, I replaced that with a mizzen cover that has a full length zipper, and fitted a small pulley at the top of the mizzen. With it, I could hoist up the canvas mizzen cover (zipping it closed as I proceeded)----much like one hoists a flag up a flagpole. The whole procedure took all of 15 seconds, and could be done even while the boat was tossing about---just the very circumstance under which you would not want to be standing up back there pulling that mizzen mast out of it's socket... and then trying to get it back in that snug hole while you're playing footsie with that "stainless steel contraption" between the tiller and the rudder. Heck, I didn't like trying to manhandle that mizzenmast in good weather! The little pulley block on top of the mizzen is held in place by an 18" long 3/8" diameter aluminum rod (which served as a flagpole for our yacht club burgee) which is fitted into a tight fitting wood plug I made to fit into the top of the mizzenmast. The pulley has a long continuous loop of 1/4" line---joined by a snap which is used to hook onto the zippered cover when it is ready to be hoisted up. I sewed on a tiny 6" sunbrella cover to the top of the mizzen sail so that it would not get a sunburn through the "hole" at the top of the cover. I stiffened up the top of the cover with some semi-rigid plastic sewn into the top ten inches---so that the cover would slide right up over the furled sail and sprit boom(?) and not get hung up.