Two weeks ago I signed up for a series of races called the "Frostbite" series hosted by a local yacht club. I was the slowest boat and the least experienced skipper. I got lots of encouragement from the other boaters and learned quite a bit even though I finished last. Two good bits of advice concerned the need for my backstay to be tighter and the need for a boom vang. I have been saving two old Hobie 14 sheet block sets for a while and I decided to put them to use for these two purposes.
My mast and backstay goes up and down often because I trailer my boat. It seems to never be the same tightness even thought I have a small amount of adjustment at the bottom. I cut off about two feet of my backstay and crimped a new cable thimble on. I then installed the hobie sheet blocks at the bottom backstay location:
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The boom vang installation will be next and I've already started working on the connection point near the bottom of the mast. I'll take some pictures of that on Saturday after uncovering the boat to get it ready for Sunday's race. It's supposed to be 66 degrees and sunny on Sunday. Yippeee! (sorry for you guys in the frozen North!)
Be careful with a backstay adjuster like that (with all the purchase power), you will easily be able to "over adjust" things. Also, make sure your forestay is up to the task. I have a split backstay on my 25 and all I need to do is tie a line across them and tighten it by hand (granted mine is a fractional rig, so the upper part of the mast is unsupported). Make sure your bottom attachment has a backing plate underneath ( I have seen the factory "U-bolt" pulled through the transom by pulling too hard on the backstay). http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/pi ... reid=10928 http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/pi ... reid=10929
THE CUSCUS wrote: make sure your forestay is up to the task. I have a split backstay on my 25 and all I need to do is tie a line across them and tighten it by hand (granted mine is a fractional rig, so the upper part of the mast is unsupported). http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/pi ... reid=10929
Thanks for that - I like the way the attachment points are on the back of your cockpit instead of on the top with a U-bolt. I may change mine to that location - It looks more sturdy and moves the backstay back just a little. Thanks again.
No problem, Aubrey! I try to give back to this board when I can, as I have gotten lots of help here myself. I really do enjoy your postings, pictures and explanations of your doings. Your ingenuity and craftsmanship are an inspiring, keep up the posts!
Your back stay is going to give you a lot of mast bend and a little more tension on you fore stay. You will like being able to adjust it. I have a 4 to one going from one side to another with a pulley on the back stay giving me 8 to 1. more power than I need but makes it easy to adjust. you can get rid of the cable and replace it with Spectra to make it easier to set up and take down. If you ever want a hand racing give me a call. I already promised someone on Sunday at Ray Hubbard. I will be on a Sonar 23 it is a fun boat to race.
grady wrote:Your back stay is going to give you a lot of mast bend and a little more tension on you fore stay. You will like being able to adjust it. I have a 4 to one going from one side to another with a pulley on the back stay giving me 8 to 1. more power than I need but makes it easy to adjust. you can get rid of the cable and replace it with Spectra to make it easier to set up and take down. If you ever want a hand racing give me a call. I already promised someone on Sunday at Ray Hubbard. I will be on a Sonar 23 it is a fun boat to race.
Thanks Chris. Have fun on Sunday - the weather is going to be fantastic. 70 deg. with 10 kts of wind and lots of sunshine at Joe Pool. Your fractional rig gives you more flexibility with a back stay adjuster. I was looking at pictures of your boat the other day thinking it is a great looking boat with the fractional setup. I just want something to keep the furler/forestay tight after I raise the mast since my masthead rig won't let me bend the mast. The race at Joe Pool is one of a series of eight races. I hope to shave about 30 minutes off my time from the first race with more knowledge and some changes to the boat. I finished in 2 hours and 16 minutes last time. I lost several minutes taking down the spinnaker for the first time and making the turn! Also, I picked up about 15 gallons of the lake through splashing in the keel lock-pin hole. I've sealed that up now I think. I also removed the port-a-potty full of water (since nobody every uses it) and some other heavy items from the boat. It will be interesting to see what happens.
On Saturday I have a long list of things I want to do including installing a mast-raising system that will save my back. It seems like the mast gets heavier every time I take it to the lake. The furled up jib makes things worse. I'll post pictures of what I come up with using an old boom (hobie 14 of course) and some sort of forked end to grab the furler spool. With the front boom mounted on the mast I don't think it will take much force to pull it down, raising the mast.
grady wrote:Your back stay is going to give you a lot of mast bend and a little more tension on you fore stay. You will like being able to adjust it. I have a 4 to one going from one side to another with a pulley on the back stay giving me 8 to 1. more power than I need but makes it easy to adjust. you can get rid of the cable and replace it with Spectra to make it easier to set up and take down. If you ever want a hand racing give me a call. I already promised someone on Sunday at Ray Hubbard. I will be on a Sonar 23 it is a fun boat to race.
Your fractional rig gives you more flexibility with a back stay adjuster. I was looking at pictures of your boat the other day thinking it is a great looking boat with the fractional setup. I just want something to keep the furler/forestay tight after I raise the mast since my masthead rig won't let me bend the mast.
Let me know how your race goes.
Oh ya I do not know what I was thinking. I thought you were fractional rigged also. (I guess that is what I get for drinking and posting)
Today was perfect conditions for the Sonar. There was about 13 boats that came out including an 11 meter, J29, S29.5 and Evelyn 32. We had a really good race and beat everyone by a couple of minutes.
grady wrote:
Oh ya I do not know what I was thinking. I thought you were fractional rigged also. (I guess that is what I get for drinking and posting)
Today was perfect conditions for the Sonar. There was about 13 boats that came out including an 11 meter, J29, S29.5 and Evelyn 32. We had a really good race and beat everyone by a couple of minutes.
How did your race go?
Well it was a crazy race. The wind and gusts were a hand full. I had a helper which made it bearable, but I got hit in the head pretty hard when my boom on an accidental jibe. I let my crew drive while I went forward to attend to a tangled rope. As I was climbing down the boom got me just as my head was at the right elevation. I never saw it coming. We finished the race and the lump has gone down now but it was a real wake-up call. Downwind we were going over 6 kts which is as fast as my boat has ever moved. I didn't pull out the spinnaker because the wind was too much. We finished dead last again but against many fast boats. It was 2hours and 17 minutes for the race - one minute more than last time. The wind was from the South this time which made it up-wind for the longest leg with lots of gusts over 25 mph. Very choppy and we got more wet than I have ever been on this boat. The good news is that the new keel pin bolt sealed up the leak completely. The back stay adjuster worked great bout my home-made chicken-head bent quite a bit so I have designed a more beefy version I hope to weld up this week. You warned me a long time ago about the gusts at Joe Pool lake and you were right. It was like dingy sailing with my hand on the sheet line the whole time.
My favorite part was the start because there were several 30' boats mixing it up in close quarters. We started over there where you and I met up that time I stuck my keel in the mud by the beach and the marina. Not much room for six sailboats to start a race.
The boom vang worked great also. It kept the boom down, but now I think I need a preventer. I need to put some thought to this. It wasn't perfectly downwind and the accidental jibe was something I should have been looking for. In all fairness I was watching for it while I was driving, but I forgot about it when I went forward.
I made some revisions to the trailer for the umpteenth time and this one looks like a keeper. The boat loaded up easier than ever before and rides just about right.
I hope to be ready next weekend for the third race in the series. I hope the weather cooperates.
Aubrey,
I've been thinking about mounting a preventer on my 26S and how to accomplish it, so I'm very interested in what you end up doing.
I'm thinking of running a single long preventer line, using a small block shackled to the aft hole in my forestay chainplate (I only use the forward hole right now for my forestay). Then using stanchion-mounted fairleads (routed outside the stanchions), was planning to route the line back to small cleats mounted about where the boom will intersect with the side of the cockpit. Tie a loop into each end of the rope once set up, and then whichever way you need to use the preventer, you can use the loop to tie off to the end of the boom (or however you choose to terminate) and from the other side you can pull up the slack and make it fast to the small cleat on the other side. When it's time to jibe, you just release the rope from the cleat and you can manage the preventer line, attach the other end and then pull the slack up opposite, etc.
This works great in my head! I've looked over the boat several times with this in mind... Gonna have to see how it works in reality, though...
vizwhiz wrote:Aubrey,
I've been thinking about mounting a preventer on my 26S and how to accomplish it, so I'm very interested in what you end up doing. .
But make both sides permanently attached toward the bow, then stretched back and attached to the side of the boat. When needed, just detach from the back of the boat and clip on the boom. They can also be used as dock lines from time to time. I have a couple of stretchy dock lines I was thinking of using first to see if they work, but I'll have to find the right place to attached them toward the bow, then find a place on the boom - probably the end where the sheet line attaches.
Another easy solution would be to attached a few sections of rope where the vang connects to the boom and run them forward through a pulley toward the outside of the boat and back to a winch. Let them stay loose normally, then tighten up when needed. What do you think?
I like the shockles idea, and it might be good for you if you're racing - I'm not sure I'd need/want them (something else to pay attention to, to lose, etc.)...my goal is simplicity - on the water fast and easy, then out/cleaned up fast and easy, so the idea is good, just probably won't take that extra step myself. Not sure what real value the shock-absorbing quality provides (ignorance on my part) other than it being easier on the equipment...please feel free to enlighten my noobiness.
Also, I'm thinking you want to be able to do this from the cockpit easily, especially if you're racing - that guy had "walking around" room on his boat - I don't think either of us will have that kind of room on ours. If you're racing you'll have even less time to focus on it, so I'm thinking a stretch/grab/clip (or cleat) here or there is probably as complicated as you can afford from the focus and time perspective. That's why I was thinking of running one continuous line - so I don't have to cleat both sides, just the one side that's the tag end of the line.
If you make both lines permanent, you accomplish pretty much the same thing - you only have to deal with the one side you are tying off at the time, and don't have to worry about the other side - that works. But if you're going to run them permanent, there's no real value to running them all the way to the front, just forward enough to get the angle from the boom (not be too in-line with the boom) and have the slack you need...no need to waste 15' of rope tying off at the front. I think routing it outside the boat is a good idea either way. If you're going to use two separate ropes, I'd consider putting a pulley at the forward point where the rope is leading to, and then route it straight back to the cockpit to a small cleat.
As for the winch idea, I think it sounds complicated - it sounds like it will work, but I think you could do the same thing with just a pulley/cleat on the outside, as you were originally thinking, without using the winch (deck clutter?). The preventer is just a safety line - so from the boom straight to a cleat is the most simplistic way to tie off the boom and keep it from swinging back, so in my mind everything up from there has to be added for a really good reason...for example, you have to be able to adjust it as wind direction changes slightly, or heading changes slightly, etc. So if you just have a rope from the boom to a cleat, how do you adjust it? You have to re-cleat it. The tie-off cleat is (most likely) forward of the cockpit where you are, so to adjust it, you have to go forward (on the simple rope/cleat arrangement). So my thought is that because I have to make provisions to adjust the preventer, I have to add one layer of complication. Whatever I install has to include something for the sole purpose of eliminating having to go forward to re-cleat it for adjustments (thus at the very minimum, adding a pulley and re-routing it back to the cockpit). That's kinda the thought process I'm using.
My only thoughts behind using one rope strung all the way to the front was that it is one rope of one color that is attached on both ends - I know that if I pull one end, the other end moves - just a "one rope" de-complication in my head, as opposed to having two separate ropes...kinda like window shades - instinctive - pull one string to open, the other to close. There's no rhyme or reason other than that - two separate ropes does the same job. The only reason I was planning to route it all the way to the front outside the stanchions was to keep the deck clear - fewer trip hazards - otherwise a single rope could go to the mast and across the deck (two pulleys) and back that way.
I won't be on the water for a little while longer, so let me know what you implement! And good luck racing!
Although the back stay adjuster was a success in every way, it accelerated the demise of my rigged up mast head extender. I purchased a new sail that has a "roach" in it and it would hit the stock back stay. So I extended it using what I could find in stainless steel laying around the shop. This was too weak, so last night I put the finishing touches on my new mast head extender. This one is properly supported and incorporates my sheet halyard and Windex mount. Take a look:
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It might be gusting to 30 kts. this weekend so I'll probably take a break from the races.
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I've looked over the boat several times with this in mind... Gonna have to see how it works in reality, though...
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