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Princess caught racing


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One of the guys in my club snapped these yesterday.  I hope you can see them, it's been a while since I've posted and I'm not sure I'm doing it right.  At any rate in 3 years these are the first photos I've got of the boat underway!  She gets lots of compliments, thanks to Pettit Unepoxy burgundy #3626.  I suppose Graham deserves some credit, too.  ;)

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Graham does deserve credit for drawing a really nice boat, but somebody still has to build em. Looks to me like you did justice to what was once just a stack of plywood and lumber and a bucket of paint.

Mizzen looks good, but from what I see, the main sprit could stand to be moved up a bit. Looks to have plenty of tension at the foot, and too much twist above. At least in one of the photos.

Racing? How did you do? How did she point in relation to the sloops you are running with?

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Looking good, John :).  Did the full battens at the top of your sails come standard of did you order them special?

I been swapping sides with my sprits - (main was on stbd side of mast and mizzen was on port side) - so when I drop the masts, the sprits will come down on the outside of their respective masts.  This involves more than I thought at first.  The sprit ends are cut at an angle so the cheek blocks will line up with the blocks on the masts better, so I need to either flip the sprits upside down and remount all the other sheet blocks, topping lift blocks, and cleats; or mount a bullet block on top of the sprits as they were originally made to hold the snotter line.  I've done this to the mizzen, but the main sprit boom is too short to do this unless I add about six inches of length to it.

Also, the sails came from the maker with the loops sewed and pulled through the clew grommets to install the way I originally did them, so I will have to take the sails to a canvas shop and have the loops resewed to the other side of the sail :(.  And, I may have to move some halyard cleats to the other side of the masts.

For me, moving the sprits to the opposide of the masts will make rigging up and down for trailering much simpler.

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Thanks guys, that's very helpful.  The boat seems to like a lot of wind, so I have been keeping the sails pretty full.  I didn't realize how must twist there was in the main until I saw the picture.  If I understand this right, hooking the sprit higher up on the main mast will remove some of the twist without flattening the sail as much as just tightening the snotter.  I'll give it a try.

Most of the guys in the club have been racing for years.  Races are every Sunday ~May-October, usually 4 classes (Windmill, Lightning, Catalina 22 and Open).  I'm more or less a buoy to the windmills and lightnings (http://www.mycsailing.com/).  The Catalinas can point higher, as can the Hunter 23 with the colorful jib in the photo.  Although in a good breeze (15 knots or more--sorry, can't remember what that's called on the Beaufort scale), I can pretty much stay wtih the pack to windward.  In puffs she picks up and goes, where the other boats tend to heel way over and round up.  But under 10 knots, which is the norm on the lake, I struggle to even top 6 mph (gps).  On a reach she's just as fast as any of the other cruisers her size, and off the wind she's faster (go wing on wing, pull the board up and just walk away--it's a great feeling!).  But then we round the leeward mark, head into the wind, and I'm toast.  I'm sure I'm doing lots of little things wrong, just trying to figure out what they are...

Travis - sounds like you've really got trailering down to a science.  There's a lot of slack in my setup, so I can rest the sprits in the gulley formed between the masts when they're down.  The main sprit has a single block forward, held on with a cow hitch passed through a hole near the end of the snotter.  The snotter runs from the mast, through the sprit block and back to a block on the mast (then down to a cheek block on the tabernacle and aft to a clam cleat on the cabin top).  Does your setup keep the sprit from pulling away from the mast on the "good" tack?  I wonder how important that is.  Have you clocked the Pilgrim without the staysail?  I think my personal record is 7.8 mph on a reach (without the staysail).

The sails are from Sail Rite (a kit), and just followed the sail plan which suggested the "2 + 2" batten setup.  The clews are just grommets.  The sheet block is attached through the clew and a hole in the aft end of the sprit (with another cow hitch which I tell myself distributes the load to more or less symmetric compression around the sprit).

Travis, I had another question about the cut-out in the transom for the motor well.  Does water pass clear underneath it, or do you get some sloshing?  I'm wondering if I built mine too heavy and she sits too low in the water.  The cut-out is clear out of the water, but one she's moving there's quite a bit of sloshing.

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Twist is one thing, but you have a bag in the sail about 3/4 the way up.  Yes, if you don't want to reduce the sail draft, raising the sprit will put more down tension on the sail.  If you go to the point of being too far up the mast, you will not tension the foot.  I would say about a foot higher?

BTW...beautiful boat!

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Thanks guys, that's very helpful.  The boat seems to like a lot of wind, so I have been keeping the sails pretty full.  I didn't realize how must twist there was in the main until I saw the picture.  If I understand this right, hooking the sprit higher up on the main mast will remove some of the twist without flattening the sail as much as just tightening the snotter.  I'll give it a try.

I don't know about anyone else, but my idea of a good time would be to join John for an afternoon race!

Consider the source (me.....who has never sailed a cat ketch rig), but as I've studied the rig, your sprits work to adjust sail trim like the jib leads on a sloop. Move the jib leads too far aft and when you sheet in, you tension the foot, but the leech will then twist off so only the very bottom part of the sail is pulling, robbing you of power. The extreme the other way is to have the jib leads too far forward, which tightens the leach, allows the foot to belly out and powers up the sail, but taken to the extreme, the extreme draft of the sail (like full flaps on an airplane) creates almost a "hooked" airflow in the top of the sail, causing a lot of drag and also robbing you of power. When it's set right, tell tails (top to bottom and starboard and port) are all streaming aft. Really dialed in, now and then the top tell tails will lift a bit.

Your sprit takes the place of jib leads. With the snotter set too low, you tension the foot, but not the leech, which twists off. Looks to be that way in the bottom of the racing photos. That would not affect downwind runs, but would rob you of power heading upwind and probably even on a beam reach. I would guess that on rig like this, if you were to error, it should be to the powered up (sprit too high) side. Assuming your mast top bends a bit, the sail will flatten and twist off in a puff, just as you would want it to do.

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John, my main sprit is currently rigged similar to yours, so I can adjust the snotter tension from the cockpit.  I'm working on two pin rails to mount on the after side of the cabin, one on each side.  I'll remove the snotter cleat and use a belaying pin to cleat it off with.

Top speed for Pilgrim so far is 10.5mph (per gps).  That was this year on the TX200 on a broad reach with single reefs tucked in, winds around 20 and gusting higher.  I think this was when we were crossing San Antonio Bay.

My motor well opening is also cut out above the LWL and when moving slower, there is not much sloshing as the water exits fairly cleanly.  However, when boat speed picks up, the transom will pick up a LOT of water and pull it along with the boat, and make a lot of noise.  The plug I made solves this completely, but it came apart on me :o just before the start of the TX200 this year, and I had to sail the whole race without it.  Bummer >:(.  I need to make a more permanent mount for the plug.

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I have another observation, and it has nothing to do with John's sail trim, but an observation in general, as I see it play out time and again on the fleet I sail with.

For any point of sail, there is an optimum trim....depending on point of sail, boat speed and apparent wind (which are interrelated). What I see a lot of time is guys sheet in their mains like they would for a close haul, and leave them there! They are only trimming the jib for beam reaches, runs, etc and wonder why my little boat is so fast as I pass them on any point of sail other than a dead beat.

Sailing fast all the time is a lot of work. It takes a lot of attention to heading, steering, boat speed, etc. to keep the sails set and trimmed to their optimum. The quick and easy way is to sheet in the forward sail until it stops luffing and barely takes a good shape.....then do the same for the aft sail, which on most boats is closer to the centerline than for the forward sail. That is for a very specific heading and boat speed. As boat speed picks up, apparent wind shifts forward and you have to trim in some more (luffing sails will tell you when it's time).  Doesn't matter all that much on recreational sailing, but if you are racing, it makes all the difference as to the outcome. On boats as fast as Graham's designs, I suspect that a lot of the time, once the boat gets up to speed, sail trim will look like you are set for close hauled, no matter what point of sail you are on.

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Wow, 10.5 is really cooking!  Travis, you have given my life renewed purpose.  I made a plug also that wedges in, but it's a little cumbersome.  I think I read a while back on this list about somebody planning to build doors in the well.  I wonder if they had any luck.

Ray - that sounds like fun.  Why don't you drop me a line at john_manchester@hotmail.com and we can work out the particulars.

Got some stuff stuff to try now, this has been really helpful--thanks guys!

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