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Sheet Length


Don Silsbe

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It is good to allow them to go farther than square. When sailing "wing and wing"down wind at an angle, you can set them to be "square" to the wind direction. You can also set them to both forward to spill some air from the leeches to help the boat to self-steer. Kinda like dihedral on airplanes. At least I have found it to help. I'm sure that others will "chime in" on this.

 

The old timers used to let both sprits swing around towards the bow and drift downwind as they pulled their oyster tongs around the stern. That's why many of the old working sharpies had round sterns.

 

The more you sail a cat-ketch, the more you'll come to appreciate the rig. Here is an excerpt from the following article:                                                                          "Reaching & Running: Since the sprit bisects the sail load, the area above and below the sprit are balanced. So when the sheets are eased, the sails go out and stay out with none of the collapsing and filling that is the bane of the normal jib behind main. Nor is there the twisting off of the typical mainsail, when the boom lifts and causes a "death roll" in strong winds. Somewhere between a very broad reach and a run, the main sail will begin to shake and lose power. This is not a problem, just turn off the wind a bit further, jibe the main across and return to your desired course.

As you have already learned, jibing, the bane of most downwind sail-handlers is a snap. With a cat ketch rig you can also sail directly down wind, wing and wing. The boat feels stable and whisks along nicely. If the wind gets up and things get hairy, on an unstayed rig (which includes most smaller cat ketches) you can just let those sails go forward of the beam. This will immediately stabilize the boat. Also, the sails when they are allowed to go forward (about 20° ), will keep the boat tracking downwind, so it makes a very easy time of what would be the most delicate conditions for a sloop or cat rigged boat.

Taken to it's extreme, you can make delicate and gentle downwind landings in any weather by just letting the sheets go and allowing your sails fly forward completely, at the same time lifting your centerboard and letting go of the rudder pennant to lift the rudder…you glide into your (shallow) landing under complete control. This is a far cry from the usual tension and chaos of a downwind landing on a blustery day."

 

This is from this article from the Band B website: http://www.bandbyachtdesigns.com/catketch.htm

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I thought so, guys.  something that Graham said or wrote about sailing in a blow, and spilling off excess power (wind) lead me to that suspicion.  Here's a question-- is that 20 degrees off the beam or the bow?  Reason I'm asking, so early in my build, is that West Marine sent me a discount certificate.  I'd like to buy some fancy rope for my sheets using that discount, and I want to make sure that I buy enough.

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I would plan for enough line to allow the sails to go all the way forward (parallel to the keel) as mentioned in the last paragraph of Chick's quote. I found it quite useful to have my sheets that long. If you have trouble paying for the high tech stuff in that length you might consider using the high tech stuff for snotters and halyards and saving money on the sheets. Sheets are often much larger diameter than they need to be so they will be comfortable to handle - This makes them quite a bit stronger than they need to be so a lower-strength (less costly), but comfortable kind of rope can be used.

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While we are on sheets.  Has anyone considered or used unending sheets on a CS?  One problem with sheeting on each side is that you must be careful to keep the sheet tails about equal so you will always have some to let out in an emergency.  I have been thinging about an unending loop to solve this problem.

 

Any opinions out there?

 

dale

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I'm looking at New England's Buzz Line, which is specifically for dinghy sheets.  7mm.  It is soft, and it is single braid.  This will make it a breeze (pun intended) for splicing into a continuous loop.  (Great idea!)  I'm going with the smaller diameter line because of my experience with a Wayfarer.  They use 1/4" line for all the sheets, to lessen the effect of sheet weight in light air.  And we get a lot of that in these parts.  The softness will make up for the small diameter.


And "all the way forward" it is.  Thanks, guys!

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I love the continuous loop idea, Dale! The Stewarts came close to it on Dawn Patrol for a while. They had one long length of line that ran from one side of the main to the other then back to the mizzen. They had two double-ended sheets with only one piece of rope.

I wonder why my current boat doesn't have port and starboard jib sheets all in one piece... Hmm...

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I've been thinking on the continuous sheet concept. Depending on hardware, the sheets would have to remain on the boat all the time. That is assuming that you would be end splicing the rope. Otherwise, you'd have at least one pesky knot, or all your blocks and fairleads would have to be removeable. For l my boats, I stowed the sheets when not in use-- except for the Catalina 27. The alternative would be to attach the sheet ends at the clew using a fisherman's knot or two bowlines. But in doing so, you'd lose some mechanical advantage. How much purchase is needed on these boats?

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   You could try fastening all the blocks with pelican hooks or snap shackles so the whole arrangement detaches easily.

   Don't worry too much about mechanical advantage on this size boat.  If the sheet is sized to be comfortable in your hand you'll find that (at least in gusty weather) you end up holding the main sheet in your hand rather than cleating it off (no need for any winches on either sheet).  The sheeting arrangement Graham drew almost certainly takes this all into account (please take my last statement with a grain of salt since I haven't actually seen the BRS drawings, just the drawings for the CS17 and the EC22).

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The Bay River Skiff is a simpler version of the Core Sound series. No butterfly assembly at the bow-- that came later. So, there is a flatter entry at the bow. No side decks, so running snotters and downhauls aft is done less often. Otherwise, the rig is practically identical to the CS.

Many of my blocks will be attached with soft shacles made of Dyneema. They're cheap and easy, just like the girls I used to date. (Or wanted to...) but there is those darned fairleads that prevent it from becoming detachable. Can't wait to get this pile of lumber floating, so I can experiment!

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