New sail layout...

[Rob Blackburn]

http://homepage.mac.com/blackburns/Expeditions/PhotoAlbum136.html

Have got my boat in the water and tried out the changes to the sails.

The basic concept is that you can have your cake and eat it in the form of unbattened rig with luff pocket for ease of trailing and use ie can be rolled up with being able to reef whilst out on the water without moving masts...

So gave it a go and it looks good. It sets very flat so in a blow it won't flog around too much, the zipper works well and the simple wood halyard/block thang on the top of the mast works well too.

It needs an extra reef hole on the luff end of the sails and otherwise it seems pretty simple. I was worried the luff would go funny on the sail when in the normal position but it is fine. You can easily pull any wrinkles out with downhaul.

Think I will get my stainless welder bloke to make me a horn cleat sort of thing to put the downhaul onto on the opposite side to the current plastic horn cleat. Otherwise may just get a large saddle to clip it onto. Might be easier. At present there is rope everywhere at the bottom of the masts.

Rob

[Stan Robert]

Rob,

looks great

I am trying to picture it a bit more.... What does your halyard attach to? To reef do you:

- unclip the sprit

- slacken halyard

- pull downhaul

- unzip and tie off foot

- reclip sprit

[ricardo]

rob,

then you have your halyard running inside the luff pocket?

ric

oh, now I saw the halyard running outside the pocket in the "spaghetti" close up pic.

it seems a cool set up for me...

[Rob Blackburn]

Yes, simple enough to do that is the exact procedure.

I have a problem in that the luff pocket is tight at the bottom mast section. It pulls down to exactly the right spot with no slack left. I had the halyard inside the luffpocket but it was really tight even with that little bit of rope in it so left it outside. Think I will send sails back and have luff increased by 1cm all along. Very inefficient way of doing things and of course more expensive but I am doing this for my wife really....

I sort of think this will work for me but having had the boat a couple of years now you really can carry a full set of sail if you have a fair bit of weight aboard in quite a bit of wind. It is when you are out a bit in a big bit of water and you are lightly loaded, that is when i get nervous. This should work well by heaving the boat to with the mizzen and doing the main first and then the mizzen. Conceivably you could do main only if you are in reaching or downwind conditions I guess.

Rob

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Rob

I am looking at your system as I need a better way to reef - especially when I am alone on the boat.

Can you tell me what arrangement you have at the top of the mast for the halyard ( I take it that you have opened the webbing that would have closed in the top of the sleeve).

Also was I very expensive to get the zip, second opening for the sprit and reefing points put in.

Having set up with sleeves it seems that following your method may be less of a hassle (and less expense) then redoing the whole luff to work with a sail track, and installing the track.

Also have you worked out a way to undo and reattach the snotter/sprit without having to climb out onto the for deck.

[Rob Blackburn]

The top of the masts were changed from a plastic plug to a turned wooden thingo with a sheave running on a 3/16 inch bolt. I got the retired butcher and his lathe onto that one. Cost me a bottle of wine.

The tops of the sails were opened and a 2cm webbing loop sewn onto the aft sid of the opening.

Cost wise.. it was more than I wanted to pay.. about $500. But don't tell anyone here that. (not that they would mind but)

There seems to be no way to redo the snotter etc. But I rely on using a clove hitch with a figure of 8 knot in the end to attach to the mast and that is pretty easy to do. If you did it right and the luff pocket was bigger then you could leave it on ie only unclip and reclip the snotter.

You do come up against the being up on "the heaving deck alone" problem of course.

So I guess I have come full circle on this. You look at the articles on old sharpies and they have a laced sail with halyard with a sprit. Does not fit in with modern visions of the sail that one wants but it would be easy to live with.

If you go down the track route with all controls aft ie halyard, downhaul, snotter tension etc I reckon you are getting further from that 'truth' ie a simple boat with a simple rig. I guess there is no real solution that covers everything.

I reckon if I was to have my time over I would investigate glass/carbon fibre hollow masts for lightness and strength with a track and no battens for rolling up. I would put a halyard on.

How is the weather over your side of the ditch? Warming up?

R