sheets length

[PinoyPiper]

will be launching my cs 17 tomorrow. can anyone tell me how long the main and mizzen sheets should be. I'll be buying some lines tomorrow.

cheers/roy

[Peter HK]

will be launching my cs 17 tomorrow. can anyone tell me how long the main and mizzen sheets should be. I'll be buying some lines tomorrow.

My plans (from 2006) listed mainsheet at 42 ft and mizzen at 35 ft...I doubt they have changed.

I've used 8 mm for the main and it works well. For the mizzen, as I've rigged it to lead along the boom and down to a swiveling cleat on the thwart, I've changed to 6mm as the smaller line seems to run through the blocks more freely and the tensions are so low the 6mm line doesn't worry my hands. I suppose 8mm and larger blocks would probably work nearly as well, if you find handling a 6mm line a problem.

If you rig as per plans with the mizzen sheet double ended to aft cleats the 8 mm will be fine.

Good luck on the launch

Cheers

Peter HK

[Tom Lathrop]

Length of you sheets depends on how you rig them and how you wish to sail. The cat ketch can sail downwind with the sails swung well forward of the beam. This calls for extra length in the sheets. Cleating the sheets in a central location at the base of the mizzen takes less length than the method on the plans. In any case, more length is better than too little. You can always cut them.

[Peter HK]

Cleating the sheets in a central location at the base of the mizzen takes less length than the method on the plans

I don't think this is correct.

If you imagine a rigged-per-plan CS17 running square with the mizzen eased out perpendicular to the centreline then the minimum length of sheet needed is double the length from the attachment on the transom to the clew and twice the length from transom to the cleats near the aft bulkhead. As the foot of the sail and the distance from mizzen mast to transom are both about 7ft, by Pythagorean theorem the transom to clew length is the square root of 7 squared times 2, ie 49 +49 = 98... close enough to 100, the square root of which is 10ft. Thus total sheet length is 10x2 plus 2x2 equals 24 ft.

By the same estimation, the length of a mizzen sheet led to the centre thwart is 20 ft plus the length of the boom plus the length of the descending part from the block on the mast to the cleat. This is approximately 20 ft plus 7 ft plus 5 ft equals 32 ft.

Of course extra is needed for tails and easing the boom forward of the beam but this is the same for both systems.

Cheers

Peter HK