Tuesday we finally got some wind to test/tune the rig. Wind was SE at 10-12 knots. It seems I got the rig fairly taught when I did the static tune on the hook. The worst offender was the cap shroud once loaded. It was fairly slack on the lee side.

I used a marlin spike along with a marlin spike hitch to do the tweaking on the rig. I untied the offending shroud, then hauled on the lanyard with all my might with the marlin spike. This technique got the shroud snug. We tacked  over and snugged up the other side.

Hauling on the lanyard with a marlin spike.

So how did the boat perform? Definitely stiffer as would be expected. In the gusts ( from 10 to around 14) she stood up amazingly well and just accelerated. When we went over some large boat wakes she pitched much less and did not cycle through another pitch after going over the wake.

All in all it was great day. Beautiful with a 10-2 knot breeze. Great company. My Main squeeze, Deb. And Kevin from a pretty little gaffer the Ruth Avery.

New years eve Deb and I plan on sailing over to Jost Van Dyke and try and make the party at Foxy’s. Weather permitting. Leaving St. Thomas we will have to beat into some predicted heavy trade winds (20kts). It will be the true test of the rig and it’s performance. After our little tune up sail, I have high expectations. When we return I will post a full report on this fascinating project.

My loyal crew. Kevin and Deb.

Until next week….CHEERS and a Happy New Year!

I only have the backstay and forestay to install, IF the anchorage is not to rolly. If I can do it, I should be able to take Shanti on a tune up sail monday.

So far:

This has been a measurement nightmare. The BCC is overbuilt. So her chainpaltes are oversized. So hardly any of the rigging pieces (deadeyes) fit. I have had to use Link plates many places. So that meant a lot of new clevis pins. Could not find any the proper size on the island, so they had to be ordered. And on and on….

Above are the 3 sizes I have used. 7mm Dynex Dux for the shrouds. 9mm for the stays, and an 11mm piece for the bobstay.

My complete rig for Shanti. Weighs about as much as one of my intermediates.

My rigging kit. Note the tin snips for cutting the Dynex. Pretty simple.

When I was installing one of the cap shrouds I had a bit of a problem. The wind was blowing pretty good. I had hoisted up the new shroud and attached it to the mast. but the wind kept blowing it out away from the boat. This stuff was so light…LOL.    very strange…

I am actually attaching my lowers in this photo. Used very nice custom mast tangs Eric Precourt made for me to accommodate the two larger thimbles the dynex requires.

A nice benefit to my 2 part halyard with a larger self tailer that I installed for my furler. My girlfriend (Deb) can easily haul my butt up the mast.

Another custom plate for the rigging. This holds the aft-lower and the intermediate. I have also decided to use some all black NE Ropes V-100 for the lashings. A little bit harder to tighten up, but not that bad with a little water for lube. This line has a vectran core that has low stretch like the Dynex does. Plus it looks so niiice….

You know what they say?

If you can’t sail good, you should at least look good!

More after the sail.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends … 

Or at least that what it feels like with this project. I installed my first pieces of rigging yesterday as a test. Measuring is a bit of a challenge. First you need good measurements. I started out using the factory measurements, but it appears mine is not standard. Easy enough to remedy, just measure your rig before you start. Oh, and don’t forget to add in the bury part of the splice for BOTH ends. I didn’t and it cost me another $300 to buy more line for my longest pieces. The hard part is figuring out how to set your measurements. when you do the splice the piece will shrink considerably. But then some of that will stretch out when the piece is set up taught. I will have more details on this when I am finished. 

My initial impressions so far: 

1) Forget about the mad Haitian with a machete, this stuff is TOUGH. Could not even faze it with a large pair of scissors or a very sharp knife. I had to use tin snips to cut it, and even that is not easy. 

2) Very stiff to begin with, but softens up when fiddled with. 

3) Splicing is easy as far as type goes, but it is time consuming. Also your hands will get sore if you try to many at once. On a scale of 1-5 with swaged fittings by a rigging shop a 1 and wire eye splices a 5, I would rate this a 3. 

4) The most difficult part is getting the measurements right.

Hi friends,

( scroll down to next post for photos )

Well the jury is in. This furler system works GREAT. I am very pleased with it. Took Shanti out for some beer can racing Wednesday night and everything worked great! Nothing like a little competition against some Farr 40′s to shake the cobwebs out.

A quick note regarding the races. They take place here in Charlotte Amalie Harbor on St. Thomas. it’s sponsored in part by OnDeck Racing. They have a fleet of Farr 40′s they take tourists match racing on for a couple of hours. So on Wednesday evenings if you are a local you can hop on board one for the beer cans. I did a couple of weeks ago and they are amazing sailing boats. The Porsche’s of sailing. We of course couldn’t touch them, but damn we looked good! Hey the beer was COLD!

Took on a couple of young bucks as crew. Told one to crank that jib halyard up tight, and boy did he. The halyard was so tight the head stay went slack and it was set at 1200# tension via a loos Gage. Will have to tighten down the backstay some more.  So the winch/2 part halyard worked as intended.

During the racing we were tacking between 85-90. So the performance has not suffered from using a flying jib. I thought it would not as long as things were set up correctly.

Furling was easy. I first I thought is was a little hard, but I guess things are just settling in ( including me ). Hauling the sail inboard with the bowsprite traveler works great and it is really simple and quick to drop the sail if need be. When I had the sail modified with the Dyneema torque rope luff line the sailmaker had taken off the telltales. So right before the race I wanted to put some more on. I just dropped the sail, then hauled in the traveler. Stuck the telltales on and set it again. Pulled on the furling line and BADABOOM it was done.

Pros:

Easy and reliable furling. With the single line furler there are no overrides ever. The angel of approach for the furling line is not critical. Depending on how things end up lining up when I haul the traveler out to the end of the sprit, mine doesn’t always line up perfectly. This has not been a problem. No problems with upper swivel breaking and jamming. Leaving the boat with a sail stuck out and up with a huge squall bearing down on you. This system still allows you to easily drop the sail.

Easy to use different head sails. I think it is much simpler than changing headsails than a standard furler in use today. Even easier than hanked on sails. I will even run an asymmetrical with it ( when I can afford one ). Dropping a furled sail allows you to easily fold up the sail and pop it in a sail bag. I prefer different size sails for different wind conditions, instead of a huge sail and reefing. Even with a foam luff on standard furlers sail shape still sucks. I’m so impressed with the way this system furls I believe that using a foam luff you could reef one of these flying jibs if you wanted. But that would have to be put to the test. This system does away with all the convoluted approaches to setting a light air sail with standard furlers. So you can have a very nice sail in light airs.

Less weight aloft for better performance. No foil draped over the headstay.

Ease of installation. You just need to rig a 2 part halyard and run your furling line back to the cockpit. Also have to have your sailmaker modify your sails with the Dyneema torque rope in the luff. Only people with long bowsprits like Shanti’s need to worry about a traveler and hauling the tack of the sail in and out. Although this worked easy also.

Cost is about the same as a standard furler unless you already have a powerful jib winch. Then the cost would be a little less.

Cons:

The only downside I can see to this system for cruisers is the need of additional storage space for a number of different sails and the additional cost of those sails. But your boat will sail better with sails matched to the prevailing conditions.

Conclusion:

If you want your boat to sail at her optimum and maybe do some club racing or just want to enjoy a nice light air day, this is an excellent system to consider. Even though todays furlers are miles ahead of the ones of yesterday shit still happens. I believe this system is safer and more reliable.

I would like to thank Erik Precourt for is co-operation and valuble insight into making this rig work.

Cheers,

Gary

Next…the standing rigging!!

Hi everyone,

A bit of an update on my furling system for those interested.

I have finally received all the bits and pieces I need to finish off my new furling system ( I think! ). 

1) Sail has been modified with Dyneema torque rope w/ an extra layer of heavy Dacron on the luff.  The extra layer was recommended by Erik Precourt. Erik also spliced up the torque rope for me. Although it is not hard to do ( I will have instructions sometime in the future ).

2) Code zero type furler From Precourt rigging. This is a small unit rated at 3000lb SWF and about the size of the palm of your hand, for the lower unit. The unit is rated for up to 450sqft of sail.

My furler is all black. Bottom part is carbon fiber. I used a length of 5/16 3 strand for the furling line.

 3) Low stretch high tech halyard XLS EXTRA T made by Samson http://www.samsonrope.com/index.cfm?rope=225 . Purchased from Defender marine as they had the best price, even better than Port Supply (West Marines wholesale division). Bought 115 feet for a 2 part halyard.

4) Some nice lignum vitae/bronze fairleads ( From Classic Marine in UK ) for the control line to the bowsprit traveler. And a couple of Herreshoff cleats for belaying the traveler control line and the furling line.

5) Small blocks for leading furling line aft to cockpit.

6) All bronze #16 Lewmar ST winch. With this winch and the 2 part halyard I should be able to get about 1200lbs on the jib luff for good performance to weather.

Some concerns I have:

1) The furler will not work well under the 1200lbs of load. May have to back of the halyard a touch to furl. We’ll see.

2) At 1200lbs the load may distort the bowsprit traveler. We’ll see.

3) What the evolution will be like to hoist the jib or headsail. Do I have to be off the wind, or can I do it into the wind. We’ll see.

Sunday a couple of friends of mine will help me set everything up. Most is done now, but the headstay has to be moved at the mast head to accommodate the 2 part halyard. Hopefully we will be sailing by Sunday afternoon.

I’ll let you know and have some pics…stay tuned!

Gary

Mini UPDATE:

Well I didn’t get a chance to take Shanti out sailing on Sunday. But I did get up the mast with the use of an ATN Topclimber. Monday I finished everything up and hoisted/furled the jib. so here are some observations.

ATN Topclimber. I moved my boat off it’s mooring and motored over to a little cove called Honeymoon Bay. I did this because where I am anchored is a bit rollie. But dinghy wakes gave me a problem anyway while in Honeymoon. It’s amazing how some people just don’t pay attention! I only had one individual slow down when he saw me up the mast. Everybody else was full tilt boogie as the passed and waked Shanti. The problem I found with the ATN was you need both hands to use it. So you don’t have anything to steady yourself against the wakes/rigging. So I found out the hard way that you need a really flat sea condition and no wakes to work aloft with an ATN Topclimber. I have bruises from being slammed into the rigging by wakes. It’s also a slow climb, but fairly easy. Coming down is harder than going up.

Furler. It’s works fine, but is not an “easy” pull to furl under the ~1200# tension. But it is sweet being so small. I need to sail and furl a few times in different conditions for a final analysis. It does furl nicely though. The “torque rope” for the luff worked very well and is the key to making the system work. Thanks Erik!

Jib traveler. I cranked up the halyard as tight as possible giving me a calculated 1200# tension on the luff of the sail. The ring did not distort! yaaaa!

I hoisted the sail while on the mooring, so I was dead into the wind ( about 8 kts ). I had to guide the sail a bit to keep the upper unit from banging the mast. It was easy though.

More to come. It looks good so far.

Gary