The things being the big white flappy sheets that hang off the mast. I'm given to understand that they are supposed to be sails but my understanding of sails is that they form an aerofoil shape and generate lift. Ours don't do either terribly well! Added to that, I've suspected from the start that they were specified over-size for the boat and the final nail in the coffin is that the genoa UV strip is disintegrating and the sail itself has loose stitching in several places.
So the answer is new sails and happily, now that we've put the whole "new boat" thing to bed, we can afford to replace them and it's worth while doing so. So what is it going to entail? ...
Well to start with, the Bosun and I laid out the existing sails down his hall and living room floor the other day for a measure up and we confirmed the sizes I'd pulled off the sail plan I've got. We also confirmed that, as suspected, the existing genoa is a 150% jobby. I plan to drop that to a 130% or maybe 135% and the new sail will also have a foam luff fitted. It will also be a little shorter in the luff to lift the tack attachment higher off the deck (for reasons I will elucidate later)
Although this is a significant loss of sail area, I believe that the combination of a new sail, the foam luff and not hanging the foot of the sail up on the pulpit rail should actually result in an improvement in performance.
For certain, the smaller genoa will be easier to tack in light airs where the current evil beast just hangs up on the shrouds nearly every time. That tends to result in our motoring upriver a lot of the time rather than short tacking because there's nothing quite as dispiriting as tacking the boat round and then having to turn right off the wind to get the genoa free and through only to find that by the time you've turned back upriver again you're all but back to where you started the tack in the first place.
And the foam luff, coupled with the slightly smaller area of the full sail, should help avoid that other galling scenario - having to motor because there is too MUCH wind! Once we get up into a solid F4, the 150% genoa rapidly needs a lot of reduction in area to keep the boat reasonably upright and as soon as there's more than a couple or three rolls around the foil the sail is shaped so badly it's all but impossible to point up to windward at all. Even on a beam reach the performance when reefed is less than stellar.
The new genoa is a definite, all that remains to be decided is the details of the sail and who gets the job of supplying it. (More on that another day).
Whilst we're at it, we might as well sort out the main as well. The current sail is almost certainly the same age as the genoa (it's from the same supplier, Hong Kong Sails) and it's pretty tired. It's also cut with a decidedly obtuse angle between the luff and the foot which results in the boom drooping downwards. Given that it's also cut longer in the luff than originally envisaged, this results in a boom which barely clears the sprayhood and definitely doesn't look right to the eye.
I'm undecided about how much length, if any, to take off the luff of the mainsail. It should be a good 8" or even 10" shorter which would allow the gooseneck to be set up close to the throat of the slider track on the mast. This would overcome the current problems with reefing and stowing the sail caused by either having to allow the bottom two or three sliders to drop out of the track or (as we have done) fitting a track stop and having to go to the mast to raise the gooseneck when reefing or stowing the sail.
If I decide to keep the extra length in the luff, it will mean fitting a tack downhaul adjustable from the cockpit so that we can allow the gooseneck to ride up when reefing or lowering the main and haul it down again when setting sail. With a purchase on this line, we'd also be able to get some decent tension in the luff which is not easy to achieve at present. On the other hand, it's an extra layer of complexity and I'm not certain it's worth the effort.
Either way, we definitely need to sort out the kicking strap arrangements, get the genoa track cars moving again and, finances permitting, replace the mismatched and clapped out sheet winches.
There are two jobs I want to look at on the standing rigging before she goes back in the water ...
One is to replace the original adjusters on the aft lower shrouds with bottle screws (which has already been done on every other location on board!) and slightly reduce the length of the shrouds which currently have very little adjustment in them.
The second job is to shorten the forestay (or preferably, if the reefing foil will come apart without damage, replace the forestay completely) and lift the reefing drum higher off the deck and clear of the bow roller. It would seem a no brainer, whilst we're at it, to fit some means of adjusting the length of the forestay as well.
The purpose of the exercise is threefold -
Firstly I want to lift the genoa foot a bit higher off the deck, partly because it hooks badly over the pulpit rail (which ruins the shape of the sail and isn't good for it) and partly so we can actually see under the sail and thus avoid hitting things. It's only been by luck that we haven't collected two navigation buoys, three racing marks and a Leisure 27 so far!
The second purpose of the exercise, and the more important reason at that, is to get enough clearance between the reefing drum and the bow roller to allow an anchor to be stowed, deployed and recovered on the roller. It's currently totally impossible to do this which means hoisting the anchor between the forestay and the vertical rail on the pulpit, through a fairly narrow gap, every time we set or recover the damn thing. It's not particularly easy for me to do, totally impossible for Jane to attempt, and risks getting mud on the genoa (or worse still snagging it with the anchor in passing). This is beyond a simple inconvenience as not being able to deploy the anchor quickly in an emergency is a key safety issue.
Next year (I don't think we can quite stretch to it this year) we may well add a gennaker / cruising chute and a whisker pole setup to the rig. That would, in fact, pretty much put the rig to bed (which tempts me to try and find the extra cash this year but I don't think it's going to be do-able)
So with the boat suitably rigged, what next? Well you'll have to wait for part 3 for that pleasure!
Don't fret though, I'm on a roll so it'll probably be along quite shortly
No comments:
Post a Comment