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Thread: What's your project list?

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    Southern California
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    5

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lanikai View Post
    Yep. And I'd say if your boat isn't already set up with halyard and reef lines going to the cockpit, don't bother, just do it all at the mast. I went to the trouble of installing all the hardware needed for single line reefing to the cockpit, and then regretted it. Tons of friction and lots of swear words and still needed to get on the cabin top to help crank in the clew end anyway. But!

    Then I "invented" a new technique using the topping lift and now I love it! Of course, this is probably how most people do it and I'm just slow to the game. Obviously only works if you have a topping lift and no rigid vang.
    1: release the vang
    2: drop the halyard some, but not all the way, so the reef cringle on the luff is still clear of the boom, gooseneck, etc. The reef line tends to foul on stuff if the cringle is all the way down.
    3: pull the topping lift so the boom comes up to meet the reef cringle on the leech. Pull in the slack on the reef line -- easy peasy! Waaay less friction. Tie/clutch it off.
    4: release the topping lift
    5: drop the halyard the rest of the way and pull in the remaining slack
    6: vang on

    You'd think that during step 5 the clew end would quickly take any slack and ruin your nice tight reef, but for whatever reason this either hasn't happened or results in just a couple inches that need to be cranked back in. The whole process has made my 1st reef process go from about 5 minutes to less than 1. 2nd reef is also easier using the same process, but a little uglier since the lines and cheek blocks tend to foul with the sail folds from the 1st reef.
    If I could go back in time put the effort and money toward other projects, however, I would. Reefing at the mast isn't so bad.

    All that has added to my project list: modify mainsail so the bottom slides are on a loose line (whatever the proper term for that setup is), not stitched hard against the luff rope. Got a nice little tear cranking the luff cringle down toward the cheek block on the boom, instead of to the reef hook that it was designed for.

    The rest of my own project list is very croozer related. I'll spare everyone the horror.
    Thank you, friction bothers me, too.
    I will try,
    Like from BobJ's post suggested, I will stay with slab.

  2. #32
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Humboldt Bay
    Posts
    135

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    I know there's been talk among some about not bringing a spinnaker. One of the first projects I will undertake when I get home is setting my boat up for easy spinnaker handling.
    My passage to Kauai this year was fraught with light wind. I had no spinnaker. Although we were just cruising to Hawaii, I was still.kicking myself for not bringing one. I discovered that light to no wind on an ocean crossing is more terrifying than a gale...at least for me.

  3. #33
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steevee View Post
    I know there's been talk among some about not bringing a spinnaker. One of the first projects I will undertake when I get home is setting my boat up for easy spinnaker handling.
    My passage to Kauai this year was fraught with light wind. I had no spinnaker. Although we were just cruising to Hawaii, I was still.kicking myself for not bringing one. I discovered that light to no wind on an ocean crossing is more terrifying than a gale...at least for me.
    That's for Carliane's boat, Kyntanna. Kyntanna is a Freedom 38...an "almost catboat". Look up pictures online. There is a foretriangle for a headssail, but it's a dinky little thing and the hoist only goes halfway up the mast. Well....3/5ths of the way. Using her standard halyards and so on, she'll get a spinnaker fit for a 28 foot boat, on her 38 foot cruiser. I kind of don't think that makes a lot of sense, but that's just me.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  4. #34
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    3,485

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    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    Drake's Bay races this weekend make me as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine!
    No no no. It's "happy as a pig in mud". City slicker.
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  5. #35
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
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    Humboldt Bay
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
    That's for Carliane's boat, Kyntanna. Kyntanna is a Freedom 38...an "almost catboat". Look up pictures online. There is a foretriangle for a headssail, but it's a dinky little thing and the hoist only goes halfway up the mast. Well....3/5ths of the way. Using her standard halyards and so on, she'll get a spinnaker fit for a 28 foot boat, on her 38 foot cruiser. I kind of don't think that makes a lot of sense, but that's just me.
    Got it.

  6. #36
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Montara, CA
    Posts
    803

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    Quote Originally Posted by Wylieguy View Post
    Back to serious projects! Mine is keeping the @#&%$ (or whatever an Aussie would say) Tides Marine track hooked into the clips on the mast. Gordie and have had the mast out 3 times and I'm still pulling track off at the bottom batten. But then Wyliecats are weird I suppose. %@?&+ it all!
    I have a Tides Marine track, too, and the first night out on the LongPac I went to reef, but the thing pulls all the way down to the boom. What's the worse that can happen, I said, and kept on sailing. The next morning, I needed to unreef and figured that as the halyard tensions up, the track will rise with it. No go. And that big pouch in the sail is messing with my racer mentality, so I did what any self respecting sailor would do...got the crow bar and hammer out (ask Michael Jefferson - they're my favorite tools). That @#&%$ track still never fully went all the way back up until I was back in the estuary 3 1/2 days later and could really pound on it. Thanks for reminding me to put this on the list. I had burnished it from my memory till now!

  7. #37
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
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    96

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gamayun View Post
    I have a Tides Marine track, too, and the first night out on the LongPac I went to reef, but the thing pulls all the way down to the boom. What's the worse that can happen, I said, and kept on sailing. The next morning, I needed to unreef and figured that as the halyard tensions up, the track will rise with it. No go. And that big pouch in the sail is messing with my racer mentality, so I did what any self respecting sailor would do...got the crow bar and hammer out (ask Michael Jefferson - they're my favorite tools). That @#&%$ track still never fully went all the way back up until I was back in the estuary 3 1/2 days later and could really pound on it. Thanks for reminding me to put this on the list. I had burnished it from my memory till now!
    What variety of hammer was employed? Everything works better (crowbars, drift pins, screw drivers, wrenches) with a 3 lb drilling hammer.

  8. #38
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    Jan 2013
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    Montara, CA
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnS View Post
    What variety of hammer was employed? Everything works better (crowbars, drift pins, screw drivers, wrenches) with a 3 lb drilling hammer.
    It's quite a small hammer actually. I also have a sledgehammer (what I believe you're calling a drilling hammer) for when I'm really frustrated, which I was after this weekend's sail to Drakes Bay. The @#&%$ track slipped again right off the bat and conditions were too big to go pounding on it though in hindsight I really should have tried because it created a huge pooch in the sail when I wasn't reefed. This meant I couldn't point well, which in a Freedom is already a problem, and it was just a huge bash all the way up there. So now this item and fixing the reef lines have moved up to the top spots on my list...getting a back up navigation system has also moved up in priority, too, after navigating Drakes Bay in the dark with chart alone.

  9. #39
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Santa Rosa
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    644

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    My problem isn't the track sliding down. There's a large bolt holding it in place at the top that also serves as the sail stop (the bottom is loose so it can flex when the unsupported Wylie carbon mast bends off to leeward in a blow - 3 feet or more - which bends the mast, shortening the track distance - like belly wrinkles when us older slightly overweight guys bend over). The problem is the track "jumps" off the clips where the battens land against the mast. Creates a "pooch" in the track which I can sort of smooth out by over trimming the dowhhaul - the tack "floats" so the downhaul is the Cunningham. I'll put more clips where the bottom batten lands, creating an almost solid "clip" for the track to slide onto. Since the mast flexes the track needs to move up and down. Sort of complicated to describe to the "shroud crowd."

    I had a real hammer on my Newport 30 - came with the boat. I never figured out why. But it sat in the tool drawer rusting away for as long as I owned the boat. Didn't help me go faster! --Pat ;-)

  10. #40
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
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    96

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    All kidding about the improved function of wrenches and screwdrivers aside, the drilling hammer (mini-sledge) is much more persuasive for things like moving stuck roll pins and other suck ilk. Or more aptly for us in the "shroud crowd" punching clevis pins out of chain plates in the unfortunate event that such surgery should become necessary. With the much larger mass of the drilling hammer you need not wail at the object of your affection with reckless abandon, so your efforts are likely to be more accurate. Plus, the mini-sledge has a much larger face so improved odds of making actual contact. If you ever have a chance to work on some recalcitrant pins in a shop setting, try it with a 16 oz claw hammer (what most of us envision when someone says "hammer") and then with the drilling hammer. It's an interesting experiment.

    As for making you go faster, you need to relocate said hammer from the drawer to the bottom of the bilge.

    John (who is now possessed of a strong urge to have an up close look at a Wyliecat 30 mast)

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