I'd lose the block and go with an inexpensive Ferrule or just a line through the metal eye.
I'd lose the block and go with an inexpensive Ferrule or just a line through the metal eye.
I could get one of those ferrules-in-the-dyneema loop things. I'd rather have the block installed on a spare jib track slider, as a backup. I've got one, and I've got the slider for the second one.
Anyway, finally today about 2:00 the wind kicked in. I had about an hour and a half of 10 knots of breeze and flat water to test the windvane. Fail. Utter fail. Not even close.
Six-plus month, hundreds of hours of work and a couple hundred bucks down the tubes. The windvane doesn't work. The inherent instability of the rudder/tiller is too much for the vane to handle. If the tiller ever goes more than about 15-20 degees off center, the load skyrockets and the tiller heads for the leeward side of the boat much harder than any vane/trimbtab can control. Maybe I could build another rudder or something but it's time to cut my losses and just throw money into autopilots. Not untll after March 15th, though.
Last edited by AlanH; 02-07-2021 at 08:59 PM.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
So sorry to hear, Alan.
While driving home from Grass Valley yesterday, we listened to a podcast about Iver Norman Lawson, the chemist who invented WD-40. The 40 represents the number of times it took him until he got the right combination of ingredients. I suppose wind vane steering devices are like that.
I know why it doesn't work. I just didn't think it would be that much of a problem.
I tallied it up. Total amount of money wasted on the windvane, $530.35. The HOURS spent, easily 150+. At $15 an hour that's $2,250 worth of my time. So $2800 and my entire Winter vacation...Wasted. All right, then. So be it. Move on.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
New sheets for the assy are here. Should I put shackles on them or tie them on? Hmm.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
Soft shackles.
https://l-36.com/soft_shackles.php?menu=4
Last edited by Intermission; 02-13-2021 at 09:11 AM. Reason: Added link
On Ragtime! I tied them on. BTW, 12' of each sheet at the sail end was stripped to slide more easily around the rolled jib (I did inside gybes).
For Surprise! I had the sheets made with small eye splices in the sail ends (still stripped for 12-14') and I attach them with soft shackles. Heavier boat = more load so knots would be harder to untie. It takes just as long to fiddle with the soft shackles as to tie bowlines (plus the need for eye splices and the shackles, plus a spare or two), so on your boat I'd just tie on the sheets.
Added PSA: Look at your spinny halyard and sheave with an eye towards it being hoisted for hours on end. I replaced the sheave and smoothed up the sheave box, and had a low-friction cover put on the halyard end. Then once in the trades, ease/trim the halyard a few inches every few hours to move the wear points.