Messages

[quote by=jonsue link=Blah.cgi?b=Cool1,m=1170447510,s=1 date=1170448507]The speaders on 3286 (for sale below, D8+ Kappa) are set at 190mm which works OK with a set of Alverbanks.
They look over raked but  are limited swing so when offwind and the l'wd shroud is off the spreader is out of the way.[/quote]

Thanks for the advice, I'm particularly keen to get tips from someone with a well-sorted identical boat.  I'm going out into the garden now and will set it up to 190mm and see what it looks like.  

A couple of questions for you.... Do you know your spreader length?  and how much mast prebend do you achieve with the rig in 'normal ' mode?

Rick: thanks for the tip about the mast step.  I can see the logic.  The male fitting in the end of the mast is heavily worn away at the aft end, which will encourage it to pivot about the forwards edge.  I've just ground it down level.  Incidently half of Smalls Cove beach fell out of the mast when I took the fitting off so I've saved 1/2 kg in the process!  

Incidentally the mast foot was previously set up way forward and I have moved it back to the textbook setting, which is central on the mast step.  Perhaps the way it was when I bought the boat works better and I should set it up with the step forwards and with more rake than normal in order to get it to bend?

As for posting photos, presumably they have to be sitting on the web somewhere first?

I 've just spent a very frustrating day trying to set my rig up and, even after a couple of phone calls to John Murrell I'm not sure I've got things right.
N3291 is a Design 8 with a Kappa mast, which seems to be so stiff I'm wandering if its been filled with concrete.

Baically when I set it all up as the Tuning Guide with the P&B published spreader length and rake it all looks OK, except that the mast stays dead straight, or even bent forward when under lots of forestay tension.  Pre-bend only happens when the shrouds are cranked on to give 400mm of rake, and even then there is only about 10mm of bend.

I 've tried drastically increasing the rake of the spreaders, clamping them in place so they don't spring forward.  I managed to achieve 35mm of pre-bend under normal mast rake and tension, but the spreaders needed to be hinged so far back that the shrouds look knock-kneed, like they've been kicked in the nuts. ..The deflecion angles are enormous.   The spreaders are now so close together they are almost touching.  Bit of an exageration that, but the spreader rake increased from the textbook 157mm to a new value of 216mm.

It all looks horribly wrong.  Any ideas?

How do I post a photo?

I'm with the Y&Y editor on this one, the pages of race write-ups in Y&Y are the dullest pages imaginable.  Surely people don't read this section cover to cover?...you just home into the race you took part in to make sure they spelt your name right.  
I can't see a report of your average race enticing anyone to take up sailing a particular class of boat.  I think the page space, and our efforts would be much better spent on publishing reports of genuinely exciting races with good photos.   Better to make a big splash a handful of times a year........

On the South West theme John is spot-on..it stops at Bristol and Weymouth.  South Cerney is even within a mile of the source of the Thames, so if that's not Thames Valley I don't know what is!  No problem with areas overlapping to help people who live on the borders though, but the bulk of SW events need to be central to the SW.

I bought the boat from Chris Brown in July 2006 and re-named it "White Riot".  It now lives on the beach at Smalls Cove in Salcombe, where we sail most weekends.  I've just completed a bit of a refit, repairing all the dents it acquired over the years and replacing most of the rigging.  It is now looking as good as new.

Construction is epoxy layup with a polyester gelcoat.  The gelcoat is not the standard Ovington colour and, since I could not get a perfect colour match I have applied a coat of 2 pack PU.  The boat will now be 500 grammes heavier, minus the weight of the original gelcoat which I sanded down.

We sail with an aluminium Kappa mast and boom.  I have discarded the enormous buoyant rudder and made a much lighter and lower-drag one, but otherwise the setup remains as before.

I'm 11st7 and I normally sail with my wife who's pre-christmas weight is about 9st7.  (She never visits this website so I should be safe!).  When it gets seriously windy or cold she chickens out and leaves me with one of my two boys who are 10 and 12 and very lightweight...all the wrong way round really, but basically the boat wants to be set up for a combined weight of about 21stone.
I want to give the boat a good overhaul, neaten up all the control lines and get all my settings right over the winter.  At the moment there's far too much guesswork involved in the rig....too many variables!

Yes we have done a fair bit of swimming.  I even managed a windward capsize a broad reach on Sunday, which kept the fleet suitably amused.  Although a beginner to dinghy racing this season I now rate myself as a bit of an expert at righting the boat!

The Tuning Guide suggests a mast rake of 200mm to 400mm for a Design 8 with a Kappa mast.  Am I correct in assuming it should stay set at about of 200mm right through the wind range until we start to get overpowered, or should we be making gradual adjustments in intermediate wind strengths?

Is the suggested 200mm to 400mm rake an up-wind setting or applicable to all points of sailing?  Should I be letting the shrouds off to let the mast go all the way up to vertical when sailing down wind?

The difference in boat speed can be considerable.  If the helmsman is clutching his chest in great pain then he has no free hands to fine-tune the mainsheet, kicker, tiller etc. then boat speed will drop off and the boat will be unable to point.  This can be a real race-looser, which is why people wear pacemakers and even go to the lengths of having them surgically implanted so no-one can see them cheating!    

I've just stumbled across the speed freaks league on the yachts and yachting website.  Lots of impressive speeds posted by various boats, but no N12's.
I'm going to try taking my gps out next time its windy.  What max speed should I be aspiring to?
How about our own league on the website?

I taped a bit of closed-cell foam around the pole at it's llower end.  It still bangs against the mast but I can't hear it.

We took the video camera down and planned to take it out in the rescue boats but the boats were too busy rescueing.  We didn't dare take the camaera out of the waterproof bag...its hard to describe just how wet the weekend was!

[quote by=John_Meadowcroft link=Blah.cgi?b=Cool,m=1160419672,s=27 date=1161598006]John
hope that you are up and running soon.  how many did Keri have on board?
meds[/quote]

Keri sailed with his 8 year old daughter Freya for race 1 and 2, but after 5 capsizes Freya very sensibly mutinied.  My son Tom then shamelessly abandonned my boat in favour of Keri's for race 3.   Seems these kids have their heads screwed on the right way!

The wind was outrageously strong and I've never sailed so fast in my life.  My wife (heavyweight crew) had also mutinied, leaving me with 10 year-old Peter to help hold the boat down.  I just had to do the run down to No.7 on the second time around even though I knew I didn't have the stamina or the crew weight (or more realistically, the ability) to get back up through the Bag again.  

Norman and Karen in Moby Quick bust their mast in a gust which blew out their jib window and capsized the whole fleet.  The 3 rescue boats worked flat out recovering 12's and Solos but everyone seemed to be grinning.  I didn't finish a single race, but I loved it!

I'm not seriously suggesting any contentious rule changes but, as an idea to think about, what would be the implications be of freeing-up the weight restrictions for AC boats only.   It will make the old boats slightly more competitive at zero cost and might lead to some re-kindling of interest or innovation in the back half of the fleet.

It will be good to see you down here in Salcombe, Rick and at the very least you are guaranteed to beat at least one boat.... (mine)

Thanks Mike,
I can see the benefit of returning the line back to the gooseneck.  Is the cascade then rigged vertically between gooseneck and mast foot ?

Perhaps autoratchets are the way forward.  I've got very old RWO ratchets on my jib sheets and they are next to useless.  Any suggestions for a decent bit of kit which won't break the bank?