Cheshire Cat Set Up

[Justin (Guest)]

Hi 

I'm new to N12's and just getting a wooden Cheshire Cat ready to go sailing. I'm looking for some info on 'basic' set up. I'm just returning to sailing after a break of ahh hmmm years and whilst I'm not intending to go racing seriously I would like to get it somewhere near! I last sailed Lasers so I'm a bit clueless on rigging this and have lost the info I had when I bought it last year!

I have some basic measurements here having just dropped the mast in.

Centre of mast foot to transom - 2525mm 

The P&B mainsail has about 95mm curve in the luff. 3/4ht 1080 1/2 ht 1687 1/4 ht 2091 measurements on the sail.

Rake at the moment appears to be zero! With just one shackle on the end of the forestay.

What I'd like to know is with a wooden Cheshire Cat what sort of figure I should be aiming at for :-

• Rake
  
• Mast bend for that sail
  
• Shroud Tensions to aim for
  
• Centre of mast to transom as the foot is adjustable
  

I'm not intending to fiddle around with it too much as on inland waters and short legs so don't need adjustability. I have some turnbarrel adjusters on the main shrouds and was going to get a fixed short shroud made down to the highfield levers for easy of rigging with the turnbarrrels giving the adjustment. Is this an ok set up?

What would be a normal rigging procedure?

Connect the fixed length forestay and using the highfield levers on the LH/RH to gain the tension reqd? (once the the rake and bend is adjusted correctly)

How much tension on the jib halyard compared to the forestay?

Looking forward to having a play this year ....... once it warms up a bit!!

Anyone sailing a N12 near to Ashby de la Zouch that I could see sailing?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Justin

[jonathan_twite]

Hi, have a poke around the website, you'll find plenty of info including a full rigging and tuning guide.  I had my Paper Dart setup wrong at the begining of last year and the difference a few basics made were immense.  There are lots of combinations of deck design, rig controls and mast type, so its about knowing what you want to achieve and working out how to do that with your settings.  This is what some class "experts" told me to get me started...

Rake is hard to measure the "proper way" (tape measure to transom) as all N12 can differ.  Rake should be so that the halyard hangs to 6-12in away from the mast at the gooseneck.

The mast must not bend forwards (I require a rope from the mast at deck level to the front of the boat to stop my very bendy mast inverting)

I was told that the forestay is always removed when sailing leaving just the jib halyard.  Certainly when I forget to remove it, the jib luff just bulges out and I can't point.

I'm sure people with infinately more experience and ability than me can flesh this out more.  Have fun