Launching and upgrades to 399 - another rambling post

[SailingUphill]

Doug I actually have a tuff-luff foil, not a hanked on headsail.

Here is what I do to make that easier. The tack has a bungee on it to hold the tack on. I also put a knot in the halyard after the spinlock to prevent the halyard from dropping so low as to allow the head of the sail to drop out of the tuff luff. As it happens the halyard with the knot is just slighly lower than the the spinnaker ring, so I can move it from the spin ring to the head of the sail, once I've fed the headsail into the luff groove high enough I put the halyard on, and I'm ready to launch. I can rasise it the headsail from the cockpit. The sails are old, they don't just drop, I do have to pull them down. My number 1 also has a tear in the luff, so its a bit of a circus getting the headsail to raise smoothly. I am definitely due for sails.

Because of this, I have a tiller pilot, that will hold the boat head to wind while I deal with raising and dousing sails.

Now I say all this and I sailed today, and my biggest gripe is my mainsail boltrope keeps getting jammed (probably because its old). I use a mainsail prefeeder, it should prevent that. I have found that these prefeeders are very tricky to get in JUST the right spot, but can be priceless to single hand. Allowing a pretty seamless raise of the mainsail typically.

I do a helluva lot of solo sailing. The other thing I do all the time is cross sheeting the headsail. This usually prevents the need to winch the headsail, you do one turn around the leeward winch and one on the windward winch. When you need to trim, you pull the line between the winches then quickly takeup the slack. No winch handle necessary. The trick to this though is to cleat it off at the leeward winch before you tack.

[DougH]

Thanks for the input. I also have a Raymarine tiller pilot and it has proven to be essential and wonderful. I also use it to keep the boat motoring head-to-wind for sail hoisting/lowering.

My two mainsails have bolt-rope slugs installed so hoisting or lowering the main is child's play. The mainsail cover is sized perfectly to accommodate the "bunched up" main (it bunches up at the mast when lowered).

I'll have to think about what you are doing to get your headsails to feed into the tuff-luff slot. I can do it but I do not enjoy dancing around on the fore deck, especially when the water is choppy and the wind is blowing. Lowering a headsail is not a problem as my headsails do just slide down to the deck when the jib halyard is released. Feeding that fussy luff tape into the tiny slot is where my big problems are. I always single-hand and being on the Great Lakes the wind and water condition can get dicey. I wear an EPIRB and a life jacket at all times, but I really don't want to go overboard.

[SailingUphill]

I hear you on the not wanting to go overboard, and also on the generally stiffer conditions of the great lakes.

I will say that I sail all year round on my lake, but that is not a trivial thing either. The lake is never solid, but that does not make it warm. Falling overboard while single handing is quite honestly a one way trip from about October to April, and not likely to be one I'd recover from. I am very conscious of this fact. If a boat is on a tiller pilot, one need not consider swimming to the boat, one needs to consider swimming to shore to hopefully waving down a passing boat. At the typical 40-50 degrees in Winter, assuming one does not go into shock when they hit the water immediately, you have about 15 minutes max before you completely cramp up and drown, very likely sooner.

I have fallen overboard in warm weather and warm water while solo sailing, and if not for the graces of a boatload of very helpful ladies in a ski boat (who were genuinely dubious of my plight - that is a story in itself) I'd have not gotten back aboard my boat. I was in the water about 10 minutes.
My point is I get your concern for not wanting to do foredeck work unless you have to. It is a genuine safety concern one must have at least considered before they venture out.

Unless you are racing I'd recommend at least hank on sails, but better, a furler.
The Harken Mark IV furler has a removable drum if you should decide you are going to race as well. Save the racing laminates for that and get a nice 155 dacron with sacraficial sunbrella to go on the luff. Yeah I know I'm spending your money, and that isn't a cheap upgrade.

[SailingUphill]

I still do not have pictures but upgraded the traveler to a harken small boat. So far its better than the elbow killer windward sheeting car.
replaced the windward sheeting car with a standard car and running the 1:1 up to the combing, using a continuous line. It works well to be able to drive from the rail this way.

Anyone move back to the stand up block and cam setup that I think was original to the boat (attached at center under the traveler). I moved my prior S2 to the cam on the traveler, but I'm starting to think it might be better to fix it in the middle to make it easier to release/cleat the mainsheet when the winds pipe up. I know the issue is if you drop the traveler technically the mainsheet tensions then. That was my original beef with that arragement, but I'd think that is minor compared to having the ability to easily release/recleat.

I will see if I have pictures of what I mean.
Horrible picture I know, but this I think was original to the boats.


This is what I have now (look at the mainsheet). The traveler has been upgraded to the new style harken as stated above, but note mainsheet is on the car.

[SailingUphill]

Finall a proper picture of the upgraded traveler.

[Jameso]

I prefer the block floating on the traveler. I am in a small minority, most boats i’ve looked at use the fixed block. I also added a shackle to each side of the traveler and an additional block on the combing on both sides to double the purchase. The extra purchase is helpful when the breeze is on.

[SailingUphill]

Jameso -
I was thinking of doing the same (adding purchase). I thought I read in the class rules that it had to be 1:1 but I looked them over again and I think that was only if you decided to go with adjustable genoa cars.

I found the 5/16 line I put on that car is binding up so I'm going down a size on the line. Winds were pretty hot early in our last race day (and I agree it can be a bit of a haul to pull up). I used eye straps so I could easily throw on another block to make it 2:1.

I eliminated the support under the traveler (Harken states its not needed) so if I go with a stand up block and cleat to center the mainsheet, I'm going to have to re-engineer all that.