First REAL sail with the Sandpiper! Couple Questions...
Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2013 11:53 am
Besides the maiden voyage there has never been any wind the two times I have gone out. All last week I was watching the weather and it had been calling for 10-15 mph winds all weekend so I was excited to go out. Saturday morning rolls around and it is overcast, drizzling and my wife was not looking forward to our trip. I live about 30 minutes away from my boat and the trees were barely blowing so I was starting to loose excitement as well.
Pulling up to the ramp to start rigging the boat you could barely see flags flying in the marina and the water looked pretty calm in the bay. As we were launching a Sunfish was coming in and he said the wind was great out in the river once you got out of the bay, and boy was he right. Wind had to have been a steady 20 mph with gusts probably up to 30 mph and I had a completely novice crew and I am not very experienced myself.
I don't know the percentage of our Genoa but it is pretty big headsail. I wasn't expecting such high winds so I had rigged up the genoa instead of the storm jib, but I didn't want to change sails so I could get a good learning experience in heavier winds. Luckily my crew wasn't a bunch of pansies and they were only slightly anxious at the high level of heel we had with such high winds. I did learn quite a bit about how the boat behaves in high winds.
I certainly learned that my homemade rudder (http://www.chryslersailors.com/discussi ... php?t=4136) is not great at countering the sail/heel steering in high winds. It is just too thin to create a good enough airfoil shape so it looses efficiency real fast if you have to turn it much. I need to look into getting a thicker piece of HDPE to shape or make one out of wood. I had a blast in the high winds and I want to do it every chance I get so I want to build a rudder that can handle it. Would making it taller than OEM help?
Leading car blocks for the genoa... Where do you guys place them? I had mine just stern of the back window and I don't think they were far enough back to get a really flat sail. I certainly did not need the power from a deep camber but I couldn't get it to flatten out.
Also do you run your sheets on the outside of the life line so it goes straight to the leading car block or do you make the sheet come over the lifeline then down to the block?
How do you keep your sheets from overlapping themselves on the winch? If I wrap it 2 times and pull the sheet during a tack it stays nice and flat on the winch but if I wrap it 3+ times the sheets try to overlap themselves and get into a knot on the winch. In order for my winch to even grab the sheet while using the winch handle it has to be wrapped 4+ times and even then you have to pull on the sheet while using the handle for it not to slip. These are brand new 3/8" sheets (not cheap) so I was hoping they would grip better. When it is wrapped that many times you can only get about two revolutions of the handle before the sheets create a knot.
Also I found it hard to work the winch in high winds because the crew had to be on the leeward side of the boat to counteract the heeling, and to get to the working sheets you had to jump to the low side to turn the handle. Do you guys run the sheet up to the windward winch and just bypass it and work the sheet from the leeward winch so you can stay on the high side?
I have to run but I have more questions to ask. I appreciate any comments and advice you can provide.
Thanks,
Zac
Pulling up to the ramp to start rigging the boat you could barely see flags flying in the marina and the water looked pretty calm in the bay. As we were launching a Sunfish was coming in and he said the wind was great out in the river once you got out of the bay, and boy was he right. Wind had to have been a steady 20 mph with gusts probably up to 30 mph and I had a completely novice crew and I am not very experienced myself.
I don't know the percentage of our Genoa but it is pretty big headsail. I wasn't expecting such high winds so I had rigged up the genoa instead of the storm jib, but I didn't want to change sails so I could get a good learning experience in heavier winds. Luckily my crew wasn't a bunch of pansies and they were only slightly anxious at the high level of heel we had with such high winds. I did learn quite a bit about how the boat behaves in high winds.
I certainly learned that my homemade rudder (http://www.chryslersailors.com/discussi ... php?t=4136) is not great at countering the sail/heel steering in high winds. It is just too thin to create a good enough airfoil shape so it looses efficiency real fast if you have to turn it much. I need to look into getting a thicker piece of HDPE to shape or make one out of wood. I had a blast in the high winds and I want to do it every chance I get so I want to build a rudder that can handle it. Would making it taller than OEM help?
Leading car blocks for the genoa... Where do you guys place them? I had mine just stern of the back window and I don't think they were far enough back to get a really flat sail. I certainly did not need the power from a deep camber but I couldn't get it to flatten out.
Also do you run your sheets on the outside of the life line so it goes straight to the leading car block or do you make the sheet come over the lifeline then down to the block?
How do you keep your sheets from overlapping themselves on the winch? If I wrap it 2 times and pull the sheet during a tack it stays nice and flat on the winch but if I wrap it 3+ times the sheets try to overlap themselves and get into a knot on the winch. In order for my winch to even grab the sheet while using the winch handle it has to be wrapped 4+ times and even then you have to pull on the sheet while using the handle for it not to slip. These are brand new 3/8" sheets (not cheap) so I was hoping they would grip better. When it is wrapped that many times you can only get about two revolutions of the handle before the sheets create a knot.
Also I found it hard to work the winch in high winds because the crew had to be on the leeward side of the boat to counteract the heeling, and to get to the working sheets you had to jump to the low side to turn the handle. Do you guys run the sheet up to the windward winch and just bypass it and work the sheet from the leeward winch so you can stay on the high side?
I have to run but I have more questions to ask. I appreciate any comments and advice you can provide.
Thanks,
Zac