Mainsail Questions.

[80catowner]

Good evening!

I just purchased a '80 Catalina 22. I got all the rigging up and everything seems to be working correctly except the mainsail. The luff side of the sail is completely tight when extended, but the leech side doesn't seem to be. There is a good bit of extra fabric at the bottom that hangs out from the boom. Tightening the Vang doesn't seem to help as it pulls mostly on the leech side, and I tightened the outhaul as far as I could. ll try to get some pictures but I will have to resize them to upload.

I am very new to sailing so I guess my question is how tight does the bottom of the sail need to be (I know you can add slack if you need while sailing)?

Thanks!

 

[Will Gilmore]

Welcome to our awesome and very sailorly forum. Always good to greet a new sailor. You have a nice boat there and now a great support crew to help you out. The Cat 22 is one of the most owned boats on SBO, so you are sure to get great advice.

My guess, what you are experiencing is a shrunken bolt rope. There are methods for relaxing the shrinkage, but my advice is to look at the whole sail critically and then decide it's too old and replace it. Check out the stitching, is it breaking when you flex it? Is the Dacron (sail cloth) cracking or too limp? It should be flexible and have some stiffness without being brittle. Are the eyelets rusting and straining the cloth?

An old sail takes on a poor shape and makes sailing to windward very difficult. It also can contribute to excessive heeling. Because an old, "blown out" sail has a deeper camber, the lifting force moves more aft than on a newer sail. This not only makes it slower, but changes the direction of the driving vector forces. You are forced to haul the boom in tighter for a steeper angle of attack to the wind, to keep from luffing, and thus more heeling force than driving force is generated.

Good luck and you will soon have a number of more knowledgeable sailors coming along to help and advise.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Stu Jackson]

Will's notes are very good. We had a 1981 C22, #10496, in the early 80s. Great boat. Do you have a leech line? Built into the leech of the sail. Will's note about the bolt rope is something you should learn about. Pat Royce's great book, Sailing Illustrated, has some great C22 info, and use this and the C22 website to learn more. We really had fun with Enfin.

 

[DrJudyB]

I am very new to sailing so I guess my question is how tight does the bottom of the sail need to be (I know you can add slack if you need while sailing)?

from what you wrote, I assume you saying that you can’t pull the foot of the sail tight along the boom, right? This sounds to me like the bottom of the sail ( the foot) is longer than the available space along the boom.

If I understand what you wrote, one of two things is problematic
The foot of the is stretched out or was cut too long
Somebody added extra hardware at the aft end of the boom, maybe an unnecessary pulley (block)

This doesnt sound like a a shrunken bolt rope, in my experience.

let’s see some pictures, please

JudyB
Sailmaker

 

[greg_m]

Hiya... Some questions to answer for me please:
1) is it the correct mainsail for the boat?
2) has the mainsail reached to top of the mast... is it fully hoisted?
3) is it a loose foot or bolt rope foot mail sail?

Pictures are a prequisite for newbies on this form...

 

[80catowner]

Here are the images

 

[greg_m]

Here are the images

View attachment 182716View attachment 182718

Ok .. pictures are great!

Honestly aside from a little baggy in the belly I would say I see nothing wrong!

Others may say otherwise

 

[Gene Neill]

@DrJudyB can confirm, but that looks like a "shelf foot" sail, which is built to be that way.

 

[Joe]

Need a picture of the boom end of the sail... looking forward, and looking up. I see an extra cringle just above the clew. Why don't you try rigging the sail with the cunningham as tack and that one as the clew... see what happens. You may have what's called a "flattening reef" but I leave that to the experts. Anyway, using those cringles to shorten the foot will definitely help flatten the sail. What's really important is how the boat behaves. If you're having trouble with too much weather helm, or excessive heeling, then the sail needs modifying.

 

[DrJudyB]

As @Gene Neill said, the foot of the sail is equipped with a “shelf. Way back in the day, the Catalina 22 one design Class Rules required that the fool of the mainsail to be attached to the boom. But that complicated easing the foot of the sail for more power in light air. So sailmakers added a “shelf”, a lens shaped piece of fabric between the foot of the main and the boom. The shelf construction allowed the foot of the main to be eased while still being technically attached to the boom.

building the sailwith a shelf foot begets a second problem: you cant pull the foot flat to depower the lower section of the mainsail. The solution to this problem is to put a reef ring a few inches upon the leech, abocve the clew. This is called a flattening reef (As @Joe suggested). To depower the lower section of the mainsail, you rig and tension the flattening reef. (This is done independently from adjusting the cunningham)

At some point, at least 20-30 years ago, every One Design class rewrote their Class Rules to allow loose footed sails, and foot shelf construction fell completely out of favor.Nowadays, people prefer a loose foot, with a few inches of roach added to the foot, and an outhaul. It’s simpler to operate and just as powerful.

The sail does look rather baggy to me, but you can’t be sure how bad it is sitting at the dock. it might look better ( or worse) under sail.

Judy B

 

[Richie50]

Pat Royce's great book, Sailing Illustrated, has some great C22 info, and use this and the C22 website to learn more.

Great series of books. Took Stu’s advise many years back. You can find them as used books online.