New owner of sailboat with Seldon genaker bow sprit. Questions???

[elink]

I bought a sailboat with a retractable bow sprit for using a genaker. Unfortunately I am not 100% sure how its used. The bow sprit appears to click into a couple of pad eyes on the deck for retracted or extended which seems obvious enough. The part I am not sure about is the length of line running through inside the length of it. The line is quite long. Again its pretty obvious that the tack of the genaker, or a furling rig would attach to the forward end of this line, but what about the other end? Would I attach the other end to another line run back to the cockpit and locked in a brake or winch? Is this meant to be adjustable? Adjustable for maybe different sizes of sail? Or adjustable for different shapes of the sail? The sprit is similar to the attached photo but the line seems at least 1-2 meters longer that the sprit. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Calif. Ted]

It is desirable to be able to adjust the tack to match the clew and keep the foot of the sail level. I used to crew on a boat with similar sprit and can't remember how we rigged it. Not my job, I was mainsail trimmer and backup helmsman. It's best for max efficiency but some people just set it at a "happy medium" and rarely adjust. Something like "sternum height", depending on boat, sail, etc. as always.

 

[jssailem]

1). but what about the other end?
2). Would I attach the other end to another line run back to the cockpit and locked in a brake or winch?
3). Is this meant to be adjustable?
4). Adjustable for maybe different sizes of sail?
5). Or adjustable for different shapes of the sail?

1). You will want to be able to adjust the tack of the sail while you are sailing. Running a line back to the cockpit will enable this. It can be run along the deck or similar to a furling line along the life line stanchions. This is an owners choice. If you have a foredeck person in your race crew, you can leave the line short and have the crew make the adjustments. I personally would have the line in the run to the cockpit.
2). The line could be to a cam cleat if racing. You will have frequent enough changes in short races that this would be a reasonable approach. I cruise and have infrequent adjustments. I like a cleat. I also like the Spinlock cam cleat as an option.
3). Yes
4). No
5). Yes. It is a trim tool. When you fly an asymmetrical or a gennaker, you want the sail up high and out in front of the boat on the down wind set. As you move closer to a beam reach you will want to trim in the tack. If you use the sail on a close reach you wan the sail tack to be taut to the head of the sprit. Trim for speed what ever you do.

 

[BarryL]

Hello,

Last year I added a retractable sprit to my boat. The purpose is for racing. The tack line runs from the sprit all the way back to the cockpit, where is is led through a cam clutch and then to a winch. For racing the tack line must be long enough to reach from the end of the sprit to the tack of the sail when the sail is inside the boat (V Berth on my boat).

When racing the procedure to set the spinnaker is:
bow man attaches sheets and tack line when spinnaker is still in the V Berth.
As we approach the windward mark the bowman attaches the spinnaker halyard
When we're a few boat lengths from the mark the tack is pulled from the V Beth to the end of the sprit. The bowman helps pull the sail out of the bag, and up through the vberth. Crew in the cockpit pulls tack line until the tack of the sail is at the end of the sprit.
Once we round the mark and head downwind the foredeck crew jumps the halyard as the bowman pulls the sail up and out of bag / hatch.
When the sail is all the way up the spin trimmer does his job and the headsail is dowsed, furled, whatever.

We sail downwind as fast as possible.

Sometimes we adjust the tackline as we're sailing but those adjustments are not often done. If it's breezy and we can sail more down wind then we'll ease the tack and let the sail rotate up and to weather. If it's not so breezy and we need to sail a hotter angle we can pull the tack line down.

So you can see that the tack line must be very long to be able to reach the sail inside the v berth.

If you're not racing then I suppose your tack line could be much shorter and led to a cleat near the bow. Note that if you don't have a winch you will NOT be able to adjust the tack while sailing. Under any decent breeze, even 10 kts, the loads on the sheets and tack are enormous and you will NOT be able to pull the tack down by hand.

You mentioned using a gennaker but you didn't mention using a sock or furler. A sock makes setting and dousing much easier but is too slow for racing. A furler is GREAT but is not recommended for use with a retractable sprit as you can't get enough tension on the furling unit unless you add a bobstay or something like that to the sprit.

Barry

 

[Scott T-Bird]

I've been interested in obtaining a Selden sprit with a gennaker but it seems that mounting the sprit would interfere with the anchor locker. How is this dealt with? Is the sprit easily removed and stored when it comes time to anchor?

 

[BarryL]

Hi,

Yes, you can just slide the tube back and completely remove it.

There are a number of options, most people tend to slide it back and 'park' it on the deck. Note that the pole will be a lot longer than you think, so storing it below may not be so easy. You could buy mounts to store it on the lifelines like a whisker pole. You may need to find a way of managing the tack line but that's not that big a deal.

Barry

I've been interested in obtaining a Selden sprit with a gennaker but it seems that mounting the sprit would interfere with the anchor locker. How is this dealt with? Is the sprit easily removed and stored when it comes time to anchor?

 

[elink]

I've been interested in obtaining a Selden sprit with a gennaker but it seems that mounting the sprit would interfere with the anchor locker. How is this dealt with? Is the sprit easily removed and stored when it comes time to anchor?

The way it’s set up on my boat is the bow sprit is retracted to one side along the gunwale which allows me to open the anchor locker without any hindrance. The sprit winds up extending not quite straight ahead of the centerline of the boat as a result. I don’t expect this hurts the performance in a great way.

 

[elink]

Thanks for all the input folks. I should have enough info for an attempt once I have enough crew on hand. Not going to solo this on a first try

 

[Barnacle Bill]

The major purpose of having a sprit is to push the asymmetrical spinnaker out away from the bow of the boat to keep the mainsail from blanketing it from the wind. The tack line should be run through a block at the outboard end of the sprit and lead back to the cockpit for convenient adjustment. There are times (heavy air) when you need to tighten the luff, or if you are pointing closer to the wind and also pull in on the sheets, or ease it when the wind gets lighter or you head more down wind and you want to open up the luff more and ease out on the sheets. The other thing about the sprit is it is supposed to be something that makes sailing downwind easier with fewer crew. And it all can be adjusted, raised and lowered from the cockpit for the casual cruiser. Racers, of course are concerned about going fast all the time and efficiency, so they will have a crew member pulling the clew of the sail around when they tack or gybe to make it go quicker, etc.
But, when cruising, you are not so concerned about beating the other guy.
With some sort of douser, which pulls down over the sail to compress it into the douser sleeve, that can be done from the cockpit as well and then the sail played along the deck inside the lifelines, or if done, stowed below through the forward hatch.
Depending on the layout of your foredeck, the mounting of the Selden sprit can be a challenge especially if there are cleats, chocks or running lights in the way, or a deck anchor locker. Selden has a few different mounting choices which may help with your installation challenges.You might have to do some head scratching to figure it out, or it might just be easy peasy.
Maybe relocating some existing hardware might be a viable solution. That's my 2 cents. Hope it helps.