Attaching Cruising Chute to Bow Pulpit

[JoyRide28]

Ahoy all, I am looking for info and feedback regarding the feasibility of attaching the tack of a cruising chute to the bow pulpit on my Precision 28. I used to do it on my former, smaller O'day 222 and it seemed to work fine. However I am concerned that the larger sail and obviously larger load on the tack might do damage to the pulpit or its mounting. FWIW, I have no other good location to attach on this boat (short of building a custom pole, or welding an extension on to the existing stem fitting).

Thanks In Advance!

Peter

 

[Jackdaw]

Concerned for good reason. Your new asym will be much larger and place huge loads on the pulpit, in particular on a reach. And the loads with on and off, which will really work the deck fittings and waterproofness. I've seen two larger boat owners try this, and neither was happy with what it did to their boat. Both ended up biting the bullet and getting a selden or Sparcraft retractable sprit for the deck.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Assuming the pulpit is fixed only by its mounting screws or bolts and from the way you framed your question, it sounds like you know the answer.

 

[JoyRide28]

Thanks guys. Yes, I was pretty much expecting that answer. Now looking at various removable pole options... P

 

[Jackdaw]

Thanks guys. Yes, I was pretty much expecting that answer. Now looking at various removable pole options... P

I'd look at the Sparcraft sprit for your boat. The engineering is first rate. It comes with two rear mounting plates, one for extended position, and one for retracted. The front ring rotates so the rear plates to not need to be in line. The tack line extends thru the pole, a great idea. We use one on our First 260 when cruising. It works great.

 

[JoyRide28]

Thanks Jackdaw. That does look well suited to the task. P

 

[Ted]

If you have a spinnaker pole, you can attach the tack to that. It also gives you the ability to rotate the luff to windward if necessary. Cheap too if you already have the pole.

 

[Joe]

I've used the pulpit....... I ran the tackline through a block clamped to the railing. I provided extra support with a doubled length of line anchoring the rail to the stemhead. As Jackdaw mentioned, the stresses are awkward on the pulpit.. it isn't designed for it.... It was okay in light air, but I wouldn't feel comfortable in anything over 10kts.

Rigging the spinnaker pole for an asymetric is possible.. however... you must not allow the pole to rest against the headstay. Besides, using the spinnaker pole defeats the convenience of the cruising spinnaker.

I have my eye on the retractable pole, however.... with my asym on continuous line furler clipped to the end.

 

[David in Sandusky]

Pulpit to toe rail

The tack line on our Asynetric spinnaker is about 6 feet long, with a snap shackle on the end. I wrap it once around the forward section of the top pulpit rail on the windward side, then take it down to the windward toe rail. It goes forward on the toe rail to carry the chute high (more downwind) while aft on the toe rail brings the tack down, tightening the luff for sailing closer to the wind.

Because the pulpit is reinforced by the line to the toe rail, we have had no problems with this set-up over 11 years in winds up to 20 knots (when it is time to drop the chute, since our main and 110 genny will drive us over hull speed to 20 knots.

I'll look for a picture that shows this setup.

 

[dziedzicmj]

Have you considered the ATN Tacker?

 

[Merlin Clark]

Have you thought of using a tacker?
http://www.sailrite.com/ATN-Tacker-for-up-to-33-Boat-Size-A?gclid=CLGp9q7BibYCFQGCnQodSCsAAA

 

[David in Sandusky]

Pix of our setup

The first picture shows us with the tack about a foot above the pulpit.

The second shows the tack higher with the wind off our starboard quarter- the bow wave says we are doing hull speed.

 

[David in Sandusky]

Pix again

1 Tack lower.

2 Tack higher.

 

[Jackdaw]

David,

It's its working for you, great!

In that that last picture, are you going DDW wing on wing, or sailing that much by the lee? I never seen an asym sailed like that, normally the asym and main are presented to the same side of the wind.

 

[Deadline]

Something better

I concur that the rig will tear the pulpit right off, which would make a spectacular sea story.

I have developed an inexpensive bowsprit using $50 worth of plumbing pipe. It has the sheets and tack line already deployed to minimize the setup. Send me your email and I'll forward the pix. bodonovan8@gmail.com.

 

[Juanona]

An ATN tacker is the simplest solution. The tacker wraps around the forestay, and you just need a line down to a block on deck and back to a cleat. The block can be inside (aft of) the forestay. Works great on my Nordic 40 and saved all the trouble of a structural solution.

 

[JoyRide28]

Thanks guys. I know about the Tacker but I'm not interested. I prefer the top down furler attached to a sprit. It's on my wish list...

 

[sdstef]

I am a novice sailor, but my boat came with a assymetrical spinnaker. It had no hardware with it, but I have used it several times on my oday 25 and have had tons of fun with it. I pin the tack down to the bracket on the bow where the forestay is. Just aft of it there is a hole just behind the roller furling spool. I then hoist up with my spare jib halyard, where I attatched the atn sock hardware. If I need to trim the sail all I can do is ease the halyard down a little.. I sometimes have to douse the sail to tack, if it is windy, like 10 knots or so, or else it gets a little crazy. Again I am a self taught sailor and learning more every time I go out! The main thing for me , right or wrong is it is fun to move past other larger boats that do not fly a spinnaker, they just watch me go by!

 

[David in Sandusky]

Yes, the picture is down wind

We have flown the spinnaker wing and wing a number of times. It works well, especially in protected waters. (Picture 2 is in Sandusky Bay.) when it is before the wind, the asymmetric is quite forgiving.

Since the pulpit seldom changes the direction of the tackline dramatically, (the spinnaker balloons, so the tack pulls up and forward) the toe rail takes most of the strain.

In 12 summers, I estimate that we have flown this rig around 15% of our 1,800 hours under way, or 270 hours. There is no sign of stress on the bow pulpit, and I m relaxed about continuing with this rig.

 

[Ron20324]

My ODay222 was on a trailer, of course with the D ring- for the trailer winch cable- mounted through the bow. For the a-sym, a 4-foot section of 1/2 inch line attatched to the D, run up above the pulpit, it it made a good place to attatch the A's tack line. That worked so well that I added the D ring to the B235.