When raising the main sail, I cannot seem to get it flat. It seems to be not fully up. The only wayto flatten is to tighten the cunningham which makes if fuller lower. It was suggested that my boom may too high. What is the proper distance above the cabin top? Is there a class rule on the height? I seem to have seen a dimension somewhere, but cannot find it now.
Boom height above deck
- Thread starter Glenn17467
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The sail is about 10 years old and in excellent shape. I don't think there is an issue of being stretched out as the condition has existed from the beginning. Boat was rerigged with new mast, boom and sails from Catalina just before we purchased it. I look at other boats and see flat mains but have never been able to flatten.
If you want to make the sail flatter, tension the outhaul... if there are no vertical or horizontal wrinkles in your mainsail then your halyard tension is okay. The cunningham changes the draft location, not the depth.
Remove the mainsail and measure the luff, then compare it to the rig's "P" dimension, and finally measure the "P" on your boat.... here's some info http://www.mauriprosailing.com/us/Rig-Dimensions.html . If the measurements seem compatible then it's your sail.
Remove the mainsail and measure the luff, then compare it to the rig's "P" dimension, and finally measure the "P" on your boat.... here's some info http://www.mauriprosailing.com/us/Rig-Dimensions.html . If the measurements seem compatible then it's your sail.
The dimensions in Mauri's section indicate that boom should be 6 feet above the bow, I doubt this is the case, it is less than 4 feet above the cabin. I found a thread on this web site in 2008 regarding "girts" and save it. this best describes the condition, wrinkles from the luff to the foot. This is usually caused by too much tension on the halyard and the outhaul. Easing the halyard and/or the outhaul have not helped, only applying the cunningham has eliminated the girts. Raising or easing the topping lift has not helped either. I'll measure the height of the boom this weekend and if the weather cooperates, we go out and I will add more outhaul tension to see if that helps.
No matter where the boom is located, the factor you are interested in is the correct hoist. It could be your halyard not raising the sail far enough..., if you lower the boom a few inches that will not affect the geometry of the sail, an easier fix would be to install another tack grommet. On the older Catalinas the boom had a downhaul, my c27 does, where the gooseneck would slide vertically in the luff groove. I locked the boom in a fixed position with a couple of self tapping screws and use the cunningham exclusively for this adustment area.
When you're down at the boat, take some pics and the guys here can give you some pointers....also, show the pics to a local sail loft for their opinion. Maybe a simple recut would get the sail where you want it.... that's assuming all the rig dimensions check out.
I will tell you that my old mainsail was impossible to flatten, I had similar reservations about the boom height, etc. because this was an offshore quality North mainsail... guess what? The sail was stretched out.... A new mainsail solved the problem because the sail was built to the boat's measurements that I took per the manufacturer's instructions.
Good Luck.
When you're down at the boat, take some pics and the guys here can give you some pointers....also, show the pics to a local sail loft for their opinion. Maybe a simple recut would get the sail where you want it.... that's assuming all the rig dimensions check out.
I will tell you that my old mainsail was impossible to flatten, I had similar reservations about the boom height, etc. because this was an offshore quality North mainsail... guess what? The sail was stretched out.... A new mainsail solved the problem because the sail was built to the boat's measurements that I took per the manufacturer's instructions.
Good Luck.
Main sheet loose, vang loose, cunningham loose, reefing line loose, nothing to restrict raising the sail. The topping lift carries the weight of the boom slightly high until the main is raised, then the topping lift is eased. When I leave the boat, all lines are slack, I've had one of them without being slack restricting the main so I now leave everything slack until raised. Depending on wind direction, I plan to raise the main at the dock so I can get back and see where the top of the main is.
Mainsail Problems
Glenn,
In the past 2 years, I have helped two friends that had either too short a boom, and/or too long a luff in their mainsails.
Here is what the causes revealed & what we found as a fix.
1. On my friend Paco's boat (C28), his sail was made for a different boat. After finding the problem, we had the sail re-cut to adapt to his boat. Not being sized exactly for his specific boat, the re-cut luff was too long.
2. My friend's Lenny's Newport 30(1988, a beautifully designed sloop) had the goose neck mounted too low above the cabin top/cockpit floor for optimal height. Len is 6'-3" tall. It was a head-banging skull to Bimini nightmare. We only had to re-position the gooseneck up 6 more inches, and all is well now with head room.
This is not a perfect world, and looking back, who knows what Leeds up to the problem/s we new boat owners have to deal with from the back end of the PO?
I have always said that. "The dumbest guy you will ever meet, is the guy you bought your boat from".
Measure and confirm the feet & inches, that is most probably the cause of your problems. Or, hopefully you have a learn-ed friend to help with questions.
Correct Logic will ALWAYS reveal the correct fix...........................
CR
Glenn,
In the past 2 years, I have helped two friends that had either too short a boom, and/or too long a luff in their mainsails.
Here is what the causes revealed & what we found as a fix.
1. On my friend Paco's boat (C28), his sail was made for a different boat. After finding the problem, we had the sail re-cut to adapt to his boat. Not being sized exactly for his specific boat, the re-cut luff was too long.
2. My friend's Lenny's Newport 30(1988, a beautifully designed sloop) had the goose neck mounted too low above the cabin top/cockpit floor for optimal height. Len is 6'-3" tall. It was a head-banging skull to Bimini nightmare. We only had to re-position the gooseneck up 6 more inches, and all is well now with head room.
This is not a perfect world, and looking back, who knows what Leeds up to the problem/s we new boat owners have to deal with from the back end of the PO?
I have always said that. "The dumbest guy you will ever meet, is the guy you bought your boat from".
Measure and confirm the feet & inches, that is most probably the cause of your problems. Or, hopefully you have a learn-ed friend to help with questions.
Correct Logic will ALWAYS reveal the correct fix...........................
CR
Thanks CR. Yes, the dumbest guy I met WAS the PO, on many counts, things he told me which later proved to be incorrect or plane garbage. The boat was demasted, rerigged with new mast, boom, stays and sails from Catalina. I had noticed in all the documentation he had was that the stays had to be cut down due to being too long. May be the mast was too short? I'll find out. Thanks for all the input.
That may be the answer you're looking for!! I had an old Catalina 25 that had a 1-1/2" hunk of aluminum under the mast, at the step. My PO told me that the bottom of the mast had a bunch of corrosion that had to be cut out, and instead of cutting the shrouds down he had the aluminum piece made.
Measure your mast...I'd be willing to bet it's too short. Another possibility is that your PO replaced the mast with one that was shorter than the original, and didn't measure right, then cut the stays to match.
Checked measurements Saturday, top of boom above deck is 42", Catalina by laws say 33" minimum above deck. I'm sure the boom is set at 42" to clear bimini. There seems to be at least 12" left between the main head and mast head, so I should be able to get a little more height. I did not raise the halyard w/o the sail to see if it would raise further. Next weekend I will check and will also check out the slides and run up some lubricant. When I had the anchor light replaced last month, I should have had the rigger check for anything that may cause the sail to hang up.
When I first purchased the C30 I had the same problem -- no matter what I did I couldn't get the wrinkles out of the mainsail at full hoist. I took the sail to a local sailmaker in Torrance, Ca for help. Turned out the sail was too long for the boat!! Fortunately he had a used C30 sail that he had refurbished. I traded in the "whatever sail" and my troubles were over.
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