So our '08 h36 is somewhat of a dog on a broad reach with the stock sails. A whisker pole or asym would help greatly. Last week when we turned for home, well upwind and facing a series of broad reaches to get there, I reran the jib sheets straight back to the turning block that is a few feet in front of the jib winch, bypassing the fairlead. The sheet ran outside of the lifelines to the turning block. This helped move the clew further out and helped keep the jib filled and out of the main's shadow. The sheeting angle from the clew to turning block isn't perfect, but wasn't too ugly either and gave the jib a reasonable shape, although it pulled more on the foot. But with the wind in the 4-7 kt range it looked okay. Seemed to help performance by several tenths of a knot. But I would not do this in heavier air due to the imperfect sheeting angle and no telling what would happen with the jib loaded up. There is no toe rail for a snatch block or Barbour outhauler. Dan
"Flying" the jib on an H36 on Broad Reach
- Thread starter Dan_Y
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Many boats have a genoa track.... exactly for the purpose you describe... in fact my little Catalina 27 is equipped with one which I use 90% of the time. On down wind legs it is desirable to open the slot between the head sail and main... you may get a little creative and devise a way to rig a barber hauler or short track mounted right on top of the fiberglass toe rail. Perhaps you can fix a padeye to the outer edge to secure a block for reaching.... You can run a second set of sheets to interchange with the inside set ..... this works easily as long as you don't have a continuous single sheet cowhitched to the clew.
Another idea would be to sheet the headsail through a block lashed to the boom..... with preventer rigged of course. That's a common cruising technique that eliminates the hassle of a whisker pole.
Another idea would be to sheet the headsail through a block lashed to the boom..... with preventer rigged of course. That's a common cruising technique that eliminates the hassle of a whisker pole.
Interesting ideas Joe, thanks. Jib is a 110 with the track mounted next to the cabin, so there is about a foot more outboard I could go to place a pad eye and block or something similar. Never thought about using the boom. The boom has a limited range off the wind due to the B&R aft swept spreaders. A preventer seem especially necessary for this rig. I essentially set the boom at the traveler limit on the arch, apply vang, then ease the outhaul about 6-inches, and that puts the main at the spreaders. The sail is getting old so next time I might travel out, leave the main a little flatter, apply some vang, and ease the main sheet out until the main is at the spreader to get a better angle. This latter approach is probably what the PO did because the boom has rub marks where they apparently let it sit against the cap shroud. :-/ Given the cost of a pole, bolt-on track, car and other rigging, I'm probably better off putting the $$$ toward a asym, but the trade off seems to be more effort with flying the asym vs setting a pole, never mind the performance difference. Archives seem to show asyms are more prevalent than whisker poles for B&R rigs. Probably because not much one can do with the the small jibs (little overlap) off the wind.