Genoa track location

[pprusak]

Hello!

I am getting new sails made for the 1977 O'Day 25. Had a new main made last year, this year I am adding a new 120% genoa that will attach to my roller furling system.

The measurements required for the new sail ask for position of forwrad and aft genoa track locations. I have always found it strange that the tracks on the '77 are basically all the way aft on the boat and only come up to about 3/4 of the cockpit. On other boats I have been on the track and cars are placed almost midship, or at least a lot forther forward than where mine are.

Has anyone added additional tracks to move them forward? Did O'day intend for us to just use the fixed block that is about midship instead of a track and car system? If that is so, is that track and car at the aft of the boat for spinanker use ? (I have never used my spinnaker...yet)...

Please shed some light on this for me before I have new sail made in case I should be adding a new track and car to a different location of the boat at the same time I upgrade my sail.

I appreciate your experiences being shared! And as always, pictures are always helpful!

Paul

 

[Carver13014]

I bought a 135% Genoa last year and put a CDI furler on. When the sailmaker measured my boat for the sail, he told me for proper sheeting angle I'd need to add a track. What I did was remove the deck block and install a track that went from that spot aft to 4 or 5 inches from the cockpit bumpout. Works well for me. I lead the sheets outside the lifeline and into the block.

Greg

 

[Joe11688]

Hello!

I am getting new sails made for the 1977 O'Day 25. Had a new main made last year, this year I am adding a new 120% genoa that will attach to my roller furling system.

The measurements required for the new sail ask for position of forwrad and aft genoa track locations. I have always found it strange that the tracks on the '77 are basically all the way aft on the boat and only come up to about 3/4 of the cockpit. On other boats I have been on the track and cars are placed almost midship, or at least a lot forther forward than where mine are.

Has anyone added additional tracks to move them forward? Did O'day intend for us to just use the fixed block that is about midship instead of a track and car system? If that is so, is that track and car at the aft of the boat for spinanker use ? (I have never used my spinnaker...yet)...

Please shed some light on this for me before I have new sail made in case I should be adding a new track and car to a different location of the boat at the same time I upgrade my sail.

I appreciate your experiences being shared! And as always, pictures are always helpful!

Paul

I've seen the tracks and cars on the O'Day 25s and I've always scratched my head about what the O'Day boat designers had in mind when they placed them there. Those single pad eye sheaves on that boat are useless with a roller reefing furler. Several years ago I delivered a 75 O'Day 25 from the Cape to our club and I tried using the full Gennie on the roller furler and the sheet angles were so far off that the sail kept making a racket in the wind. I rolled it back up and just sailed with the Main. To this very day, the owner of this 25 has never changed it like you're going to do and that's a crying shame. What the heck good is a roller reefing furler if you can't use it in most of the desirable positions?
In the real world, the sheet angle from the sheave should cut the luff of the Gennie in half with an imaginary line. So if the sheave is too far aft or too far forward, it's going to be in the wrong position. Greg is right. You need to get rid of those pad eye blocks and install some tracks so that the cars can be in the right position for the Gennie whether it's all the way out or reefed. When I bought my 1986 O'Day 222 new at the Boston Boat Show, I asked the dealer to have O'Day leave the winches and tracks w/cars off the cabin so that I could relocate them to my combings which I did myself. Fortunately I put them in the right place because years later I'm able to use my CDI in all the favorable positions. Back then I think that I took my boat out on the lake on a light air day for a dry run and marked the position of the placement of the track with the mark as the center of the track. The boat came with a cheap Schaeffer roller furler that was only used for rolling and not reefing. I later removed it and went to the convention hanks on the fore stay and reef points on the Gennie "a la Lynne & Larry Pardey style." There is one thing that I never regretted doing to my boat that was an idea I picked up from an old magazine out of publication now called "Small Boat Journal", and that's to install a large open clam cleat behind each of my winches for snubbing off the sheets. Two of my friends at the club have adopted this idea on there boats and they love it. One guy sails an O'Day 26 and the other guy sails a Seaward 22.

 

[pprusak]

Thank you very much everyone. I am going to ask the folks at Doyle Sails in St Pete if they could instruct me on proper positioning of the track for the sail that I am looking at. Have been tossed between a 120 and a 150, and sail in light air frequently during the summers here, so am leaning towards a 150.

I like the suggestion for the open cam cleat as well- fast and simple, and in line with the line of pull. My current configuration is a joke with he car being behind far aft of the winch, the horn cleat being between the winch and the car, and nothing but headaches when trying to fine tune or make a quick change. I singlehand frequently, and have always been frustrated with the way things are set up right now on the boat. Time to make the change!

Thanks again.

Paul

 

[Joe11688]

Paul,
I meant to write an open "clam cleat." Pardon my typo. I just corrected it on that other entry. They also have self rescue clam cleats in which the rope runs through a hole in the cleat. I have two of those on my tiller for my tip-up rudder pendant lines. I use one to hold the blade down when I'm sailing, and one to hold it up when the boat is in shallow water.
The one thing that I regretted doing was to install a Herreshoff Cleat on the Starboard combing just before my Gennie winch for my CDI Roller Furler drum control line. Big mistake! Every time I went on a Port tack, the luffing Gennie would cause the Starboard sheet to get caught in this cleat. The week that Hurricane Earl was headed toward Massachusetts, I pulled my boat out and brought it home and got rid of that cleat. I also pulled part of my Port gunwale strip off and re caulked the area where little drips of water was getting into the cabin.
I haven't decided what to use in place of this cleat as of yet, but whatever I use will be located somewhere near my stern rail. Live and learn. Good luck with that Paul.
Joe