Sailing and "Over the Hills and Far Away" two of my favorite things!
Racing on Galveston Bay
- Thread starter Bill19233
- Start date
When not sailing, store spin halyards by clipping them to the bow pulpit eyes. No wear, and even better no noise. That is where most of the wear occurs.
I don't know if my pulpit is closer to the forestay or if it's sloppy seamanship, but every time I've tried to store the spin halyard on the pulpit, it ends up getting wrapped up with the jib when it furls and jams it all up. I would much rather store it there and I'm going to take another look at it, the new halyard wasn't cheap.
You’ll probably need to move it back and forth. That’s what we do - on the pulpit when we’re away from the boat or staying at the slip, then take it to near the base of the mast before we go out sailing.
David called it, You need to move it back-and-forth from when you sail and when you’re not. Most of the wear happens when you’re not Sailing. That’s why you bring it forward. Plus it doesn’t slap. bring it back to a point where it doesn’t interfere with the head sail. Some boats mount a D-ring on the fore deck slightly In front of the mast for just such a purpose.
Thanks for the advice David and Jackdaw.
More spinnaker halyard issues the next race. That would have hurt if it had hit me...
More spinnaker halyard issues the next race. That would have hurt if it had hit me...
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Kinda fun how that falls when its in a sock!
Snap shackles like that are notorious for not closing fully, or popping open. If we can, we tape them closed, but thats hard on a kite that goes up and down often. Wanna cure it, use Tylaska shackles. Spendy but totally worth it.
Speaking of shackles, replace that hardware store thing on the tack of your UPS with a real marine one! ;^)
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That sock has dropped from the top more than once, thought I solved it when I took the lanyard off the ring. I guess the ring got caught on something up there and pulled the shackle open.
That’s not hardware store junk on the UPS tack. It came spliced on the luff line, it’s stainless and has grooves machined that keep it from opening and you see in the video how easy it snaps on. I’m cutting it off and keeping it if I ever move up. The Doyle UPS is cut flat and has a luff line separate from the tack line for upwind. I’ve had it up closed hauled in really really light air, not a lot of headsail options on a B & R Hunter. First time we put it up this year.
Speaking of that, seriously looking at moving up about four feet and ten years. I like the Jeanneau 379, several for sale in Florida. I want a boat that’s fun to race and competitive, but also looking for a comfortable weekender for four or so. Appreciate any opinions and suggestions.
After a month off for Hurricane Hanna and my son’s wedding, got back out on the bay for a couple races this weekend. Had an outstanding time on Saturday, finished in the middle of the pack. Heres the video link. Sunday, we were the first to finish in a light air marathon.
Great video! Your production quality is excellent and you had a Cobra sighting on your way home-shame there was no audio for the beautiful music from that bad boy.
Thanks, it was a really fun race. And Dani’s foredeck work was outstanding IMO. She should have had a PFD on in these conditions, all of us should have.
I know this is a sailing forum, but..., it could have been a 289, but I don’t think so. I was doing close to 70, so he was probably doing over 100. Had a C8 and BMW i8 sighting on the trip, too. Not sure what I think about the C8 yet. I was never a big ‘vette fan, but since my son is on his second C7 and it spent half of 2020 in my garage while he was out of town, I’m now an official connoisseur. It sat almost under the Shell Valley Cobra poster that’s been on the wall for 20 years.
I like vettes and the i8, but I'd take a Cobra or GT40 (original or authentic replica) over almost any vette and all i8s.....
Me too, definitely take a Cobra if I could have just one sports car. But if I could afford both, there would also be a 'vette in the big garage full of cars, planes, and boats. Just not sure which year.
Speaking of planes, another sighting on Saturday, a Rutan VariEze made a low pass over the marina after we docked. And the home built seaplane in a clip in the last video, crashed and flipped on take off a few days ago in Clear Lake, pilot is okay.
Speaking of planes, another sighting on Saturday, a Rutan VariEze made a low pass over the marina after we docked. And the home built seaplane in a clip in the last video, crashed and flipped on take off a few days ago in Clear Lake, pilot is okay.
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One more race video link on this thread. I've found several statements on line about the strength of the B&R rig without the backstay and how there have been no known failures related directly to the design. I wonder how many actual failures there have been, for any reason?
At about 8:40 in the video, when I did grab a look at the instruments, we were doing 8 knots almost DDW with 30 knots apparent showing. So, we probably saw 40 knot winds at some point. The mainsheet is slack, the boom is pinned against the strut and I'm sure the full main is driving the boat that fast just pushing against the port side shrouds and spreaders. We're doing our best to get the boat into the wind and get the sails down. I could not find anything obvious wrong or bent or moved when I did check things in daylight.
The forecast was for 10% chance of showers. No mention of the storm in the weather report the next day, either.
A lot of boats did finish the race.
At about 8:40 in the video, when I did grab a look at the instruments, we were doing 8 knots almost DDW with 30 knots apparent showing. So, we probably saw 40 knot winds at some point. The mainsheet is slack, the boom is pinned against the strut and I'm sure the full main is driving the boat that fast just pushing against the port side shrouds and spreaders. We're doing our best to get the boat into the wind and get the sails down. I could not find anything obvious wrong or bent or moved when I did check things in daylight.
The forecast was for 10% chance of showers. No mention of the storm in the weather report the next day, either.
A lot of boats did finish the race.
Well OK!
Re re rig... the B&R design is sound, and in good condition it is very unlikely to just fail. But:
1) Your boom hard against the strut in breeze could easily break your boom. Perhaps the strut
2) Under big load and shock, worn parts fail. THEN you lose the rig
Re the weather, as you know showers are not thunderstorms. Showers are predictable rain. In summer thunderstorms just 'develop'. You have to expect them any day it's warm.
Now onto sailing comments! ;^)
1) For the love of God, PFDs in those conditions. Not optional. Make the call.
2) Pull your headsail out when doing a kite hoist or drop. Keeps speed up, and helps blanket the kite to ease hoists/drops.
3) I'm continually amazed how long maneuvers take with a sock. Even solo I can get my 660 ft^2 kite up or down in 15 seconds.
4) The guy in the powerboat was right, sail a VGM angle to create apparent wind. DDW (or close) is SO SLOW in light airs.
5) Spinnaker sheets. NO SS at the ends. best option is soft shackles, luggage tagged to de-covered sheets. Very light; thats the key
6) ALWAYS be looking at weight distro. Low in light, high in breeze. Just sitting around anywhere is slow, and means crew do not have their head in the game. I get it, it's a fun race. But if you want to win, you have to create a winning environment.
Thanks for commenting Jackdaw, always like hearing your take and getting your advice. Your advice is gold, couldn't afford similar even if I could find a pro to consult for pay, and it wouldn't be as good!
1. Yes, you're absolutely right, PFD's in those conditions. My call to make, no excuse. Everyone should have put them on as soon as it started clouding up and getting dark. Even without a storm, need to have them on in low light. Really, all the time, even at the dock. Several crew were wearing fanny pack inflatables, but not good enough in these conditions. Those need to be manually activated and then pulled over you head, hard to do incapacitated.
2. Yes, we usually keep the jib out until the a-sail is raised and unsocked, but need to start unfurling it before we drop the spin to blanket and have full sail sooner, instead of waiting.
3. I know, I see that, too. The socks are tediously slow. Apprehensive about taking off the training wheels. I need to just yank that bandaid off and get the pain over with.
4. Not good at deciding how far upwind to steer, where the gain in speed is not compensating for the extra distance you have to sail.
5. Please show an example of the soft shackle that can be easily put on and off by semi experienced crew. I know I have a crappy system for switching sheets in jibes. In light winds I only want one sheet on the clew.
6. Yeah, I know, hard to push crew too much in club races on a Hunter, but we have to do it in good form.
I felt we did pretty good getting the sails down when the wind and storm came up almost instantly. We were probably the first boat to drop out. I didn't even consider reefing and trying to stay in the race. I maybe could have tried to turn upwind sooner to keep the boom off the strut. Trimming the main could have made it worse if it caused a jibe that far downwind. Also engine wouldn't start, dead batteries from the reefer running in the long race and heat, had to go below and switch batteries after digging for a flashlight so I could see which way I was turning it. So glad I moved that switch from inside the cockpit locker way out of reach. Know where your flashlights are and check them!
When are you going to put out an instructional video or Youtube?
Thanks again.
First #5
Here are de-covered spin sheets w/ soft shackles. The ends are VERY LIGHT, which is key in lights airs with both sheets on the clew. De-cover as much as you can. Flightline is the best material; dyneema cored and poly cover to be light and not absorb water. After one solid use that luggage tag will never let go of that softshackle. PROTIP, don't attach both to the clew, attach one and then attach the other to the attached shackle. This creates a smooth (no hard corner) structure to drag around the forestay; much less likely to get snagged.
While the SS take a few seconds to open/close; we never take them off the sail unless something weird happens. Why are you?
PS - these are VERY easy to create.
PPS - While some do, I don't like these solid RED and GREEN sheets. Better is the same light color for both with red and green fleck in them. Allows the bowperson to keep them straight. We do this for our jib and all spin sheets, each a different base color. But all flecked red and green.
Hope to have new spin sheets and soft shackles ready to go soon. I know I need to keep both sheets on, but they are a mess going through the arch legs to have a clean run to the winch. There’s got to be a better way.
Need to have the crew keep the lines managed better during the races. And that crew was me last race.
Big discussion after this last race whether jibing back and forth is the right way or wing-on-wing when the leg is almost DDW. I believe the long boom on my boat shadows the fractional spin too much and you have to go so high to gain speed that so much extra distance is travelled and negates the speed gained. If we trim the main to not shadow the spin, we’re not using our largest sail. This race, we spent most of the last downwind leg with the a-sail wing-on-wing in the light air and passed a Catalina 355 jibing their a-sail.
Maybe I’ll just not race unless two legs are reaches.
Need to have the crew keep the lines managed better during the races. And that crew was me last race.
Big discussion after this last race whether jibing back and forth is the right way or wing-on-wing when the leg is almost DDW. I believe the long boom on my boat shadows the fractional spin too much and you have to go so high to gain speed that so much extra distance is travelled and negates the speed gained. If we trim the main to not shadow the spin, we’re not using our largest sail. This race, we spent most of the last downwind leg with the a-sail wing-on-wing in the light air and passed a Catalina 355 jibing their a-sail.
Maybe I’ll just not race unless two legs are reaches.