Self tacking jib

Apr 5, 2017
9
Catalina 310 Huntington, NY
I have in-mast main and I am looking into a self-tacking jib. Does anyone have experience with this on their 310?
 

JRT

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Feb 14, 2017
2,037
Catalina 310 211 Lake Guntersville, AL
Wish I could help you @John Garvey but I don't know of anyone who did this on a C310. There was a thread in C310 on this, but it was short and had no one with a C310 either. The posting do say converting a C310 will mean a smaller head sail, probably a 95 which could really impact the boats performance.
 
Feb 26, 2004
22,759
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
John, I've seen Catalina 34s with self tacking gear. Two. Both of them came from The California Delta, where the wind can blow and the sloughs are narrow. That makes a good case for their use.

OTOH, one of those boats came down to the main Bay for good, and after a few months took the gear off.

Jesse's right about the jib size, although I ran an 85-95% during the summers there anyway.

I also saw a fella in Orgeon who had self tacking gear done with line. I should have taken more pictures.
 
Jun 25, 2004
1,108
Corsair F24 Mk1 003 San Francisco Bay, CA
Selden makes a kit for retrofitting a self tacking jib that is a modern design. It is a cost effective way to add good performing self tacking.

For best performance you need a jib with a clew that ends a few inches in front of the mast foot. That means it will have an LP of about 95 %.

Not all self tacking systems work equally well. The better ones require some specialized hardware and a custom fitted sail.

all-line ST systems have shortcomings wrt shaping the sail. All the ones I’ve seen put a severe hook in the leech at the clew

Judy B
Retired sailmaker
 
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Feb 26, 2004
22,759
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
@DrJudyB

Are you familiar with the line-only self tacking system I saw in Oregon? Of course, you didn't see it personally...:) Just want to know if you've seen one and have any reference to it? The ones I saw on C34s had metal tracks on the foredeck right in front of the mast.
 

JRT

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Feb 14, 2017
2,037
Catalina 310 211 Lake Guntersville, AL
Found this @Stu Jackson

 
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Jun 25, 2004
1,108
Corsair F24 Mk1 003 San Francisco Bay, CA
@DrJudyB

Are you familiar with the line-only self tacking system I saw in Oregon? Of course, you didn't see it personally...:) Just want to know if you've seen one and have any reference to it? The ones I saw on C34s had metal tracks on the foredeck right in front of the mast.
Hi Stu,

I might not have seen that particular boat, of course, but I’ve seen many, many rope only ST systems in person and online, and they all compromised the shape of the jib. Compared to contemporary system with curved traveler tracks in front of the mast base, they were poor performers,

the geometry of an all line system can’t do what a curved travel track can. Rope bridle ST systems are curved the wrong way and that makes it impossible to to get really good sail shape. Rope bridle St jibs work, but only “sort of”. With a curve traveler track system that has the approximate j dimension as the radius of the curve, you can do much more to get the sail flat and not have a hook at the clew, no matter what angle of attack
you’ve set it for.

Club footed jobs work well, but the clutter up the foredeck.

Here’s a webpage about self tacking jibs that I put together about 15 or 20 years ago. It shows what the state of the art was back then. It has lots of pictures of sailboats on the San Francisco delta, at the stockton sailing club. I am quite familiar with the self tacking systems that come as original equipment on many high end boats these days, and they work quite well. Usually they are complemented with a cruising code zero for use in very light wind.

The curved track aftermarket systems can do a similar nice job on a lot of boats, if the track is wide enough and the center of effort balances well with the mainsail.


Judy

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Feb 26, 2004
22,759
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
JRT & Judy,

Thanks for the lessons and explanations, much appreciated. This will be a great place to look when the subject next arises. :)
 
Nov 18, 2010
2,441
Catalina 310 Hingham, MA
There is a 310 out there that installed a job boom. It looked just like the booms used on Island Packets for the cutter sail or the headsail on the Estero. That seemed interesting.

We have a friend that is a world class sailor (Olympic level) and his soon was part of the Disney crew and a Volvo racer. He has a Hanse that has a fractional rig with a self-tacking headsail. It has a track on deck and a single line for the sheet. It limits the headsail to about 90%. But I have watched both of them single hand this boat through a full anchorage and drop anchor under sail. It's incredible how nimble you can be with that setup. Our friend also used the boat to teach ASA on and it was a great platform for learning. But changing sails was time consuming.

We also have friends with Freedoms and Manta Catamaran. They both use a hank on sail with a ridged boom in the sail. That design performed really well and is probably the cheapest but not as convenient as something that can work with a roller furler.

I would probably look at something closer to Hanse (or Saga 43 has a similar design) for my choice.

Good luck,

Jesse