That is this used for?

[glide]

I hope the pic has uploaded, If so, there is a pulley attached to the deck. What is it for? The way it is positioned I can see no use for it. The one on the opposite side is turned the same way. Neither of them turn (there fixed by a very small pin that keeps them in position) Are they installed wrong? If they were turned I could see them being used to pull down on the sail.
Thanks again, Very new to sailing. And I have a thousand questions, trying to limit myself to one at a time.
glide

 

[glide]

Sorry I should have included....1987 Hunter h23.

 

[waternwaves]

Barber hauler

 

[Jon Bastien]

It took me a second, but I eventually recognized your boat as an H23 from the photos... I miss my old boat!

The pulley on deck is where the jib sheets for the original 110% jib ran. Your boat has been modified with genoa cars, allowing you to carry a larger jib- making these 'extra' pieces of equipement. If you still have/use the smaller jib, you should run the sheets through these fittings instead of the genoa cars.

Good luck with your new boat! The '23 is a great little boat, and a blast to sail...

--Jon

 

[tomfoolery]

Glide , I can't tell if you have a boom vang but you could also use that block and the one on the starboard side to run preventers from boom through block to cockpit cleat to hold your boom out when running on port or starboard tack

 

[John A12737]

Jon

These are 90 degrees off the direction of the sheets. ???? I had to look the barber up, and it does look like that.

 

[glide]

Thanks everyone.

 

[Jon Bastien]

JohnA,

I'm not sure why the blocks on Glide's boat are 'pinned' in their current sideways orientation, but I am quite certain as to their original purpose... IIRC, the blocks on my decks could rotate relatively freely, but had springs around the bases to keep them upright (much to my toes' distress :cussing: ).

Here are a couple of photos from the owner's gallery showing how the boat was originally rigged:

Under Sail
At the dock with the headsail rolled in
Head on, at the dock

Cheers,
--Jon

 

[justsomeguy]

In your "under sail" photo, the line the sheet takes seems to be way forward of optimal. Nice smile on the skipper's face!

I'm thinking Barber hauler, too.

 

[Chris14830]

I'm thinking pulley for a 110 jib sheet also. I moved mine back a foot or so. (I have recently ran the 110 jib sheets between the side stays for better pointing.)
http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/picture.php?albumid=1534&pictureid=19016
-Chris

 

[John A12737]

Jon:

After seeing Brad's under sail picture, I think you're right it was for the jib. Now with the new cars for the jib, I wonder if they turned them for use as a barber hauler or a preventer? Sailors are a pretty creative bunch.

 

[Kermit]

We use it for the jib sheets.

 

[Dougo]

We use it for the jib sheets.

Ditto!

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Originally the 23 wing keel came with a main and a working 110% jib only. The turning block on the deck (photo) was for the jib sheet to go thru and then led aft to the cockpit.

crazy dave condon

 

[glide]

In your "under sail" photo, the line the sheet takes seems to be way forward of optimal. Nice smile on the skipper's face!

I'm thinking Barber hauler, too.

If I understand, I should move the line back? I had a real hard time, in very light wind, getting the boat to go where I wanted. I will try to explain, while attempting to travel up wind, and tacking across the lake, which is narrow. I couldn't make any real progress. I kept going to the same place ( I could make up a little, maybe 40') then cross the lake and come back to just beyond the place I had just been. I have only been on the water 3 times, the first time was the best as far as going where I wanted, I only had a main sail then and fair wind. I made a homemade jib, this time very light wind, but couldn't go up wind I thought it was the shape of the sail, I didn't try with just the main, I redesigned the sail on the 3rd attempt with the results above. I have attached a pic of the sail,
Really dont have the money to buy a sail, not knowing for sure if it's a hobby that I will enjoy for long.
I have been patching around on the old boat since May, when I traded a shotgun to it thinking that since I didn't really have 100.00 bucks in it, I would give sailing a try, Here in S.E. Kentucky it would seem there isn't a very long season for sailing, (spring and fall).
Hope to have a Saturday with good wind to go again, Hopefully I could find out if it's just light wind or the construction of the homemade sail.
Thanks for all the comments!!

 

[Jon Bastien]

Glide,

A quick look back at the photos in your latest post-- it looks like you're sailing under jib alone. This works great on downwind legs, but isn't a good sail selection for pointing upwind; all the wind's forces are on the front of the boat (and ahead of the keel), so the boat will naturally want to 'fall off' (or point downwind) unless there is something to counter-act that force (like the main sail, which tends to push from BEHIND the keel and make the boat 'point up'). This may explain why the boat wouldn't point like you wanted it to.

If I still lived in Ohio, I'd drive down to Cumberland Lake to help you sort out your boat and discover what these Hunter 23s are capable of-- and you'd hate me worse than a crack dealer, because you'd be hooked on how much fun it is to sail one of these well!

I'm impressed you're already making your own sails for it-- It's not an easy boat to get 'just right' when you're making you're own sails, though... especially when someone else has modified the deck/rig/sail handling plan from the original design.

From the sounds of your post, there may be a little too much 'belly' in your sails-- and the H23 is very sensitive to that. You can try to tighten up the main and jib halyards (raising lines), the main outhaul (pulls the sail towards the end of the boom), the boom vang (goes from the boom to the base of the mast), and moving the jib sheet cars aft a little (maybe 2 or 3 holes in the track) to help get some of the 'belly' out of the sails and see if you can't point a little higher.

As a general rule, the windier it is, the more you should tighten these lines. If it's not windy at all, there should be some curve to the sails; if there's more than 10 MPH of wind, flatter is faster.

Welcome to the ranks of sailboat owners! Let us know what you discover as you play with your new toy...

--Jon

 

[Chris14830]

Hi Glide, I'm impressed with your home made sail! In regards to your question on which blocks (pulleys) to use, it would depend on how big your jib is. If you were to call the distance from the bottom of the front stay to the mast 100%, would the bottom of your jib be 135%, 150%? If its more than 110%, then I would keep it the way you have it in your first post. It is possible the "track" shown in that picture is too far aft, and the 110 block may be too far forward. But there may be other ways to improve upwind performance short of remounting hardware.

When I first raced my 23 years ago, all I had was the stock 110, and I remember the same frustration tacking upwind. There are so many things to adjust in sail and boat trim, lots of info online and in the previous posts here. A couple of things I was doing wrong that may help you:

-Mainsail twist: Being a fractional rig, the top of the main sees "fresher" or faster moving air. The bottom of the main should be close to center line but the top of the main should be not so close to the center line. To accomplish this twist, move the main traveler quite a bit to the upwind side of the boat. Check that your boom is not past center line. This will cause the downward force on the main to be less and allow the top part of the sail to twist out to leeward. To check how much to twist, install "tell tales" on the trailing edge (leech) of the main, in three or four places, especially in the upper area. You can use bits of yarn, thin nylon strips, or bits of old cassette tape. about 4 to 6 inches long. Adjust your traveler so the top of the main is full (not bagging or fluttering) and the telltales are all streaming aft. In really light air I often find the weight of the boom alone is too much downward force, and use a bit of topping lift to raise it.

-Boat list: In light air especially, a tilt to leeward will "pre-shape" the sails with the required curve to produce what the airplane folk call "lift". It may be necessary to put the wife/dog/beer on the side of the boat the sails are on.

-Even or forward keel: I have found too much weight aft makes the 23 slower. If the winds are light, maybe the crew would like to relax sitting on the coach top, leeward side, near the stays? Warn them when tacking. Dog or beer may fall off, don't risk that.

This is just a couple of the many tweaks to sailing, always changing with wind and conditions. It's part of the fun. Anyone, feel free to jump in if I've made errors here.
-Chris