Where to place track for genny blocks on Oday 23?

Scott On Eagles Wings · Jun 12, 2012

I have a 135 mounted on roller furling and she will still pull to weather.

My tracks came with the boat looks like from the factory, however I am only taking an educated guess. My tracks run 1' from the stern up about 5' on each side and are thru bolted to the toe rail just inside the hull/deck joint.

I don't think you will have enough room on deck to mound tracks by your present jib block. The 135 is going to come too far aft.

I do use my current fixed jib blocks on occasion if I am beating into the wind but only on a reefed genoa.

HukilauMike · Jun 12, 2012

I have the same blocks as Scott on my Oday 23. I too have a 135 genny, and I use these blocks for the sheets. Ideally, you should be setting the position of the blocks based on how much wind is blowing: forward to power up the sail in lighter winds; aft to depower the sail. In reality, lazy me just sets the blocks and forgets them. They are usually set fairly far forward, mostly to take advantage of the most favorable run from the blocks to the winches.

As for the weather helm, no the 135 won't cure that. It won't make it worse either; the boat was designed to take a 135 genny. Try playing with the centerboard position; raising the board to about halfway up should ease some of that weather helm. However, you should remember that weather helm is built into the design of the boat as a safety feature. Before she gets too overpowered by the wind, the rudder will lose its bite, and she will round up. If you are struggling with weather helm in ligher winds, then maybe your mast is seriously out of tune.

Joe11688 · Jun 13, 2012

seatiger said:
My Oday 23 is set up for a hanked-on working jib with fixed blocks for the jib sheets about 15 ft. from the bow. I want to upgrade to a roller furler with a 135% genoa. I will need to install tracks and block carts for the jib sheets. Where do I need to place these so that they can handle the larger Jib and also allow for reefing the jib?

I also would like to know how I might expect the larger jib to affect the balance of the boat. Will it lessen the weather helm I currently enloy?

What I would do and have done to my boat is, get the Gennie and run it up. Then eyeball your sheet on the combing in relation with the Gennie's Clew and the center of the luff to see where you car is going to go, which should be on a portion of the track that will allow you to move the car forward for reefing.
You really don't have to run it in a sheave to get good reference points. Just site along the Starboard sheet with the sail out and draw an imaginary line from the clew to the center of the luff.

I did this on my boat years ago after I bought it new. My tracks and cars were supposed to be mounted on the cabin and the factory back then were nice enough to leave them off for me per the dealer's request, so that I could mount them on my combings.

Fortunately the track/car set up still came right twenty years later when I bought my CDI Roller Furler. I have a tendency to be lazy when it comes to fine tuning my cars when reefing my Gennie.

Scott On Eagles Wings · Jun 13, 2012

seatiger said:
Yes, I am grateful for the safety of the weather helm, I do not want to loose it. How far forward to you find that you are setting the blocks? Are they forward of the winches?

Like Mike stated, to spill wind and depower the sail yes the block will be before the winch. In stronger winds I move it back to flatten out the genoa and thus depower.

The 135 Genoa is reefable, however sail shape quickly becomes terible when furled in much smaller than the standard jib sail. Having the 5' tracks can help with the sail shape.

Like Mike stated we get lazy as well and usaully leave ours about half way up the track or 18" or so behind the winches.

Indysailor · Jun 13, 2012

I sailed in light winds today and ran my 135% sheets through the deck mounted inboard block. I worked really well.

ruidh · Jun 18, 2012

I had genny tracks on my '71 23 when I got it. When I replaced my 150% with a 135%, I moved them forward. Where you see the block below was originally the front end of the track.

Boat Babe by ruidh, on Flickr