First Sail on Joker in Whitsundays.

Well I finally put the sails up in 15 to 20 today and just sailed around fairly close to Airlie.

Despite all the work for over 5 weeks and everything going wrong that could possibly go wrong I still managed to scare the hell out of the wife and take forever to raise the main. Forgot what a total PITA it is to feed the luff rope in if you don't have slides- pre-feeder notwithstanding. Lot of effort too for a small sail until I realised I could use the electric winch.
Also couldn't figure out what you are supposed to do with all the excess sail when you are reefed and there are no cringles in the sail to facilitate tieing it to the boom.

Anyway it's at least had it's baptism of fire in a decent breeze.

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r13 said..
Very well done. This would be of use we have found it good. Also cleaning out mast luff track of any gunk, and washing the sail.
www.whitworths.com.au/mclube-sailkote-aerosol-300ml
Mainsail should have reefing cringles - suggest 3 for that size boom. Do you have a loose footed sail or bolt rope footed sail? If the former the ~4-6mm rope used must not go around the boom else it will tear out the cringles - just around the foot of the sail and above the boom see last post here.
forums.sailboatowners.com/threads/reefing-ties-in-main.76173/

Thank you for that. I will try that stuff.

The main problem is that the feeder still allows the rope to misfeed and pull out of the track.

I think a lot of the boltrope friction is caused by the full length battens and sail shape trying to bend the mast as the sail goes up although there is an awful lot of prebend in the mast anyway.

Yes I am baffled by the absence of cringles for the reefs. Obviously there is a cringle at the luff and one at the leech but nothing in between. Loose footed but I'm familiar with that.

Other thing I found a bit weird about the reefing is that although the two reefing lines run through the middle of the boom and exit at a sheave in the front of the boom so that the line can do a 180 there is no winch or any way of getting decent foot or outhaul tension as there is just a horn cleat behind the gooseneck on the boom at either side. I therefore could not flatten the sail properly when reefed. This is unlike the foot outhaul when not reefed which is lead back to the cockpit through a jammer and adjacent a coach house winch.

I find this last omission strange as the boat was used for racing, came with all manner of fancy sails (and no Dacron) and has a complex barber hauler system for the headsail...

On the plus side the 120W solid solar panel I added (folding and removable) on the lifelines is working well and has proven to be usable and stable whilst sailing although probably not with the assymetric.

Ok. The feeder should feed properly and not let the sail pull out of the track. So is the feeder too far aft of the track? Usually tracks are bell mouthed out a bit to enable the bolt rope to feed in ok? Yes batten tension will create friction. We had a similar bolt rope mainsail luff with 5 full length battens on our Ross 930 and it was a complete PITA to hoist so you did very well single handed.

For the 2 mainsail foot reef lines - for a trailer sailer expect reefing would normally be done in sheltered waters before venturing out but agree it should be easy. On our loose foot main we have one reef line led back to a cabin top winch with a very strong velcro strap wrapped around twice holding the clew down close to the boom. So the outhaul attends to the full hoist main outhaul and lowered hoist main with 1 reef to winches. On the small main we have 3 reefs but have never used more than the first reef - if we did we would set up the 2nd or 3rd reef at the mooring or not go out.

The below could be of use

www.ronstan.com.au/marine5/reefing_systems.asp

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woko said..
Jules I hope the breeze settles a bit for you. We sailed back across the passage on Sunday from Stonehaven to north Molle, double reefed main & probability a bit too much head sail rolled out, it was up to 29kts on the wind gauge, it gets pretty messy there with wind over tide, the Catalina 340 did it well and was pleasantly dry even bashing to windward. Was hoping to catch up with you but within half an hour of stepping of the boat Airlie was in the rear view mirror

Yes would have been nice to catch up.

Unfortunately those are the conditions for the rest of our stay and which have caused the wife to call a halt to proceedings twice when off North Molle so effectively haven't really gone anywhere that I wanted to.

Double reefed with number three Hank on headsail (only one I brought apart from the storm) and still over pressed hard on the wind in the gusts and having to put traveller down. Could do with a third reef.

The boat is equipped with roller reefing even though all the mainsails have slab reefing so to get around the problem of no cringles in between the luff and the leach I just roller reefed to the second reef which is the last reef and then used the horns as well as the regular outhaul and a velcro strop to keep it down. Lose the vang unfortunately but the excess sail is neat and can still tension the foot.

I did dip the edge of my solar panel in the water in a couple of gusts but generally the boat sailed very well all be it with a bit of weather helm in the chop as there is enough freeboard and the bow rises with the waves despite the oversized anchor and chain hanging out there. Actually I never really intended to have the solar panel out there whilst seriously sailing to windward but it seems to be ok and is also keeping up with the fridge.

Not looking forward to pulling the boat out with these winds and I remember Ramona's comment about trying to experience pulling the boat out in a cross wind as part of the purchasing considerations.

Crosswind retrivals are not an issue assuming there is a pontoon. Bow line, stern line float the boat on! You can winch it too using the same approach.

I have a bolt rope on my 22foot Sabre and on my new sails on Jono here in Japan.I prefer bolt rope to slides or slugs.
Mast feeder balls properly set and lubed.
Mast track cleaning is twice a year maintenance.

The mast track could be restricted by salt, sand or some other build up.
To both clean and check the condition of an internal track I highly recommend the
AMAZING DOCTOR GARY'S FREE TRACK CLEANER.
You need about a foot of rough cleaning rope that fits the track pretty snuggly.
Parallel to the rope you whip on a piece of lighter line that is 2 or 3 inches longer at each end (See Pic 1).
There should be an eye in each end of the lighter line.
The whipping will make the diameter of the rough cleaning rope even snugger in the track.
Connect the main halyard to one eye and feed cleaning rope into track. (See Pic 2)
Connect a light down haul line to the bottom eye.(See Pic 3)
Haul up a yard or so and haul down a few times then repeat as you raise the line up the track.
Pay attention to the spot where you think the sail is binding.
When you have cleaned the whole track haul the cleaning ropedown , spray it with track lubricant and repeat the haul up/down to lube the complete track.
Will tack 30 minutes to make the cleaner and 30 minutes to clean and lube the track. I do it once a year as a part of maintenance.

Good luck
Gary
forums.sailboatowners.com/attachments/mast-clean-1-jpg.164453/
forums.sailboatowners.com/attachments/mast-clean-2-jpg.164454/https://forums.sailboatowners.com/attachments/mast-clean-3-jpg.164455/https://forums.sailboatowners.com/attachments/img_20180811_141956-jpg.164456/

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Grith said..
We are just on the way to Airlie via central Australia from SA for a couple of months extended cruising. I hope the weather calms down a bit for my partners baptism of Whitsundays inshore/offshore trailer sailing in a stiff breeze.

Yes it has been unusually windy.
My wife and son went home on Monday and on the ferry from Airlie to Hamilton Island airport about half the people were sick and had sick bags dished out. Actually they were lucky to fly out because a lot of flights were cancelled and delayed the next day due to wind.

Interestingly my 6 year old son got scared on the ferry and constantly cuddled his mother whereas when we were out in similar conditions on Joker he was fine even though his mother was saying she was scared. There certainly is a lot of power in the skipper being calm. Actually I was calm because the boat was handling well but as they say even if you are worried don't show it to inexperienced crew.

I'm just doing a few boat projects and then will prep the boat for staying here 2.5 months by itself before I drive home in a couple of days which will presumably be before you get here.

At the moment I have all the headlinings out on the boat so it is a total mess.

I want the boat all ready to go with some improved systems when I arrive next school holidays.

I certainly hope that it calms down a little before you get here because it is a wonderful area. I have met so many fantastic people at the sailing club with wonderful experiences and stories.

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r13 said..
Good one. Do you have any photos of the rectifications done of the cracking at the end of those 3 foredeck areas including the beam added underneath as recommended by Phil? Sounds like that all worked well and could be useful input to us all?

No I am sorry I don't have any pictures of the rectification of the cracks in the gelcoat in the drains around the front hatch because I haven't done that yet.

There were so many jobs to do and still are that I just installed the beam to stop the flexing and wiped Sika 291over the external gelcoat cracks in case they went right through to the core. Looks a little messy at the moment but it is functional for the time being. The beam works really well and stiffened the foredeck up no end.

Getting gelcoat to look right is a job that requires a lot of thought finesse and time so it can wait until I bring the boat home again in October.

I think I posted a picture of the beam being laminated previously but here it is again along with the installed photo with the carpet back over it leaving a bit of a gap of course which might wear a teak batten eventually.

At the moment I am fighting with the headlinings as the channels through which the under coach house roof lines are all lead back allow water to collect in the same level well that the winches sit in if the boat is stored anything other than dead level or bow down. Of course if the boat is stored bow down the cockpit doesn't drain properly. Quite an oversight so I have added little drains going from that well beside the winch out the side of the coach house. I sealed the tubes with tons of Sika and not a very workmanlike looking job unfortunately but I wanted to make absolutely sure it didn't leak and of course it doesn't show.
Getting the headliner back on is a nightmare and I have yet to do the other side but I wanted to do the side with the electric winch first as a couple of inches of water sitting around it may eventually cause pressure on the seal down into the gearbox and motor.

Not popular with the wife spending all this time away by myself in Airlie but the weather is absolutely glorious compared to Sydney and I'm currently sitting outside sipping a morning coffee in the sun.

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Thank you r13.
Good example of how one job leads to another.
With the headlining off I was horrified to notice that a number of the beams between the deck and headlining are simply held in place with something like Silastic which seems to be parting company in a number of places. The beams seem a bit too chunky to just be battens to hold the ceiling panels in place.
Don't have the time or materials to start tabbing them in with fiberglass. I injected a bit of liquid nails under a couple that have totally parted company then re-affixed the ceiling lining and propped it quite hard to dry for 24-hours. Fingers crossed that these things are not structural although worryingly they are kind of chunky for a lightweight yacht and one that parted company is up against the main bulkhead whereas others surround the top of the keel enclosure.

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BeamReach said..
Good job on the beam and outcome for an amateur..Lol

You're gotta get it right and I like your attention to detail..

And Yes, with these projects A leads to B and then C and what you first thing is a small job at first, turns into major works..

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers, Mike

Thanks. Mike

I think I'll stop telling people I am retired and just tell him I'm a full-time shipwright.