Set up the new solent stay. It's stored on an eye next to the forward shroud. Seems to work but I'll need to make it a bit easier to set up with some easy clips rather than using tiny shackles with unsecured pins. I suppose if I'm heading out on a long trip I can set it up beforehand and furl the genoa when tacking / gybing.
I wasn't sure where to attach the tack and this seemed to work. Is that okay?
I ran the sheet on the stormsail back to a place where I thought it might work based on the angle of the sail.
I'd like to get a smallish jib to hank on also.
Any thoughts or ideas for those with experience with these things?
Hi DrRog,
I'm In the process of doing some thing similar. I have machined up a tang to weld into the mast to take the stay but I'm unsure about the halyard sheave. I was thinking of an external block below the stay, what have you use for a sheave and a hound for the stay? yours all looks quite neat.
The rigger put a t-ball swage fitting in the mast to take the stay and a sheave box underneath so the halyard runs back down inside the mast. I had a spare exit point at the base. If you have a spare spin halyard perhaps you could lead that down the mast and around an eye of some sort. I could have done that but didn't think of it at the time.
I'm not really sure what you are trying to achieve here DrRog. The Adams 31 is dimensionally similar to my Currawong and I have a double spreader rig as well. I am thinking you are looking for a way to rig a storm sail and not use your headsail. I'm a little adverse to wandering up the foredeck in crappy conditions and I think its something to be avoided in small boats. I do have a staysail that came with my boat but its meant for flying under the spinnaker when reaching. I have several strong points on the foredeck and the topping lift is used as the halyard. I have made a storm sail that I cut and stitched up to be used from the same points. In use I found that it was a hassle and only able to close reach. It would be OK for reaching up and down the coast inshore during a howling Westerly but a lot of bother.
Instead i would suggest a third reef in the main. Not sure what the sail area is I have when down to the third reef but its about the same as a laser sail. There is no need to leave the cockpit. The sail is already bent on. You can sail about the same height and you can use about 2 feet of headsail if you want to for balance.
Yachts that race in the Hobart have to carry storm sails and demonstrate their use before each race. However when you see photos of these yachts in storm conditions a fair few of them sail bare headed and with a heavily reefed mainsail only.
I would do some experimenting with what you have already before adding more stuff.
I should add that my yacht sails well with the mainsail stowed and the lazy jacks hauled tight in gale conditions on a reach!
Hey Ramona, The basic purpose is to hank on a jib when the wind gets too strong for my 155%+ genoa. It is a lovely sail but when partially furled it is ugly to windward. I didn't take a photo of this because I don't yet have a hanked jib. I'm trying to organise one to try so I can see how practical this is. I thought this would be better than going down the foam luff route; more sail options, better sail shape, redundancy, etc. And better than me pulling down a large genoa, esp. when the wind gets up.
I have a hanked storm sail as shown so I thought this would be useful also. Good to hear your experience sailing in heavier conditions with a similar boat. I do have a main with 3 reefs.
"I should add that my yacht sails well with the mainsail stowed and the lazy jacks hauled tight in gale conditions on a reach!" - That is pretty funny. :)
Rog, come and have another look at mine.
That cleat will be strengthened to take loads fore and aft. If you intend using it in strong winds it is likely to break or pull out of the deck.
Having the tack that far forward you will have to furl all the way in to tack. Suggest you move it aft and put a strong point in to take a vertical load. 800kg shackle, I doubt the cleat can take that vertically.
I really like mine but the tacking is a hassle.
Hey Ramona, The basic purpose is to hank on a jib when the wind gets too strong for my 155%+ genoa. It is a lovely sail but when partially furled it is ugly to windward. I didn't take a photo of this because I don't yet have a hanked jib. I'm trying to organise one to try so I can see how practical this is. I thought this would be better than going down the foam luff route; more sail options, better sail shape, redundancy, etc. And better than me pulling down a large genoa, esp. when the wind gets up.
I have a hanked storm sail as shown so I thought this would be useful also. Good to hear your experience sailing in heavier conditions with a similar boat. I do have a main with 3 reefs.
"I should add that my yacht sails well with the mainsail stowed and the lazy jacks hauled tight in gale conditions on a reach!" - That is pretty funny. :)
Actually I was being serious.
Pick up a Dacron 16 foot skiff jib. Replace the wire luff with Spectra and sew a couple of extra layers of cloth along the luff. Add about 18 inches to the tack to get it clear of the deck. Use the large size plastic screw on hanks.
The Etchells jib is an excellent too for this. It has the press stud hanks and is a heavily resined cloth and stiff and awkward to handle on the deck but sails well.
Yeah, I realise you were being serious - I just think sailing under lazy jacks is a funny image.
Thanks for the tips on options for jibs - I was wondering what other options there were.
MB, hmmm... I had assumed that a backplated cleat that size so close to the bow (adjacent to deck-hull joins on two sides) would handle the forces involved and I suppose that Joe Walsh did as well but I guess I will need to have a more critical look at that.
behind the black wooden seagull breeder, is a shredded main sail and it was cracking like a wip dont know when it happened maybe in last nights storm, but that is stuffed. bottom left is my boat went out for hopefully the last time she is such a good boat but time to move on.
Hi, now I can have dinghy on "grany flat roof" and enter without lifting dinghy up. Before I had to lift dinghy to open hinged hatch, no more. Made sliding hatch cover as one pice molding on wooden plug and slide is old hatch.
Good to see an electrical tie for the mousing on the shackle. Pin still Ok? Presume you replaced the chain anyway.
Good to see an electrical tie for the mousing on the shackle. Pin still Ok? Presume you replaced the chain anyway.
The mooring contractor said it was ok for another year, so he put a new chain up to the swivel one link longer than this so the old chain will break b4 the new one starts rubbing, talk about getting full use out of the old stuff. he also replaced my 32mm rope and took 2 links off above the swivel.
Pulled the mooring up today,
chains getting a bit thin around the wheel there
Why do you not get rid of the chain altogether and splice up a loop of line of sufficient strength with irrigation hose anti chafe on the loop and the loop of sufficient size to go through the weight and be looped back through itself and cinched up tight??????
The mooring contractor will give you all sorts of reasons why you should not do this because it will put him out of a job.
The set up I have described will last a lot longer than the chain which is really only good for about three years.
The set up I described can also be replaced by a diver armed with a knife in less than an hour and does not require lifting of the weight and subsequent repositioning.
Lay flat irrigation hose is very tough material. Farmers lay it all over their farms and drive over it with their vehicles even when the hose is on ground where there are pebbles and all sorts trying to punch holes in it.
I like your mooring weight by the way. It appears to be two railway wagon wheels concentrically attached to each other. What does it weigh?? Looks to be no more than 300 kg to me.
Note how the wagon wheel still has paint sticking to it and the edges of the centre hole are shiny yet the chain is well and truly on the way out. That is because the wagon wheel is cast steel and therefore a more base metal than the forged steel chain. So not only is the chain subject to sacrificial electrolysis, it is also subject to chafe from sand etc and wear at the links.
If you use 3 Strand Superdan Rope, made to AS4142.1993 you will find it has more than twice the strength of equivalent diameter Silver line and a lot easier to work in splicing. See www.samallen.com.au or phone Brisbane 07 3902 7222. It is not much more expensive than Silver line but a world of difference in quality.
If you sheath the splice loops with the irrigation hose, bottom and top, you will get many years of service from it. An annual dive on it for an inspection report is not going to cost you a lot of money and should suffice from an insurance point of view.
I was down checking my mooring yesterday. I have the usual chain on the bottom and a swivel then rope riser to the deck cleat. At high tide the swivel was just touching the bottom and nicely polished. The problem we get here is a failure of the shackle pin on the shackle to the swivel and as I noticed on another blokes mooring the pin in the swivel eroded away. This is caused mostly by the wrong mousing material but also the differences in the quality of the steels. I have often considered using nylon strops made up so that the eye splice could be looped through the chain underwater. So the chain would be on the bottom, nylon rope to a swivel 2 to 3 feet off the bottom then nylon back up to the deck cleat. Reduce the mixture of steels and separate them.
It bothers me that no one else thinks the same.
Hypothetical for my needs but Donaghy's Aquatec rope is another "new" rope solution. I think the rope with plastic chafe point would be my choice.
Hypothetical for my needs but Donaghy's Aquatec rope is another "new" rope solution. I think the rope with plastic chafe point would be my choice.
That Aquatec and the Superdan are just trade names for supergreen which is just another name for a PP rope used in the fishing industry. Definitely a step up from silver. The local mooring contractor uses it and is what I have in 32mm.
I'm changing mine in the next week or so to 3 strand nylon in 25 mm. Mate is changing his too and bought 32 mm nylon from a trade ship chandler. When I saw it the other day you could see it was hairy at 20 paces. He had been sold silver rope! I was surprised he had managed to find a supplier of 32mm nylon.
Is that cushion white and gold, or blue and black?
hahahaha ...that's gold .... No! Not the cushion, the comment
I was down checking my mooring yesterday. I have the usual chain on the bottom and a swivel then rope riser to the deck cleat. At high tide the swivel was just touching the bottom and nicely polished. The problem we get here is a failure of the shackle pin on the shackle to the swivel and as I noticed on another blokes mooring the pin in the swivel eroded away. This is caused mostly by the wrong mousing material but also the differences in the quality of the steels. I have often considered using nylon strops made up so that the eye splice could be looped through the chain underwater. So the chain would be on the bottom, nylon rope to a swivel 2 to 3 feet off the bottom then nylon back up to the deck cleat. Reduce the mixture of steels and separate them.
It bothers me that no one else thinks the same.
Ramona we use a special rubber industrial mooring bungee as the middle 'chain'.
They have stood up well, my boat is on a double block mooring, bungee is about 3-4 years old now and we have 34ft (our max) steel boats and larger cats all using them.
Sorry no photo's but they have been in use now by others for 7 years, and we are just going to get the oldest sent away for destructive testing.
PM me if you want more info and I will dig up supplier details.
I was down checking my mooring yesterday. I have the usual chain on the bottom and a swivel then rope riser to the deck cleat. At high tide the swivel was just touching the bottom and nicely polished. The problem we get here is a failure of the shackle pin on the shackle to the swivel and as I noticed on another blokes mooring the pin in the swivel eroded away. This is caused mostly by the wrong mousing material but also the differences in the quality of the steels. I have often considered using nylon strops made up so that the eye splice could be looped through the chain underwater. So the chain would be on the bottom, nylon rope to a swivel 2 to 3 feet off the bottom then nylon back up to the deck cleat. Reduce the mixture of steels and separate them.
It bothers me that no one else thinks the same.
Ramona we use a special rubber industrial mooring bungee as the middle 'chain'.
They have stood up well, my boat is on a double block mooring, bungee is about 3-4 years old now and we have 34ft (our max) steel boats and larger cats all using them.
Sorry no photo's but they have been in use now by others for 7 years, and we are just going to get the oldest sent away for destructive testing.
PM me if you want more info and I will dig up supplier details.
Id like that info to please Crusty if you don't mind . My mooring was not set up right and with a good swell the whole boats was shuddering have seen a couple of other bow spits cracked from the motion up there where I was.
Prepared SEAKA for a test sail tomorrow [Tues 10th March], report tomorrow.
Good luck N.S.W.
Prepared SEAKA for a test sail tomorrow [Tues 10th March], report tomorrow.
Good luck N.S.W.
Weather forecast here today is for rain with a storm this morning and less than 3 knots of wind, think I'll do it tomorrow.
Those sinks are big enough to fill with ice and put the beers in there for the launching party.
Been up and down the mast every day for the past five days lathering on linseed oil. Looking good. Will post a phot when complete, that is if I don't lose her in the coming cyclone!