I'm looking for information from other I 20 owners.

With winter here, my boat is put away for a couple of months. I'm planning to add a couple of modifications to my boat.

I've seen/took pictures of a couple of Worrell I 20's. So I'd like to make the changes to my down haul and mast rotation, and the foot straps at the back of the boat.

Any help with these mods would be appreciated......

Mike
One of the guys here has an I-20...he just put a self-tacking jib on his,,,says it was the best thing since sliced bread....you can email him at taatisland@yahoo.com his name is Tom Aniger...Im sure he would be glad to help you out......Harper

Mike
I just saw that you were from Bridge City...I grew up in FT Worth...living in the caribbean we get a lot of sail time in,,,,,,we have a pretty small beachcat fleet but some of the best are here....Harper

Thanks for Tom's contact info. I'll email to find out what Mods he has done.

I ordered my I 20 with the self tacking jib, but it arrived with out the track and associated hardware. I changed to the roller furling jib instead.

I'd really like to know more about mounting the foot straps on my hulls.

thanks again.

Michael,

We cajuns mount the footstraps like this:

-go over to a friends who has those wooden windows, and while hes out of the room, cut the sash cords from the sides of the windows, and hide 'em away so you can take them with you.

-go to the same neighbors; or could be a different neighbor and cut a piece of their garden hose off.

-use your crab breaking mallett, and punch your thinnest filet knife thru the side of your hulls near the top, by an inspection port. (if you need to put in an inspection port, I can help you there too, different thread though)
turn the knife alot to make the puncture a hole.

-put the sash cord thru the hole and tie a big knot in the end, via the inspection port

-put the garden hose over the sash cord, about a 6-8" loop,

-put the other end thru the hole in the hull, and tie another knot

-If needed, put some gook, grease, old caulking, etc. around the cords and the holes in your hulls. Or just drain the hulls every sail like me.

Now you've got handles, or slip your foot in there for traction, all for NO cost!

Todd

Adding footstraps is pretty easy... The DA Kine are the most popular... put one just aft of the beam and one close to the stern. You will rarely need the one on the stern but it is great when you do. Put them just above the center of the curve from side to deck. Murrays has them as a kit at http://www.murrays.com/archive/43.pdf I used the self tapping screws and fill the hole with silicone before inserting. You could through bolt but I would rather them pull out than my knee

Mike

The only thing I would be careful about is mounting the foot straps to far back. I have a size 12 foot and with booties on I can't drive down very far because the rudder arm hits my foot. So test it out before you drill any holes
I found you don't need it that far back anyway. If you don't have an adjustable trap the stock wires will have you standing on your toes with no leverage to keep from going forward.

I did the garden-hose and 3/16th rope deal on my G-Cat, but I've got a deck-lip to use. I put three per side and use them more as handles than as foot-straps. They do work very well as both though!

Thanks Todd for the colorful option, but I don't mind paying the 30 something dollars for the kit at Murray's......

My worry about mounting, is due in part of my size... At 6'5'' and 250, I don't want to pull the strap out of the hull everytime I get out on the wire.....

And I appreciate what GONCNYL stated about foot size and the rudder arm. My size 13's will probably get in the way as well, I'll have to make sure I mount the straps in a way that this conflict doesn't happen.....

Thanks for the replys...

Any other opinions on the modification of the Downhaul or moving the mast rotator from the stock location back to the dagger board area?

Regards,

Mike,

Straps: At your size you may just not need the set on the far back... I am 190 and sail with my wife so I would need it well before you. If you do want it, they will not get in the way of the rudder. If you are trapping, you would never turn the rudder that far on an I20 anyway. I would not worry about them pulling out, you can carry the boat by them. At your foot size, you may have a problem with the standard Murrays set. They are adjustable but with booties mine are tight on my size 11's. You may want to put some kind of spacers under them to get some more room.

Rotator, downhull: I have not see the rotator run to the stern. I guess I would not recommend it. In a real blow, your crew should be playing your rotator and downhull... i.e. when you are at max downhull you can under-rotate the mast to stall the leading edge of your main... and stay in control in another 5-10 mph of wind speed. Better to just make sure they are accessible to the crew on the wire.

Mike
I have the foot straps mounted just behind the beam. I can use them for my rear or front foot. I mounted them using 2" OD washers and thru bolting them. I bent the washers to the shape of the hull.
As far as the downhaul and rotator I haven't moved anything. I never seem to be adjusting them that much other than shifting gears. I never play the downhaul. I set it and forget it unless the wind or seas change. The mast and sail on my boat will spill off wind automatically in the puffy conditions.
This worked from me a this year nationals. The only difference in the 4 boats that finished ahead of me is that they all had male crews who were running the mains.
The self- tacker is a great option. It allows for some incredibly fast jibes

Mike,
I have footstraps both behind the rear cross bar and about 3 inches forward of the stern. I have big feet (12.5) and I can still steer the boat. Both straps are Dakine and mounted with through bolts and ss washers inside the hull.

You will also need an adjustable trapeze line for you and your crew to really use them effectively (especially the one''s farthest back). I also suggest a chicken line. You rarely use the footstraps farthest back unless the wind is really honking and the wave state is such--both times I have used these, I have also wished I had my chicken line engaged as both times we stuffed hard and went flying. The I20 can do some wild pitch poles with the chute up in big waves.

The self tacking jib is awsome--really great for novice crews who have their hands full with the chute alone in gybes. They help with fast tacks and gybes too. Wife loves it too--thinks its the greatest thing since sliced bread (no effort for the crew when we sail for fun :-))

Other suggestions:
1)cascading downhaul to make playing the downhaul easy--if you mostly sail with male crews it probably doesn't help that much.

2)Separate bungies for each trap line with enough tether to allow you to go forward without snapping (helps alot if you break one as your other trap does not fly away in big winds. Got this off of one of the Worrell posts--works great.

3) I'm thinking of changing the mast rotator to cleat closer to the shrouds so its easier to access by you and your crew in heavy air. Seen this on a few worrell boats--sounds like a good idea. I never liked the one all the way forward.

Hope this helps.

Don
I20 236

Hi Mike
So many good posts by really good I-20 sailors ,all good advice dependant on the type of sailing conditions expected .
Sailing a Worrell you set up differently than buoys racing in mainly protected waters . Foot strap and stern line is a must .
This year it is a Jav 2 ,good builder but most any distance racer will tell you the preference and ideal platform is a 20 ft one in Worrell type ocean racing conditions.-

Off topic ,but with a number of I-20 sailors posting wanted the oportunity to hear from some on the N A Formula 20 concept , based on Inter 20 boat specifications .
Is it time in N A for a Formula 20 Class, -we have Formula 16 -Formula 18s and 18 HT Formula Classes underway in N A .
-I-20 sailors currently unofficially polled seem split 50 %which is typical ,-
-There is no motivation for mfg. dealer involvement as Inter 20 has the current 20 market , Hobie is geared towards Formula 18 and Tiger class as its marketing push currently ,-
--We have already seen a number of Inter 20 sailors sell and go towards the Formula 18s for a variety of reasons , Maybe reason enough to begin a F-20 Class now.
The H-20 w Spin can be very competitive as we have seen in RTI and distance racing ,-great potential there with added updates and modification . The N-6/0 has great potential but needs to be allowed to continue to update and modify.
A number of other Euro 20s are excellent equal boats available and a number of other current 20s could be modified to Class. --
The potential is for the largest racing class in N A or evan Internationally in cats over time.
It would always help insure any 20 cat owner of finding good class racing as they traveled anywhere for races , and that the I-20 and others would not become another dead boat class in the near future.

Rules are listed ---http://www.lakelaniersailing.com/f20class/

-The Inter 20 is the base model for the N A Formula 20 Class ,
under rules sailors could order a chute or sails from any sailmaker ,though hard to beat the current main and jib set up perfectly matched and refined to mast characteristics .
As I discovered last year during the Worrell there are 3 or 4 different spin cuts ,-the older versions being slower .
--The I-20 also has the different jibs available .

N A Formula 20 rules as proposed would also allow slightly lighter boat weight ,-many I-20S actually weigh in the 380 to 390 range , it is easy to remove total boat weight.
The only other mod different would be a longer spin pole and any snuffer system desired ,--good options available to increase safety and efficiency of the boat .

Please weigh in on the topic --Is it time ,-and what rule aspect should be modified .

Thanks
Happy 03 --lets make it a great one !!
Carl

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Mike , Here are some pics of the mods we made.... Including downhaul and trap lines
happy new year
http://www.santana35.com/worrell1000

JIM KORKOSZ

Mike,
Go to the perparing page of the web site...

JIM

Thanks to all for great suggestions.

I'm still a bit fuzzy on the cascading downhaul though. Any pics or narrative on how to set it up?

I'd also like to add to what Carl said about the F20 issues. I'd like to hear what other sailors have to say about this class....

Regards,

The stock downhaul is 8:1, and this is the class-legal limit. You can cascade to 16:1 by having the stock downhaul pull on two tails running up to cheek blocks on the tackboard of the sail, then down to jam cleats right at the foot of the mast. This will not be legal, and will produce a great deal more power than is needed for the I-20 carbon mast (real nice w/120-lb crew on my heavy-masted P-19, tho!). A better option on your boat is to use the same theory, but reduce the main downhaul to 4:1. The line, following it from the starboard edge of the boat, will run to the exit block on the starboard side of the mast, up to a loose (unmounted to anything) single bullet block which has about a 2-3' tail attached to it, down to a fixed single bullet block (I believe it's on the boom gooseneck, but correct me if I'm wrong), back up the port side of the main to another loose bullet with a tail, down to the port exit block, and out to the edge of the hull. The tails on the loose bullet blocks are led through cheek blocks mounted back-to-back to the tack board (from aft running forward) and down to jam cleats on either side of the mast. Old salts will tie the tails together in a nice square knot in front of the mast.
hope this helps, if not I can take pix over the weekend. I needed an excuse to rig the boat anyway, gotta finish the new spin rig.

seeya at the Ides of March, or maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to bust loose and make the 6-hour haul to Deep South.

sail fast

Ah yes, yes,

Deep south regatta. Where mudbugs abound, the people are cool, and the sailing is VERY challenging. I thought I was going to burn out my clutch shifting gears so much- and that's while I was on the boat-with the most awesome crew there EVER was-some SE TX. guy-seen him lately Mike?

Thanks Andrew for the description of the cascade system.. I think I've got it now....

Yea, Todd, I'm still around, lurking in the shadows......

Have ya'll thought about the Performance Mid-Winters in March? I'm planning to be there.. Regardless, Deep South will be the same as last year, camping under the stars, and eating a few mudbugs..... Hey Todd, bring some of that home brew with you.......