hi all,
had my old nacra 5.2, 2 handed sloop for a year now and am now pretty happy soloing it and looking after the the main (15.5sqft) and jib (4.1sqft) by myself

however when i've take the kids out for a quiet sail the tramp has been too cluttered with jib sheets and blocks for safety so recently i've been trying to see how the boat sails with only the main

4 things i've noticed

1. traveller position when uni rigged seems much more important than sloop rigged to prevent the main from stalling. with the same northerly wind as always on our lake and heading upwind to the A? buoy i find i have to spend quite a bit of time working out exactly if it's 2, 3 or 4 inches i need to let the traveller out to get the tell-tales on both side streaming well on a fixed heading.
with the jib on i never seem to need to let the traveller out that little to get both sides flowing well. surprised that the jib was so important for this

2. while it should point better uni-rigged the boat seems to be dog slow without the jib and i tend to bear off on a reach looking for speeds that just aren't there...

3. in only light winds there has been no problems with tacking into irons. haven't even needed to uncleat the main, slow roll-tacks have been fine.
when uni-rigged in strong winds the mainsheet MUST be released more than the usual or the main WILL weathervane the hulls into the wind

4. without the jib the sail plan is unbalanced and the tiller needs quite a pull to keep going straight, presumably quite a bit of drag there

so it's good to know i can detune the rig if i need to but with all the disadvantages i can't see that i'll be doing it much

I've sailed most of my cat sloops uni at one point or another. I fond that it's usually just fine, and a viable way to sail the boat short handed or in big breeze. My H-18 and N-6.0 worked great that way (N-20 has as well), my H-20 not so much. The H-18 I'd single hand in decent wind with the jib furled upwind, then unfurl it for downwind. The 6.0 we'd put the jib away in heavy stuff, sailed fine. One hint - check your mast rake. You'll probably want minimal rake for this to work right on your boat. And yes, when you tack, let out a bunch of sheet. Then let out some more. You really need to make sure the boat is moving on the new tack before you sheet back in, and even then don't do it too fast.

I've sailed my 5.2 quite a lot solo without the jib: add to the mess on the trampoline an additional sheet (the spi) and loop (spi halyard) plus a downhaul and its rapidly becoming unmanageable! So I usually left the jib home to sail with the spi instead.

* Make sure to rake the mast forward, mine is dead straight and I still have quite a pull upwind.

* Upwind my traveler is centered, and I have no problem getting all the telltales to flow. Just sheet hard, downhaul according to the wind and let it fly. Build some speed first by bearing off and start beating and sheeting hard only when you have enough speed built up.

* The boat is underpowered without a jib, so yeah, it's slower. Make sure you don't pull to much on the outhaul and the downhaul, you need the power.

* As you noticed, you need to release more mainsheet in order to tack

When you say "unmanageable"... what do you mean?

You want me to pull the white line? WHAT?????????

if i was your mother i wouldn't let you out sailing until you'd cleaned that mess up!

I've seen the light, I've seen the Spaghetti monster noodly appendages! I can die a happy pastafarian! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Nice picture. Looks like my trampoline <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Now I know why you keep your stubbie holder on the sidestay, theres no room on the tramp <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Can you post a close up of your stubbie holder.
Erice did you change your rudders at all to try and balance the helm?

whats a stubbie holder?

whatever you were slipping your beer into in that relaxed trapping video:o)

and no the rudders weren't raked further forward when sailing the 5.2 with only the main as they are already as far forward as they can be. it looks like the castings originally had little adjuster plugs in them to allow for adjusting rake backwards but it seems by now everyone has just pulled the plugs and runs them as far forward as is possible. the leading edge of the rudders appears to be slightly forward of the gudgeon pin in the attached photo. best i can do as without a trailer it is hard to put the rudders down when not in the water

Ohhhh.... you mean my cup holder! lol....

I don’t see any close up pics on my site but here is the scoop... I am on my 4th generation of cup holder design / location.

Mark 1 - (as seen in the video) are drink holders that are electrical taped (and I also use electrical ties) to the side stay. They slide down the stay and leave black tape rez that gets on your hands.

Mark II - I put a bead on the stays (like the ones on Hobie forestays) to stop the cup holder from sliding down. This worked except the crimping damaged a few strand of the stay and I feared that in the event of a capsize I would lose and eye, ear, nose or get my face shredded on the bead or cup.

Mark III - I run the side stays through 1.5" pvc pipes (about 1' high) and attach the cup. This worked pretty well but looked very ghetto. The pipe would jam on the vinyl stay covers and i would lose drinks. i hated the thought of leaving bottles in the water. I think 2" would have worked better... but I couldn’t live with the ghetto pipes on my beautiful cat...

Mark IV - (in current use). I took the cup holders off the stays. This was convenient on the wire, but had to many issues and wasn't so great when not on the wire, also I lost too many bottles of Gatorade (I don’t drink alcohol).

I now have the cup holder on my beam. I didn’t need to drill a hole as there was a little place for it under my outhaul cleat. It works fine; I almost never lose a drink... I am off the wire more often than not and I don’t need to move my drink in a tack....




drink holder

PS... thats not my tramp! (boy if i had a nickel for every time i said that)....

That is Greg's (Wildman) spagetti factory

GATORADE you've spoilt a beautiful video!

I'll help him out, (Andrew that is.) That's not him.

I'm hoping that by helping him here I won't have any of my PIC's show up here. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

CASH TALKS!.... wink wink. Boy i love having a library of "Blackmailable" pics <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />